Request for Recomendations

[Steppenwolf]

I am looking towards my next cycle of CD purchases. So I need some recomendations.

What are the best Haydn piano sonatas?

What are the best Schubert string quartets?

[Peter]

For Haydn sonatas I recommend nos.20,32,34, and 48-52. Brilliant classics (99817) do the complete sonatas for £21.00

Schubert quartets - my favourites are the D minor (D810) and the Quartett-satz in C minor (only 1 movement). The G major (D887) and the A minor (D804) are fine works but I'm not so keen on them (but don't let that put you off as they are masterpieces!)

Undoubtedly the crown in Schubert's chamber music for strings is the glorious C major quintet (D956)

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'Man know thyself'

[This message has been edited by Peter (edited 07-08-2004).]

[King Stephen]

If you are looking for a compete set of the Schubert Quartets the Melos Quartet on DGG is a fine set. It consist of 6 cd's and the Cat # is 463-151-2 The price is also very good.
Steve

[This message has been edited by King Stephen (edited 07-08-2004).]

[Rod]

I'm listening to a Beethoven CD I've just bought that is fantastic - Chamber versions of the 4th Concerto (piano and string quintet) and 2nd Symphony (piano trio) on period instruments by Robert Levin and members of the Orchestra Revolutionnaire et Romantique on Archiv label. With the 4th the orchestral arrangement for strings was undertaken by Prince Lobkowitz's court violinist Franz Possinger, but the piano part is Beethoven's with many additions and enhancements compared to the original. This is very interesting, but it is Op.36 that is particularly amazing. I didn't even think this was an authentic Beethoven arrangement but the CD claimed otherwise. So I bought it on this basis and upon hearing there is nothing un-Beethovenian in it to my ears (unlike some of the other opus number arrangements that Beethoven merely corrected and do not sound particularly like Beethoven works), in fact it is a masterpiece in its own right, especially on this period instrument perfomance.


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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin




[This message has been edited by Rod (edited 07-09-2004).]

[Peter]

Originally posted by Rod:
I didn't even think this was an authentic Beethoven arrangement but the CD claimed otherwise.

The cd claim is correct - a genuine Beethoven arrangement that was published in 1805 by the Bureau des Arts et d'Industrie, Vienna.

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'Man know thyself'

[Steppenwolf]

Thank you Peter, and King Stephen, for the recomendations. I will hunt them down, and tell you later what I think of them.

While I think of it, there is another recomendation I require - the best recording of Bach's most popular/best organ pieces, on one CD. Let me know if you can recomend anything. I currently just have bits and pieces of his organ works.

Finally - you might be interested to know, Rod, that I recently obtained a big collection of Robert Levin/Academy of Ancient Music Beethoven symphonies, at a very cheap second hand sale. The period instruments are, as I usually find, of great clarity and freshness. (Although I confess that Karajan's is my favourite version of the 5th, a piece which seems to justify 'innacurate' powerful modern orchestras)

[Rod]

Originally posted by Peter:
The cd claim is correct - a genuine Beethoven arrangement that was published in 1805 by the Bureau des Arts et d'Industrie, Vienna.

Usually I am quite sharp on matters like this but I never bothered to research this arrangement and for some reason I merely assumed it was a arrangement corrected by Beethoven but done by someone else, as we find elsewhere, perhaps this is because the piece is virtually unknown and unrecorded. But based on this CD it should really be up there with Beethoven's other efforts in this genre, I was quite surprised. Who else has heard it?

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Rod]

Originally posted by Steppenwolf:
Thank you Peter, and King Stephen, for the recomendations. I will hunt them down, and tell you later what I think of them.

While I think of it, there is another recomendation I require - the best recording of Bach's most popular/best organ pieces, on one CD. Let me know if you can recomend anything. I currently just have bits and pieces of his organ works.

Finally - you might be interested to know, Rod, that I recently obtained a big collection of Robert Levin/Academy of Ancient Music Beethoven symphonies, at a very cheap second hand sale. The period instruments are, as I usually find, of great clarity and freshness. (Although I confess that Karajan's is my favourite version of the 5th, a piece which seems to justify 'innacurate' powerful modern orchestras)

I have those AAM recordings myself, though I can now do without Karajan's Symphonies that I also used to have long ago. The increased volume of the BPO does not equate to increased colour and excitement that you get from the best 'authentic' versions.


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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Michael]

Originally posted by Rod:
I'm listening to a Beethoven CD I've just bought that is fantastic - Chamber versions of the 4th Concerto (piano and string quintet) and 2nd Symphony (piano trio) on period instruments by Robert Levin and members of the Orchestra Revolutionnaire et Romantique on Archiv label.

I think that some of the piano alterations B made for the quintet version of the concerto were used by Barry Cooper in his refurbishing of the Fourth Concerto some years back. If I remember correctly, a sort of academic row developed, with Cooper maintaining the new piano parts were what B always intended for the work.
The arrangement of the Second Symphony was completely done by B and it's fascinating to compare the two. The huge energy of the first movement transfers well to the piano trio medium. Somebody once said that Beethoven's musical ideas were so strong that they would still be impressive played on an orchestra of tin whistles!

Michael



[This message has been edited by Michael (edited 07-10-2004).]

[Rod]

Originally posted by Michael:
I think that some of the piano alterations B made for the quintet version of the concerto were used by Barry Cooper in his refurbishing of the Fourth Concerto some years back. If I remember correctly, a sort of academic row developed, with Cooper maintaining the new piano parts were what B always intended for the work.
The arrangement of the Second Symphony was completely done by B and it's fascinating to compare the two. The huge energy of the first movement transfers well to the piano trio medium. Somebody once said that Beethoven's musical ideas were so strong that they would still be impressive played on an orchestra of tin whistles!

Michael


[This message has been edited by Michael (edited 07-10-2004).]

Well, listening to the quintet version I get the impression Beethoven is often adding to fill in the sound, so to speak - something that would not necessarily be required for the orchestral concerto - but on other occasions it seems to be simply a new way of looking at the particular passage. So there you have both angles, but I can live with the 4th as we currently have it. As for the trio version of the 2nd, as i have said I think its a masterpiece.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[This message has been edited by Rod (edited 07-10-2004).]