Messages

Mark and Alan probably won't be willing to elaborate, but I'd be curious to know (post mortem) just what kind of proposals were made by other parties to take over UC (and I assume there were some) and what  made them unacceptable.

Like Lionel certain of the membership here will feel relieved or even celebratory about the rollback,
but I can't be alone in feeling huge disappointment together with resigned acceptance over it myself.  In time I'll appreciate and be grateful there's still something, - but for right now I'm in the dumps.

Pull yourselves together, Alan, - I agree with most of what you express.  That Jarvi is all but unqualifiedly "our man" and pre-eminent among the champions of the unsung, with a unique
and distinctive legacy of recordings along these lines unlikely to ever be matched were there even
some other maestro capable of mastering such a rich diversity of repertoire, is not something I dispute.

Jarvi always struck me as the ultimate "crack musician", - a conductor who could lead anything, anytime, anywhere, without making a lot of fuss, and without needing a lot of prep, but with always reliably satisfying results, and sometimes more.  A real pro, in other words, very fluent and very efficient, never a phony and never a slacker, and not without charisma either.  A high level performer in every respect.

Still, I never acquired a Jarvi disc to hear Jarvi, but always for the rare and novel repertoire he so typically offers up.  One expects the measure of grip, energy, and the attention his standard of competence and expertise almost unfailingly provide, but not (in my experience) the vision, the nuance, and the subtlety that might lend some special aura and personal stamp to the standard and much overplayed works he has sometimes attempted.

Thus, all I am saying is that Jarvi doesn't bring enough potential interpretive weight to this Svendsen disc to overcome it's inadequately adventurous pairing.  The wish to hear what new beauties or charms he might uncover in the "old hat" and many times heard before Norwegian Rhapsodies just doesn't exist, because it's probably none. I'm very dissapointed in Chandos for not fully utilizing him in what he does best.

As Frank & Jer lament, it's just terribly unimaginative programming by Chandos.  Far more intelligent and alluring would have been coupling the Cello Concerto with Svendsen's Violin Concerto, and then filling out the CD with some other Svendsen rarity.  The Rhapsodies add nothing we don't already have enough of.  Honestly also, Jarvi himself becomes more and more like some oversold brand I find myself increasingly tiring of.  His interpretations are always typically robust and impeccably professional, but too often have the feel of "another day at the office".  It's what he does so he keeps doing it, I guess.

Not a seductive release in my judgement.

Amidst all the current buzz over Karl Weigl, could anyone having a close familiarity with the Cycle Symphoniker of Marcel Rubin (available now in its entirety for listening here) offer some insight as to its merits and distinction, and comparative characterization/evaluation of the individual works?  Weighty and engrossing if frequently uncomfortable for me, I find this output a formidable discovery in my adventures through UC downloads land, - though my own impressions still lack much clarity.  But having played through each of the Symphonies at least once (and a few many times) I will highlight the slow movements as most especially striking, and choose Nos. 4&10 (the "Dies Irae" & "Hommage to Chartres" Symphonies) as my early favorites (with a nod to the announcer on No.10, whose tone, and inflections, and timing are just perfect, and almost a part of the work for me now).  These two seem to have a more processional and ritual feel to them than the rest, and relatively more slow music (which might be what draw me).  It may seldom be obvious, and I can't quite put my finger on it, but here and throughout all the Symphonies there's a definite Brucknerian legacy to be discerned IMO.  Do others agree?
     

The Violin concerto is pared with Svendsen..
http://www.amazon.com/Johan-Svendsen-Lange-M%C3%BCller-Violin-Concertos/dp/B0014DODFK

That recording I find rather disappointing.  Kai Laursen (on Danacord) plays it with alot
more verve and charm IMO.

If carried out Dave's suggestion might well result in a large number of "pseudo-posters" contaminating the site, and ultimately making its purpose even more problematic.

My own thought concerning this issue is simply to suggest that some individual (or duo) be engaged
to administer and monitor the "Downloads" section of the forum (most substantively the Downloads and Discussion components there), and thereby free Mark & Alan from day to day oversight in the area where almost all the great explosion of activity and expansion of content here over the last year has occurred, and the direction of which has evoked so much of their antipathy.

