Dave, thanks. I needed this. I have never been able to penetrate this work. I’ll try again. I have both albums on my streaming service. God knows, I had a hard time with the Dvorak requiem but eventually got there with it. Perhaps, I’ll scale the Berlioz…finally. I’ll leave and listen to it now.
Absolutely love the Berlioz Requiem but have to admit that because of the huge orchestra and chorus required it really needs to be heard live for the total experience. I understand that this work was the composer’s choice In an imaginary world where if he was only allowed one of his compositions to be preserved this would be the one. Personally I would choose Les Troyens but who am I to disagree.😊
Back then, RCA had what was called the Soria Series, where they packaged the LPs in beautiful cloth-like boxes and the full sized booklets had amazing color plates in them. Still have a few from that series.
Glad you included the DGG recording. It's most often simply dismissed by most reviewers, but I still find it pretty compelling. It was my first Requiem...purchased on budget DGG Lps. Yes, once I heard the Boston account, it was clearly superior, but still...there is something about the Bavarian brass in the Tuba Mirum, and Peter Schreier. There really is something to be said for that DGG recording.
Munch was on the RCA Soria series. Best recording, great packaging if you can get the original. My teachers played on the RCA and they were balled over.
Yes, of course it had to be the Munch/Boston. When the Munch/BRSO came out on DGG, I remember thinking, "Why?" But about 10 years ago I got an answer when I SAW part of the Munch/BRSO on TV! And since it was being funded and rehearsed for TV, it would have been relatively inexpensive for DGG to do a contemporaneous recording project. Who knows--maybe the DGG recording IS the soundtrack of the video performance. (That would certainly explain the relatively unimpressive sound.) Another project explained when I saw the videos on TV: Jochum's Mozart Symphonies w/Bamberg. I'd be happy to buy them if they were available on DVD or BluRay. And one I've only read about, but would love to buy: Ton Koopman and his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra filmed a complete(?) Mozart Symphony cycle for some Japanese subscription-based hi-def TV service, now long defunct. Do those tapes still exist? (Koopman was a wonderful Moartean, and I treasure his nearly-complete cycle on Erato.)
Another good recording is from 1975 with Bernstein conducting the Orchestre National de France. The recording took place in the same venie where the premiere took place. i forget where that was though. I believe it was a church.
I grew up on the Levine recording back in the era where you had to be a person of means (or a critic!) to have access to a lot of versions for comparison. Some things that I now realize are flaws, like the drums overpowering the chorus on the Dies Irae, sounded “awesome” to my childish ears. I definitely appreciate the superiority of the Munch recording but it’s hard to shake off nostalgia.
Perhaps you or one of your fellow Munchians might have some insight regarding the absence of the wartime Schmitt La tragedie de Sal]ome [ HMV/VSM W 1559/1561 ] from the "Complete" Warner box. Oversight? Not a single copy survives? It's cited on p. 12 of the on-line appendix to D. Kern Holoman's book on Charles Munch.
I wholeheartedly endorse the Munch RCA Requiem as the reference recording. Recorded in 1959 the sound is astonishing and, of course, the performance is incomparable. However, I would contest that the Munch DG recording was regarded as the reference in Europe or, at least in the UK. When it was released in the UK it did not receive particularly good reviews and certainly no one in my circles regarded this as the go to recording. As you mention the Munch RCA was not widely available in the UK at the time and so for must of us Berliozians the Colin Davis/LSO/Phillips recording was the one to go for. It certainly made an impression at the time but with the passing of time it does have some faults, particularly the rather close miked chorus, the acoustics of St Paul's Cathedral dictating this. But, the big moments really, and still do hit home. I came to the Munch RCA recording quite late and it became quite apparent that this was as near perfection you could get in capturing such a huge work on record. I appreciate when talking about the Colin Davis I was talking about perceptions in the UK. You are probably right in saying that the Munch DG was the reference in Europe. Hell, I don't know! Anyway great video.
