Classical Court

From Perotin to Prokofiev (and beyond), performed by Caruso to Khatia, it's all here.

Return to Classical Court

Message Sort: Post Order or Asylum Reverse Threaded

Schubert's Unfinished and Great Symphonies...

47.147.216.236
Posted on May 26, 2020 at 10:47:25
TWB
Audiophile

Posts: 7408
Location: Long Beach, California
Joined: January 5, 2001



In looking on-line it would seem that the nod goes to this recording... Some even praising Krips "Great" symphony as being "unsurpassed" in performance and recording quality...

 

Hide full thread outline!
    ...
RE: Schubert's Unfinished and Great Symphonies..., posted on May 26, 2020 at 10:58:26
fstein
Audiophile

Posts: 2994
Location: fstein
Joined: May 18, 2006
 ...altho the Furtwangler is outstanding in its' own right and VERY different!

 

RE: Schubert's Unfinished and Great Symphonies..., posted on May 26, 2020 at 12:54:01
pbarach
Audiophile

Posts: 3306
Location: Ohio
Joined: June 22, 2008
 I have tried maybe a dozen times to get through the "Great" symphony, but it is so repetitious... I did like Szell/Cleveland 1957 version and managed to actually enjoy it.

For the Unfinished, I also like Szell (the 1960 stereo recording)--and in addition, Bernstein/Amersterdam.

 

It's repetitious but I love it, posted on May 26, 2020 at 13:47:51
Jay Buridan
Audiophile

Posts: 10267
Location: Michigan
Joined: January 21, 2004
 IIRC, only one movement is repetitious.

"Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people. "
― W.C. Fields

 

RE: Schubert's Unfinished and Great Symphonies..., posted on May 26, 2020 at 13:53:20
Dave Billinge
Audiophile

Posts: 1008
Location: Hampshire
Joined: June 7, 2005
 For me the truly great performances of Schubert's Symphonies are Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Staatskapelle Dresden.

Dave

 

RE: Schubert's Unfinished and Great Symphonies..., posted on May 26, 2020 at 14:00:24
Todd Krieger
Audiophile

Posts: 37333
Location: SW United States
Joined: November 2, 2000
 I view the Szell/Cleveland as the standard for #9..... (The Dohnanyi/Cleveland is also good, but Dohnanyi had inexplicable tempo variations in the final movement that I found disconcerting. I've noticed this issue with him conducting other works.)

I've never warmed up to #8..... Maybe because I suspect the "unfinished" part was planned on being a blockbuster..........

 

As my piano teacher used to say. . . , posted on May 26, 2020 at 14:31:03
Chris from Lafayette
Audiophile

Posts: 26423
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since: February 6, 2012
 . . . Schubert loves his own melodies too much! ;-)

As for albums of the Unfinished and The Great, my faves from the Krips/Szell era are:





I agree that the Krips and the Szell recordings are well played and well recorded. In the Unfinished, I also like Neumann/CzPO and Steinberg/PSO - even Karajan/BPO (EMI) in that recording's latest incarnations. In The Great, there's also a "great" performance by Konwitschny/CzPO. A little later on (from the 70's), there was the Giulini/CSO recording on DG, with its striking legato articulation of the main theme in the first movement as well as its "unified tempo" in that same movement (although, unfortunately, also evidence of primitive multi-microphoning). Among more recent recordings, there are the Harnoncourt/BPO recordings in that mammoth blu-ray set which the BPO put out themselves. I only wish that the Kocsis "wild ride" performance of The Great (available on YouTube) would have been recorded in SOTA sound!

 

And, really, there's no excuse for not including. . . , posted on May 26, 2020 at 14:36:39
Chris from Lafayette
Audiophile

Posts: 26423
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since: February 6, 2012
 . . . at least the third movement of the Unfinished. (All it needs is a transitional measure or two added.) Of course, it would STILL be unfinished, but that third movement, which we NEVER hear (or almost never!) is substantially complete. In order to make a three-movement Unifinished Symphony more rhetorically satisfying, maybe one could reverse the order of the second and third movements.

