Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Editorial Reviews
In this collection of releases in the Greatest Recording's of the Century series, we celebrate a series of historical opera/vocal recordings featuring Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, Victoria de Los Ángeles, Enrico Caruso, Janet Baker, and more in some of their finest performances. Orchestral/Instrumental releases include such musical luminaries as Samson François, Adolph Busch, Sir John Barbirolli, and others. The series has a high-quality, distinctive design, with original LP sleeves and the ART logo reproduced on the front covers, and critical endorsements from Gramophone on the back inlays. The substantial booklets offer newly-ommissioned, authoritative essays in English, German & French. Sung texts and libretti with translations are included where applicable.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wild-eyed & Relentless - One of the grittiest accounts of the Sixth!,
By
This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 6; Richard Strauss; Metamorphosen (Audio CD)
This Sixth is long overdue inclusion in the "Great Recordings of the Century" catalog - because despite its varied initial critical reception, it's Barbirolli's most interesting Mahler recording. Its absence from the catalog or any Mahler aficionado's collection would be a much greater loss than were Barbirolli's Ninth or Fifth to go missing.
In this coupling with a fitting and gorgeous Strauss Metamorphosen it has previously been available on an EMI Rouge et Noire disc, back then still with the movement order reversed to reflect the scholarship at the time: Scherzo first, Andante second. It works to riveting effect, which somewhat excuses the audio engineers' interference with the maestro's wishes, but that wasn't how Barbirolli recorded it or wanted it, and his wishes have been taken into consideration since the re-issue of the Mahler (coupled with Ein Heldenleben) on the double forte and then the gEMIni series. Because I am too lazy to program my CD player to switch the movement order back, I have burnt myself a copy of the second CD that puts the Scherzo first. Mahler's and Barbirolli's wishes notwithstanding, the Scherzo second makes a lot more sense to my ears and Barbriolli's interpretation is, ironically, the quintessential "Scherzo-Andante type" - which is to say that Barbirolli is solidly in the "grit" camp - an impression that is heightened in its relentlessness when the onslaught of the Scherzo follows immediately and mercilessly after the opening Allegro, rather than having energy zapped by taming matters with the intermittent Andante. Like a possessed Bulldog, drooling over the orchestra, Sir John drives the New Philharmonia to a performance the polar opposite of the other Barbirolli Mahler-recordings on EMI. The sound quality was not terribly good on the Rouge et Noire release but thanks to the 2002 remastering job has improved notably in the subsequent re-releases on CD. Fortunately you can hear Barbirolli grunt, huff, and puff - because that all sounds appropriate in this performance, as does the less-than-perfect playing of the orchestra. It is wild-eyed, relentless; its teeth are showing. The first movement drags cruelly but appropriately to these ears. (The repeat is skipped, perhaps the sole hair in the soup of this performance.) Unlike other slow and even many quicker performances, it never loses momentum or sight of the longer lines. Barbirolli unfailingly holds the tension - even as the symphony hovers beautifully in the Andante. It's closest in vain to Dimitri Mitropoulos' live-recording with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln from 1959 (at time when "live" meant live!), itself a riveting, raw, individualistic (still shy of eccentric); truly an edge-of-the-seat reading. There are not all that many recordings of this symphony that are truly satisfactory. This is not only among them (Zander, Mitropolous, Gielen, Eschenbach, Fischer are, too), it's one of the finest available.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Magnificent Mahler Sixth from Sir John Barbirolli,
By
This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 6; Richard Strauss; Metamorphosen (Audio CD)
I agree with the other reviewers who find this a wonderful performance. I just want to add a few words about the ordering of the symphony's middle movements. Like many other folks, I prefer to hear the scherzo movement played right after the first movement. But that ordering remains controversial. Erich Leinsdorf's mid-1960s RCA recording (with the Boston Symphony) was a powerful reading of the score and the first to be made in stereo. At that time, RCA made a big deal out of Leinsdorf's decision to use Professior Erwin Ratz's newly published revised edition of the score which, among other things, moved the Scherzo into second place. (The symphony's only generally available previous recording, a "live" account on Philips recorded at a mid-Fifties Holland Festival by the Dutch conductor Eduard Flipse and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, followed the usual practice at that time and placed the Scherzo third, after the Andante.) Following Leinsdorf and until very recently, every recording except Harold Farberman's little-remembered 1970s Vox production followed Ratz and placed the Scherzo second. Now we are told that Professor Ratz essentially manufactured evidence about Mahler's intentions in order to justify his re-ordering of the middle two movements, and contemporary conductors including Simon Rattle once more champion the score with the Andante placed second.I continue to prefer the Ratz ordering because I believe placing the Scherzo second makes more sense emotionally and structurally (i.e., per the progression of keys throughout and the key relationships established by placing the Scherzo second). But Mahler seems to have been of two minds on this question at different times, and I see no reason to dogmatically embrace either ordering as more authentic. Instead, I think it's better just to celebrate the fact that there are two different versions of Mahler's Sixth Symphony, and we can enjoy either or both. In other words, it's a little like the case with the various versions of some Bruckner symphonies. (To be sure, only a little!) In any case, I don't think that a conductor's published recording should be 'programmed' by the listener to provide the version the listener prefers .... conductors who "hear" the Scherzo as the second movement hear the entire symphony differently than conductors who perform the Andante as the second movement. And these conductors will perform the symphony with a different feel for the weight of each movement, and per how those relate to a projection of the whole work. According to the liner notes for this reissue in the Great Recordings of the Century series, Barbirolli recorded the Andante as the second movement, but EMI over-ruled his decision and placed the Scherzo second on its Lp versions as well as on previous CD editions. This amounts to a travesty of Barbirolli's intentions and, despite my own preference for the Ratz ordering, when I want to hear Sir John's magnificent performance of Mahler's Sixth I will listen to it as he intended I should, Andante played after the First Movement.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Majestic/Massive Mahler,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 6; Richard Strauss; Metamorphosen (Audio CD)
I originally purchased this Mahler sixth on lp way back in 1968 when the spine of the box-set read Mahler/Strauss. Metamorphosen was left off the two-disc set for whatever reason??? I am glad to have it restored and available.
The Sixth(as Berg said, "the only sixth, despite the "Pastoral") is, as a work and a performance, simply tremendous. It is massive and nearly diabolical in it's driven force. Unstoppable in it's momentum. The recording was always first-rate and the gong, harps and hammer blows are devastating in their impact. Sir John's vision has no "let up" in it's intensity and, though slow by most standards, always sounds right. I find this simply the most believable and right-sounding of all the recordings. A magnificent accomplishment. Thanks to EMI for making it available once again. Bravo Barbirolli!!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
