# Music from the penumbra



## jdavid (Oct 4, 2011)

Apologies for the length of this proposal!!

Might there be any interest in creating a list of Symphonies, Tone Poems, Symphonic Suites, which are recordings that are your personal favorites but may not be the general 5 star recordings by Vienna, Berlin, Concertgebouw, NYPhil, Cleveland, Chicago, _et al_ recordings with high profile conductors/artists? (If this is an old topic, please direct me to the appropriate thread and thanks ☺)

My reason for posting this thread:

I recently bought the Maurice Abravanel/Utah Symphony recordings of the complete Sibelius Symphonies. (I have all these in individual recordings by various artists and orchestras, and are all sleek, seamless, brilliant Mercedes S Class performances). The Abravanal interpretations, however, are really wonderful and the Utah Symphony is more than equal to these masterpieces. I am hearing things in the symphonies I've never heard before. The orchestra and soloists within the orchestra have distinct personalities, as does Abravanel in these works.

Also, after a lot of nail biting I recently bought the Claude Frank complete Beethoven Sonatas (instead of Brendel, Kempff, _et al_) and wow! did I make a wise choice. This German-American contemporary of Graffman and Fleishman (maybe a tad older) plays all 32 with unfailing searing tempos, accuracy and great poetry - I will probably never buy another set, unless Pollini issues the entire set. (I realize this is off-list from my guidelines above; it merely serves to illustrate).

Also, I just finished a first time listening to the Egon Wellesz 9 Symphonies (thanks to 'Supertonic' and 'Myaskovsky2002') by the Radio-Symphonie Orchester, Wein, conducted by G. Rabi and was super delighted with the works and performances.

All these recordings are inexpensive and the sound is really excellent but, my choices were not motivated by cheap recordings, but a desire to find treasure in the shadows of the inevitable star quality bands and conductors - and in the case of Wellesz, worthy new composers!

I have a feeling that many of you have extra-special favorite recordings that may fall into this category and I hope you will share the love.

jdavid, having coffee in the just pre-dawn hours and listening to Sibelius 5.


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## GoneBaroque (Jun 16, 2011)

Maurice Abravanel was far from being a minor conductor. He was a man of considerable talent who produced many remarkable interpretations. Strict adherence to the so called big names does not always guarantee the best results. As an example I enjoyed many of the recordings of Sir Alexander Gibson who led the Scottish National Symphony for 25 years and founded Scottish Opera, but he is not considered a major talent.


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## jdavid (Oct 4, 2011)

I stumbled upon a recording that Abravanel and Utah made of the Mahler 2nd in the library - and thought, "Utah?" Anyway, my skepticism was chastened as I began to listen and realize this was wonderful Mahler. Wikipedia has a very interesting entry for him and reports that he was the first conductor to record the complete cycle of Mahler Symphonies. 

I will be looking for Sir Alexander Gibson on the Amazon.


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## jdavid (Oct 4, 2011)

*Two Pianists*

Ok, I'll just play in my own back yard:

1. On the World Masterpieces album entitled 'J.S. Bach' (DM - 2-1004) The formidable Dubravka Tomsic performs the Italian Concerto BWV 971, the Partita No. 11 in B Major, BWV 825, and the Toccata in D major, BWV 912.

Some of you may know of Dubravka Tomsic - personally, I had never heard her name. She was born in 1940 (I learned on Wikipedia) and is a Solvenian pianist and music teacher. She went to Julliard on the advice of Claudio Arrau and graduated at age 17, and she studied with no less than Artur Rubenstein. She is often contracted as a judge in such competitions as the Van Cliburn, Leeds, Beethoven, and Haskil etc. (Wikiped)










All her students are Eastern European names and I don't know a single one.

Her playing of the works by Bach on this Digital Recording made in the ever hip Canada  is totally 'big dog'. Her sound, style, clarity of rhythm and counterpoint are astonishing.

2. On a piano forum I mentioned the Austrian pianist Ingrid Haebler, b. Vienna in 1929 - here is her Wiki link:http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Haebler-Ingrid.htm - If you like Beethoven, get the 2 volume set of the complete sonata with Henryk Szyrng - I've never heard a better collaboration on these works than this recording. The sonatas, being Beethoven, were originally listed as Sonatas for Piano and Violin, and indeed, the two instruments share the limelight equally. Haebler's playing is so tonally deep it makes me think she is playing on a Bosendorffer.










