What are you listening to now?

[Quijote]

Bruckner 4th, first movement only (1878-80 version). A flawed jewel of a symphony according to some commentators.

[Sorrano]

Bruckner 4th, first movement only (1878-80 version). A flawed jewel of a symphony according to some commentators.

Which performance (conductor, orchestra)?

[Quijote]

This particular CD : Karajan / Berlin Phil / 1964 / Haas.

[Quijote]

And here Herbert von K takes one liberty with the score (1st movement) : in one climactic moment he makes his 1st violins play 2 or 3 bars an octave higher than prescribed in the score. Barenboim (same orchestra [1992], same passage) keeps religiously to the written register. I have to admit that the Karajan at this precise point is much more exciting. Naughty, but nice. What is one to do?

[Quijote]

I mean, just how sacred is the score, I ask you?

[Quijote]

And so I ask the question, just comme ça : maybe Mahler (and Wagner) were right to tinker around a little bit with the scoring in B's Ninth? (And not a Baz Cooper in sight.)

[Roehre]

Today:

Prokofiev:
Cinderella: suite op.97a (1944) (BBC MM CD)

Xenakis:
Tallein (1984)

Woo:
Metamorphose (R3: H&N)

Birtwistle:
Theseus Game (2004) (R3: H&N)

[Sorrano]

And so I ask the question, just comme ça : maybe Mahler (and Wagner) were right to tinker around a little bit with the scoring in B's Ninth? (And not a Baz Cooper in sight.)

Wasn't it Mahler who fiddled with Schumann's 2nd? I really preferred the original on that endeavor.

[Sorrano]

And here Herbert von K takes one liberty with the score (1st movement) : in one climactic moment he makes his 1st violins play 2 or 3 bars an octave higher than prescribed in the score. Barenboim (same orchestra [1992], same passage) keeps religiously to the written register. I have to admit that the Karajan at this precise point is much more exciting. Naughty, but nice. What is one to do?

There is also that issue of cymbal usage in the 7th and 8th symphonies. The climaxes work without the cymbals, but they really do add.

[Roehre]

Wasn't it Mahler who fiddled with Schumann's 2nd? I really preferred the original on that endeavor.

Mahler amended all 4 Schumann symphonies, as well as the Manfred overture (which in Mahler's version starts with a cymbal clash !).

Other mahlerian amendments are i.a. Beethoven 9, the serioso quartet, Schubert's Death and maiden quartet, JSBach's 2nd/3rd orchestral suites (combined into one, with a piano as basso continuo), Weber operas and one Weber completion (die Drei Pintos).

[Peter]

Mahler amended all 4 Schumann symphonies, as well as the Manfred overture (which in Mahler's version starts with a cymbal clash !).

Other mahlerian amendments are i.a. Beethoven 9, the serioso quartet, Schubert's Death and maiden quartet, JSBach's 2nd/3rd orchestral suites (combined into one, with a piano as basso continuo), Weber operas and one Weber completion (die Drei Pintos).

Didn't know Mahler tinkered with the Maiden , but I was by chance listening to Schubert's original today along with the superb quartetstatz.

[Roehre]

Today:

JSBach:
Cantatas BWV 51, 99 and 138 for Trinity 15 (today)

TTFN, will be back Oct 15th

[Peter]

Schubert's string quintet in C major.

[Preston]

Listening to Mozart's Piano Concerto 20 with the cadenza's written by Beethoven! I did not know he wrote cadenzas for this work. How old was Beethoven when he wrote these cadenzas? They sound like they are from somewhere in the middle period, though that is pretty much a guess?

[Chris]

Quite right, Preston. Those cadenzas were written in 1809 for Ferdinand Ries. (They are cataloged as WoO 58.)