Brahms/Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 2 In D Major, Op. 73/Hebrides Overture

1. Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73
Composed by Johannes Brahms
Performed by Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra
2. The Hebrides, overture in B minor for orchestra ("Fingal's Cave," 4 versions), Op. 26
Composed by Felix Mendelssohn
Performed by Georgian Festival Orchestra

Tracks:

The Marriage Of Figaro
Exultate Jubilate: Halleluiah
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
The Blue Danube
Emperor Waltz
Die Fliedermaus
The Sleeping Beauty: Waltz
The Nutcracker Suite: March
1st Movement: Piano Concerto No. 1 -
Serenade For Strings
1st Movement: Moonlight Sonata
Pastoral Symphony No. 6 Finale
Symphony No. 2
Finale: Piano Sonata No. 20
1st Movement: Symphony No 5
La Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin
1st Movement: Concerto for Violin
3rd Movement: Symphony No. 4
2nd Movement: Piano Concerto
The Carnival Of Animals: The Aviary
The Flying Dutchman
Humoresque
Ballet Music: Rosamunde
3rd Movement: Symphony No. 2

Tracks:

2nd Movement: Symphony No. 40
Symphony in C
3rd Movement: Violin Concerto
Arabesque
Waltz: Tales From The Vienna Woods
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Nocturne
Berceuse
Siegfried Idyll
Piano Quintet: The Trout
Ballet Suite: Swan Lake
Swan Lake: Hungarian Dance And Czardas
Oh Lamb Of God
To Spring
Finale: Piano Cocerto in a Miror
Light Calvary
Mazurka
Thunder And Lightning Polka
Moto Perpetuum
Radetzky March
Consolation E Major
March
Waltz No 2
Moment Musical F Minor Op. 94
Raindrops
Minute Waltz AS-Major

CARL SCHURICHT Decca Recordings 1949-1956

Average customer rating:

Beautiful early 1950s recordings by an unknown conductor to many Americans
Schuricht's Classic Studio Recordings 1949-56
Carl Schuricht: An Original Master

CARL SCHURICHT Decca Recordings 1949-1956

Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

The Decca Records Store | Specialty Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Decca Recordings 1949-1955
Edward van Beinum : The Decca Recordings 1948-1953
Ernest Ansermet: Decca Recordings 1953-1967
The 1950s Haydn Symphonies Recordings
The Complete Decca Reordings of Ataúlfo Argenta, 1953-1957

ASIN: B000276K3W
Release Date: 2004-08-10

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful early 1950s recordings by an unknown conductor to many Americans.......2006-04-29

Carl Schuricht (1880-1967) may be an unknown conductor to many Americans, but had an active career in Germany, Holland and France from the 1930s until his death in 1967. Schuricht was known to me primarily from his EMI stereo recording of Bruckner Symphonies 8 and 9 with the Vienna Philharmonic. The recordings in this Decca set are MONO, but in very clear, well defined sound. Decca's engineers have done excellent work for this reissue.

Some listeners will know which works are by the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, as their trumpets, horns, and woodwinds have a certain vibrato laden timbre which their American and British counterparts, for example, do not. You either like the Paris Conservatory or you don't, and I DO. Beethoven's Symphony 5; Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien, Orchestra Suite No. 3 Variations; Schumann's Symphonies 2 and 3 + Overture, Scherzo and Finale are all by the Paris Conservatory Orchestra in this collection. The other works: Beethoven Symphonies 1 and 2, Mendelssohn RUY BLAS, HEBRIDES, FAIR MELUSINA and CALM SEA AND PROSPEROUS VOYAGE Overtures; Brahms Symphony 2 and Schubert Symphony 8 "Unfinished" are all with the Vienna Philharmonic from the early 1950s.

There is much here to love, even if you have other recordings of these works. Schuricht had a special solidity but was never stodgy or dry. I compare him favorably with Karl Bohm (1894-1981). Recommended, and I have other recordings of all these works, but am glad to have Schuricht, too.

