Thread: Windsurfer's complaint!

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Post by Windsurfer September 17, 2008 (1 of 11)
Wow! we have more than one Shostakovitch Symphonies set on SACD, a really fine set of Shosty's string quartets under way, and Schubert as well. Not too many Beethoven String Quartets although there is a full cycle. We have more Mahler symphonies than you can shake a stick at, Some truly excellent, (maybe even beyond excellent) Beethoven symphonies.

But where are the Dvorak Piano Trios, String Quartets, Piano Quintet, String Quintets ??? This oeuvre is constituted by some extraordinarily fine music.

PentaTone? BIS?, Channel?, Audite?, Fry Street? - are you listening? What an opportunity!
Post by Beagle September 17, 2008 (2 of 11)
Windsurfer said: But where are the Dvorak ...
Amen. Dvorák and numerous other glaring gaps in the musical pantheon (Smetana, Janácek, Villa-Lobos...).

There does seem to be an echo in here: the odds of a work being recorded in SACD (again!) are proportional to the number of existing SACD recordings of the work. It would seem that label X is inspired only by label Y's output. The logic is impeccable ("If they bought Mahler 5 once, they'll buy it again, and again..."), impeccable logic but brain-dead. No need to blame "the lack of video".... There is a whole universe of music available on redbook CD. The relative lack of selection on SACD -- repertoire restricted by re-flogging the same warhorses -- wins it few converts. If SACD were enlarging the universe (cf Jordi Savall), a jaded disc-buying market would come over to SACD for "something completely different".
Post by Windsurfer September 19, 2008 (3 of 11)
Of course the obvious label that I failed to address in my list preceding "anyone listening" was or course Praga! Why in the world don't they have a mch Dvorak series on SACD? The Smetana would be wonderful as well. We are of course, deeply indebted for their Bartok String Quartets!

Speaking of Bartok and still part of my "complaint" or lament perhaps it might have been better named, Why don't we have recording of Bartok's Orchestral Suite Op 3. That is a fantastic piece of music. A truly wonderful introduction to Bartok for the timorous.
Post by DSD September 19, 2008 (4 of 11)
Windsurfer said:

Wow! we have more than one Shostakovitch Symphonies set on SACD, a really fine set of Shosty's string quartets under way, and Schubert as well. Not too many Beethoven String Quartets although there is a full cycle. We have more Mahler symphonies than you can shake a stick at, Some truly excellent, (maybe even beyond excellent) Beethoven symphonies.

But where are the Dvorak Piano Trios, String Quartets, Piano Quintet, String Quintets ??? This oeuvre is constituted by some extraordinarily fine music.

PentaTone? BIS?, Channel?, Audite?, Fry Street? - are you listening? What an opportunity!
You are correct we've got Shostakovich, Mahler and Beethoven symphonies well covered. There are still gaps in the symphonic literature. BIS recently closed one with the release of Franz Liszt's Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 and Todtentanz, I could not believe we went almost a decade without what I consider three of Liszt's three important works. Bravo BIS!

Thanks to Mercury Living Presence we do have all 6 of the Hungarian Rhapsodies for Orchestra but sadly there are only two of Liszt's 13 Symphonic Poems on SACD: Les Preludes (No. 2) & Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo (No. 3). Where are the other 11? Especially "The Battle of the Huns" (No. 11) which is a real sonic spectacular or From the Cradle to the Grave (No. 13) or Orpheus (No. 4). I just don't understand how there can be over 60 SACDs with Liszt's music on them and they are mostly the Mephisto Waltz, Les Preludes or organ works?
Post by Windsurfer September 19, 2008 (5 of 11)
DSD said:

You are correct we've got Shostakovich, Mahler and Beethoven symphonies well covered. There are still gaps in the symphonic literature. BIS recently closed one with the release of Franz Liszt's Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 and Todtentanz, I could not believe we went almost a decade without what I consider three of Liszt's three important works. Bravo BIS!

Thanks to Mercury Living Presence we do have all 6 of the Hungarian Rhapsodies for Orchestra but sadly there are only two of Liszt's 13 Symphonic Poems on SACD: Les Preludes (No. 2) & Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo (No. 3). Where are the other 11? Especially "The Battle of the Huns" (No. 11) which is a real sonic spectacular or From the Cradle to the Grave (No. 13) or Orpheus (No. 4). I just don't understand how there can be over 60 SACDs with Liszt's music on them and they are mostly the Mephisto Waltz, Les Preludes or organ works?
And the sad thing Theresa, is that the Mercury Living Presence discs are out of print and there will be no more MLP recordings at all unless "Universal" has a change of heart. I am not holding my breath.

On the other hand Telarc gave us a decent Tasso - what was it that got in the way of their doing more? And while I, in this thread was specifically addressing a glaring gap in the chamber music literature - there is surely room enough for your observation within the general purview of my title! (that is simply a note to anyone who would complain about "off thread postings here".)

