probably only from curiosity. cigars are much different.
(insert sibelius icon w/puffing cigar)

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dj

i bought the emi vaungh williams box with boult conducting various english orchestras. right now i'm on sym #2. this is a good box set!

dj

Not a very high-quality image, but my moderatorial pride could not stand leaving your request unanswered!

good enough! chuckle...

dj

i've been concetrating on listening through some recent acquisitions -

emi budget boxes:
jochum/bruckner
boult/vaughan williams
klemperer/beethoven

dg:
friscay/beethoven 9 & egmont
friscay/mozart

rca:
jankowski/wagner ring

dj

In my Cd player this last few days I have had the following :

Sibelius 6 with Segerstam on Ondine, alongside Karajan and Sanderling one of my favourites.

Sibelius 4 with Ernest Ansermet on Decca, recorded Oct. 1963
and for me one of the finest fourth on record. But grossly
underestimated because apparently Ansermet does all the
wrong things!!!

Finally Symphony No. 3 in B minor by Rutland Boughton--who!
The English composer 1878--1960 is best known for his stage work ' The Immortal Hour'[1914] written at the time that he
attempted to create an English equivalent of Wagner's 'Bayreuth'
at Glastonbury. The symphony is a wonderful work which should appeal to all lovers of Dvorak, Vaughan Williams and Sibelius.
A few copies still around on the net--hyperion CDA 66343
kullervopete.

From time to time I like to get hold of a recording by a conductor not particuarly associated with Sibelius, to see if they can throw a different light on a well worn piece. Georg Tintner had a good reputation as a Brucknerian, so I have just played his broadcast performance of Sibs seventh with the Symphony Nova Scotia which was recorded in Canada on 19th Jan. 1999.
Coming in at just 3 seconds short of 25 minutes, this is a broad and measured account, indeed what one might expect from a Bruckner specialist. But I have found Tintners reading really compelling, on first hearing some of the faster sections seemed slightly sluggish, but on repeated hearing they blend in well with his overall conception of the work. The famous trombone theme is among the best I have heard, broad and spacious, what did Sibelius say about this--to be played as if looking at the face of God. Tintner died tragically in 1999 when apparantly he jumped from the balcony of his apartment, losing a six year battle with cancer. Do seek out this great Cd which also includes Beethovens third. I got mine from Amazon. com.--kullervopete.

I haven't heard it - but shall look out! 25 minutes is lllllooooonnnnngggg.

Just one small thing; forgive me, I am as always a pedant: the comment 'as if before the face of God' refers to the polyphonic string passage (10 bars after A ff.) rather than the trombone theme itself. But I'm glad that the Nova Scotia player does it justice anyway!

kullervopete wrote:

Tintner died tragically in 1999 when apparantly he jumped from the balcony of his apartment, losing a six year battle with cancer.

The shame of my faux-pas deepens... let me explain.

Georg Tintner was very active as a teacher-instructor-organizer of conducting masterclasses, appearing very often in the Czech Republic. I had never actually attended one of his masterclasses, but have met many conducting students who have.

Shortly after joining the ZSO in August 2004, I received an e-mail from Mr. Tintner's wife about the possibility of setting up a masterclass in Marienbad. I answered her with a detailed e-mail about the specifics of the orchestra and how the masterclass could work, and asked her to say hello to Maestro Tintner... not knowing he had died.

She replied that unfortunately, her husband had died some years back, and that she was continuing in the business of the masterclass legacy as an orgainzer (with other intstructors). She also congratulated me on my good written english, assuming that I was a pure-born Czech.

I felt so ashamed that I had not known of Tintner's death that I never replied to her e-mail. If I had known how tragic it actually was, I may have considered an early window-exit as well.

In my Cd player recently, one of the great Symphonies of the 20th Century, Franz Schmidts Fourth [1933] along with Sibelius 7 further evidence that much good music could still be written in C major. The four movements of Schmidts Fourth are joined together in a continuous whole, but unlike Sibelius 7 it is very clear were one ends and another begins. The organic unity of the work is very much 'Sibelian'. The Symphony begins and ends with a melody on solo trumpet from which everything else grows. Schmidts 4th was inspired by the death of his daughter and the beautiful slow movement which features a solo cello is music of the deepest lament and the second part comes very close to the final section of Sibelius's 'Swan of Tuonela' another work very much concerned with death.
I urge anyone unfamilier with this fine Symphony to seek it out.--kullervopete.

kullervopete wrote:

... much good music could still be written in C major.

I cannot recall... was it Prokofiev who originally said that?

Well actually I think it was Arnold Schoenberg of all people.--kullervopete.

bruckner #7, jochum/dresden on emi

dj

Interesting dj, I've just dug out Bruckner 7 with Jochum and The Berlin Phil. on Deutsche Grammophon. Magnificent account, wonder how it compares.--kullervopete.

my guess is the biggest difference will be the recorded sound.
most of my emi seems to be recorded more distantly than my dg.

dj

hey! that reply tied us at 90 posts each! well done, friend.

i'm now on the 8th from the same set.

dj

20th September 2007, roughly 6 pm UK time.

About an hour to go.

The Malcolm Sargent / BBCSO Fifth Symphony is sitting in my player ready to be turned on in a little while.

(I don't need to say why, do I?)

But for all its symbolic value, this is really paying lip service to the anniversary. Last night we had a UK Sibelius Society concert of piano trios to a packed hall (not a spare seat anywhere) at Leighton House in London:
[Allegro] in D minor
Piano Trio in A minor, ‘Hafträsk’, JS207
Piano Trio in D major, ‘Korpo’, JS209
La pompeuse Marche d’Asis, JS116
with Madoka Sato, violin, Marko Ylönen, cello and Folke Gräsbeck, piano
All works were UK premières.
Their performances of this vibrant, life-enhancing music were so compelling, so committed and so totally at the composer's service that even now, a day later, I feel physically exhausted - so strongly do they resonate in my mind. This will probably be the most memorable concert that I attend all year - music-making of the highest order.

That is, for me, a far more eloquent tribute to Sibelius on this special anniversary.

early morning here, with beethoven string quartets.

dj

rewhipped (the whipped cream and other delights remix) - herb alpert

dj

'... much good music could still be written in C major.'
What's the deal with those keys? I thought what mattered is the relative change of keys, not exactly where a work begins and ends. I know that the keys might affect orchestration because the ranges of instruments, but how can that tell us anything? Well ok, as an oboist I know that on jointed instruments some notes are out of tune (because you can't put a finger-hole on the joint, which is the right place for it in many cases!), but that shouldn't be such a big deal.
I have never understood why piano-pieces aren't all written in C major (or a minor), I have always assumed that the most difficult passages are in C (or a) in those not in C (or a). Am I wrong?
If I am: why?


Right now I'm listening to:

Eduard Varése - the complete works

I am not amused