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Jonathan
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« Reply #15 on: 19:20:12, 16-02-2008 » |
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I've only got a handful of his recordings - all of Bruckner. His 7th (his last recording) I find most excellent. Not quite so sure about the others though. The Beethoven set (from Britannia at one time) are plodding and overdone IMHO. I heard some of his Liszt recordings and they were poor, to say the least (again, IMHO). He was a really unpleasant character but he is a better conductor than I will ever be (does that count as a nice thing to say?)  |
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Best regards,
Jonathan
*********************************************
"as the housefly of destiny collides with the windscreen of fate..."
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pim_derks
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« Reply #16 on: 19:21:58, 16-02-2008 » |
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Yes, Bruckner! Karajan's recording of the Sixth was very surprising.
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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richard barrett
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« Reply #17 on: 20:30:44, 16-02-2008 » |
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I have HvK's Ring des Nibelungen and listen to it often. I particularly like the balance between voices and orchestra in this recording, and for all that's said about his smoothing-out of orchestral sound, in this instance it has a great deal of detail and perspective, I find.
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Bryn
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« Reply #18 on: 20:38:21, 16-02-2008 » |
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He certainly knew how to conduct Honegger's 2nd and 3rd Symphonies, but "greatest conductor of the 20th Century"? Do me a favour!
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pim_derks
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« Reply #19 on: 20:41:26, 16-02-2008 » |
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I have HvK's Ring des Nibelungen and listen to it often. I particularly like the balance between voices and orchestra in this recording, and for all that's said about his smoothing-out of orchestral sound, in this instance it has a great deal of detail and perspective, I find. I agree. The orchestral sound is well-balanced in these recordings. And Richard: congratulations with your 700th message on this message board! |
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« Last Edit: 21:05:59, 16-02-2008 by pim_derks »
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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jennyhorn
Posts: 76
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« Reply #20 on: 16:56:17, 07-03-2008 » |
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HvK's set of the 2nd Viennese school is very fine-the Schoenberg Variations are less lumpy and more rhythmic spring than the Boulez recording i have. also,the 1st of the Berg three orch pieces has a great ebb and flow-the abbado sounds more cluttered up.
Bruckner 4 (emi) strikes me as dreadful- -sometimes he may have excelled when stretched in more unfamilar territory?
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time_is_now
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« Reply #21 on: 18:16:10, 07-03-2008 » |
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Nice to see you here, jenny!  |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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thompson1780
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« Reply #22 on: 18:43:55, 07-03-2008 » |
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HvK?
He had a good head of hair.
That's about it as far as compliments go, although I, like Pim, do like the BPO Swan of Tuonela.
I have his Brahms symphonies on DG and they are all too laboured. I,m sure I have other recordings of his, but none since the advent of the CD. From what I remember, he doesn't often get the structure quite right - a few sensational moments take precedence over an overall story.
I'll probably relisten tonight and change my mind...
Tommo
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Made by Thompson & son, at the Violin & c. the West end of St. Paul's Churchyard, LONDON
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pim_derks
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« Reply #23 on: 19:06:41, 07-03-2008 » |
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I have his Brahms symphonies on DG and they are all too laboured. I,m sure I have other recordings of his, but none since the advent of the CD. From what I remember, he doesn't often get the structure quite right - a few sensational moments take precedence over an overall story. I have that cycle on LP. The recording of the First isn't bad at all but I don't like the recording of the rest of the cycle. George Szell and Eduard van Beinum (to name just a few) did Brahms a lot better. |
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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marbleflugel
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« Reply #24 on: 20:14:35, 07-03-2008 » |
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I like the finale of his 1964 Beethoven 5-he makes it work as an inexorable slowish march, which shows he can do momentum at 'under'-tempo I think. I had avoided his Bergs etc on the assumption they'd be lumpy. I think the whole schtick went pear-shaped when he started to insist on co-producing and mixing his recordings.
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'...A celebrity is someone who didn't get the attention they needed as an adult'
Arnold Brown
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jennyhorn
Posts: 76
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« Reply #25 on: 21:15:34, 10-03-2008 » |
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a conductor friend of mine had heard that HvK helped financed the DG recording of Stockhausen's Gruppen (i wonder how likely this is?...maybe Richard knows)- -from what i can glean ,he was a more generous man than is often assumed and not of the tyrannical variety of conductor (Szell,Reiner et al)
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gradus
Posts: 58
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« Reply #26 on: 21:01:35, 12-03-2008 » |
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I understand that he was kind and considerate towards Elizabeth Harwood when she first appeared at Salzburg and had to endure the catcalls of the Rita Streich (from memory) claque who saw her as ousting their favourite.
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marbleflugel
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« Reply #27 on: 09:23:53, 18-03-2008 » |
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'The Catcalls of Rita Streich' sounds like it should be a score by Kurtag  |
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'...A celebrity is someone who didn't get the attention they needed as an adult'
Arnold Brown
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rumblefish
Posts: 8
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« Reply #28 on: 18:27:58, 18-03-2008 » |
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a terribly baleful character emerges from those films-much better is a rehearsal sequence with the VSO(Schumman4)where his particular brand of charisma is shown to better advantage.for all the narcisism,he definitely knew what he was doing.
let's not forget a whole host of younger conductors who he was very supportive towards:Jansons,Ozawa,Levine,Bychcov,Muti....
as for the Nazi party-he joined this to further his career...with hindsight this seems deplorable (the same goes for the likes of Oistraka in Russia) but there were others who were possibly more wedded to the ideology eg. Karl Bohm/Munchinger.
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Swan_Knight
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« Reply #29 on: 19:50:37, 18-03-2008 » |
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His Ring is a success, I'd say: more purely beautiful than any other, if nowhere near as dramatic as some. And he does manage to justify his choice of some smaller-voiced singers.
His Philharmonia Beethoven cycle has recently been re-released. Many reckon it's the best of his four stabs at the symphonies. Anyone got an opinion on this?
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...so flatterten lachend die Locken....
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