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In Reply to: RE: BBC surveys 151 conductors - Beethoven Sym. No 3 chosen as the greatest symphony posted by John C. - Aussie on August 19, 2016 at 18:25:15
I'd put Symphony of Psalms in there. And at least one Shostakovich.Plus Brahms 2 is my favourite.....
I really can't take Mahler seriously - overblown, pretentious, full of quasi-gravitas.... And don't start me on Bruckner...
I'd love to put La Mer in the on the basis of "Symphonic Sketches"....
Incidentally - can anyone post the rest of the top 20?
Edits: 08/20/16Follow Ups:
I really can't take Shostakovich seriously - overblown, pretentious, full of quasi-gravitas. . . deliberately stupid (oh, but don't you know he's depicting some dimwitted apparatchik? - you have to read the book to be informed!). I find it funny that you object to Mahler, but are fine with Shostakovich, who extends some of the same Mahlerian musical gestures into bathos much more often than Mahler himself does! ;-)
Symphony of Psalms is OK - hardly belongs in a top ten list though.
BTW, here's the rest of the list (with the "top" recordings that the BBC Music Magazine reviewers picked):
20- Bruckner #7 (Royal Concertgeboux/Haitink)
19- Beethoven #6 (LCP/Norrington)
18- Brahms #2 (LPO/Jurowski)
17- Shostakovich #5 (BBC Nat'l Orch of Wales/Wigglesworth)
16- Beethoven #7 (Staatskapelle Berlin/Barenboim)
15- Mozart #40 (Scottish Chamber Orch/Mackerras)
14- Sibelius #7 (Lahti/Vanska)
13- Bruckner #8 (Royal Concertgebouw/Chailly)
12- Brahms #3 (Gewandhaus/Chailly)
11- Beethoven #5 (Vienna/Kleiber)
Some of those choices for top recordings strike me as nothing less than bizarre, but it looks like we both got our wishes on this portion of the list. Well, still no Stravinsky! ;-)
And when I do, I'm reminded as to the reason.
Sibelius 7th is the top one Sibelius on this list - not the 2nd or the 5th.
"I find it funny that you object to Mahler, but are fine with Shostakovich, who extends some of the same Mahlerian musical gestures into bathos much more often than Mahler himself does! ;-) "
Shostakovich is more lean and tormented, Mahler is weirdly sentimental in that kooky Germanic way. If you must have that, I prefer R Strauss or Berg or..... well almost anyone else.
And anyway, Shostakovich has great endings. The ending of Symphony 6 is my favourite of any symphony. Mahler's 3rd is for me one of the most ridiculously pompous. All it needs (and gets) is Lenny waving his arms round wildly like he's drowning.
As you might have gathered I don't listen to Mahler much, but being open minded by nature I did try his symphonies again. His 2nd scored highly so I started there. Didn't get on very well until I came across Boulez on YT. Now, his Mahler I can relate to. None of Lenny's flatulent excesses - it's all lighter, more tuneful, less grandiose, more music and less theatre.There is hope - I can live with Boulez's vision..... Next stop Gielen. I gather he's more analytic and less schmaltzy..
Update: Listened to Gielen's 2nd right through. Love it. Now on his 4th....... liking it too..... Clearly I've been listening to the wrong conductors up to now. This changes things
Edits: 08/20/16
Anyway, glad you're getting into Mahler more thru other conductors. One of my fave composers.
Yes! The books of Gogol, Dostoyevsky, and even Solzenitsyn, that is. Those grim, wintry Russians with their ironic, black humor.
If you can't get into that frame of mind, even the best of Shostakovich isn't as worthwhile. Try a large tumbler of straight vodka to make his music, and the world and life generally, easier to take.
I was referring to Volkov and his ilk. ;-)
nt.
"The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains" -Paul Simon
Hi,
On your list,"13- Bruckner #8 (Royal Concertgebouw/Chailly)", what label is this on, is it CD or SACD?
Vahe
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