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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!allegra!cbf
From: cbf@allegra.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.records
Subject: Re: Favorite Recordings
Message-ID: <1900@allegra.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Oct-83 16:54:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: allegra.1900
Posted: Tue Oct 18 16:54:15 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Oct-83 06:29:38 EDT
References: <158@iwu1c.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 29

Speaking of Mozart done the way he heard himself performed, DG Archiv
has been inspired by the success of the L'Oiseau-Lyre set and is
undertaking a cycle of the complete piano concertos with Malcolm Frager
conduction from the pianoforte, but the really interesting twist is not
just the use of original instruments and pitch.  Rumor has it that
Frager will amplify the role of the piano to include extensive continuo
playing in addition to the traditional solo line.  So, no longer will
we wait two or three minutes for the piano's entrance after the
orchestra's opening argument.  I can't imagine what the D minor
concerto, No. 20 (my choice for the very last thing I'd like to hear on
my deathbed) will sound like, but if the set of the symphonies (I've
only heard the Great G minor and "Jupiter" from it) is any indication,
we might be in for yet more wonderful revelations.  The Pinnock
original instrument version of the Brandenburg Concertos on Archiv is
also worth hearing, although authentic performances of those pieces
abound.

Solti's Mahler's First better than Kubelik's?  That is praise indeed.
We'll have to see about that one.  His Mahler's Second is very good
indeed, but the Chicago/Abbado on DG is the one to have, for I think
the singing in his recording is better.  Solti's finale is perhaps more
exciting, but it doesn't have the joy that Abbado's radiates.  By the
way, I can't see what the big fuss over Levine's RCA recording of the
Seventh is all about.  It's definitely acceptable, but hardly the
achievement that everyone claims it is.  Am I missing something, or is
it just that I'm used to think of him as a second-rate conductor?

Comments?
--Charles (decvax!allegra!cbf)