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In Reply to: LSO Live Shostakovich 11th posted by Dave Billinge on December 21, 2004 at 09:12:35:
I reviewed this disc on the SA-CD.net site recently and came to basically the same conclusions as you do.IMO this is the sound you can expect to get from the Barbican "warts and all",but thats what HI FI is supposed to be about isn't it?
Follow Ups:
Thanks CF, I'm glad it isn't just me! The Barbican is a very strange acoustic. If you sit there with your eyes shut and listen, the sound is just "shut in". Still, I was at the Shostakovich performance (one of them) and just had to buy it anyway. I must also buy the Falstaff. If ever there was a "Desert Island" opera, its Falstaff.Dave
Can you tell me a little about Falstaff the music? I'm not much of a Verdi fan. Big tunes? Interesting orchestrations? Etc.
J,If you are not a Verdi fan then Falstaff might be a bad start. Falstaff is not strong on "big tunes". Verdi made a quite Wagnerian decision to through compose this final opera, giving it fewer set pieces than his other works. My advice is to arrive at Falstaff via other Verdi masterpieces. Suggest Rigoletto, La Traviata, Aida, the Requiem (a sort of operatic setting), Othello and then Falstaff. Could be expensive!! Whatever you do, don't allow Verdi to pass you by completely, but take your time. If, however, you are a fan of such works as Wagner's "The Mastersingers", then go straight to Falstaff.
Dave
Thanks for your thoughtful answer. I'm a big fan of the Requiem and a small fan of the La Traviata. I absolutely love Wagner's Mastersingers--Falstaff's comparable to that?!? One of the most warm and glowing operas ever written. I guess I'll just have to check it out. It sounds like you're saying that Falstaff's what they call "through-composed"--endless melody music vs. strophic. I can handle this, R Strauss and even Barber's Vanessa, (recently released on Chandos SACD), are through-composed, but their orchestrations and compositional ideas more than make up for lack of 'big themes.' It's just hard to imagine Verdi keeping it going without big themes--but I'll stop talking and just give it a listen. : )
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