Really? It was Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman and Alan White on Going For The One. Although you might prefer Bill Bruford on drums, that sounds like the classic Yes lineup to me.
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I think that my memory may be letting me down on this, so I shall withdrawal gracefully as I can!
I think you are largely right, and wrong only in the details. Going for the One was a radical departure from the Yes we knew and loved. The fact that the people stayed the same only made it worse.
My favourite 7th is Abbado’s. I too blow a bit hot and cold with Mahler, he’s definitely long-winded and can get a bit hyperbolic, but he has a unique voice and does come up with some belters!
He also had an almost unparalleled command of orchestral scoring and understanding of the immense range of colours that a modern orchestra can conjure and that’s what really marks him out from my viewpoint.
I never miss a chance to see a live performance by any half decent orchestra for that reason.
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If I could have only a couple of Mahler symphonies on record, it would be the Fourth and Ninth.
If only one, then the Ninth. It would be played by the Berlin Philharmonic (with apologies to Vienna) and on Deutsche Grammophon LPs - but then I’m torn between Lennie Bernstein’s only ever appearance with that great orchestra or Karajan’s greatest moments with them as chief conductor (and having to decide between his studio recording or his slightly later ‘live’ account).
Apart from the heart-on-sleeve melodrama and an ease with “big” orchestration, I see little common ground between Mahler and Tchaikovsky.
The conventional wisdom is that Sibelius was influenced by Tchaikovsky (and Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov). It makes sense but, apart from the Tchaikovskian Second, I find that difficult to discern. To my untrained ear, Sibelius’ music sounds like it emerged from his pen fully formed, owing nothing to anyone.
Of the recent 9s, I really liked Bloomstedt’s version. Ascetic, precise, without hysteria, wailing, or excess. A kind of antithesis to Bernstein. As for Karajan, it’s a mystery to me why anyone likes his Mahler at all. It’s hard to imagine something so incompatible.
For instance, I hear traces of Tchaikovsky’s 5th in Sibelius’ 2nd. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Many composers influenced each other, and Sibelius also lived in a country controlled by Tsarist Russia. There were influences coming out of all the cracks. The irony, however, is that many consider Sibelius’ 2nd as almost a manifesto of the struggle for independence, and a response to the harsh Russification of Finland.
I rarely listen to Tchaikovsky nowadays, but I listen to Sibelius all the time.
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We’ll have to agree to disagree on Karajan’s Mahler.
Some may question his approach in his recordings of some of the earlier symphonies, but his two Berlin Ninths - the studio version and the later ‘live’ account - are stupendous, with the Berlin players positively on fire with passion.
Perfectly fine with me. It would be terribly boring if everyone had the same ideas, cultural background, and synchronous perception.
Next 3 titles of the Original Source Series available at the DG online store. Release date - 08/04/2023 (nice, my 65th birthday).
Herbert von Karajan & Die Berliner PhilharmonikerVerdi: Messa da Requiem
Emil Gilels, Eugen Jochum, Berliner PhilharmonikerBrahms: Brahms Piano Concertos No. 1 -2
Claudio Abbado & Boston Symphony Orchestra Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe & Pavane; Debussy: Nocturnes
How about the Mastercut Editions JDP? Do you have any of those in your basket? Priced at a breathtaking €440 a disc, these profess to be direct lacquer cuts from the original master tapes. Wow.
No, I think those are silly and don’t get caught up in those vastly overpriced, boutique short run editions. By the same token, I have zero interest getting an open reel machine and buying tapes for $450-600 either. Even after a buying a couple each of AP UHQR and Mofi One-Step I have sworn those off as over-priced and over-hyped.
I think the new DG Classics are a bit overpriced compared to things their counterparts from AP, Tone Poet, Speakers Corner, ECM etc. but not my that much. It looks like these will be something special. But none are out yet, so that remains to be seen; rather, heard.
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