In fact, I wonder how problematic (if at all) the interactive parts of the "Music" section of the forum (essentially the Composers and Music & New Recordings components)  as they presently function are to them, and whether any really substantial changes there need even be contemplated (?).  While 20th century composers (and repertoire) are often presented, my impression has been when this happens they are almost exclusively on the conservative end of the spectrum and largely in continuity with the original "romantic" focus of the forum which Mark & Alan wish to preserve.
I'd say if it ain't broke don't fix it.

The more modernist 20th century composers and repertoire almost always are raised in the Downloads section in association with the posted recordings, and limited to the Discussion threads there. This could be formalized as a requirement, so as not to intrude on the more traditionalist "Music" section content.

Besides appointing Dundonnell to manage the Downloads section (his composer catalog archive should just about be reaching completion in the coming weeks and he will need some alternative activity to occupy him) I'd also consider segregating the romantic and modernist repertoire uploaded there into their own discrete sub-topics (organized by country as presently).

Fragmented and undeveloped as my ideas might be I envision some outcome whereby the "old guard" members of the forum and "new traditionalists" who might join in can navigate and utilize its resources according to their interests while avoiding if they choose any upset provoked by the modernist cohort and its own enthusiasms, and also allow Mark and Alan to relax more, and be compelled to preoccupation with only those dimensions here that truly engage them.


There you have it.
         

Not me. It's an opportunity wasted. A bit like the Gal symphony CDs coupled with Schumann and Schubert. Dreadful.

A LOT like it. They (Avie) gave some artsy/fartsy explanation for this (as I recall) that seemed ludicrous to me for an enterprise that might want to sell discs and promote a following for Gal.  Had they issued the 4 Symphonies on 2 CD's (like Meridian did with the 4 SQ's) many of us would (gratefully) already have them on our shelves (and the music in our affections) rather than shaking our heads and feeling put off as we do instead.

But the "nobility" of their intentions is preserved, I suppose, - and perhaps they have deep pockets.

It's a needlessly perverse coupling IMO.  Elgar enthusiasts drawn by another recording of the CC
will likely be indifferent to (or at least little excited by) the presence of Gal.  Those new to Elgar will surely prefer a more mainstream companion and in any case gravitate to more reknowned (and/or) cheaper competition.  And those hungry to hear the unknown Gal will groan over the gratuitousness of a discmate they already possess more than enough alternatives to.

There's no marketing advantage whatsoever in this combination, and like with Frank many intrigued by Gal will pass over it because of the bad value.   

What's Avie thinking?  Who's the prototype purchaser here?

The trouble I find with von Einem's music however is that, accessible though it is, in a lyrical, neo-romantic sort of sense, I don't find much of it essentially very memorable. von Einem is proficient, accomplished but the material itself ultimately is not sufficiently interesting to stick in the mind.

For what it's worth I find von Einem's 3rd & 4rth Symphonies very memorable, interesting, and sticky.

...rather hum-drum and soporifically-inflected.

For me, a singularly original way of saying "boring" that I'm going to steal. 

My detractors will say(think) "verbose" or even "pretentious", - but I prefer your description . 

You have my permission.

[Erkki Salmenhaara Symphony No.4]

When there is so much music being made available for download on a daily basis and when at least this member tries to download just about everything, copy pieces and catalogue them all it is extremely hard to actually manage to listen to everything

In these circumstances it is easy to overlook a work which turns out to be a real treasure of a discovery. The Erkki Salmenhaara Symphony No.4 is just such a piece A Finnish composer of whom I had never heard Salmenhaara turns out to have been a pupil of Kokkonen and Ligeti, an important figure in Finnish musical life and something of an authority on the history of Finnish music. The Fourth Symphony is rather a delicious mixture-Sibelius/Romanticism/Minimalism combined

A quite severe overstatement relative to my own experience.  It's nice, I suppose, but nothing ever happens.  All the movements are the same, and the music just non-chalantly and very temperately skips along without real contrast or argument, climax or exertion.  In no wise troubling, anxious, or conflicted, - nor otherwise celebratory, visionary, or exalted.  A drama of mid-life crisis and resolution (apropos the title of the Symphony) this isn't, but more an idyll of reflective contentment and peace.  It might be I miss some elusive subtlety here, in the texture, the colors, and the flow, - but for me a rather hum-drum and soporifically-inflected encounter I'm afraid. 

Tomorrow?

Thanks!

It's true: the BIS is way shorter than the Phono Suecia.

...and interpretively inferior IMO.  The added breadth and weight from the more spacious tempos is all for the good.  The music can bear it.  A fine Symphony.