This Warner Classics box contains magnificent performances of Bruckner's symphonies Nos. 3, 8 and 9, and a Beethoven cycle unique for its historical importance as well as its overall excellence.
David, I agree 100% with your evaluation of Schuricht and these particular recordings. I think the secret of Schuricht's conducting is that he never seems to impose his interpretations on the music from the outside; rather, he understands what is inherent in the music, and lets the musicians realize those qualities as they play. These recordings of the Bruckner Third and Ninth-in their LP incarnation, on Seraphim (“Angels of the Highest Order”) were my introduction to those two symphonies, some forty-five years ago, and they wear their years gracefully. The Paris Beethoven sounds so characterful and distinctive and alive-a tribute to the orchestra and to Schuricht's ability to trust the music and the musicians. It's only a shame that Walter Legge resisted recording in stereo for so long after other labels had adopted stereo as a matter of course. The contents of Schuricht's Decca set and also his Stuttgart performances on the Hanssler label exhibit similar virtues-above all, a complete naturalness in his interpretations, whatever the shortcomings in execution. Incidentally, among other things, Schuricht was a wonderful Schumann conductor. You must hear his recordings of the Symphony No. 2.
Schuricht's Bruckner 5th (Vienna PO) on DG and his Bruckner 7th (Berlin PO) on Testament-- both live from the early 60s, good mono sound-- are equally great as well.
@@TheBartok44 I have that 5th on the Vienna Phil 150th set and it is stupendous. The other great Bruckner performance is Karajan's 9th on that VPO set-- and I do not usually like Karajan. I must have about 15 different Bruckner 9th recordings.
Up to now my favorite Beethoven Ninths were: Fricsay/Berlin, Celibidache/Munich and Karajan/Berlin 1963. The stereo Schuricht/Paris Conservatoire is now my favorite. Stunning, very emotional. The strings are in fact deep but never obscuring the woodwinds. Thanks David for such spectacular recommendation plus the whole history of the Paris Conservatory Orchestra. I purchased several other recordings of this orchestra.
Your channel is the best thing that happened to me in this pandemic! What a delight to hear your analysis! Your frankness, picardy and accurateness makes me laugh, it's so captivating, what a delight! I think you are also a great rhetor. Thank you so much for creating this channel. I'd like to hear your thoughts on São Paulo Symphony Orchestra records of Villa-Lobos's music. Cheers from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! And please, don't stop this channel, I and many people are learning a lot from you. Many thanks!
Stay tuned. I wanted to talk about the BIS box of BB and Choros pieces. I think they're great. I love Villa-Lobos generally (played the 4th BB in concert).
@@DavesClassicalGuide I'll be thrilled to watch this video about The Complete Choros and Bachianas. I bought this box set as soon as it was released in 2009. Thank you so much for your answer!
This set is gold! Especially the Bruckner 8. Also the Decca set. The Brahms violin concerto with Ferras is unbelievable. No other performance achieved this flexibility and this congenial of a conversation between equals, no virtuoso and accompaniment.
Thank you for this highly informative and eye-opening review. Carl Schuricht is my favorite conductor of Beethoven and Bruckner. He always let the music beautifully unfold in a completely natural way. The Bruckner 9th grabbed me from the first bars, a cosmic performance! And that Beethoven 9th? Thrilling. He is every bit as great or greater as those dictatorial, Pop Culture conductors with their hundreds of glossy videos and photo opps.
Yes! Big orchestras with big string sections for Beethoven! My current favorite Beethoven 3rd Symphony on the DVD with Kubelik and the Berlin Phil. --- 10 basses.
Thank you so much for this video, Mr. Hurwitz! Was originally drawn to this video for the Beethoven cycle portion. His music is coming to me in phases, although, I have never not enjoyed Beethoven. As I "keep on listening," the more I appreciate things not as appreciated before. However, the Bruckner portion really was a discovery for me. As a brass player, I find these recordings to be something I have been wanting to hear. Lower register section parts pop out more, and the Wagner tubas in the 8th have a real depth and warmth I do not hear often on recordings. Chailly's Adagio in the 7th on Decca also comes to mind. Schuricht is happy new discovery for me. Sending wishes of health and happiness in the New Year!
David, can you please consider doing a video on Karl Böhm best recordings one day? For some reason, and perhaps I'm not knowledgeable enough to try to explain it here, he is definitely one of my favorite Beethoven conductors...
Thanks for the thorough review! I had his Bruckner 8 and 9 but not the 3rd. I still didn't have his Beethoven set thought I own several other cycles. Just got by Schuricht Beethoven/Bruckner set in the mail and the Beethoven performances are an absolute joy to listen to!
