anyone spin vinyl at home? i still do records sometimes.
wagner/seigfried with hvk/bpo on dgg is resting peacefully on the platter right now.

dj

My first exposure to classical music was on my parents' turntable, Beethoven 3rd piano concerto and 5th symphony, Giulini and Vienna.

It was the only classical record they had, and when they found I liked it (age 4 or 5) they bought some more, including Beethoven's piano sonatas, which were my first true musical love.

As much I would love to I cannot have the luxury of the vinyl sound at our flat. I just do not own the ol' spinner. But we will travel to my parents house this weekend and if they are not too tired for my special vinyl needs I'll give a spin around for Vienna Phil's and István Kertész's Brahms cycle. Especially the Haydn-variations that Vienna Phil recorded in hommage to István Kertész without conductor.

"On April 16, 1973, while on a concert tour, István Kertész drowned while swimming off the coast of Israel at Herzliya. At the time, Kertész had been recording what would become a legendary version of Brahms' Haydn Variations, as well as the complete Brahms Symphonies. After his untimely death, and in tribute to him, the Wiener Philharmoniker finished recording the Haydn Variations."

I play vinyl all the time and my collection must be around 1500, including many early Sibelius records. Although I have many Cd's I just think the sound of vinyl is so much better. Of course the quality of pressings varied enormously and sometimes you would get the 'snap-crackle and pop with the most immaculate looking of records, but with a good recording played back on good equipment
vinyl is unbeatable.
My main system is a Garrard 401 T/table and two Quad 11 valve power amps with the 22 control pre amp and two large Tannoy
speakers. All these classic Hi-Fi items were made in the 1960's.
kullervopete.

kullervopete:

tried and true armaments you got there, pardner!!

dj

I have no such luck, even my CD player is very low budget.

But I have a fond memory of vinyl. The first classical music I can ever recall hearing is Beethoven's 3rd piano concerto, a record that my parents had, I must have been about 4 years old. To this day I can still remember that special quality of sound that vinyl produced, as if you could "feel" the grooves with your ears...

Yep dj, sure is a mighty fine sound buddy, I just been spinning How
Hanson's third, --awsome.
kullervopete.

Spinning on my turntable today, Leopold Stokowski and The National P. O. in Sibelius's first Symphony.
Great performance, just marred in the last movement. The opening clarinet theme, now noble on strings and brass is raced through, robbing much of its grandeur. The rest is electrifying despite an abrubt change of gear in the coda--still must'nt grumble, Stowki was 94 at the time!--kullervopete.

Spinning today Dvorak String Quartet No.12 in F, Op.96 [American]
Along with Borodin's second and Sibelius 'Voces intimae' my favorite. Boy could Dvorak write some great tunes!--kullervopete.

kullervopete wrote:

Boy could Dvorak write some great tunes!--kullervopete.

Interesting, I'll have to look that composer up.

Sibelius 5 Cleveland Orchestra Artur Rodzinski
A rare Columbia LP that I picked up in the States three year ago.
The Cleveland play superbly, but Rodzinski's is a strangly low key affair. The huge first movement though containing moments of insight, lacks any real sense of momentum in the scherzo like second part. In this the most extrovert of the later symphonies 'restraint' is again Rodzinski's approach in the Finale, but as the 'Swan Hymn' sear's to its mighty conclusion, it has never sounded more bell-like. Columbia LP ML 4043--kullervopete.

tchaikovsky 4: kubelik/cso/mercury is on the turntable right now.

dj

Spinning today : Arturo Toscanini conducts Jean Sibelius.

The Swan of Tuonela [Feb. 1939]
Lemminkainen's Return [Dec. 1940]
En Saga [March 1952] NBC S. O. Toscanini

Electrifying performances from the great maestro, and you know in our day and age of digital sound and an ever increasing search for audio perfection, there is something about the dry and austere acoustic of these early mono broadcasts that seem to suit the music of Sibelius. This disc is what record collecting is all about.
I am interested in getting hold of Furtwangler's recording of En Saga, I think it will be facinating to compare these two great conductors. Anyone by chance heard the Furtwangler.--kullervopete.

