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A great admirer of Starker, Fritz Reiner brought him to the Chicago Symphony where he became principal cellist. That didn’t spare him from Reiner’s famous temper & demand for perfection when during a concert Starker hit a rather egregious “clam”; Reiner was so angry he threw his baton down with sufficient force to break it in half.
3rd Sunday in March.
Last year I was sitting in Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall listening to Manfred Honenk conduct the Pittsburgh Symphony in a brilliant performance of Mahler’s 5th Symphony.
Today, all cultural activities on hold, I’ll revisit that memory here.
Later, with the cancellation of today’s concert at Carnegie Hall, where I held tickets to hear Maurizo Pollini play Beethoven’s last 3 piano sonatas, I’ll do the same.
One of several really good recordings of Schumann 2nd. I saw Levine several times conducting the Chicago Symphony at their summer home at Ravinia and a number of operas he conducted at the Met in the 70s and 80s. I saw his Parsifal in Bayreuth in the early 90s and thought it was worth the trip. I won’t get into the politics of his fall from grace.
I spent some time this morning comparing two recordings of Carmina Burana in my library. I’ve had the Previn/LSO on a MoFi LP for decades, and it has always been my touchstone, but I just recently found it on an XRCD as well. The Levine/CSO is a DG recording on CD. I compared the two digital editions.
The Levine surprised me with its clarity and dynamic range. It’s an impressive recording, and in a strict A/B, its dynamism and slightly quicker tempos are very seductive, making the Previn recording sound a little, if not lifeless, less “life-full,” if that’s a thing. But longer term listening tips the scale in favor of the Previn recording. It has more clearly defined focus of voices, leading to more specific physical locations in the soundstage. The apparently lesser dynamic range doesn’t come across as a limitation in the recording as much as a difference in mic placement. The Levine sounds like it’s very closely mic’d with considerably less hall ambience, where the Previn’s listening perspective is clearly out in the hall, where the room itself has absorbed and softened some of those leading edge transients. That description makes it sound like a less enjoyable recording, but I don’t find it so. It sounds much more natural to me, and there’s no question the voices are laser-focused in the soundstage. Is short, it sounds more real to me. I could live with the Levine easily, if I’d never heard the Previn, but since I have both, I think I know which I prefer now.
Thanks for a detailed and useful analysis. My wife likes Carmina Burana so I think I shall treat her to the Previn version in the near future.
Carmina Burana has fared well in the recording studio & listeners are certainly spoiled for choice.
A couple of others worth consideration:
The best sound of this classic recording to date. Soloists Gundula Janowitz, Gerhard Stolze & Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau are in top form.
For a great performance that’s also stunningly recorded this Telarc SACD is hard to beat.
O Fortuna!
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll look for the Jochum SACD. I just checked my copy of “1001 Classical Recordings…” and they list the the Previn and Jochum as 1 and 2, respectively.
It is an amusing piece to perform, but no more than once every ten years or so. It is truly over the top. But it amusing to see the boys’ choir parents freak over the lyrics.
…so, those aren’t the actual lyrics?
I have this recording. I love this recording. Saw him perform shortly after he returned to the stage following a serious thumb injury (a bit rusty & visably a little nervous there were a couple of "clams’ in the Mozart, but no matter. - a supreme artist was back). During his recovery he found solace studying the music of J.S. Bach, with whom he formed a profound bond. Here are two recordings that reveal that beautiful, deep connection.
Those are two of the best recordings in recent years. Love them both, part.y because I heard Perahia a lot in the 80s, I recall a Mozart concerto cycle and quite a bit of Beethoven. He was hugely popular at the time. I went to hear him play Schumann a couple of years ago, tickets were way overpriced and it was little over half full. No buzz and a bit of a shame.
Is that a re-release of the recordings he did with the English Chamber Orchestra when I were a lad? I remember he directed them from the piano, whereas Uchida did a set with the same band soon afterwards under the direction of Jeffrey Tate. I think I’ll spin (metaphorically) some now … listening to Perahia play Mozart is a bit like floating on clouds. It’s very comforting and no bumps, always a soft landing, but still gets to the heart of the music.
I remember some of the performances from 1980 onwards, as they were given at the Royal Festival Hall and that is when I was working and studying in that area. I listened this afternoon to K413 onwards. Sony squeezing every cent from their back catalogue.
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