I would love to see those Hungarian Rhapsodies on a newly recorded Telarc or PentaTone or ESPECIALLY a Channel Classics disc with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. I would even more like to see the Bartok Orchestral Suite opus 3!
Post by Beagle September 19, 2008 (6 of 11)
Windsurfer said: ... there is surely room enough for your observation within the general purview of my title!
Perhaps this complaint could be a little less restricted to person and genre. CF new thread GLARING OMISSIONS in SACD repertoire... /showthread/31008//y?page=first
Post by Windsurfer September 19, 2008 (7 of 11)
Beagle said:

Perhaps this complaint could be a little less restricted to person and genre. CF new thread GLARING OMISSIONS in SACD repertoire...
That would be fine with me - but I will note that my original posting, while not at that time actually identifying the particular label - was really directed at some very fine people residing, I believe, in the Czech Republic. ie PRAGA. I had sort of hoped another contributor would have noted, and mentioned that congruence between Praga and the repertoire I was advocating for. Yet of course if the Fry Street Quartet were to pitch in with this repertoire .... - I have heard them do an outstanding performance of Dvorak's Opus 105!
Post by Beagle September 19, 2008 (8 of 11)
Windsurfer said: some very fine people residing, I believe, in the Czech Republic.
Yes indeed! Does one have to beg the Kocian or Prazák Quartet to record Abert, Bartos, Bárta, Bazant, von Beliczay, Benda, Bendl, Benes, Berg, Bláha, Bodorová, Borkovec, Burghauser, Burian, Ceremuga, Cernovská, Chaun, Chlubna, Chvála, Dobiás, Domazlicky, Donato, Druschetzky, Dusík, Dvorák, Eben, Emmert, Ernst, Faltus, Feld, Felix, Fiala, Fibich, Fiser, Flosman, Foerster, Gassmann, Gemrot, Germot, von Gluck, Gregor, Grossmann, Grunfeld, Grünberger, Gyrowetz, Haase, Haas, Hába, Habert, Hanus, Hlobil, Holoubek, Horký, Hurnik, Husa, Huttel, Istvan, Janácek, Jansa, Jaroch, Jerabek, Jeremiás, Jezek, Jirásek, Jirák, Jirackova, Jirko, Kadosa, Kalach, Kalás, Kalabis, Kalivoda, Kammel, Kapr, Kaprál, Kaprálová, Kardos, Karel, Kauchlitz, Kauder, Klega, Klein, Klusak, Koczwara, Kofron, Kohn, Kohoutek, Komorous, Kopelent, Korngold, Korte, Kouba, Kovarovic, Kovár, Kowalski, Kozeluch, Kramár, Krása, Krejcí, Kricka, Krivinka, Kubelík, Kubik, Kubicka, Kubín, Kucera, Kukal, Kunc, Kupka, Kurz, Kvapil, Kvech, Lachnith, Ledec, Lídl, Loudová, Lukás, Macha, Malek, Maros, Martinu, Mašek, Mastalir, Matousek, Matys, Mica, Micka, Morawetz, Moyzes, Myslivecek, Nápravnik, Nedbal, Nejedlý, Nelhybel, Neruda, Nesvera, Neubauer, Neumann, Novák, Novotný;, Nowowiejski, Obrovska, Odstrcil, Ondricek, Ostrcil, Palkovsky, Parsch, Pauer, Peterka, Petrzelka, Petyrek, Picha, Pichl, Pick-Mangiagalli, Pinos-Simandl, Podesva, Popper, Pospísíl, Reiner, Reiser, Rejcha, Richter, Ridký, Riedelbauch, Rosetti, Ryba, Rychlik, Satra, Saudek, Schaefer, Schulhoff, Sebor, Sechter, Simai, Sín, Skroup, Skuherský, Slavický, Sluka, Smetana, Sokola, Sommer, Srnka, Srom, Stamic, Stanislav, Stedron, Suk, Teml, Tomásek, Traxler, Trojan, Tucapský, Tyrrell, Ullmann, Vackár, Válek, Vanhal, Veit, Vent, Vitásek, Vogl, Vomácka, Vorísek, Vorlová, Vostrák, Vranický, Vrána, Vranický, Vycpálek, Weber, Weinberger, Vesely, Zach, Zajaczek, Zajicek, Zamecnik, Zich, Zika or Zouhar?
Post by Daland September 20, 2008 (9 of 11)
I just don't understand how there can be over 60 SACDs with Liszt's music on them and they are mostly the Mephisto Waltz, Les Preludes or organ works?
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that not a single recording of Les Preludes is available on SACD. The one with the Philadelphia under Sawallisch (which mainly featured Dvorak overtures) on Water Lily Acoustics has been withdrawn.
If Mahler had composed this warhorse, things would be different.
Post by DSD September 20, 2008 (10 of 11)
Daland said:

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that not a single recording of Les Preludes is available on SACD. The one with the Philadelphia under Sawallisch (which mainly featured Dvorak overtures) on Water Lily Acoustics has been withdrawn.
If Mahler had composed this warhorse, things would be different.
I am so sorry you are correct! I never realized that this was the only orchestral version of this on SACD. The other version is a transcription for organ: Liszt, Bruckner, Strauss: Transcriptions for Organ - Winfried Bönig. I do have more versions of Les Preludes than I need, I just looked and all the others are on LP.

So since this Water Lily SACD is out of print there are in effect NO orchestral versions of Les Preludes on SACD. Haitink did all 13 of Liszt's Symphonic Poems back in the 1970's, if these were recorded in Quad maybe we could get PentaTone to release them? The LP versions in Stereo are fantastic!

I do love that Water Lily SACD Nature's Realm which has sort of a dry acoustic, which is how I've been told the Academy of Music sounds. Any way the three Dvorak tone poems are fantastic and the best performances I have heard of the them, the Les Preludes is good but I have heard better performances. If you can overlook the slight dryness this is one of the most realistic sounding SACDs I have.

The Water Lily SACD shows up on eBay a lot lately and at reasonable prices:

Nature's Realm - Sawallisch/Philadelphia - CD/SACD

http://cgi.ebay.com/Natures-Realm-Sawallisch-Philadelphia-CD-SACD_W0QQitemZ110289340912QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item110289340912&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_676wt_0

I have purchased many SACDs from kpaquett and his eBay Store: SACD Music and More. I have gotten many bargains there and can verify all of them are indeed brand new sealed SACDs, and not cut-outs.
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