This is a tremendous record. Dramatic dynamics, funky rhythms and spot on playing from both Pollini and the CSO under Abbado. Great sound quality too.
Part of a nice little box set I bought of Abbado conducting the CSO.
I agree.
The Abbado/Pollini is a favourite of mine too (LP), along with these performances of Bartók on CD
Kocsis/Budapest PO/Lehel
Funkmaster Bela. 
I have the Speakers Corner reissues of Geza Anda / Ferenc Fricsay with Radio-Symphinie-Orchester-Berlin on DGG. I would like to hear the Pollini/Abbado versions. I don’t know them.
I would love to hear Fricsay conduct Bartók…from what I read, his performances are wonderful.
Must seek him out.
Another great set, even with the regular DG CD.
Not sure why the cover image refers only to the first concerto; the download includes both plus op. 10 and op, 116.
This is a DSD download - apparently using a master created at Emil Berliner Studio for a Japanese SACD. It’s the first of it’s kind that I’ve seen. Hopefully, there will be more.
The Gilels/Jochum performances of the two Brahms Piano Concertos are immense.
The only others that come close, in my estimation, are Maurizio Pollini’s (first) recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic on the same DG label. The first concerto was recorded with Karl Bœhm (1981), the second with Pollini’s childhood friend Claudio Abbado a little earlier (1977).
Loaded my rip of the 21 disc DG box set of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing Schubert lieder and set it to shuffle.
Can’t remember when I bought it, but it may have been the biggest box set I had bought up to that time.
I remember buying that set. It was a huge investment! Three volumes as I recall, in different colored blue cloth covered boxes. I ripped mine years ago and so I haven’t seen those boxes in a while. What a musical document! I’m not the biggest fan of DFD’s voice in and of itself, but the artistry on those discs is stunning! Enjoy!
DG repackaged it in a single box - and lowered the overall price.
Ha! It figures. I really agonized over buying that back in about 2001, when I was still in college and didn’t have two pennies to rub together! My two major CD purchases around that time were the DFD Schubert set and the Led Zeppelin complete studio recordings. I must have gone to the CD shop 15 times and picked up one or the other CD set and put it back again. I felt like Mike Myers drooling over the Fender Stratocaster in “Wayne’s World”:
René Jacobs’ Matthew Passion is a fluid, intense performance that flies by, with an excellent and individual cast. Bernarda Fink singing Erbarme Dich should by itself be enough for this recording to maintain its place among the best. The SACD layer adds an appreciable degree of warmth to the recording.
Cheers
EJ
I took advantage of Presto’s recent promotion of hi res downloads of Harmonia Mundi recordings at MP3 prices to acquire a few new albums. One of them was devoted to recent music by Icelandic composers, all unknown to me. A bit of a punt, but it proved to be a most satisfying collection and beautifully performed.
Roger
Whilst dropping off some donations to Oxfam, my father-in-law saw this wonderful collection of Beethoven’s symphonies, by the Berlin Philharmoniker conducted by Karajan. It was actually the first time all of his symphonies were available as a boxed set. He asked the charity shop for a price and they said £2.00! Needless to say he bought it for me and we are working our way through them on Sunday evenings, with a small whisky in hand. The condition is immaculate, I am not even sure if they have ever been played - but for £2.00 its was an absolute bargain
Nice score. I have an original of this set (a first pressing, when it hadn’t yet earned the Grand Prix du Disque). It’s a very nice set.
Copies like you have – if in great condition – go for a lot more than what you paid.
That was the set which DG released in 1963, not long after Karajan had assumed his position as chief conductor of the Berliners after the death of Furtwængler. He wanted to produce the best sounds possible from what was then a comparatively new medium, the 33RPM vinyl LP.
Karajan made five complete sets of the Beethoven symphonies over his long career, this one is easily the best (in my opinion), not least because the producers didn’t let him into the engineering booth to intderfere with the production. Also, the (Optimal?) pressings in this set are superb.
I paid considerably more than £2 for my set - probably something in the region of £98 more!
Graham - How funny, my Father-in-Law, who is 78 and knows more about classical music than anyone I know recounted almost exactly the same story to me last night. He said previously when they had been on 78’s it required 100s of discs to store the entire symphonies - each disc only having about 8 mins worth of music stored on them! Imagine 33.3 RPM being revolutionary! These pressings are with the tulip ring around the centre - and rather surprisingly includes 2 bonus discs with other “popular” classical music on, including Wagner La Traviata - so a total of 10 discs - all immaculate
I guess someone slipped those extra discs in. The original release is 8 discs for the symphonies and nothing else.
I have two of these: the subscribers’ first pressing, and first Grand Prix du Disque version that you have.
Thats the odd thing - the 2 “extra” discs look identical in terms of the centre discs to the Beethoven discs, just with different pieces on them!
