CD Fairy
Monday February 11 2008
So in my previous post I wrote that my professor has assigned me excerpts BWV… 56, La Scala di Seta, Brahms Violin Concerto, and Tchaik 4.
Well, today at the School of Music, I received a package from someone in Bothell, Washington containing CDs which included Mark Lifschey and Mack Harrell performing BWV… 56 and 82, and the Chicago Symphony with Reiner (and Ray Still) playing Rossini Overtures! Thank you CD Fairy!
The Mark Lifschey CD is actually a very, very special recording. I don’t think you can get it anymore, and I’m not sure where this person got this recording. I thought it was available on vinyl only. When I was in High School, my instructor played the recording for me and told me that his ideal oboe sound was Mark Lifschey. We worked on 56 at the time, and I still remember the style and articulation he taught me today.
Well, I took it into my lesson two weeks ago, and my professor said, “Where did you learn that? Have you ever listened to a recording of it?” To which I said “I heard a recording of it with Lifschey a long time ago.” She wasn’t pleased with the style, and told me it was “100% Schubert”. Well, it’s funny that after 12 years or so, the recording has found its way back to me, and listening to it again, I guess I remember why I play it in a “Schubertesque” manner. I suppose she likes a more up-tempo form, similar to that of Albrecht Mayer on this recording. In any case, I will always treasure this long, lost recording and keep it dear to my heart.
UPDATE…: Wow! Ray Still makes not 1 but TWO… finger flubs on La Scala (1:43, and 1:48)! There’s hope for me yet!
bautbois
Feb 12, 2008
One thing i’ve noticed in my baroque recordings is that older recordings are usually at a much slower tempo and played almost literally, i.e. with very little ornamentation - i wonder if the more recent recordings which are much more uptempo characterized by frequent ornamental flourishes reflect a more uptodate scholarly understanding of how these works were probably played. To give one example, listen to Gomberg’s Bach double and compare it to Alan Vogel’s or Albrecht Mayer’s. Mayer’s (with Nigel Kennedy on violin) is taken at a pretty blistering pace!
Graham
Feb 22, 2008
If you are looking for a good recording of La Scala, check out the Atlanta Symphony recording…I got it off of iTunes. It is probably the best that I have ever heard it played. Beautiful sound, and everything is incredibly clean. I wish I knew who the player was! I personally think that it’s much better than the Chicago recording.
If you ever find out where to get more Lifschey recordings, please let all of us know. He is truly an incredible musician!
Feb 11, 2008
I have 82 on a CD sent by the late Mr. Lifschey’s wife. Perhaps that’s where your wonderful CD came from? I wonder. I know she has occasionally dropped by my site, when checking to see if her husband’s name is mentioned.
I had one lesson with Mr. Lifschey. I wish I had had more, but I was in the middle of a muddle with life, and never managed to get back. He was one amazing player, wasn’t he? I heard him play Firebird and when he played the solo ... well ... it was as if his sound just wrapped around me. What a wonderful, wonderful musician. (And very nice man, too!)
As to a bumbling note or two ... no one gets away with that any more when it comes to recordings. And nearly no one gets away with it in an orchestra either. We are perfection oriented, rather than musically oriented. I think it’s rather sad. I realize our goal is to play musically AND perfect, but I’ll take musicality over perfection if I have to choose! I’m tired of that cold playing I hear far too often. Sigh.
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