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Discussion: Widor: Organ Symphony - Christian Schmitt, Stefan Solyom

Posts: 15
Page: 1 2 next

Post by gonzostick November 11, 2009 (1 of 15)
This is the worst organ and orchestra recording I have ever heard. There is NO bass, from the basses in the orchestra or from the pipe organ. To get any bass from this recording, the levels have to be set so high that one cannot stay in the room with the music. The performances are good, but the recording should be erased and the hard drives demagnetized for burial someplace...

Post by mahlerei November 12, 2009 (2 of 15)
Funny you should say that as I have just heard CPO's Organ Christmas disc (RBCD) and it's irredeemably awful, both as a performance and as a recording.

Post by gonzostick November 12, 2009 (3 of 15)
mahlerei said:

Funny you should say that as I have just heard CPO's Organ Christmas disc (RBCD) and it's irredeemably awful, both as a performance and as a recording.

For another abysmal SACD, read the thread about the terrible Daphnis et Chloe with the Chicago Symphony under Haitink. I was so pissed off about that disc, I called the Chicago Symphony office of the idiot that was the Director of the recording program. The disc is technically incompetent and the performance is execrable... UGH...

I will be doing my favorite Christmas SACD's next... Stay tuned...

Post by bissie November 12, 2009 (4 of 15)
gonzostick said:

For another abysmal SACD, read the thread about the terrible Daphnis et Chloe with the Chicago Symphony under Haitink. I was so pissed off about that disc, I called the Chicago Symphony office of the idiot that was the Director of the recording program. The disc is technically incompetent and the performance is execrable... UGH...

I will be doing my favorite Christmas SACD's next... Stay tuned...

I have to say that you're the most incredibly critical person I have ever read, Sr. Gonzalez, and that is your right. But when you make glaringly false statements, like to say that we excised a pizz chord from the end of the 1st movement of Grieg's Holberg Suite, a pizz chord that doesn't exist in Grieg's score, and you're found out, where are your apologies?

Robert

Post by Jonty November 12, 2009 (5 of 15)
bissie said:

I have to say that you're the most incredibly critical person I have ever read, Sr. Gonzalez, and that is your right. But when you make glaringly false statements, like to say that we excised a pizz chord from the end of the 1st movement of Grieg's Holberg Suite, a pizz chord that doesn't exist in Grieg's score, and you're found out, where are your apologies?

Robert

I have to agree. I am always suspicious of posters that find discs either wonderful or appalling and those that are just a name.

Post by Geohominid November 13, 2009 (6 of 15)
gonzostick said:

This is the worst organ and orchestra recording I have ever heard. There is NO bass, from the basses in the orchestra or from the pipe organ. To get any bass from this recording, the levels have to be set so high that one cannot stay in the room with the music. The performances are good, but the recording should be erased and the hard drives demagnetized for burial someplace...

Having recently reviewed this disc, with scores, I refute your intemperate statement that "there is NO Bass". My notebook has a number of remarks about "deep pedal foundations" (referring to the registrations used, which I could not have determined if there was 'NO bass'), "lovely soft pedal notes" and "chorale appears on pedals". I have played organs in large buildings myself and am well-aware of what good bass sounds like. The string basses also played their parts perfectly well, and the orchestral/organ balance was what I would have expected to hear at a concert (where the ambience would have been more muted) in the modern concert hall venue shown in the booklet photos. I had my volume control set at a good domestic listening level and was certainly happy to "stay in the room" with the playback. In this recording, as in most others, I was very aware, as apparently you are not, of the skill, care and attention which producers and engineers put into capturing this fine performance of rare repertoire.

Furthermore, I agree with others that you should apologise to Robert for your erroneous remark about the "missing" pizzicato chord in his recording of Grieg's Holberg Suite. This sort of ill-considered criticism can undermine the great effort which many other reviewers on this and other sites and magazines put into their work.

John

Post by Oakland November 13, 2009 (7 of 15)
Gonzostick's comments are almost uniformerly lightweight in content and in substance. I would be surprised if his reviews, collectively, attain a 40% "helpful" rating. What his comments have in common is that they are given to excess, for or against. I would not take them seriously or personally.

Robert C. Lang

Post by Peter November 14, 2009 (8 of 15)
Arnaldo said:

There seems to be a general tendency here to punish negative reviews, which in turn might explain why gonzostick gets hammered with a low percentage of "helpful" ratings, as he's quite impulsive in his views and with his stars.

On the other hand it may be that, whether or not they are positive or negative, they are considered bollocks. Who knows?

Post by gonzostick February 19, 2012 (9 of 15)
The Peters score of the Holberg Suite has the chords... Unless someone has removed them in a new Norwegian edition... Many conductors don't do that chord because it is simply hard to execute...

This recording is still DEFICIENT IN BASS...

Post by gonzostick February 19, 2012 (10 of 15)
The real truth about this website is that most of what passes for music criticism here is CHEERLEADING... I am NOT a WHORE of the recording industry, which is DYING due to the idiocy of managements and producers...

YES, I still think the GRIEG HOLBERG disc is DEADLY DULL...

Too bad if Robert does not like that... He is NOT GOD... Just another producer...

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