Sibelius - Symphony 2 [Blomstedt-San Francisco Symphony]

Sibelius's Second is my favourite Symphony from him, and at a guess i would say this Symphony features more in my Blog than the rest of his Symphonies put together, before and after it, Sibelius never hit the same heights, his later Symphonies dwindled down to short one movement things, and then thirty years of nothing!, this and his Violin Concerto are his greatest achievements.

Herbert Blomstedt is Swedish, now 84, he recorded this disc in 1991, my first exposure to Blomstedt was a Denon disc of Bruckners Seventh Symphony, very good indeed, i'm not sure what the front cover painting is meant to depict, in blue, white, and black, but i like it.

Here's my basic thoughts about Blomstedt's interpretation, the first movement especially seemed to be low key, Blomstedt seems to like to pause things, as if everything is in neat bite-sized pieces, and he emphasises these little nuggets, instead of fusing everything into a whole, the timpani sound backward, and i find in a work like this, you really need to have the drums sharp and meaningful, but they sound dull on this recording, one solution was to play the Symphony louder, and it was the fourth and last movement which was the best, and like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, there's a glorious burst of power and glory, as the ending of the third movement erupts in a majestic explosion at the start of the fourth, with no break inbetween, 

Here's Takeshi Ooi conducting the fourth movement on YouTube.

Chopin - 24 Etudes [Gavrilov]

Here's a set of the Chopin Etudes i've had for over 15 years, it's a very serviceable set, it's one of the first i bought, but it's been eclipsed by the likes of Lortie and Berezovsky, Gavrilov is impetuous, seemingly rushing into pieces with venom, also tripping himself up in certain areas, showy and extravagant in other areas, but then he stuns you with some virtuosity that silences you, other times i'm convinced he plays an Etude to try to create a world speed record, and yet in all of it there's revelations aplenty, a fantastic set to analyse.

Andrei Gavrilov is Russian, he'll be 56 next week, he's had a strange career, initially a virtuoso that burst onto the scene, his later career has been one of introspection, and trying to rediscover his earlier fame, he recorded this disc in 1985 & 1987.

Various Artists [All Woman]

Here's a nice little female compilation disc, i played this for the first time today, a mix of songs i know, and some i don't, usually i somewhat shy away from single disc compilations, but this has some good tracks on it, and these are certainly tracks i wouldn't collect in any other way, the individual Artists and their albums, even their greatest hits packages, always seem to have a few tracks worth collecting, and the rest is just filler, at the very least this disc can be an introduction to some further explorations [think Beth Orton here, which happened to me recently]. 

As far as the front cover goes, it's a fantastic picture of a woman [photo by Trevor Rogers], nicely side / back lit, and that long lovely flowing hair, all curly, and the woman is cleverly placed to the left hand edge of the picture, and the lettering is placed to the right over her hair, only 9 Artists are listed on the front, it would have been better to have the rest in two columns, with a vertical line between them, that would have been perfect. 

The best tracks were 5, 9-10 & 15, with track 9 the very best, here's a short synopsis of these 4 tracks,
5 Natalie Cole - Miss You Like Crazy, ok, i guess corny to certain degree, mushy too, but it's a great tune, and the chorus is really powerful, and Natalie Cole's voice is so good also. 
9 Whitney Houston - One Moment In Time, a song that i guess was quite a hit, i have really been out of the loop of the charts, sure i've have heard it before, but never really listened to it, and what a fabulous tune it has, especially the chorus, it starts off quite Abba-esque, doesn't sound as if it's going to be truly anthemic, and at the end all the stops are pulled out, a bit predictable. 
10 Maria McKee - Show Me Heaven, shows up on loads of compilation albums, a song i really like, and worth having here even though i got it on loads of other compilation albums, it starts off with those drumbeats, very uneven, and hit all over the aural spectrum, again the chorus nicely explodes, and the incessant but quiet triangle sound at the start of the second verse is excellent. 
15 Joan Armatrading - The Weakness In Me, i used to own her Greatest Hits, but i just didn't feel that a majority of the songs justified the owning of the album, so i sold it, this was one of the songs i liked the best, and now i collect her best songs on compilation albums like these, she has a really nicely acoustic way with songs, sounds a lot like Tracy Chapman, nice use of piano in the background, and she has nice lyrics too, the middle of the chorus gets wonderfully passionate, and before the second verse the piano is nicely atmospheric, a song which doesn't force itself on you, it quietly grows on me, and has a lovely gentle ending.

Mahler - Symphony 5 [Dudamel-Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra Of Venezuela]

Here's a new Mahler 5 that i added to my collection, and decided to give it it's first spin, Mahler's Fifth is my favourite Symphony from him, so there's always room for another interpretation / slant, Dudamel has impressed me in the past, and everyone seems to rave about him, a real up and coming Conductor, and the results?, well they're good, but with some reservations, the Symphony is recorded fairly quietly, i turned up the volume to compensate, but maybe i didn't turn it up loud enough until later in the work, so my first impression was one of somewhat a subdued reading, more of the sweet serenade in the whole thing, instead of the brittleness that can be there, the brass especially seem to be subdued, and this is a work where the brass instruments should play a pivotal role, creating a white heat intensity, which Dudamel seems to miss, also i strangely feel that Dudamel is slow, but checking out the timings he's not much different that Dohnanyi or Chailly, two phenomenal readings, the Symphony got better as time went on, could be the fact that i turned up the volume later, a very good reading, but a degree of detachment, i need to listen to it again sometime. 

Again the movement that greatly affected me was the second, it's my favourite, it just seems to say everything, and everything so perfectly, it's nearly 15 minutes of music, full of glorious ideas, really well paced by Mahler, a great variety of the string lyrical and the brass glory, as it switches between the two, 

Gustavo Dudamel is from Venezuela, now 30 years old, and not really any more a youngster, he recorded this disc in 2006, the front and back cover are black and white pictures [by Mathias Bothor], hmmm, i don't think they really work, i also like the timings on the back so i can know where i am, but it's pleasing enough.