Schreker der Ferne Klang Botstein

[Alan Howe]

Talking of Mick McManus, when as a youngster I heard commentator Kent Walton talk of a forearm smash, I imagined a 'four-arm smash'. No wonder it used to hurt...

Anyway, well done to MicMacMusic!!

[albion]

I've just got home from work and listened to the Graz performance of the Herbstsymphonie - all I can say is that on the strength of it I've ordered a copy of the deleted ASV recording of Marx's Nature Trilogy!

Unfortunately this now makes the prospective purchase of the CPO Marx disc somewhat redundant, so (since Nature abhors a vacuum) I'm tempted to fill the gap with ...

...       ,   or possibly     as part of the final splurge before the Presto offer ends. Does anybody have strong opinions for or against any of these discs?   

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Depends on whether you're a serious listener with fine tastes. If so, then the answer is: all three!

If it is the choice between CPO and real poverty, I'd probably peel off Zandonai. It is a fine work, real lyricism and real drama, but I doubt if in years to come you'll be expiring on your death bed proclaiming that you've suffered a wretched life because you've never heard the Zandonai concerto.

My middle one on the list is Bruch. Some very skilfully orchestrated workings of various folk tunes, and a very great pleasure. And besides everyone should root for Bruch because he has less representation than he should do.

And first choice of the trio - Berg. I found it a fine and interesting symphony - and, apart from CPO, otherwise unsung. Besides if you acquire it then you'll have very good reason for acquiring the other Berg symphonies on CPO. And the latter will be better off - which is a good thing!

[albion]

Peter, I'm liking you're thinking! Many thanks for taking the trouble to outline the merits of these discs. The only Zandonai I know is Francesca da Rimini, which I think is superb, so I'll probably have to have the Violin Concerto.

What I have heard of Bruch I really enjoy as well, and am intrigued by the thought of his 'lighter' output. So that's in as well.

The Berg - well, I'm a sucker for attractive paintings of ships in full sail so that's more or less decided then! 

[alberto]

I own and know the Bruch and the Zandonai.
The Bruch is agreable and fairly light, not the best Bruch.
The Zandonai has been to me very interesting, the only possibility to listen symphonic works by a mostly operatic composer (whose Francesca da Rimini is still performed and even recorded).
The Zandonai Concerto of 1919 is not on the level of the Concertos of contemporaries composers Respighi (C.Gregoriano, released by Chandos, MP and Decca, at least), Pizzetti (released by Italian label Bongiovanni)  and Wolf-Ferrari (released by CPO); nor is on the level of the violin Concertos of Casella and Malipiero (again contemporary composers, adopting a more advanced language: there is a good Supraphon recording).
More intersting is to me the suite "Segantini Pictures".
I will buy myself the Berg, knowing (and liking) by him only Symphony n.4 (Phono Suecia).

[TerraEpon]

I love the Bruch disc -- if you like orchestral dances at all you WILL enjoy it.

[Pengelli]

Wait a minute,have I missed something.....again? Are cpo recording, or have they recorded Marx's 'Herbstsymphonie'? There is something on the Marx website which seems to suggest that they are interested. I hope so. It's a bit late,or should I say early,to have much of a google around.

[X. Trapnel]

I heard Botstein do the Autumn Symphony live and was overwhelmed (the NY Times reviewer was characteristically and witlessly dismissive, nattering on abt how he had to work out at  the gym with Webern on his ipod to recover). The recording is fine. All that remains is the Nordland Rhapsody and Marx will be covered. I'm hoping Botstein's performance of Shcherbachev's 2nd Symphony (a choral work, settings of the great Russian poet Aleksandr Blok) will be made available.

[albion]

Marx (and many others) would be better covered if somebody could take a grip on the deleted ASV catalogue! 

I also came across the NYT review of Botstein's clearly-magical (judging from the recording) Herbstsymphonie concert - and marvelled at the ingratitude and obtuseness of the reviewer - how do these people gain such influential positions from which to display their ignorance? 

[X. Trapnel]

Albion,

For as long as I can recall NY Times music critic is unable to deal with anything that can't be located within the narrow grid coordinates of haute-yuppie taste mainstream rep and pop trendy/institutional "avant garde." Their unstated reasoning (in this case) is, more or less, since we have (or have to put up with) Mahler and Strauss why do we need any more German/Austrian late romaniticsm; it will only complicate things.

[X. Trapnel]

I should add that NY performances of the Asrael Symphony and the Book of the Seven Seals about 10 years ago got the same treatment.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I have come to the conclusion, after many years, that, with very few exceptions, music critics (of the journalist variety) are a complete waste of space; they serve no useful purpose whatsoever and are parasites on the concert promoter because they demand complimentary seats. I would cheerfully load most of them into a meat grinder and convert them to cat food. Put another way, they take up space that could more usefully be filled by AIR.

[eschiss1]

Mr.(?) Trapnel, you recall a lot more tolerance on the part of NY Times music critics than I do for that avant garde. (Donal Henahan in the 2nd half of his career and Winthrop Sargeant (New Yorker, not New York Times, now I look into it - sorry) seemed withering in their prejudiced attitude not just against the avant garde in music, but just against things fairly modern; the latter called Roger Sessions' 8th symphony, I think (can't seem to find the reference but I think it was in the New Yorker in 1971?) a "pallbearer at music's funeral".)  But the New York Times has never, in my experience, been a place to go for good music criticism. Fanfare magazine in its heyday (no longer, it seems) had some fairly good examples, by my lights, but there were better still. MusicWeb International online is really not half bad.

[dafrieze]

Having spent quite a number of years, for my sins, as a theater critic in Boston, I can assure you that there are good critics.  They're the ones who agree with you.  And they can turn bad overnight.

[Pengelli]

I always felt a certain sympathy for Vincent Price's character bumping off his critics one by one in that old horror film 'Theatre of Blood',using Shakespeare as his inspiration,extracting a pound of flesh and generally giving the poor sods a miserable & distinctly over the top demise. (It's only worth watching for Price though!)
  I have to disagree with you,'dafrieze'. It's not that I expect them all to agree with me. I quite enjoy reading David Hurwitz's reviews for example. Even though he's often extremely annoying,he does have an interesting & eccentric slant on things,he doesn't just follow the herd as so many critics,particularly the one's who write for newspapers,do. Art critics included.