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Yeah - I have those Strauss (Elektra and Salome) recordings too

77.111.246.14

Chris from Lafayette

In Reply to: RE: Thanks, I thought he died during Tristan rehearsal. It's been awhile, but Lebrecht wrote that Sinopoli lost posted by jdaniel@jps.net on September 26, 2020 at 16:25:59

Also Friedenstag and JosephsLegende. I was impressed by his very first DG recordings too, which included the Schumann Second Symphony, the Mendelssohn Italian Symphony and the Schubert Unfinished. Overall, I still find him a much more interesting conductor than (for instance) Abbado. His incomplete set of Bruckner Symphonies with the Sk Dresden is also great. (I have 3, 5, 7 and 8.) He recorded three Liszt albums with the Sk Dresden, which I think are all outstanding. (I have the Dante Symphony and the Faust Symphony, and I've heard the other Liszt album on Qobuz.) I also really liked his complete Schumann Symphonies with the Sk Dresden (even though his tempos on the Second Symphony had slowed down a bit compared to his Philharmonia recording). His Wagner album with the SkD (Parsifal, Tannhauser, etc.) was great too. I just like a lot of the stuff he did, especially with the SkD! (BTW, I still haven't been able to get Sinopoli's Elgar set, which includes the "In the South" Overture you mentioned - the couple of times I tried to get it, it came with two Disc-1's and no Disc-2's - Grr!)

The link below gives a pretty fair assessment of Lebrecht's slime-ridden writing on this subject, and concludes with this observation:
there are enough listeners out there who do not rely on the prevailing wisdom of critics when making decisions about music, and that should be taken as a good sign for listening!
The author also quotes a post which indicates the fuzzy mental state of Lebrecht's "fans":
Norman Lebrecht is a good writer. He may not report facts correctly, and he may not be able to predict the future, but he can certainly put compelling sentences and paragraphs together.
Unbelievable!
https://therehearsalstudio.blogspot.com/2009/10/circling-wag (Open in New Window)

Follow Ups:

Yet it must be said that Sinopoli could indeed be eccentric on occasion - jdaniel@jps.net 11:07:59 09/27/20 (1)
The 1st mov't of his Mahler 7th is a perfect example: balances are sometimes distorted, and then consider the slow speeds...but I love it. The vivisected material following the "moonlight" music to the end is almost unrecognizable from other performances, but the operatic lament of the tuba and trombone, (M3 First Movt?) is unforgettable, IMHO.

Same with the Coda of the Finale. It leaves me exhausted, those final valedictory measures never seemed harder-won, and the lead-up is more of a breathless trudge. (In C:) C-- G-- G E-- D
C-- G-- G E-- D.......

The oh-so-slow Finale to Elgar's Enigma Variations is also hard to forget, due to the Philharmonia's unflagging energy. Whatever the Phil may or may not have thought of Sinopoli, they gave him what he wanted.

Salome: As for Salome's last scene, those whopping horns (let's be serious: orgasmic horns) have never sounded more outrageous, as far as I know. How lucky that Sinopoli and Studer were at their height at the same time.

I've read good things about his Frau, though with cuts.
- Yes - I have that Sinopoli Frau ohne Schatten recording too - Chris from Lafayette 13:14:43 09/27/20 (0)
  You correctly mention the cuts - but I can't remember what else I didn't like about it - Voigt and Heppner were certainly good. Maybe I thought the SQ was a bit congested? I've still got it, so maybe I can re-listen.
  
  I was just looking at the reviews on Amazon and somebody mentioned that the only UNCUT version (at least as of the time of that posting) was the Sawallisch recording. Now I see that there's a YouTube video which shows the score in real time with the Sawallisch performance.
  
  The Sawallisch recording with the score:
  
  View YouTube Video
  
  Another video on YouTube which I was impressed by is the concert performance (no staging) given with Jurowski and the Netherlands RPO (in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw), with Goerke, Schwanewilms, et al. (three separate videos, act-by-act). I love one of the comments about this performance which one person posted, something like, "Christine Goerke - you are the bomb!" ;-) I thought Schwanewilms was outstanding too. (I also have her recording of Four Last Songs.) BTW, now I see from one of the comments that this Jurowski performance is, like the Sawallisch, uncut.
  
  The Jurowski concert performance in Amsterdam (also pretty good video at 720p BTW - but, eew!, NO subtitles!):
  
  View YouTube Video
  
  View YouTube Video
  
  View YouTube Video
Agree 100% - Russell 00:23:29 09/27/20 (0)
I've got almost all of his DG output (in very decent sound, generally) and love his non-middle-of-the-road approach. Always fascinating, never boring, and often mesmerizing and enthralling. I must try more of his stuff on Profil!

Russell
RE: Yeah - I have those Strauss (Elektra and Salome) recordings too - blakey 22:15:55 09/26/20 (0)
You took the words of my mouth when you said you found him a lot more interesting than Abbado. Though there are some Abbado recordings I like - Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, Lieutenant Kij� Suite, Scythian Suite comes to mind - I thought he was as overrated as Sinopoli was underrated.

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