This complete cycle of the Mozart Concerti is not yet available and Amazon doesn't know if it will become available, but you can put it in your Wish List:


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

The Bulgarian conductor and composer Emil Tabakov (1960-) ,music director of the Sofia Philharmonic, has a ridiculously cheap set of the Mahler symphonies including the first movement of the unfinished 19th which is amazingly good , on the Capriccio label with that orchestra.
These hold their own with the more famous recordings by such eminent Mahlerites as Abbado, Tennstedt, Solti,Bernstein , Chailly and others. I believe it's still available for a steal at arkivmusic.com , which not only has a fantastically wide selection of classical CDs and DVDs, but is by far the best place on the internet for hard-to-find ones .


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I love those two pianists you mentioned and grew up on Dubravka. 


Now, I know that for some of us these are probably titans but you certainly don't hear their names mentioned often:

I am speaking of Jascha Horenstein and Vladimir Golschmann. To me, they blow most of the big boys away and in fact are the big boys but I guess they didn't have that 'certain look' guys like von Karajan had.


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## jdavid (Oct 4, 2011)

This is good news - I own them all, but separately and want to own a cycle. Thanks for the tip! And, the typo got you... you meant 10th, not 19th  I do that all the time.



superhorn said:


> The Bulgarian conductor and composer Emil Tabakov (1960-) ,music director of the Sofia Philharmonic, has a ridiculously cheap set of the Mahler symphonies including the first movement of the unfinished 19th which is amazingly good , on the Capriccio label with that orchestra.
> These hold their own with the more famous recordings by such eminent Mahlerites as Abbado, Tennstedt, Solti,Bernstein , Chailly and others. I believe it's still available for a steal at arkivmusic.com , which not only has a fantastically wide selection of classical CDs and DVDs, but is by far the best place on the internet for hard-to-find ones .


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

@jdavid, Your Sibelius post really struck a chord :lol: {sorry about that, chief} as I have been debating about whether to buy the Abravanel Utah Symphony cycle or not. I have them doing Mahler's 1st {"Titan"} and rather enjoy it. Based on your recommendation, I believe I'll go for it Is there any ""filler" in it or is it just his complete symphonic output?. 
p.s. Was it the original or revised version of the 5th you listened to this morning?


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## jdavid (Oct 4, 2011)

I know of Horenstein, but not Golschmann, but will be checking to see what I can find. Are they more Germanic in repertoire particularly, or more 'across the board'? I'm delighted that you know Dubravka so well and also Haebler! Both of them were revelations for me, esp Haebler and those Beethoven Violin Sonatas. I've had the Dubravka Bach recording in the car to listen to on the way to work a lot over the last several months. Really gets me going. Cheers!



kv466 said:


> I love those two pianists you mentioned and grew up on Dubravka.
> 
> Now, I know that for some of us these are probably titans but you certainly don't hear their names mentioned often:
> 
> I am speaking of Jascha Horenstein and Vladimir Golschmann. To me, they blow most of the big boys away and in fact are the big boys but I guess they didn't have that 'certain look' guys like von Karajan had.


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## jdavid (Oct 4, 2011)

The set is symphonies 1-7 only, Samurai. I wish it had an extra disc of some of the Tone Poems, but the price is just great. I would say if you like Abravanel/Utah doing Mahler No. 1 then you will also enjoy very much the Sibelius renderings. As I said before, Vienna/Bernstein 5 and 7 are more powerhouse, but I don't feel the Utah version as weak or 2nd rate in any way. I like having a single mind behind the cycle. I will say this - their recording of the 2nd is realllllllly good!!! Hope you like it, my friend. And if not, I'll buy it from you and give it to someone as a Christmas present. How's that for a guarantee!



samurai said:


> @jdavid, Your Sibelius post really struck a chord :lol: {sorry about that, chief} as I have been debating about whether to buy the Abravanel Utah Symphony cycle or not. I have them doing Mahler's 1st {"Titan"} and rather enjoy it. Based on your recommendation, I believe I'll go for it Is there any ""filler" in it or is it just his complete symphonic output?.
> p.s. Was it the original or revised version of the 5th you listened to this morning?


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

jdavid said:


> The set is symphonies 1-7 only, Samurai. I wish it had an extra disc of some of the Tone Poems, but the price is just great. I would say if you like Abravanel/Utah doing Mahler No. 1 then you will also enjoy very much the Sibelius renderings. As I said before, Vienna/Bernstein 5 and 7 are more powerhouse, but I don't feel the Utah version as weak or 2nd rate in any way. I like having a single mind behind the cycle. I will say this - their recording of the 2nd is realllllllly good!!! Hope you like it, my friend. And if not, I'll buy it from you and give it to someone as a Christmas present. How's that for a guarantee!


That sounds like a keeper to me! I'm definitely going to buy it! Thanks for your input on this matter.


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