Berlin Philharmonic Brahms Symphonies Vinyl Direct to Disk

astrotoy

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Fiddle Faddle

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MadFloyd

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Wow, this is very interesting. I'm not a huge Brahms fan, but I like that they are offering this.
 

bonzo75

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I am a big fan of his violin sonatas
 

marty

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It is times like this where I wish I had become a neurosurgeon...that pricing is right up there....

Actually, with the drastic decline in doctor reimbursement over the past few years, its probably better to be a plumber or electrician these days!
 

Fiddle Faddle

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Actually, with the drastic decline in doctor reimbursement over the past few years, its probably better to be a plumber or electrician these days!

Funny you should mention that. We had a Federal election here a few months back and the person who got into Parliament in my electorate wants free health care for all. Actually he wants free legal representation for everyone too - free flipping everything. No mention of how he expects to pay for it all and no explanation as to how doctors of widely varying skill, experience , qualifications and professional overhead / practice expenses will react to being reimbursed identical, menial, token amounts from our Government health organisation (Medicare). I guess the money will just fall out of the sky. Bottom line is I think you are right!! Who the heck will bother studying medicine when a Macquarie Street specialist in the Sydney CBD with 30 years training gets the same compensation as a 1-year graduate in general practice out the back of nowhere in Delungra...

What is worse is that this clown is the federal opposition leader's pet and my worst fear is with the opposition being full of circus performers, the above-mentioned member will end up being the Federal Minister for Health.

Sorry but in all my 50 years, I've never been more befuddled with what goes through the minds of politicians and those who elect them than in 2016!!

OK, back to the topic...sorry...
 

the sound of Tao

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On performance for a relatively recent recording of a Brahms symphony I'd probably look to Chailly, Fischer or Abbado before I'd go for Rattle. No disrespect to Rattle who has some great recordings under his belt (or baton). If you are primarily chasing sonics as well then this is a different matter. But then the argument for Fischer becomes a very alluring (if a digital) one for both performance and sonics.

Looking further back to the great past for Brahms symphonic I'd look to Klemperer or Munch, the latter is of course a Living Stereo so nothing missing in the captured recording there either.

I find with so little time that listening to a recording for only its sonic beauty is a kind of hollow thing, a bit like eating a takeaway fast food. Just short term satisfaction.

The symphonies are great but perhaps just a bit variable in quality. I also love Brahm's piano and violin concertos as well because they do posses the romance of great inner beauty, the German Requiem is one of the true wonders of Brahms and here he bares his soul. But in the end for me it is Brahm's chamber music that is at the very plateau of not just his but perhaps all of classical music.

I lived next door to the conductor of our local orchestra when I was a younger man and he said to me that while we start with Bach and Beethoven and that we can end with Brahm's chamber music. Words to live by.
 

bonzo75

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I watched Leonidas Kavakos do all 3 of Brahms Violin Sonatas, his violin concerto, and watched Richard Tognetti do his Violin Sonata 3. His sonatas are among my favorite violin pieces, maybe because of Kavakos
 

the sound of Tao

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Richard Tognetti is one of our countries great musicians and leader of our Australian Chamber Orchestra. Violinist, artistic director and surfer dude. Would have been a marvellous concert. We miss him when he is away.
 

MadFloyd

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I recently heard some Brahms violin sonatas for the first time, performed live on Sirius XM by Josha Bell. I thought they were great; must look into these further...
 

bonzo75

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Richard Tognetti is one of our countries great musicians. Would have been a marvellous thing. We miss him completely when he is away.

Yeah I went to his performance this Tuesday because of the Violin Sonata. He also played Beethoven's Violin Sonata 5 and Part Fratres.
 

the sound of Tao

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For violin music we will also always have the Heifetz for the Brahms violin concerto, hard to go beyond this as a standard.

Part's Fratres is beautiful, would love to have heard Tognetti on this as well.
 

Fiddle Faddle

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Richard Tognetti is one of our countries great musicians and leader of our Australian Chamber Orchestra. Violinist, artistic director and surfer dude. Would have been a marvellous concert. We miss him when he is away.

He and I were contemporaries as we went through music and violin training in our school years, though he went to the Conservatorium High School and I was at a private school. It was never any surprise that he won all the violin prizes and competitions. If you knew he was entered in the same competition, well you just groaned, accepted the inevitable and got on with it. Apparently he abhors the Goldmark violin concerto whereas I rate that as one of my all-time favourites.
 

Fiddle Faddle

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So is anyone here going to drop the 500 euros on this set? Early this year I bought the Rattle / Schumann 4 LP set made with the exact same orchestra, engineers and on the same label. It is a great set (very luxurious) however the post recording session editing was not 100% (mainly issues with reverb tails being cut short - it was made from live performances). That set was obviously a mere fraction the cost of this one and obviously there isn't any editing to go wrong.

I would love to buy it but those sorts of funds simply are not available.
 

MadFloyd

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Darn, I have been tinkering with getting this (been on the fence since I really want to experience it but am not the biggest Brahms fan). Perhaps now I will no longer be tempted.
 

bonzo75

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Darn, I have been tinkering with getting this (been on the fence since I really want to experience it but am not the biggest Brahms fan). Perhaps now I will no longer be tempted.

Have you heard his 3 violin sonatas and the scherzo, I love all of them. Seen them live many times. Try listening on youtube first. The best live I heard was with Kavakos and that is now a decca recording, though I don't know how good the recording is
 

MadFloyd

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Have you heard his 3 violin sonatas and the scherzo, I love all of them. Seen them live many times. Try listening on youtube first. The best live I heard was with Kavakos and that is now a decca recording, though I don't know how good the recording is

I have heard some of the sonatas (although not live) and like them. No argument there.

I see the BSO a fair bit but have to make an effort to get to hear some chamber music live...
 

Fiddle Faddle

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I have heard some of the sonatas (although not live) and like them. No argument there.

I see the BSO a fair bit but have to make an effort to get to hear some chamber music live...

If you want a wonderful recording of the Brahms violin sonatas, in my opinion it is really hard to go past the Pinchas Zukerman DG recording

http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/au/cat/4531212

And the much later Augustin Dumay one, also on DG

http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/au/cat/4358002
 

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