What are you listening to now?

[Roehre]

Today:

JSBach:
Cantatas BWV 205, 206 and 207/207a
(for 207/207a: the only cantata AFAIK with 3 marches as instrumental intermezzi; and IMO shows that Bach likely knew some of Rameau's works)

Maxwell Davies:
Renaissance Realisations (1972)
-Tenebrae super Gesualdo
-Dunstable’s Veni Sancte and Veni Creator Spiritus
-Three early Scottish Motets

Bartok:
Sonata for violin solo (1944)

Jeths:
Capriccio (1999)

Ketting:
Summer Moon (1992)

[Quijote]

Have you tried Haitint's performance (with the Concertgebouw? I am thinking it is the same version as the Jochum recording, but I no longer have the LPs and do not remember which version. For me it is the "definitive" version from which I measure all others that I hear.

Joy of joys, on my return from the Black Forest today (Sunday 30 January) after a great weekend of combined cross-country and down-hill skiing with family and friends (and devouring fine game meats), what should be waiting for me in my letter box? Well yes, what else but two Edition Euelenberg scores :
a) Bruckner 8, 1887 version (Nowak) [the "first original" version, if you will];
b) Bruckner 8, 1890 version (Nowak).

Now, here's the problem : There also exist two versions by Haas. As Roehre has mentioned to me via PM, these Haas / Nowak versions present two "definitive" versions, but the problem is which editor (Haas or Nowak) comes closest to Bruckner's real/final intentions? I have to admit that I have always favoured the Nowak editions (and Sorrano and Roehrer will perhaps confirm this), but after listening to a performance of the 8th with Boulez / Haas / Vienna Phil, I have to say that I am beginning to have doubts. As I said before : Help !! I look to Sorrano and Roehrer for guidance.

[Quijote]

Well, I have to say that the Boulez performance (Vienna Phil., 1890, v2/Haas) works rather well. How is it that key conductors (not only Boulez) favour the Haas edition? I admit that I always "brought into" the view that Nowak was a superior edition to the Haas, but I'm beginning to have my doubts. Any comments, Sorrano and Roehrer?
The more I hear Bruckner, the more I disdain Brahms (as symphonist).

[Quijote]

Quick question to Sorrano and Roehrer : could you recommend me a CD of Bruckner 8th, the 1887 version (specifiying if Haas or Nowak, please, not the [well-intentioned] Schalck)?

[Roehre]

Quick question to Sorrano and Roehrer : could you recommend me a CD of Bruckner 8th, the 1887 version (specifiying if Haas or Nowak, please, not the [well-intentioned] Schalck)?

Eliahu Inbal with RSO Frankfurt, the very first recording of the Nowak VIII/i

[Roehre]

There also exist two versions by Haas. As Roehre has mentioned to me via PM, these Haas / Nowak versions present two "definitive" versions, but the problem is which editor (Haas or Nowak) comes closest to Bruckner's real/final intentions? I have to admit that I have always favoured the Nowak editions (and Sorrano and Roehre will perhaps confirm this), but after listening to a performance of the 8th with Boulez / Haas / Vienna Phil, I have to say that I am beginning to have doubts.

Nowak is scientifically the more reliable of the two. This is not only caused by the development which musicological research went through in the more than 3 decades which (IIRC) separate the Haas and the Nowak editions (in general, as e.g. the Ninth's editions are identical but for two or thee tiny details), but -in case of III and VIII- by special treatment of the orignal scores as well.

As Bruckner sometimes simply glued pages together, or stuck parts or pages on top of others, until quite recently it was impossible to decipher the orignal texts. Two developments have changed that, and both were available to Nowak, but not to Haas: 1) new chemicals became available which -cautiously applied obviously- made it possible to separate the stuck pages/bits. 2) New X-ray like methods made it possbile to read the pages and stretches for which Bruckner used glues which even with our modern chemistry proved to be insolvable.

Therefore the Nowak editions are presenting more and more reliably the scores as Bruckner originally intended.

It opened another pitfall however: we don't know whether some of the changes Bruckner made were actually made before he completed his first versions. In other words, whether those passages should be considered as mere score sketches (which AB disapproved of), or changes made after completion of that particular version (which had AB's approval, at least before he was talked into changing the original score by his friends).
That is how we now have 4 slow movements for the third symphony, though there exist only three versions of the complete work.

[Megan]

Great performance of Beethovens Symphony no.5 , performed by the Deutche Kammerphilharmonie.
I thought the conductor looked a bit like Vladimir Putin.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJWl4...layer_embedded

[Megan]

Vladimir, sings Blueberry HIll. Probably did it for charity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV4IjHz2yIo