Dear Kuma,
How are you getting along with the Mahler?
I have this set, and am left in two minds. Some of it fits me well musically and the performances [for all I could tell really!] seems superb, but some of it is far from my cup of tea, and to me some of these performances do seem to have been caught too late in Klemperer's career. I know nothing so do not be put off by my thoughts! Just that I would be interested to read how you get on!
As for me I ordered direct from Testament Records the Flagstad album of EMI recordings of Gluck, Bach, Handel, Purcell, with two substantial sections of Wagner.
Seventy six minutes of the great soprano's early post war recordings, some not actually released till this particular issue [from Testament] in 1993. I saw it at the time and thought I would avoid it. Hardly my idea of Bach or Handel on slow and massive performances, and the Wagner was not an attraction for me. The Gluck? Possible. Handel's "Largo" from Xerxes? Possible. Two four minute tracks.
As it happens I was almost exactly correct, but I am still very pleased. I put the whole CD into iTunes, and have listened to the whole recital [though it is only a recital interns of the assembly on the CD rather recorded all at the same time with the same conductor, or actually a sensible collection].
I rejected everything but two Handel arias, and the Gluck. Warwick Braithwaite [who conducts the successful Handel] is a lovely musician, and the Largo is so beautiful. There is a surprise that is attributed to Handel, but sounds any but like the attribution is right. "Dank sei dir, Herr."
This is a find. Glorious and poised performance, and a keeper for me.
The best is "Che faro senza Eridice?" [What is life?].
So twelve minutes of glorious music for £11
Not the cheapest at that rate, but I am well pleased. I deleted the rest including "Erbarme rich, mein Gott" [Saint Matthew Passion], at a tempo which if scaled up would give the whole work a five or six hour running time! Of course the singing succeeds, but the music is lacking a sense of direction at what was the traditional speed for this music sixty or more years ago. Also deleted from iTunes is an equally immensely slow version of "I know that my Redeemer liveth" from Messiah.
I am glad that I was not about at that time to endure such immensely slow performances live!
In the successful [for me and in my opinion] three sides of 78, the tempi are actually nicely forward moving. Perhaps Flagstaff and Braithwaite fully understood each other here, where as Susskind, Fistolari and Bohm were on a very different wavelength [and so much slower] elsewhere?
One thing is for sure, and that is that we shall never know who set the tempi at these sessions!
ATB from George
Managed to pick this up as a CD+DVD for £1.50 at a certain reseller.
