# Hans Rosbaud in The New York Times



## John Zito (Sep 11, 2021)

Does the NYT somehow tailor its homepage to what it knows about me, or is this what everyone is seeing?









If it's the second, then that's pretty neat!


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

That's what I see as well and I don't really ever read the New York Times. I do agree with the headline though, absolutely 1st rate conductor, it's too bad he died before he could take the top job at Chicago.


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## FrankinUsa (Aug 3, 2021)

There is limited access to the NYT. It’s becoming the all to familiar paywall. I’m still debating whether that right or not. I used to subscribe to the actual NYT physical product. But I think those days are over. 
As for Roseaud,I find that any recordings have sub-par sound engineering. And I have stopped going there.


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## John Zito (Sep 11, 2021)

FrankinUsa said:


> There is limited access to the NYT. It's becoming the all to familiar paywall. I'm still debating whether that right or not. I used to subscribe to the actual NYT physical product. But I think those days are over.
> As for Roseaud,I find that any recordings have sub-par sound engineering. And I have stopped going there.


I think I prefer a subscription-supported model to an ad-supported one, but I haven't thought very deeply about it.

In any case, I brought this up simply because I thought it was cool that they were featuring it so prominently. Even among classical music lovers, Rosbaud is hardly a household name. I hadn't heard of him until Hurwitz posted a video about his Mahler, which I sampled with great pleasure.


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## FrankinUsa (Aug 3, 2021)

John Zito said:


> I think I prefer a subscription-supported model to an ad-supported one, but I haven't thought very deeply about it.
> 
> In any case, I brought this up simply because I thought it was cool that they were featuring it so prominently. Even among classical music lovers, Rosbaud is hardly a household name. I hadn't heard of him until Hurwitz posted a video about his Mahler, which I sampled with great pleasure.


Likewise to you,Rosbaud came to my attention through Hurwitz' Mahler YT video. I thought about it and I passed. IMHO,Mahler's music deserves or needs the best possible sound engineering. Sub-optimal sound just does not cut it.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

I find his recordings hit and miss.
On one side there's that one excellent Sibelius disk with a hair-raising Tapiola, on the other side there's that inexplicably famous stereo Bruckner 7 which I always found stiff and dry as dust.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

New York Times writes often about past and dead conductors, especially those with links to the New York Philharmonic, and especially if there was a recent batch of recordings released that he conducted -- like the new Mahler batch from Rosbaud. They've done same with John Barbirolli and Artur Rodzinski in the past few years.

I agree Rosbaud was a conductor with greatness about him and agree he had duds -- like any other conductor you've ever heard of. I thought him especially astute with 20th century music. Gramophone magazine once called him among the untold heroes of 20th century music.

Try this on for size -- if you can find it


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

The Stravinsky/Berg/Webern disc was included in a DG set that also has Petrushka, the Sibelius, Haydn 92+104 and Beethoven's 5th concerto with Casadesus. Mostly mono but decent sound and great interpretations.
Probably also hard to find as physical discs by now.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

My Discogs catalog reveals a dozen plus "hits" for the name Hans Rosbaud. (Some of my Rosbaud LPs are not yet listed in the database. And possibly some CDs.)

He shows up in the 10-CD box set _Pierre Boulez - Le Domaine Musical - 1956...1967_ on the Accord label - 4811510, conducting the Südwestfunk, Baden-Baden in Stravinsky's "Agon" Ballet Pour 12 Danseuts, Anton Webern's "Sechs Stücke Für Orchester", and Alban Berg's "Drei Stücke Für Orchester". It seems the only other conductor featured in this box is Boulez.









I wouldn't want to be without those three Rosbaud recordings.

I'm happy to have the Schumann Piano Concerto In A Minor, Op. 54 (one of my top favorite piano concertos!) conducted by Rosbaud with the Südwestfunk (recorded 1959) in the 10-CD compilation box set _Annie Fischer - Legendary Piano Recordings_ on Documents/The Intense Media- 600375.









Interestingly (especially for a Schumann Concerto fan), this box set features a second recording of Schumann's Op. 54, this one "live" from the Lucerne Festival with Giulini and the Philharmonia, recorded in 1960. I will suggest that I prefer the Rosbaud (where the orchestral playing seems a bit more magical, even if the sound is a touch more muted), but then, this _is_ a Rosbaud thread.

