Post by seth January 2, 2006 (11 of 23)
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mdt said:
Karajan a recording engineer ?
from an interview with Günter Hermanns, Karajans recording engineer at DG: "You are asking me whether there was a difference between Karajan and the other conductors i had to record ? There was non...or actually, there was: his simplicity. In contradiction to what one could be lead to believe, by his reputation of intransigence, he was the easiest of the artists i had the opportunity to work with. He appreciated our work and trusted us completely. For example, he never made the slightest remark about how i set up the microphones."
Hmm. I think you have to be a little skeptical about comments like this. Recording engineers always say that it was an absolute pleasure to work with conductor x, that they always trusted me, and on the few occasions that they did make suggestions, they were brilliantly insightful, etc. I mean, who bad mouths the talent unless you're out of the business and incredibly bitter?
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Post by pentaman January 2, 2006 (12 of 23)
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Arthur said:
I was just doing the same thing. I envy you the Jurowski Tchaikovsky. It has been delayed indefinitely here in the US and now with UK distribution problems, who knows how long the wait will be!
Like yours, my list is not in any sense a "best of the year", but instead these are the discs that kept returning to my player:
1. Vivaldi: Vespri per l'Assunzione di Maria Vergine - Alessandrini - Opus 111
The reviews on this site made me buy this, and I certainly wasn't disappointed!
2. Bruckner: Symphonies 4,5,7,8,9 - Wand, BPO - BMG Japan
These were such great performances, I had to get them in the best possible sound.
3. Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 74 - Kocian Quartet - Praga
I'm not a big fan of the Kocian and I hestitated for quite a while before buying these. They are my surprise hit of the year and have stayed out by my player practically forever!
4. Beethoven: Complete Quartets - Prazak Quartet - Praga
I like their approach and I couldn't resist getting them transferred to SACD (even if they're not all DSD as some users have complained.)
5. Ravel/Debussy: String Quartets - Parkanyi Quartet - Praga
I think the Parkanyi might vie with the Hagen for the best quartet on the scene today. Their Tchaikovsky would probably have been my number 11.
6. Beethoven: Piano Trios 2 & 5 - Storioni Trio - PentaTone
I didn't know these players and didn't see reviews so I hesitated, but they are wonderful: clean, understated.
7. Tchaikovsky: Sym 5/Voyvoda/Capriccio - Jarvi, GSO - BIS
Jarvi gets creamed on this site, but I like this better than the Ashkenazy or the Gatti, and the Voyvoda is a wonderful rarity!
8. Bach: Sonatas & Partitas - Julia Fischer - PentaTone
I hadn't been into these works since the Milstein came out 30+ years ago, but Fischer makes me sit up and take notice!
9. Liszt: Sonata & Other Piano Works - Claudio Arrau - Philips Japan
Arrau in his prime in sound that is the best I have heard for any Arrau recording.
10. Brahms: German Requiem - Karajan, BPO - DG Japan
This is early 60's before Karajan became a recording engineer, so the sound is great and this performance is incredible!
I don't really have a bottom 10 list, but there were a few disappointments:
1. Grumiaux et al playing Brahms Horn Trio: even advanced resloution sound couldn't pull the recording up to Perlman or the Florestan.
2. I was thrilled to get Gerd Albrecht's Bruckner 6th until I listened to it: simply flat and dull...good sound though.
3. My experiment with the RPO series was not positive: I liked the performances but not the recordings on the Ole Schmidt Borodin disc and the Raymond Leppard Franck disc.
But other than these it's been mostly a pretty positive picture this year!
Let's see some other lists.
Dear Arthur,
The Jurowski Tchaikovsky/Stravinsky album should become available in the USA as a Naxos January new release. We had some problems with transatlantic shipping in October/November and therefore did not meet the deadline for a November release. Since Naxos does not release new items in December this item was moved to January.
If you can not wait to get it, you can also order from the PentaTone site:
www.pentatonemusic.com
Best,Pentaman
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Post by mdt January 2, 2006 (13 of 23)
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seth said:
Hmm. I think you have to be a little skeptical about comments like this. Recording engineers always say that it was an absolute pleasure to work with conductor x, that they always trusted me, and on the few occasions that they did make suggestions, they were brilliantly insightful, etc. I mean, who bad mouths the talent unless you're out of the business and incredibly bitter?
I'm far more skeptical about the negative remarks made about Karajan, especially since i heard him live. I have never heard such beautiful warm and full orchestral sound since. One could see and sense his passion for the music (i sat first row orchestra, maybe 2m away from him) I can not believe, that such music can be made by someone cold and hungry for power. Also the sound he created was just about the opposite of the typical DG sound, so i cant imagine him being responsible for the recorded sound either. As for his wanting to direct and have influence on the stage design in operas besides conducting, i think this only shows how true and deep his passion as an artist was, he just couldn't make himself do anything else,than what his deepest convictions told him was right from an artistic point of view.
I have far less respect for these modern conductors, who will watch a director and a set designer mess up a classical gem completely, and say "so what i'll just do my part the right way".
To me someone unique like Karajan, although they may seem "difficult" to less sensitive people, is much more desirable in art (and elsewhere) than some streamline, up-to-date person, who follows the trends and is cool and to whome nothing really matters, as long as it works.
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Post by seth January 2, 2006 (14 of 23)
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mdt said:
I'm far more skeptical about the negative remarks made about Karajan, especially since i heard him live. I have never heard such beautiful warm and full orchestral sound since. One could see and sense his passion for the music (i sat first row orchestra, maybe 2m away from him) I can not believe, that such music can be made by someone cold and hungry for power. Also the sound he created was just about the opposite of the typical DG sound, so i cant imagine him being responsible for the recorded sound either. As for his wanting to direct and have influence on the stage design in operas besides conducting, i think this only shows how true and deep his passion as an artist was, he just couldn't make himself do anything else,than what his deepest convictions told him was right from an artistic point of view.