Schuricht's Classic Studio Recordings 1949-56.......2005-04-08

To my mind, Schuricht's sane and very musical conducting always occupied an appealing "middle ground" between the more subjectively romantic way of Furtwangler/Abendroth/Mengelberg and the tougher rhythmic drive of Toscanini and Kleiber. Here is a brief assessment of each CD in this 5-disc collection:

CD 1. Schuricht draws wonderfully disciplined playing from the VPO in this superb Beethoven 1st, which is one of my favorite versions along with the more Haydnesque, gemutlich Weingartner/VPO (best heard on an Opus Kura CD from Japan, coupled with Weingartner's magnificent Beethoven 7th). Schuricht's Beethoven 5th with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra has appeared elsewhere on Italian bootleg labels. The transfer here is vastly superior. This is, to my ears, one of the greatest-ever accounts: it's very straight (lean and mean) and better-played than Schuricht's later recording in his complete Beethoven symphony set (French EMI). Even though Furtwangler remains my exemplar here (his 1943 wartime concert performance on DG and the mellower 1952 account on Tahra), Schuricht's more classical manner is very persuasive. This surely ranks among the finest "straight" 5ths of Weingartner (Naxos), Erich Kleiber (Decca) and Carlos Kleiber (DG). Schuricht's Mendelssohn is well-played, if a bit sober and penny-plain. In the Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) Overture, I still prefer Beecham, Furtwangler, Maag and Fritz Lehmann. In the Ruy Blas, Beecham is simply inimitable. For the Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, there was once an excellent version on Columbia LP (England) by Paul Kletzki and the Israel Philharmonic (coupled with a great Scotch Symphony) that deserves to be on CD. My favorite account remains the Lehmann/Berlin Phil., which DG ought to re-issue in a coupling with the Hebrides and the Roloff/Lehmann readings of Mendelssohn's piano concertos.

CD 2. This disc holds two treasurable 2nds of the "desert island" variety. The Beethoven Symphony has a wonderfully trenchant first mvt., a Larghetto with delectable interplay between the VPO's beautifully sweet strings and its plangent winds, a witty Scherzo, and an affectionately slow last mvt. At a length of 7:07, the latter is hardly Allegro Molto (for that you have to hear the brilliant Erich Kleiber on Teldec), but to my ears this is one of the truly classic performances, along with the Kleiber and the outstanding Weingartner (best transfer: Naxos). The Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto with Backhaus is a great collaboration - this pianist was always at his best in Brahms - and the transfer is HUGELY superior to what was (barely) heard in the Philips "Great Pianists" series. It's my favorite account, though I wouldn't be without the exceptional readings by Clifford Curzon/Hans Knappertsbusch (Living Stage) and Sviatoslav Richter/George Georgescu (Dorian, coupled with Richter's only recording of the Handel Variations).

CD 3. Schuricht's gorgeously lyrical, very pastoral account of Brahms' 2nd Symphony is more uptempo than his live Stuttgart account (Archiphon). If I could have only 3 recordings, they would be this Schuricht (excellent transfer!), the Fritz Busch (EMI) and the Furtwangler (EMI). Incidentally, I can't help noticing (in the last mvt., the passage starting at 4:43 here) an odd similarity to the opening of Mahler's 1st (since the opening of Mahler's 3rd is clearly patterned on the main theme of the Brahms 1st's last mvt., I think this may be more than just a coincidence). Christian Ferras' interpretation of the Brahms Violin Concerto reminds me somewhat of Fritz Kreisler's (Ferras also uses the Kreisler cadenza). It's a lovely, small-scale account, and joins a lengthy list of "greats" (e.g., Kreisler/Blech, Busch/ Steinberg, Szigeti/Harty, Martzy/Kletzki, De Vito/Schwarz, etc.)

CD 4. This disc is all Schumann: The Overture, Scherzo & Finale (rather like a symphony without a slow movement), plus the 2nd and 3rd Symphonies. All are with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, whose billowing brass may be an acquired taste. These are all masterly readings. The CD notes fail to mention that, in the "Rhenish," Schuricht uses Mahler's re-orchestration. My other favorite 2nds (the opening measures so like Haydn's #104!) are the more richly romantic readings by Stokowski (Cala) and Pfitzner (Koch Legacy), and the chastely classical Enescu (Dutton). My favorite stereo 3rd is probably the Leibowitz (Chesky). Hopefully a long-extinct 10" DG LP of the 3rd with Leitner and the Berlin Phil. will achieve a CD transfer: it had the loveliest slow mvt. I have ever heard.

