Edited by Pete Collier, Wednesday, 12 Jun 2013, 13:26
… a bit of Bruckner, returning to Dvorak this morning
So, today, I have the eighth symphony from Dvorak in my cd player. This one was originally published (by Novello) as the fourth, in 1889, but by the time I got to perform it with the borough youth orchestra in the late 1970s it had the now familiar number of the eighth. This is the one I know best and I even got to play the ‘trumpet call’ that opens the last movement, although only at rehearsals as I was deemed to be not as ‘good’ as the other guy I have also played trumpet in the ninth, but this time on the ‘2nd desk’. By then I had reached grade six with grade eight being a bit beyond my abilities and this is probably still the case! Anyhow, I enjoy just listening to number eight these days...
In my box, alongside my 80s and 90s pop cd collection, are some classical discs which is where I keep the Beethoven. I have the first five of his symphonies and also number seven - not six, eight or nine for some reason (?) This is possibly due to the majority of my cds being with Carol (ex-wife) down in Wales as I left them there for my son to play if he wished. I may even have some Bruckner there as I vaguely remember one of his works in my collection.
The Bruckner I refer to ‘at the top’ is in the Naxos library and over the past couple of weeks I have been listening to various movements of his early symphonies (known as 00, 0 and 1) and also the first and fourth symphonies of Beethoven of which I have two copies. I mostly prefer the Beethoven being performed by the Dresden Philharmonic under Herbert Kegel but this may well be down to the over-all sound quality. Kegel recorded these for the Capriccio label in the 1980s in digital format and these recordings seem to suit the cd medium well. Better, in fact, than the (more renowned) Deutsche Grammophon re-issue of Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in 1977. Still, as I no longer have my (Linn LP12) turntable, I will ‘make do’ with such re-issues especially for purposes of comparing performances, tempo, expression and ‘in-tune-ness’ etc. Some days, though, I struggle to work out whether one is too fast for me or the other too slow - rewarding none-the-less. I have it in mind to see which performances of Bruckner’s symphonies I prefer and may well end up purchasing and few…
Via Beethoven...
… a bit of Bruckner, returning to Dvorak this morning
So, today, I have the eighth symphony from Dvorak in my cd player. This one was originally published (by Novello) as the fourth, in 1889, but by the time I got to perform it with the borough youth orchestra in the late 1970s it had the now familiar number of the eighth. This is the one I know best and I even got to play the ‘trumpet call’ that opens the last movement, although only at rehearsals as I was deemed to be not as ‘good’ as the other guy
I have also played trumpet in the ninth, but this time on the ‘2nd desk’. By then I had reached grade six with grade eight being a bit beyond my abilities and this is probably still the case! Anyhow, I enjoy just listening to number eight these days...
In my box, alongside my 80s and 90s pop cd collection, are some classical discs which is where I keep the Beethoven. I have the first five of his symphonies and also number seven - not six, eight or nine for some reason (?) This is possibly due to the majority of my cds being with Carol (ex-wife) down in Wales as I left them there for my son to play if he wished. I may even have some Bruckner there as I vaguely remember one of his works in my collection.
The Bruckner I refer to ‘at the top’ is in the Naxos library and over the past couple of weeks I have been listening to various movements of his early symphonies (known as 00, 0 and 1) and also the first and fourth symphonies of Beethoven of which I have two copies. I mostly prefer the Beethoven being performed by the Dresden Philharmonic under Herbert Kegel but this may well be down to the over-all sound quality. Kegel recorded these for the Capriccio label in the 1980s in digital format and these recordings seem to suit the cd medium well. Better, in fact, than the (more renowned) Deutsche Grammophon re-issue of Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in 1977. Still, as I no longer have my (Linn LP12) turntable, I will ‘make do’ with such re-issues especially for purposes of comparing performances, tempo, expression and ‘in-tune-ness’ etc. Some days, though, I struggle to work out whether one is too fast for me or the other too slow - rewarding none-the-less. I have it in mind to see which performances of Bruckner’s symphonies I prefer and may well end up purchasing and few…