Yes, many years ago I heard Furtwängler's En saga. I can't say that I cared for it... I found it wayward, unsteady in tempo and strangely lacking in the concentration and vitality that make this score come to life. The sound didn't help but I don't think that was a major factor in my judgement. No doubt others may warm to it more than I did, though.

Quite the opposite of Toscanini who is, as you say, electrifying.

Furtwangler and Toscanini were very different animals, music buffs still argue over who was the greatest. Particuarly with regard to there Beethoven. Toscanini was the great dictator of course who could strike fear into an orchestra. Unlike the German, everything was so precise and measured with Toscanini.
Furtwangler once reputedly walked out of a Toscanini concert, muttering 'time beater'. A flutist in the Berlin Phil. recalled that Furtwangler never beat time as such, but rather drew melodic shapes in an effort to depict the organic coesion of a piece.
I dont know if Furtwangler performed any of Sibelius's symphonies but nothing seems to exist on tape. He did do the Violin Concerto in wartime Berlin with Georg Kulenkampff, a poetic and in many ways haunting account, but with a very noisy audience or was it the noise of overhead bombers!
Several versions exist of Toscanini's Sibelius 2 and his thought provoking fourth is on the disc that I discussed earlier. A Toscanini 'Finlandia' from the fifties is great stuff and the maestro could certainly get an audience on the edge of there seat.
Many of Furtwanglers concerts ended in medatative silence, the audience quietly leaving without daring to break the rarified mood with applause. In a recording of a 1950 Stockholm concert [music and arts Cd-799] we have a smattering of hesitant clapping beginning a full 20 seconds after the final sustained note of En Saga evaporates.--kullervopete.

On my turntable, Stenhammar Symphony No.2 opus 34 with the Stockholm Philharmonic under Stig Westerberg.
This music and recording as long been a favorite of mine
Stenhammar was a great champion of both Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius and J S dedicated his 6th Symphony to the Swede.
In the summer of 1903, Stenhammar had completed a symphony in F-major which he described as 'idyllic Bruckner'. But a few weeks before its performance, he heard the second symphony of Sibelius which completely cast a shadow over his own work. Writing to the Finnish master, Stenhammar refers to him as 'you wonderful man'
It was ten years later before Stenhammar felt ready to return again to the symphonic challenge. His second symphony is an haunting work, in a letter to Nielsen he writes ''I know that you have always striven, successfully, to remain free of Wagners influence, and I am more and more convinced that this is the only way for us Northerners to create a style of our own. For if we go on from where Wagner left off, we will only arrive at Richard Strauss and those who copy him'.

Listening to the sheer joy and exuberance of this music, one can see why Sibelius dedicated his happiest symphony to Stenhammar.--kullervopete.

Oh yes, absolutely, there's a lot to enjoy in Wilhelm Stenhammar's symphonies - though I'd say that his orchestral Serenade (Op. 31) is an even finer achievement in terms of sonority and imagination.

While I would certainly agree that JS had nothing but respect for Stenhammar's works, I think the dedication of the Sixth Symphony was also a gesture of gratitude for their long friendship and Stenhammar's unwavering support.

As for another Swedish Wilhelm –– Peterson-Berger –– maybe the less said the better, concerning both his miserable orchestral music and his poisoned-pen reviews...

On my turntable a classic LP, Nielsen first Symphony with Danish State Radio Symphony under Thomas Jensen. Dates from the time of Sibelius's Kullervo [1892] Its a fine work and is, according to the sleeve note, perhaps the first symphony to end in a different key from which it began in. The beginnings of Nielsens so called 'progressive tonality' Decca Ace of clubs ACL 279--kullervopete.

Kurt Weill, Kleine Dreigroschenmusik
[Suite from the Threepenny Opera]

This is one of my favourite pieces. Its slightly decadent atmosphere of pre-war Berlin night life might seem far removed from the music of Sibelius, but this music also has a certain raw and austere dignity that in some strange way draws these two composers together.-kp

The London Sinfonietta cond. David Atherton
DG 2543 808 Plus Violin Concerto [Nona Liddell, violin]

Is David Atherton still around? And does anybody remember the Sibelius cycle he did in concert with the Royal Liverpool PO some years ago?