CD 5. This disc is of lesser distinction. Mendelssohn's Fair Melusine Overture receives a sturdy reading that isn't quite on the level of Busch or Beecham. The Schubert 8th strikes me as a mis-fire - it's also available on Schuricht's "Great Conductors" volume on IMG (see my review). And the Tchaikovsky Capriccio Italien is simply no match for the ebullient Kondrashin (RCA).

This Decca set is essential listening, especially for its pace-setting accounts of Beethoven and Brahms. If you would like to hear a broader representation of Schuricht's artistry, you may want to explore his 10-disc set on Scribendum (available at Amazon.uk), which includes stylish accounts of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, Mozart's 38/40/41, a fine Bruckner 7th, and a very warm-hearted Brahms 4th.

Strongly recommended.

Carl Schuricht: An Original Master.......2005-01-13

Conductor Carl Schuricht has been unfairly neglected over the years, but a recent string of reissues should go to great lengths to remedy that problem. Compiling many of his greatest recordings for the Decca label from 1949-1956, this box set will be a most welcome addition to the shelves of classical music connoisseurs. Unfortunately, this title is not without its problems. While the set claims on its back cover that all of this material, save a 1952 account of the Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto with Backhaus (amazing BTW) and a 1956 Schubert 8th Symphony, are receiving their first international CD release, a lot of this material has been readily available for years. In addition to the aforementioned "Unfinished," the 1954 performance of Mendelssohn's "Hebrides" Overture with the Vienna Philharmonic was recently included in Schuricht's "Great Conductors of the 20th Century" title. Also the 1954 recording of the Brahms Violin Concerto with Christian Ferras is the very same version featured on Testament SBT 1293, and it is an alarming trend, if you ask me, that these "licensed" recordings are starting to appear simultaneously on two labels (see my recent review of EMI's "Great Recordings of the Century" release of David Oistrakh performing Prokofiev's Violin Concertos). Finally, why UNI chose to issue this and the recent Erich Kleiber set in clunky plastic jewel cases, instead of the normal slim paperboard box with paper sleeves for the discs, is beyond me. Overall though, "Original Masters: Carl Schuricht" is another first rate historical reissue from Universal. Schuricht's earlier performances of Beethoven's 1st, 2nd & 5th Symphonies featured here offer a nice contrast to his accounts of a few years later on EMI, and his Schumann -- the 2nd & 3rd Symphonies and "Overture, Scherzo and Finale" comprising CD4 -- is surprisingly good. In fact, I can hardly wait for the next batch of Decca OMs next month!

Brahms, Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 2; Hebrides Overture

Average customer rating:

Brahms, Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 2; Hebrides Overture

Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

4-for-3 Classical | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music

4-for-3 All Music | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music

Classical Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0000029OS
Release Date: 1996-04-02

Tracks:

Sym No.2 in D, Op.73: I. Allegro Non Troppo
Sym No.2 in D, Op.73: II. Adagio Non Troppo
Sym No.2 in D, Op.73: III. Allegretto Grazioso (Quasi Andantino)
Sym No.2 in D, Op.73: IV. Allegro Con Spirito
The Hebrides Ov (Fingal's Cave), Op.26 - Georgian Festival Orch/Jahni Mardjani

Average customer rating:

All Under One Roof: The Ultimate Abbado Sampler

Abbado Edition [Box Set]

Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Polkas | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Waltzes | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

French | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

German | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Italian | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Cantatas | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Requiems | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Movie Scores | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000415K
Release Date: 1992-11-10

Customer Reviews:

All Under One Roof: The Ultimate Abbado Sampler.......2006-01-30

This 25-CD set is intended to commemorate the then-25-year-long working relationship between Deutsche Grammophon and Claudio Abbado. The preface to each of the CD booklets is the same for all 25 CDs: a letter from Dr. Andreas Holschneider, president of DG, to Claudio. It's a Dear Claudio letter that explains the impetus behind, and structure of, this celebratory issue, and what it's intended to document: a history going back to 1967. Holschneider's biggest problem was a simple one: out of over 150 recordings Abbado had completed, less than one-sixth could appear in this box set.