 

I think that those SkD recordings (the Schumann symphonies too, of course). . . , posted on May 26, 2020 at 14:38:43
Chris from Lafayette
Audiophile

Posts: 26423
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since: February 6, 2012
 . . . were probably Sawallisch's high points as a conductor.

 

Anyone a fan of Munch's with the BSO? White hot inspiration throughout. IMHO he gets ebb and flow of 1st, posted on May 26, 2020 at 17:10:03
jdaniel@jps.net
 mov't as well as keeping themes together as they jump from one instrument to the next.

Munch was my Schubert 9th epiphany.

 

+1 nt, posted on May 26, 2020 at 18:32:52
srl1
Audiophile

Posts: 1339
Location: Florida Panhandle
Joined: September 2, 2003
 nt

 

WOW! Thanks for the tip on the Minneapolis recording! It almost edges out...., posted on May 26, 2020 at 20:39:40
TWB
Audiophile

Posts: 7408
Location: Long Beach, California
Joined: January 5, 2001



my desert island recording of the Unfinished Symphony which is none other than the Maestro himself with Munich. I read recently that Schubert was a great admirer of Beethoven and was a torchbearer at Beethoven's funeral... You can certainly hear the influence of Beethoven in Schubert's music. I also read that Beethoven in turn became enamored of Schubert's work shortly before he died and was heard to say that Schubert was someone to be watched into the future and that he was sorry that he was unaware of him before...Of course Schubert himself did not live past the age of 31 and at his request was buried next to Beethoven...

I always look for something in a recording that tranforms the way I think about a piece or reveals something different that I have NEVER heard before and this one does it for me...But now I can say there is but another....

 

Believe me, I'm on your side about Celi!, posted on May 26, 2020 at 21:20:41
Chris from Lafayette
Audiophile

Posts: 26423
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since: February 6, 2012
 I have all his big DG boxed sets with the Stuttgart RSO and Swedish RSO, and all his big EMI boxed sets with the Munich PO. I should check out those Sony videos of him again too - the last time I had those was when they were on LaserDisc! ;-)

 

I think it's kind of interesting, that my two favorite conductors..., posted on May 26, 2020 at 21:47:36
TWB
Audiophile

Posts: 7408
Location: Long Beach, California
Joined: January 5, 2001
 elicit such impassioned responses from people and of course could not be further from each other... I guess to me their common thread is that the passion for the music comes through in their performances and recordings... Whether ot not you like those is of course debatable....

 

1970 Szell [yt].........., posted on May 27, 2020 at 07:43:39
Todd Krieger
Audiophile

Posts: 37333
Location: SW United States
Joined: November 2, 2000
 The 1970 Szell "Great" was just posted to YouTube.....

I prefer his 1970 outer movements over the 1957...... (The opening movement loses its structure if the tempo is rushed, Szell did well here.) The second movement was about the same (I'd give an edge to Lifschey on oboe in the 1957), the third movement I give to the 1957, even though I thought the intonation of the cellos, which I thought was problematic in the 1957, was stellar in the 1970..... The downfall of the 1970 is that Szell's tempo started a little fast, and somewhat slowed down as the movement progressed, and the middle section lacked the Schubertian "bloom"..... (Dohnanyi's middle section here with Cleveland was definitive. I thought he did better than Szell overall with this particular movement..... But I prefer Szell with the other movements.)

The last two movements of the Schub Nine are a real test of a conductor's ability to sustain a constant tempo over an extended period of time. And in the 1970 version, even Szell, who was generally good in this regard, had an issue with the third movement.

 

RE: Schubert's Unfinished and Great Symphonies..., posted on June 4, 2020 at 10:30:31
Pat D
Audiophile

Posts: 12506
Location: Fredericton NB
Joined: June 20, 2000
 My favorite recording of Schubert's 9th is with Otmar Suitner conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin on Denon 33C37-7371. It swings, and the recording is very good.

The critics don't seem to agree with me. The old Penguin Guide really liked the Krips recording, but for me, I prefer the Suitner.

I am not all that fond of the Unfinished Symphony. Suitner recorded it, too. My first recording of it was on LP with Munchinger.


-----
"A fool and his money are soon parted." --- Thomas Tusser

 

Page processed in 0.037 seconds.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]