I'm also pleased to see my Rosbaud collection includes some Beethoven, Mahler, and Sibelius, a Bruckner 7th Symphony (a favorite), orchestral pieces by Hartmann, Boulez, Nono, Xenakis, Ligeti, and Penderecki, and the (likely) not too well known Konzert Für Klavier Und Orchester, Op. 34 by Hans Schaeuble from a 1952 recording with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.

But none of this is as surprising as what I first saw when I clicked on one of my many Wolfgang Rihm discs to see where the Rosbaud connection was only to find it was in the recording venue. These Rihm discs on Hänssler Classic, and several other discs in my collection as well, were recorded at the Hans Rosbaud-Studio, studio of the German broadcaster Südwestfunk in Baden-Baden, named after, of course, the conductor Hans Rosbaud.

I'd say that's quite a show of respect -- to have a major recording venue named for you.

I do know I must look into more of Rosbaud's work. I suspect that in one of my boxes full of yet-to-be-opened CDs I have the Deutsche Grammophon - 477 089-2 - 5 CD compilation _Hans Rosbaud - The Complete Recordings On Deutsche Grammophon_, which I recall ordering specifically for the Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No. 2 In Variable Metres, Op. 42 composed by Boris Blacher. It's about time I got round to listening to _that_.









Long live the memory (and the recorded works) of Hans Rosbaud.


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## Bruce Morrison (Mar 8, 2010)

Over the past few years, SWR Music have been systematically releasing several sets of Rosbaud recordings in their archives devoted to particular composers. So far they have covered Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Chopin (the two piano concerti), Haydn, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schumann, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Wagner and Weber. The Sibelius set (2 CDs) is the most recent release, and it includes a remarkable performance of the 4th Symphony with the third movement treated as a true adagio. It's quickly become one of my favourite recordings of this work.

I hope they will soon release a set of his Richard Strauss recordings, which include the Alpensinsonie, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Don Juan, Don Quixote, Ein Heldenleben, Macbeth, Till Eulenspiegel and the Burleske. Zarathustra, Don Juan and Macbeth were released on an earlier Wergo CD (probably hard to find now), but the other works haven't previously been released on CD as far as I know.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

FrankinUsa said:


> Likewise to you,Rosbaud came to my attention through Hurwitz' Mahler YT video. I thought about it and I passed. IMHO,Mahler's music deserves or needs the best possible sound engineering. Sub-optimal sound just does not cut it.


Well Frank, one day I hope that you learn to relax about audio standards. I consider myself an audiophile, but there is a whole world out there of historical recordings worth investigating. For one thing, it is amazing what modern restoration techniques can achieve. Regarding Mahler specifically, there are recordings made in the nineteen forties and fifties made by conductors who had actually worked, sometimes quite closely with GM, or others who worked with those individuals. You can learn a lot about the music and not have to "suffer" to much with compromised audio.
Case in point is the Fifth Symphony. Bruno Walter was Mahler's assistant and led the premiers of the Ninth and Das Lied. He died in 1962 and recorded 1,2, 9, and Das Lied in stereo. I had purchased a Sony Walter Mahler box and was delighted that contained the Fifth as well, thinking that Walter must have recorded it in stereo. It took me about two minutes to realize that it was a mono recording, and the fine print in the CD box revealed a 1947 recording date. The point is that this was an excellent recording and it was so good that it took me a bit of listening to realize it wasn't contemporary. Another M5 comes from Jascha Horenstein, who worked closely with Mahler's associates. He never recorded the Fifth in the studio but a live broadcast of him leading Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic in Scotland from 1960 has emerged on Pristine Audio. Horenstein had a special way with Mahler and this is a highly listenable recording. It is thought that this is the BPO first encounter with the music, an interesting finding because the playing is very assured.
If I had to take only one M5 with me it would be the Blu Ray Audio of Karajan and Berlin, for the combination of Sonics, playing and performance, but am glad that I don't have to make this decision and glad to have alternatives to explore. I don't know Rosbaud's Mahler but would not dismiss it out of hand


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