Merry Christmas

classical music, music videos

Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Tchaikovsky

December 25, 2014

6 Comments

6 comments

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MarK

If after many decades of extreme overexposure (particularly during the month of December) this music still sounds rather attractive (even in late December!), it must be a great masterpiece or something very close to it.

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December 27, 2014 1:18 am
- tmangan
  
  Agreed.
  
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  December 27, 2014 10:11 am
chris

Yes, what MarK said. As much as it is overexposed, I do believe it’s one of Tchaikovsky’s most brilliant and inventive scores.

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December 27, 2014 11:02 am
kitsunebi

A masterpiece, no doubt, just like Handel’s Messiah (would love to that again!). But I’ll be reaching for Medtner or Taneyev (or even Pytor’s Sleeping Beauty or Manfred symphony) until about 2016 when *maybe* I’ll be ready to hear ‘ol Nussknacker again…

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December 27, 2014 11:19 am
Deborah

Happy holidays to Tim and his blog, even more so during this trying time in the world of journalism, vis-a-vis the era of the internet (I’ve been reading about what some of the major staffers of the New York Times Arts section have just gone through).

During this post-Christmas weekend, I’m listening not to Tchaikovsky but to two different performances of Mahler, of his Symphony #1. One from what is rated as the best orchestra in the world and, closer to home, the other from the local band:

My ears will be forever grateful to the Disney family and Frank Gehry (with honorable mention to Yasuhisa Toyota).

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December 27, 2014 12:42 pm
MarK

Having grateful ears may be nice, but gratitude that comes from between them is usually more comprehensive. For example, in the case of these two Mahler videos, with two outstanding orchestras led by two outstanding conductors performing a wonderful symphony in two outstanding concert halls, limiting one’s gratitude to those only who designed the “packaging” of one of the two recordings is not nearly enough. There are many more thanks to be offered here. Moving from the peripheral to the central, this is my suggested order: 1) to Tim Mangan, for giving us the opportunity to discuss this; 2) to “Deborah”, for providing links to these two fine recordings; 3) to the builders of both concert halls, for creating acoustically attractive “wrapping paper” for these two musical “presents”; 4) to sound engineers of both recordings, for arranging the “packaging” so expertly; 5) to all musicians of both these orchestras, for confirming their world-class status and realizing the composer’s concept by actually creating and assembling the aural ingredients of the contents; 6) to the two conductors, for supervising and coordinating the preparation and execution of these performances; 7) to the composer, for designing the entire musical “product” so brilliantly.

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December 30, 2014 4:26 pm