#NowSpinning Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra with Mariss Jansons in Bavaria. The box claims ‘Great Recordings’. Well, we will be the judge of that! Jansons is often Mr Reliable rather than Mr Inspired.
#NowSpinning Karajan’s Berlin Holst Planets. Another Karajan recording I have not heard since the early 2000s. My immediate observation is that Mars has an impressive power, but we have to try to ignore the dreadful, mangled sound that should have been much better.
#NowSpinning Karajan’s Bruckner Symphony No.1. I have previously expressed my reservations about Karajan’s early Bruckner, but I can keep an open mind on this one. I have only heard this recording once and that was at least a decade ago. Will he allow the work to be ‘das kecke Beserl’?
#NowSpinning Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with Dorati in Mono in Minneapolis. This strikes me as a rather dramatic performance, with wonderfully transparent mono sound.
I realise that it was probably necessary to keep the recording short for LP reasons, but it’s still annoying to hear this work without the finale repeat. I always feel robbed.
#NowSpinning Bruch’s Violin Concerto No.1 with Perlman and Haitink. How nice of Warner to license this to Universal for the Haitink box. Two utter warhorses of concertos, but rather nice performances.
#NowSpinning Earl Wild and Jascha Horenstein with Rachmaninoff’s Fourth Piano Concerto. Well this has started amazingly well. Wild was clearly an absolute keyboard dynamo.
#NowSpinning Bach, Handel and Corelli with Eugene Ormandy in Philadelphia. The C Minor Bach Passacaglia and Fugue starts with a dark and glowering outlook. I wonder what Bach might have made of this?
Right, well onto the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the one recording from the Earl Wild set I’ve already heard…..and loved. I cannot wait to hear the Second and Third Concertos!