I have far less respect for these modern conductors, who will watch a director and a set designer mess up a classical gem completely, and say "so what i'll just do my part the right way".
To me someone unique like Karajan, although they may seem "difficult" to less sensitive people, is much more desirable in art (and elsewhere) than some streamline, up-to-date person, who follows the trends and is cool and to whome nothing really matters, as long as it works.
From what Karajan aficionados have told me, he was a completely different conductor live than in the studio.
As for conductors having control over the production, when the Covent Garden told a La Scala production designer that he'd have to make last minute changes to his set for safety reasons and he balked, Muti sided with the production designer. Muti was heavily criticized for this and claims of his autocratic control over production led to his downfall at La Scala. Just food for thought.
At a place like the Met, when a new production is put together, the artists involved are consulted. If James Levine wants something changed, that something gets changed. If you start letting guest conductors tweak productions, then you're going to dramatically increase costs.
Some house like the Chatelet do invite conductors to help with the design of a new production.
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Post by Edvin January 2, 2006 (15 of 23)
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Karajan was a control freak in everything he did. Flying his plane, sailing, conducting etc. Often with great results. And he would never, never ever cast Bocelli as tenor in the Verdi Requiem.
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Post by Arthur January 2, 2006 (16 of 23)
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mdt said:
I'm far more skeptical about the negative remarks made about Karajan, especially since i heard him live. I have never heard such beautiful warm and full orchestral sound since. One could see and sense his passion for the music (i sat first row orchestra, maybe 2m away from him) I can not believe, that such music can be made by someone cold and hungry for power. Also the sound he created was just about the opposite of the typical DG sound, so i cant imagine him being responsible for the recorded sound either. As for his wanting to direct and have influence on the stage design in operas besides conducting, i think this only shows how true and deep his passion as an artist was, he just couldn't make himself do anything else,than what his deepest convictions told him was right from an artistic point of view.
I have far less respect for these modern conductors, who will watch a director and a set designer mess up a classical gem completely, and say "so what i'll just do my part the right way".
To me someone unique like Karajan, although they may seem "difficult" to less sensitive people, is much more desirable in art (and elsewhere) than some streamline, up-to-date person, who follows the trends and is cool and to whome nothing really matters, as long as it works.
Karajan was my favorite conductor in my youth. At least through the mid 70s I raced out to get everything he did, but though the recordings from the mid 70s on started to sound increasingly artificial, I still jumped at the chance to hear him live on 3 of his 4 Los Angeles dates in the early 80's. And you were certainly right: recordings don't begin to do him justice. The shear opulence of his strings was something to behold. The seamless shifting from woodwind chorus to strings back to brass, etc. was almost beyond belief. This was certainly NOT sonic gimmickry!
But still the recordings mostly leave me cold. The early 60s to my mind was his best era in the studio, although his Beethoven cycle as reissued on Super Audio doesn't approach most other Super Audio Beethoven recordings sonically. Perhaps that is why I was so taken with the German Requiem I mentioned in my original post: it really brought back to me the wonder that Karajan was for me when I first discovered him!
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Post by mdt January 2, 2006 (17 of 23)
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seth said:
1) From what Karajan aficionados have told me, he was a completely different conductor live than in the studio.
2)As for conductors having control over the production, when the Covent Garden told a La Scala production designer that he'd have to make last minute changes to his set for safety reasons and he balked, Muti sided with the production designer. Muti was heavily criticized for this and claims of his autocratic control over production led to his downfall at La Scala. Just food for thought.
3)At a place like the Met, when a new production is put together, the artists involved are consulted. If James Levine wants something changed, that something gets changed. If you start letting guest conductors tweak productions, then you're going to dramatically increase costs.
1) maybe, but hard for me to believe.Besides that, he developed a habit of practicing a piece to perfection for a recording, record it and then produce it live with the same (or almost same) cast (Salzburg-Festival opera productions), this shurely doesn't speak for different conducting live or in the studio. Also the things i experience as negative (sound-wise) on Karajans recordings are the same things i experience as negative with most DG recordings no matter which conductor or engineer.
2) we're not talking about the same thing here.I meant Karajans wish to direct and influence the set design (its conception, not mere details)in order to achieve a whole coherent artistic product, to fully be able to express what he wants to transpond with the music, visually and sonically.
It's certainly not about being stuborn in inevitable details, anyone knows that safety goes first.
3) as i said, it's not about interfering or changing and even less about tweaking by guest conductors, but about developing or co-developing the entire artistic concept from the start. (Think of Wagners "Gesamtkunstwerk")
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Post by mdt January 2, 2006 (18 of 23)
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Edvin said:
And he would never, never ever cast Bocelli as tenor in the Verdi Requiem.
I dont know whether he should be blamed for that.
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Post by Edvin January 3, 2006 (19 of 23)
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mdt said:
I dont know whether he should be blamed for that.
For what?
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Post by Edvin January 3, 2006 (20 of 23)
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Karajan was probably the greatest conductor ever. Every time I listen to his records from the sixties and early seventies I am bowled over by the concentration and force of his will. The orchestras all play like gods for him, he even tamed the La Scala orchestra. A pity DG wasn´t able to capture his sound to the full.
During the second half of the eighties I used to have lunch with the singer Helge Brilioth, Karajan´s choice of Siegfried in Götterdämmerung. Brilioth told me loads of stories and he never said one negative thing about Karajan. On the contrary, he was very enthusiastic and spoke warmly about von K.
A pity those japanese sacd´s are so expensive, I love that German Requiem. Has anyone compared the sacd with the one on Originals?
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