Actually, the Davis recording was made in Westminster Cathedral. When it was released in early 1971 it got hosannas from all the British and American record review magazines and the only reservation reviewers noted concerned the tenor soloist. It supplanted the Munch RCA recording as the top choice for the work and it certainly wasn't challenged by any of the later recordings from the 70s from Barenboim, Bernstein or Maazel. Munch's 1968 DG recording with the Bavarian Radio Forces did not get positive notices from any of the review publications I was aware of at the time.
With all due respect, I think we need to get beyond our Anglo-American prejudice when it comes to these matters. England, especially, is not Europe, and the English speaking world is not the world of classical music. England always punched above its weight in the music business because so many major labels were headquartered in London, but that's very different from what people bought and heard, and what the critical fraternity was saying in the countries where the majority of listeners actually lived.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I agree with the general point you make, however there's no Anglo-American centrism here. I find the Britcrits almost as wayward as you do in their preferences. However, I know of no one who ever thought Munch's DG remake of this work to be as good as his Boston one. That would be just as eccentric as anything the Britcrits have published over the years. I'm all ears if you can demonstrate differently.
@@DavesClassicalGuide England/Great Britain, of course, is no longer part of the European Union, and evidently not part of Continental Europe, but unless one buys into Trump's concept of 'alternative facts', it, for certain, geographically, historically and culturally is a European country...although, I grant you, not without its own pecularities and idiosyncracies - it is after all a nation placed on an island, or rather, to be precise, located on islands!
BREAKING NEWS!! Mahler 3 by Minnesota Orchestra has been released!! Also, now that 3 has been released, the entire Mahler cycle is now available in box set!! I realize that the cycle has been hit and miss, but I personally think the 3rd quite well done by the Orchestra. I hope that you'll do a review soon, Dave!! :)
Dave, thanks. I needed this. I have never been able to penetrate this work. I’ll try again. I have both albums on my streaming service. God knows, I had a hard time with the Dvorak requiem but eventually got there with it. Perhaps, I’ll scale the Berlioz…finally. I’ll leave and listen to it now.
Absolutely love the Berlioz Requiem but have to admit that because of the huge orchestra and chorus required it really needs to be heard live for the total experience. I understand that this work was the composer’s choice In an imaginary world where if he was only allowed one of his compositions to be preserved this would be the one. Personally I would choose Les Troyens but who am I to disagree.😊
I am listening to this almost every day and making progress with it. How supreme the opening and the finale, but what a strange, unusual Dies Irae
Back then, RCA had what was called the Soria Series, where they packaged the LPs in beautiful cloth-like boxes and the full sized booklets had amazing color plates in them. Still have a few from that series.
Glad you included the DGG recording. It's most often simply dismissed by most reviewers, but I still find it pretty compelling. It was my first Requiem...purchased on budget DGG Lps. Yes, once I heard the Boston account, it was clearly superior, but still...there is something about the Bavarian brass in the Tuba Mirum, and Peter Schreier. There really is something to be said for that DGG recording.
Munch was on the RCA Soria series. Best recording, great packaging if you can get the original. My teachers played on the RCA and they were balled over.
Yes, of course it had to be the Munch/Boston.
When the Munch/BRSO came out on DGG, I remember thinking, "Why?" But about 10 years ago I got an answer when I SAW part of the Munch/BRSO on TV! And since it was being funded and rehearsed for TV, it would have been relatively inexpensive for DGG to do a contemporaneous recording project. Who knows--maybe the DGG recording IS the soundtrack of the video performance. (That would certainly explain the relatively unimpressive sound.)
Another project explained when I saw the videos on TV: Jochum's Mozart Symphonies w/Bamberg. I'd be happy to buy them if they were available on DVD or BluRay.
And one I've only read about, but would love to buy: Ton Koopman and his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra filmed a complete(?) Mozart Symphony cycle for some Japanese subscription-based hi-def TV service, now long defunct. Do those tapes still exist? (Koopman was a wonderful Moartean, and I treasure his nearly-complete cycle on Erato.)
