Hi,

I found a near mint Columbia Masterworks Bernstein directed Beethoven Fifth Symphony on vinyl at goodwill for $0.99. What do you think? I hear (and hear) its one of the best. The cover is in fantastic shape.

Also got the New World symphony Herbert Von Karajan and the Berlin Phil on Angel Records SQ!! Again $0.99. It is in mint shape except the record is slightly warped on the outside. Any suggestions on fixing that?

I just finished playing Bersteins Mahler 6th and 9th box set I purchased yesterday. This was also w/ the NYP. Awesome performance and sonics on Columbia grey label 2 eye. Mine had some mould I had to remove first but glad I have them.

I have that Fifth, and one other Bernstein conducted NYP. I dislike it. His self-centeredness really shows through. Feels like a race to get through the best parts and linger distractedly on others. I skip over Leonard Bernstein stuff when I see it now.

Better to go with Szell era Cleveland, Philadelphia under Stokowski or Ormandy, or anybody conducted by Ashkenazy.

But that's just my opinion. I've been wrong before and will again.

Wank, This is why I love our hobby. Different ears hear different things. Damage is a newbie and real excited about his finds. I, myself am not sophisticated enough yet to distinguish what the conductors are trying to do. I either like a work or don't. I am about 3 years into listening to classical music. I have been on a Mahler binge this past week. Do you have any Mahler favs? What are they?

The Bernstein version is the best one I have so far, of course, I have all the cheapie ones... where you can hear people coughing, talking, and going in and out of the concert hall.

Damage: If you like Beethoven's 5th, look for Karajan's 5th from the 1977 cycle (or the 1962 cycle) and Guilini/LAPO take on the 5th, a 1980s release, both on DG. There are many more good ones out there, but these are generally readily available.

Damage, you should also check out Beethoven's 7th. The second movement, slow and atmospheric, really hooked me into classical music, Beethoven in particular, a few years ago. The thing that I love about Beethoven is that I feel certain he would have loved electric guitars.

Fish - my bad. Sorry to make that a drive by execution. I was off the grid all weekend and couldn't add anything else.
I didn't mean to insult Damage's find at all. Especially when it comes to vinyl in good condition, it's all a treasure. I hope I didn't discourage listening to the one you have - god knows I'm not enough of an authority to lay down the law on this. Many many many have disagreed with that assessment of Bernstein - but I did say "I dislike it," rather than "it sucks."
At worst, I hope it leads to try recordings of the same piece with different conductors. Pick two or there recordings of piece, one with LB, and one with Szell or Ormandy (one of each) and hear the differences. It's like a live recording of a jam-band: when you get used to one version, you wait for those little punches and expect them when you hear another version. Is the next better or worse or different? All depends on your perspective.
I just picked up some Mahler about a week ago. I'll double check it and let you know.
One thing I tend to see a lot in record bins is the "Great Performances" series - looks like a yellowed newsprint. Those tend to genuinely be really good recordings. I have Wagner (Ring cycle, of course) and Tchaikovski 1812 and my pre-schoolers constantly ask for that, Holst's The Planets (telarc) (she calls it "the biggest planet song") and Scheherezade. Subtle they ain't - and neither is Mahler. But satisfying is just as good.

Just to follow up: I've been listening to Mahler's 5th, the Royal Phil, Gatti conducting, and an older non-descript 1st. The 5th is DARK, but I've got a thing for the french horn and the 4th mvmt has a nice little bit of horn work. Gatti's got a reputation for putting a lot of personality in music, and it holds true here. Really energetic performance. Even more 'not subtle' than you'd normally hear. I'm not sure this will end up in my long-term play list.

If you want to hear a weird interpretation of Beethoven's 5th, listen to Glenn Gould's piano transcription version. He was the first to record this Liszt-Beethoven transcription. At one point (opening of fourth movement I think) he used overdubs to get a particularly thorny passage to sound right. At the time it was probably pretty unusual/controversial for a classical musician to use overdubs to correct errors in performance.

If you want to hear a weird interpretation of Beethoven's 5th, listen to Glenn Gould's piano transcription version. He was the first to record this Liszt-Beethoven transcription. At one point (opening of fourth movement I think) he used overdubs to get a particularly thorny passage to sound right. At the time it was probably pretty unusual/controversial for a classical musician to use overdubs to correct errors in performance.

Glenn Gould was kind of a strange cat...but I enjoy that 5th recording too. An intereting rainy Sunday project is to listen to Gould's two recordings of Beethoven's "Goldberg Variations" back to back.

I have that Fifth, and one other Bernstein conducted NYP. I dislike it. His self-centeredness really shows through. Feels like a race to get through the best parts and linger distractedly on others. I skip over Leonard Bernstein stuff when I see it now.

Better to go with Szell era Cleveland, Philadelphia under Stokowski or Ormandy, or anybody conducted by Ashkenazy.

But that's just my opinion. I've been wrong before and will again.

Id have to agree on the Szell and Ormandy,and Stokowski.Ive been getting lucky the last few months finding sealed copies of many of the CBS Masterworks series,and these conductors renditions are usually quite good.I enjoy some of the Berstein recordings also from this series,espescially his Rhapsody In Blue.
Jimmy

Glenn Gould was kind of a strange cat...but I enjoy that 5th recording too. An intereting rainy Sunday project is to listen to Gould's two recordings of Beethoven's "Goldberg Variations" back to back.


The Goldberg Variations get their name from a keyboard student of JS Bach. It was Bach who composed this work (not Beethoven). I think that Glenn Gould made the first piano recording of this work (Wanda Landowsky made the very first recording of the work on harpsichord). Franz Liszt performed this work during his career as a concert pianist over a hundred years earlier.

The Goldberg Variations get their name from a keyboard student of JS Bach. It was Bach who composed this work (not Beethoven). I think that Glenn Gould made the first piano recording of this work (Wanda Landowsky made the very first recording of the work on harpsichord). Franz Liszt performed this work during his career as a concert pianist over a hundred years earlier.

You're absolutely right...sorry 'bout that.