How many does one need?

I collect the Beethoven Violin concerto cause I just like it - 10 copies so far and Viktoria Mullova leads the pack.

I have three complete sets of Beethoven symphonies, two of his string quartets and two of his piano sonatas, among other things.

If you have Klemperer's estimable recording, then you do not actually need any other recording as what is presented is both musically satisfying and so clear that you could write out the score without error from the playback alone ...


ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
If you have Klemperer's estimable recording, then you do not actually need any other recording as what is presented is both musically satisfying and so clear that you could write out the score without error from the playback alone ...

Agreed. If one only wants to own one set of LvB´s Symphonies I would recommend Klemperer. But like you I find, that the EMI stereo box (even if it is a good choice) isn´t the optimal choice. Better is to compose a Klemperer set from EMI mono, Testament and Vox recordings.

My motivation for collecting multiple LvB Symphony sets is partly an interest in different performance traditions and the evolution of new "traditions", partly the fact that different performers illuminate the music in different ways and thereby widen my horizon. And I have since long realized, that there is no authorized way of playing music, the performing traditions of which have got lost.

May I recommend this old and not yet quite completed thread on the Beethoven recordings of Otto Klemperer, which thankfully pe zulu made a few very helpful posts, which perhaps give a hint of the very best of the many recoprdings that exist from Klemperer from EMI, VOX and Testamant, as the mainstream choices.

I shall make the last three or four contributions to this later this summer [if i am allowed] on the issue of certain live concerto recordings and the very last concert of Klemperer, which has been found worthy of commercial release and provides a kind handshake to the great old man who found a welcome and fame in the UK in his seventies and eighties, when if he had been a compliant and colaborative [politically] character, he could have started a great and overtly successful career in in forties!

He was a not a diplomat with non-musicians!

ATB from George

http://forums.naim-audio.com/e...892997807#6892997807

quote:

If you have Klemperer's estimable recording, then you do not actually need any other recording as what is presented is both musically satisfying and so clear that you could write out the score without error from the playback alone ...

I think in order to know that I would have to know the other recording, hence buy and listen to them more than once. The Klemperer I own doesn't get played much - I can't hear as much detail in it as the Bohm or the Mackeras. I ordered the Harnoncourt because I read what the said about it and so am very curious to actually hear his interpretation. It may not turn into my favourite, but who knows. I am open minded.
All the best
SJ

Dear Stephen,

I am all for getting multiple recordings of great music. It is not necessary but it is very nice! I also have Boehm in these great Mozart Symphonies and I am grateful for the different facets of the music which are shown.

ATB from George

I listened to the Klemperer last night for the first time in months and really enjoyed it. The Harnoncourt came and I listened to that too. It was very dynamic, got louder and quiter a lot, but kind of not seemimg related to the music. It was clear though and the sound was good.
REading more I also ordered Szell [£1.02!], Abado's recent highly reviewed recent recording and for completeness Karajan [VPO not BPO].

best wishes

Steve

Am not surprised at the multiple Bach, Britten, Kodaly and Shostakovich sets but did surprise myself when I realised that I have 5 Nozze di Figaro

quote:

Originally posted by stephenjohn:
I know this is not a big number for some and wondered what pieces of music other people have multiples of and why?

I collect multiple versions of select works by select composers because the music is so compelling that no one or two or three (or ultimately any number) of artists could possibly exhaust the music, exploring all there is to explore.

The number of composers and works I'm willing to do this with is limited and shrinking a bit, but with much (but not all) Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Debussy, Ravel, Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, Bruckner, Bach, Janacek, Dvorak, Faure, Chopin, Wagner, and a handful of others there's just no way to get a definitive recording or performance. If that ever happens, the music essentially dies.


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Dear Todd
do you have multiples of Mozart's 40th symphony? And if so would you be willing to discuss their merits?

best wishes

SJ

quote:

Originally posted by stephenjohn:
do you have multiples of Mozart's 40th symphony? And if so would you be willing to discuss their merits?

Yes, I have somewhere around 6-8 versions of this symphony. (I don't know the exact number off the top of my head.) The only one I've listened to recently is one of Karajan's recordings, so I'll have to refresh my sonic memory a bit before commenting.



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Thanks Todd

George
I'd also be interested to hear about your other versions and what makes you like the Klemperer so much in comparison

best wishes

SJ

Deasr Stephen,

I find it rather difficult to actually explain what it is that makes me especially like a performance.

Two things strike me as crucial - firstly that while the performance goes on, you could not conceive of it going any other way, even though you may be well aware of many different approaches.

And secondly that after a long period of knowing a [gramophone] performance, that it does still seems natural and unforced - resulting from the impetus of the music rather than the conductor and or players appllying their own ideas to the music.

Sometimes I find Klemperer can initially fail in the first aspect at least on times in studio recordings, whereas I never find he fails in the second issue, even in the performance where I found that I could wish [at first] that the music went differently.

Klemperer's way always brings out the many lines of the msuic in such a balance that nothing passed by without being clear. No line or detail of phrase is deemed insignificant, and therefore to potentially be covered with something else.

After a while Klemperer's care for balance will have a listener complaeely captivated by something other than wild and applied dynamics, or rushed tempi that mark out so many overtly exciting performances.

Karl Boehm strikes me as much more on the surface of the music, but the results are for me still beautiful.

Kubelic and Bruno Walter were both poets of the podium and produce less marked, less profound renditions of the music than Klemperer, but all the same very warm and human performances.

I can think of no HIP style performances of this Mozart Symphony that actually get close to the profound penetration of Klemperer or the poetry of Walter or Kubelic, but that is personal, I will agree.

I once had the Dresden perfomance from Colin Davis, which I did not keep, even though the recording is one of the best. The music making was not above the routine in the company of the others so far mentioned - at least IMO.

It is all opinion, and I would very much prefer to read of someone finding this music through a performance I did not personally care for than simply avoiding the music in the first place.

ATB from George

Thanks George
HIP = Period instruments?
SJ

HIP = Historically Informed Performance, so yes Period instruments.

ATB from George

thanks again

I listened to the Harnoncourt again last night and liked it so much that I immediately listened to it again. It is a very good recording and a lively performance. If the slow movement was as dreamily sublime as the Bohm it would be my favorite. Not quite the same as my first impression
SJ