download Stockhausen Gruppen from Tanglewood

[mark_str...@yahoo.co.uk]

..for 3usd

http://www.bso.org/Merchandise/Detail/44102

by Knussen and friends


mark stratford

[Jerry Kohl]

On Wednesday, September 26, 2012 12:47:22 AM UTC-7, (unknown) wrote:
> ..for 3usd
>
>
>
> http://www.bso.org/Merchandise/Detail/44102
>
>
>
> by Knussen and friends
>

Thanks for the notification, Mark. The BSO really knows how to keep their light hidden under a bushel. It is nearly impossible to find that listing by means of a normal Google search. Michael Bednarek also called my attention to this, and it has been added to the Wikipedia article on Gruppen.

I'm afraid it is a rather "rough-hewn" recording, with serious balance problems (one trumpet in orchestra 3 appears to pointed directly at one of the microphones, and the corresponding trumpets in orchestra 2 are very distant indeed). The performance, of course, is "live", which offers a certain frisson, along with the occasional unscored thud, missed notes, and some tuning problems (beware of the first violin solo, and the E-flat clarinet lives down to the usual expectations for this instrument in American orchestras). It is also the fastest Gruppen out of the 24 recordings I have heard, at just over 21 minutes. Since I have previously complained of Abbado's accelerated tempos, I expect this is a defect here as well, though I have only listened to this version once and that was without benefit of the score, so it is possible that the short timing is actually down to something else (a skipped group or two?).

It is extremely interesting, though, to compare the *longest* recordings, which are also live performances: the two broadcast in 2008 by the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle. Where sound engineering is concerned, these are at the opposite pole from the Tanglewood recording, which sounds like it was made with just two mikes, hastily set up with no sound tests. In Berlin, where the performances were literally in an aircraft hangar, enormous numbers of microphones were used to balance the sound for the live performance, with four sound technicians at mixing boards (presumably one for each orchestra, and one for the combined sound). The difference is like night and day.

Still, I suppose the price is right for this new recording, but I am reminded of the old adage: you get what you pay for. I have not yet made a direct comparison to the recording made with the same three conductors two years later (with ASKO/Schoenberg Ensemble, amongst others), but my recollection is that it is spectacularly good. Certainly a great deal more care was taken with the miking. It is too bad that it went out of print almost as soon as it was released.

--
Jerry Kohl
"Légpárnás hajóm tele van angolnákkal."

[david...@aol.com]

Also available from the BSO are live recordings of Berio conducting Sinfonia and Knussen conducting Carter's Concerto for Orchestra. Actually there's also one of those all-star performances of L'histoire du soldat there with Carter as the soldier, Babbitt as the devil, & John Harbison as the Narrator.

-dg