Can’t believe it’s almost 30 years ago that I first heard Schubert’s symphonies, in Abbado’s recordings for DG. Those old recordings have not aged that well, and come across as tamer than this music can bear. Even so, I’ve never felt that these works represented Schubert at his best, until I came across Jacobs’ recordings of nrs 1 and 6. His latest, with 2 and 3, is just as good. He lets the strings swell, rolls out the red carpet for a brief flute solo, and picks his tempi with superb care, and basically sets a new standard. Surely some of his best work on records, and highly recommended.
I am normally not feeling so brave to recommend anything in this thread, as I am not as much an expert as some of the others. But this one I like very much, very expressive playing.
Interesting that you feel like that @BertBird, in my opinion you have very good musical taste and I’m eager to hear about your discoveries. In this case Amazon is sold out unfortunately.
Ives is not very well defended on record these days, and it is too bad. His violin sonatas are hidden treasures that I love returning to and I’m never disappointed. This version was recommended by Gramophone as the reference. Thompson and Waters are on sync everywhere and their complicity is evident. I also have a more flamboyant version with Hilaty Hahn and Valentina Lisitsa, but this one is more intimate and emotional.
Naxos recording is exceptional, with just enough reverberance to make one feel like he’s in the studio with them.
Such a shame this talented director died of cancer so young at the age of 48, and in 1963 just as recordings of classical music were becoming more sophisticated.
Was there ever a better interpreter of Mozart?
He was also renowned for his Beethoven, his 1958 recording of LvB Symphonie no.9 featured in the film ‘Clockwork Orange’.
The complete recording is available on Channel Classics website - you need to click on the link in the email. I’ve downloaded it in 24/192, it sounds superb. I’ve only had a chance to listen to a few minutes of Der Abshied so far (shopping beckoned tonight) and Gerhild Romberger is superb!
I expect they have decided to rush release it to beat the new Pentatone recording which is due out in a week. That receives a rave review in the latest Gramophone magazine. I haven’t heard the Pentatone version yet, but I greatly appreciate Ivan Fischer’s Mahler.
You are so fortunate! I purchased the same version very soon after receiving the email, downloaded it…only to discover a corrupt archive! After repeating the process several times I swapped emails with their (very responsive) support and was told the files were being “re-generated” but my download is still corrupt this morning so I assume I need some direct link from them (which happened once before with a corrupt download of the Fischer/Mahler 9).
I can’t wait to listen but currently have no choice.
Stephen, sorry to hear of the difficulties you’re having. I have had a couple of problems with downloads from Channel Classics in the past, but their customer support has always been exemplary. I ended up reverting to a 24/96 version of one recording (still very good). It’s a mystery why my download works and yours didn’t. Perhaps I downloaded a later version. Good luck!
All is well now although I’m embarrassed by the “solution”. It turned out to be a problem with the BetterZip app I use on my Mac - which barfed when attempting to extract the archive and generated error messages. It turns out that the inbuilt Archive Utility works perfectly not only on the zip file sent to me today by Channel Classics but also on yesterday’s downloads <sigh>. I have apologised to Jared Sacks (who was very helpful, of course) and have reported the problem to the developer of BetterZip.
I have no time to listen now but am longing to do so later. I, like you, am a great fan of Fischer’s Mahler.
Glad you’ve been able to identify the problem. I used the inbuilt Apple utility which worked fine. Enjoy the recording later! I suspect this will be Fischer’s last Mahler as they aren’t apparently recording no.8.