You make some very good points about the use of “period” instruments, especially in that during the 19th century, instruments were improved to play Beethoven better. For me, it all comes down to the playing. For instance, IMO, Gardiner far outpaces Christopher Hogwash and Roy Globman, being all the more musical. Yet, even there, Gardiner just falls flat in the 9th, as his orchestra just doesn’t have the power, majesty, charm,....the JOY! All said though, I would NEVER choose any period Beethoven as my only set of the symphonies.
Comments David Goodman Thanks so much for the history lesson, Dave. I would never have thought of the Paris Conservatory Orchestra in connection with echt Beethoven style. Enough reason (for me) to order the box. In the early days of Telarc recordings, I bought the Boston Symphony/Seiji Ozawa Beethoven CDs, which were decidedly big-orchestra performances, and I heard those same forces perform the Fifth Symphony at Tanglewood in 1991. Is that sonority something similar to what is represented by the Paris/Schuricht set (aside from the French wind and brass differences)? I have come to like, sometimes even prefer, the leaner sound of modern performance style, but did grow up on budget LPs of big Central European orchestras in the 1950s, because those were what I could afford as a teenager. Time to rethink things, then. And that can be fun. Can't wait to hear this set! David
I've now heard the first two CDs (Beethoven 1, 3, 2 and 7), and am simply bowled over. If the rest of the box is like this, I really just don't have words to describe it, except to say the performances are direct and unmannered. Just Beethoven, which is the kind of performance I tend to prefer. The sound is VERY good mono. If only all stereo recordings were as easy on the ears. The horns are characteristically French in tone color, which is fine by me, though I realize it may be unfamiliar to some listeners. But you can hear them ( ! ), and they are glorious in the Seventh Symphony. Very likely the best of my 15-20 recordings of the symphony in that respect. So far, then, I would say these are about as good as it gets, at least for my taste. Thanks so much for calling this box to our attention.
very interesting! I grew up with this Beethoven 9th and love it but I find the style and vibrato of the solo horn in the slow movement (4th horn BTW) out of style for this music. I do love it in French music and especially in Ravel's Pavane, but here it's a bit strange for my taste
This Schuricht Beethoven cycle is extremely idiomatic, being a top recommendation for me. Do you have any opinion on Cluytens versions with the Berlin Philharmonic, also on EMI/Warner and contemporaneously recorded (1957-1960)? Thank you.
I like Schuricht better. I think Clytens was a fine conductor and the Beethoven is very good, but not as distinctive as Schuricht (and others) from the same period.
Schuricht was a story-teller - someone who could, as you say, "unfold" the music without forcing it into unnatural (and usually egocentrical) moulds. His Beethoven was always great - I can only recommend his New York performance with the Vienna Phil, and this stunning live performance of the 9th: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kG2mz9WhojY.html
Dave, you are right that Schuricht was an excellent conductor in Beethoven and Bruckner. But a Beethoven tradition? What did Mahler say: "Was ihr Theaterleute Tradition nennt, das ist Bequemlichkeit und Schlamperei!"
@@DavesClassicalGuide Yes, maybe. On the whole l side with Mahler, and with Toscanini who famously said that tradition is the last bad performance, and who had no need of a tradition because, he said, he got instructions direct from the composer, from the score. But then there's tradition, and there's tradition. How else to explain the Viennese way of lilting a Strauss waltz, which only the Viennese seem to be able to do? At any rate you have convinced me to go back and listen again to these recordings, which can't be a bad thing, so thanks for that!
@@gaylelinney180 What Mahler and Toscanini were saying, obviously, is that tradition is no excuse for laziness. I agree with that, but that is not the case with Schuricht.
I find Schuricht's Beethoven lovely and interesting, but for other reasons than you. I disagree completely regarding original instruments and HIP. Instruments were developed to be easier to play, to sound louder and more smooth in different registers. 'Better' is not a valid argument. We know today, that not every development is for the good. You gain something and you loose something, like Alexander Melnikov put it. (About pianos)
Yes, "better" is an entirely valid argument. To deny that is to deny the very definition of "better" or the notion of "improvement" or "progress" that motivated composers, performers, and instrument builders alike. You may wish to write history backwards, and substitute the benefit of hindsight from the reality of what was happening at the time, but that is intellectually lazy and simply erroneous.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I acknowledge the reality of what was happening at the time, but I also want to make use of the benefit of hindsight, I don't see why we shouldn't.
