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Brahms - Piano Concerto No.1 (Leif Ove Andsnes/Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, EMI)

bombasticDarren wrote:Brahms - Piano Concerto No.1 (Leif Ove Andsnes/Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, EMI)

A good one Darren?

Vinyl....

fergus wrote:

bombasticDarren wrote:Brahms - Piano Concerto No.1 (Leif Ove Andsnes/Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, EMI)

A good one Darren?

Slightly low octane but extremely pleasing nonetheless. I feel confident in saying that Rattle does his best work with the CBSO, even though they are not perhaps best suited to Germanic repertoire like this. Give them the hard edges of Stravinsky or Bartok and they are in their element....

Cheers Darren!

Vinyl....

Saul, Handel´s first major English oratorio has been very lucky on records. In the early 70´s Sir Charles Mackerras recorded it with Donald McIntyre, James Bowman, Margaret Price and Sheila Armstrong for Archiv, great singing but still modern instruments. Nikolaus Harnoncourt made a controversial live recording for TELDEC with an elderly Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, compelling but well past his prime, and his wife, the fabulous Rumanian soprano Julia Varady who proved she can sing Handel with the best of them, and the ever reliable Paul Esswood as David. Then in the late 80´s Gardiner made what was to become the standard version for many years until Paul McCreesh challenged it with Neal Davies and Andreas Scholl in a very good Archiv production. Finally, René Jacobs made the second Continental recording with the RIAS Kammerchor and the Concerto Köln.
Now Harry Christophers joins the distinguished company with a recording that is very "The Sixteen".
And by this I mean that if you are familiar with The Sixteen recordings you will know what to expect: a stylish production, good choral work and able soloists. Sarah Connolly and Christopher Purves, the best known names, started with The Sixteen, so it is like a homecoming celebration for them.
As you would expect from these famous conductors, the approaches vary considerably. Harnoncourt and Jacobs conduct very dramatic, theatrical, quasi-operatic readings. Certainly not a bad thing since Handel had just stopped composing Italian operas and was using mostly operatic singers. Harnoncourt for example conducts an amazing, electric, Saul´s Funeral March that brings to mind Furtwängler conducting Siegfried´s Funeral March, not of course in Wagnerian sonorities, but in the pathos of this climatic moment. René Jacobs is particularly good in individualizing his singers and brings the most wondrous sonorities from his peerless orchestra, surely the finest of all.
Harry Christophers is in the other extreme, a more Church of England, chaste reading. I imagine he convinced his singers of his approach, because Purves´"A serpent in my bosom warm´d" isn´t angry enough, far from Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau´s alarming rendition, making perfectly clear Saul´s unstable state of mind.
If you think Jacobs exaggerated or just not to your liking, Christophers might be for you. Somewhat more in the middle are McCreesh and the still super fine Gardiner. I would prefer either to Christophers, but if I had to choose just one it would be Jacobs in HM.

That was another good read Pepe; thank you for that. The depth of your collection never ceases to amaze me!

fergus wrote:That was another good read Pepe; thank you for that. The depth of your collection never ceases to amaze me!

Since I´m a confessed and unrepentant Handel addict, I just keep adding them Fergus.