Of course, monster box sets are now in vogue: 171 CDs for the Complete Mozart Edition on Brilliant Classics; also 171 CDs for the Hanssler Complete Bach Edition. DG therefore COULD have offered the whole thing had they been so inclined, but the market for a 25-CD set wasn't that large to begin with. Remember that there is a LOT of music on 25 CDs. It may be dwarfed by the Bach and Mozart monster boxes (not to mention the Complete Beethoven Edition by DG itself, which runs to 87 CDs), but it is commensurate in size to the complete works of several major composers: William Walton in a 23-CD boxset, Prokofiev in a 24-CD boxset, and Bartok in a 29-CD boxset.

So, aside from made-over packaging and CD booklets with an integrated "look," what does this quasi-vanity project give us that we don't get from the original releases? Re-mastering isn't explicitly credited anywhere in this set, and a comparison of several CDs in this box set with the original releases doesn't yield any noticeable differences to my ear. One might have hoped that earlier analog cuts might have been better de-hissed and cleaned up, for example, but such processing is not evident. So, we must treat this for what is: a rare, out-of-print collection of The Best of Abbado's First 25 Years. It functions something like DG's Complete Beethoven Edition, which is also out-of-print -- namely, it becomes something that gains collector status with time.

There is variety aplenty in this boxset (which Holschneider intended to achieve). Enough Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Schubert to please less adventurous ears, but some Berg and Stravinsky to push the envelope a bit. Quite a few orchestras are heard here: Chicago, London Symphony, Vienna Phil, Berlin, Boston, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, etc. Some are live performances (e.g., the Eroica with the Vienna Philharmonic). There is a mix of analog and digital recordings, pretty much determined by recording date. But as a "sampler," you get nothing complete in any mini-genre. Why program the Brahms 2nd symphony, but not the 1st or 4th? Why program 2 CDs of Mozart piano concertos, but not a single Mozart symphony? We get symphonies 3,5,6, and 7 of Beethoven's, but no 9th. Why didn't DG configure this set to include all 9 Beethoven symponies and all 4 Brahms symponies, plus Mozart's symphonies 35-41? Wouldn't the appeal of this collection have quadrupled knowing you were getting some sequences of major works without gaping holes?

Well, the simple reason this didn't happen is because DG President Andreas Holschneider has a Ph.D., and knows better than folks like us on how to market Abbado and program a box set. On the other hand, this box set isn't in print anymore. Maybe that Ph.D. didn't come in all that handy after all.

The performances are 5 stars, the recordings would have been awarded 5 stars IF we were living in the year the recording was done. But nowadays, we have a right to expect better sound in the re-mastering process. What has been programmed is played with intensity and integrity, and always with a deft hand, but the program contents leave something to be desired (as noted above). If the intent is to leave you "wanting more," I suppose this sampler achieves that. This principle obviously works in the case of "opera highlights" from Carmen and Aida. But others might simpy be annoyed at the "set list."

If you simply like Claudio's work (as do I), grab this set. You'll find Claudio at his best here, insofar as his first quarter-century with DG is concerned. On the other hand, he's doing some amazing stuff the last several years, with an exceptionally strong, new Mahler cycle coming into view album by album.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

Popular Music popular_music_78

Pavarotti: Rare Gems, Vol. 2

New Orleans [Import] [Soundtrack]

Music: Summer Of Love

New Grass Revival [Original recording remastered]

Merengue Millennium, Vol. 2

Mixed Bizness [CD-single] [Import]

Nearly Human Tour-Japan '90 [Import]

Ookeah [Import]

Moura Lympany plays Rachmaninov & Khachaturian

Singing Back to You