Re: Mystery Orchestra 13 revealed


jrsn...@xxxxxxx wrote:
On Jun 11, 9:37 pm, EmmKay <Mish...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 11, 6:57 pm, jrsn...@xxxxxxx wrote:



On Jun 11, 1:25 pm, Michael Schaffer <ms1...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jun 10, 1:15 pm, Michael Schaffer <ms1...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello MO Players,

After the interesting discussions we had in MO12, you deserve another
very nice MO clip. Here is a long excerpt from Bruckner's 3rd
symphony.

A bit chunky (26MB), but typically download from yousendit is very
fast.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/24nuh6

What, 10 downloads already and still no comments? I am sure there are
a few things you can say about this clip.

I listened last night twice and enjoyed it both times. The orchestra
has a nice sound and I particularly enjoyed the trumpets and the low
strings. The thumpy, slightly feathered but still heavy sound of the
low strings suggests a very good German orchestra. The brass do not
sound like Dresden or the Berlin Phil to me, particularly, because the
trumpets seem a little more solidly round and more present and the
horn solo had too much vibrato to match anything I remember from
Berlin (I suppose that would point to Peter Damm, eh? but I doubt it
in this case).

The conducting was excellent as well; very sensible and middle of the
road if not quite as effusive as, say, Kubelik, nor as energetic and
impish as Gielen. The best thing about this clip is the engineering,
though--this is sound I could live with in a lot of other situations;
close perspective but not bright or harsh or claustrophobic. I'm
assuming it's a very recent live recording and in a good acoustic.

So I'm guessing something German but leaning a little eastward, maybe
Bamberg I suppose, but more likely an even meatier band like the
Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig. I think of Dresden as a touch lighter
and silkier in sound and the brass don't get quite as hoarse (not
quite the right word) when they get loud as some of the other
orchestras I think of (from earlier recordings), like SOBR used to. I
suppose it could be them, but I'm inclined to think not. In any case,
the quality is about right for the comparison. I feel more likely to
be fooled by something like the Budapest Philharmonic in this case
than a lighter, more acrobatic sound like the Concertgebouw or the
Oslo Phil.

--Jeff

Leipzig Gewandhaus is a very good guess. Brass sounds very much like
them. (might this be Blomstedt?) Doesn't have the burnished glow of
Dresden, which has an altogether different set of colors and manages
to be more transparent despite the sonic richness. It's definitely not
SOBR or Concertgebouw. I don't know Bamberg enough at all really to
confirm or refute that suggestion.


I only mention Bamberg (and Budapest) to help show the wide "error
bars" on my guess of Leipzig. I agree that there are many "nots" that
we can clear up, like the Concertgebouw, or anything further west. But
with MW's revelation about the discography, I do feel a little more
confidence about Leipzig (unless Aachen turns out to have a heck of a
great orchestra!) although Blomstedt has conducted that version in a
lot of places, including recently in a broadcast with San Francisco
(which I enjoyed). Looking at the list (no guarantees that this
performance is on that list, of course) I'm pleased to see the Lucky
Ball CD-R release of Leinsdorf/CSO, a radio broadcast that I have
somewhere in my stack of rotting cassettes....I really ought to pull
that out for a spin sometime, assuming the tape still works; I'm
fondly recall that it was my first exposure to this symphony.

--Jeff

OK, now I get why you mentioned Bamberg several times. I wasn't
actually aware of how few recordings there are of this version of the
symphony, but I looked up Berky's discography, and that explains that.
I personally find it a pity that some people invest more time
apparently in checking discographies or listening to amazon clips
instead of just *listening* to the posted clips. But that's OK,
everyone can do as he likes.
I should have chosen a clip of a not as rare recorded work (or
version). My bad.
Yes, the clip is from the live recording of the 3rd with the
Gewandhausorchester conducted by Herbert Blomstedt.

.

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