I am so looking forward ro the mozart requiem! But thanks for this one, I don't really know it
Another good recording is from 1975 with Bernstein conducting the Orchestre National de France. The recording took place in the same venie where the premiere took place. i forget where that was though. I believe it was a church.
Les Invalides, I believe. It's a wonderful performance.
I grew up on the Levine recording back in the era where you had to be a person of means (or a critic!) to have access to a lot of versions for comparison. Some things that I now realize are flaws, like the drums overpowering the chorus on the Dies Irae, sounded “awesome” to my childish ears. I definitely appreciate the superiority of the Munch recording but it’s hard to shake off nostalgia.
Another reference recording that is included in that Living Stereo 60 Box.
Perhaps you or one of your fellow Munchians might have some insight regarding the absence of the wartime Schmitt La tragedie de Sal]ome [ HMV/VSM W 1559/1561 ] from the "Complete" Warner box. Oversight? Not a single copy survives? It's cited on p. 12 of the on-line appendix to D. Kern Holoman's book on Charles Munch.
I wholeheartedly endorse the Munch RCA Requiem as the reference recording. Recorded in 1959 the sound is astonishing and, of course, the performance is incomparable. However, I would contest that the Munch DG recording was regarded as the reference in Europe or, at least in the UK. When it was released in the UK it did not receive particularly good reviews and certainly no one in my circles regarded this as the go to recording. As you mention the Munch RCA was not widely available in the UK at the time and so for must of us Berliozians the Colin Davis/LSO/Phillips recording was the one to go for. It certainly made an impression at the time but with the passing of time it does have some faults, particularly the rather close miked chorus, the acoustics of St Paul's Cathedral dictating this. But, the big moments really, and still do hit home. I came to the Munch RCA recording quite late and it became quite apparent that this was as near perfection you could get in capturing such a huge work on record. I appreciate when talking about the Colin Davis I was talking about perceptions in the UK. You are probably right in saying that the Munch DG was the reference in Europe. Hell, I don't know! Anyway great video.
Actually, the Davis recording was made in Westminster Cathedral. When it was released in early 1971 it got hosannas from all the British and American record review magazines and the only reservation reviewers noted concerned the tenor soloist. It supplanted the Munch RCA recording as the top choice for the work and it certainly wasn't challenged by any of the later recordings from the 70s from Barenboim, Bernstein or Maazel. Munch's 1968 DG recording with the Bavarian Radio Forces did not get positive notices from any of the review publications I was aware of at the time.
With all due respect, I think we need to get beyond our Anglo-American prejudice when it comes to these matters. England, especially, is not Europe, and the English speaking world is not the world of classical music. England always punched above its weight in the music business because so many major labels were headquartered in London, but that's very different from what people bought and heard, and what the critical fraternity was saying in the countries where the majority of listeners actually lived.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I agree with the general point you make, however there's no Anglo-American centrism here. I find the Britcrits almost as wayward as you do in their preferences. However, I know of no one who ever thought Munch's DG remake of this work to be as good as his Boston one. That would be just as eccentric as anything the Britcrits have published over the years. I'm all ears if you can demonstrate differently.
@@DavesClassicalGuide England/Great Britain, of course, is no longer part of the European Union, and evidently not part of Continental Europe, but unless one buys into Trump's concept of 'alternative facts', it, for certain, geographically, historically and culturally is a European country...although, I grant you, not without its own pecularities and idiosyncracies - it is after all a nation placed on an island, or rather, to be precise, located on islands!
BREAKING NEWS!! Mahler 3 by Minnesota Orchestra has been released!! Also, now that 3 has been released, the entire Mahler cycle is now available in box set!! I realize that the cycle has been hit and miss, but I personally think the 3rd quite well done by the Orchestra. I hope that you'll do a review soon, Dave!! :)
That's the plan.