We lovers of classical music truly are living in a golden age, with so much incredible music, of such high quality, previously difficult to obtain if not out of print, now so readily available in these gorgeous boxed sets, at modest price. It’s just unbelievably wonderful. This message can be lost in the “noise” if we get too nitpicky about detailed comparisons of various discs. (My favorite this, my favorite that - boy, don’t we have choices.) We should savor the moment. Thank you for your wonderful channel, I learn something new and enjoy myself with each video.
Just saw a few hours ago a 95-year old Blomstedt conducting a spectacular Mendelssohn 3rd Symphony with Chamber Symphony of Europe in Cologne. Blomstedt is amazing. All the SF recordings I've heard of him are excellent indeed
I`m glad to hear that. The fact that he has chosen not to retire most probably contributes to him not dying, and he truly is an inspiration. Many have seen the delightful video from this year, available on youtube, "Happy 97th Birthday, Herbert Blomstedt !", in which the orchestra does not play your regular happybirthdaytoyou, but has taken the trouble to find out and prepare his fav Swedish summer psalm, "I denna ljuva sommartid", which means something like "In this summertime full of light". Now, I don`t think conductors behaving badly, however great, get that from an orchestra. This gesture from musicians I find most moving. Times are not all bad.
I'm not much of a CD collector, but I might have to pick this box up. So many of these discs are at the tippy top of the upper echelon of my absolute favorite recordings.
The San Francisco recordings are my reference recordings, and have been since they have been released. I like Blomstedt's Bruckner 4 and 6 with San Francisco, and Schubert 9th -- the sonics are some of the best if you have a good digital play-back system. Straus Alpine Symphony is wonderful at high volumes, it can get your entire neighborhood shaking.
I've been a fan of SF symphony for years. They are a great, world class orchestra which has been super fortunate to have a long line of 1st class music directors, but the HB Era is musical magic. I will be purchasing this box 👍
Excellent review as always. Happy I got to see him conduct the Bruckner 4 in person this year. I’m a huge Mendelssohn fan, so I’ll definitely have to check out the 3rd and 4th plus the Brahms choral stuff, since I’ve always defaulted back to the RIAS Kammerchor stuff with Marcus Creed for the Brahms choral stuff.
Thanks for another great review, Dave! :) I've seen on another video review of yours that you didn't like Blomstedt's latest Brahms cycle, which I agree with as well. I was looking around on some websites to get his latest Bruckner cycle with the Gewandhaus from the beginning of this year. What I realised everywhere is, that without exception people made very bad comments on it and the star reviews don't get higher than 2,5-3 stars. I would really love a short video about your thoughts on the matter. Is, probably, really his age the matter? I really enjoyed his Bruckner with the San Francisco and a little less so with his earlier Gewandhaus, but still. It never has been as bad.
I have been waiting for this box. And just ordered my set. For the absurdly low price DECCA is asking, we should all fork out and buy the set. I of course have many of the recordings but great to see it all packaged together. Can’t wait to hear the hindemith. Dave. Great video
Oh wow! I just ordered the box before it's out-of-print Decca style. I am so glad you broke this news for us. The first classical concert I attended was Blomstedt with San Francisco so these recordings are extremely meaningful to me. I have many of these discs but have not been able to find all of them for rational prices so I'm going to cherish this box.
Man, there's been too many great box sets released (or rereleased) so far this year and my bank account is not happy with me now. This Blomstedt Decca box; the re-print of the RCA Living Stereo box; the Haitink Decca Concertgebouw box; the Dorati Detroit box; the massive Abbado DG/Decca/Philips box; the Ansermet Stereo box; the Trevor Pinnock Archiv box; the John Eliot Gardiner Warner box; the Frank Peter Zimmermann Warner box; the updated Emerson String Quartet box; then the soon-to-be released Klemperer Warner box and I'm sure a number of others that I missed!
@@sjc1204 For me, probably the RCA Living Stereo box. There's just so many great recordings crammed in there. I missed it back when it was originally released, so I was really excited when I saw that Sony re-printed it (and made it available for a reasonable price). Of the [actually] new boxes, I'm probably most excited about the Klemperer box, though it's the only one from that list that isn't available yet.
I was lucky enough to attend Blomstedt conducting these concerts in person in San Francisco from the mid 80's to mid 90's at Davies Symphony Hall. Back then, you could buy an annual subscription in the second tier (6 seats) for not that much, but when singles came on sale in August, you could buy the chorus seats -- when of course a chorus was not playing -- and get a chose up view of "Herbie" as he was affectionately known. These seats sold out fast, I believe they were 10 or 12 dollars each back then. You could buy two of them for every concert, so I pretty much attended every concert Herbie ever did in San Francisco. (One thing -- Blomstedt would use a recording studio at Davies Symphony Hall, located under the actual stage. Tilson Thomas insisted on a live audience -- the space used for symphony recording sessions has now been transformed into a smaller performance space.
Thank you, David. I waited too long and now it is not available anymore except for astronomic prices. How can that be that it is released in May and completely out of print in November - while it was not even labelled as "Limited Edition"?
It's crazy. Figured I'd have more time to pick one up given that it only came out in 2023. In fact, I had only become aware of it around the time it was all gone.
That Till Eulenspiegel is fantastic, so it's incomprehensible that anyone would substitute anything else. (Does anyone talk about Kurt Masur any more? Does anyone recommend any of his recordings as being the "reference" of anything? I swear I haven't heard that name in years.) I was always surprised that Blomstedt never did any Schumann, since I thought he'd be great in that music. Considering how good he was at Mendelssohn, Schubert, Dvorak, Brahms, etc., his apparent aversion to Schumann was interesting, and I never heard any explanation as to why. Fortunately I already own all of the SFS recordings.
Yes, and he recorded the fourth early on with Dresden I believe. It was one of the first CD's I ever purchased back in the 80's, when not that much was out there at Tower Records.
This looks like an amazing set! Dave, would you say this is worth buying on a limited budget if you already have the The San Francisco Years 15CD set Decca released previously?
Im enjoying this box immensely, though I already had some of it. One disagreement, I think Harbison's oboe concerto a knockout, just fantastic--and worth more than the other two works on the disc put together. 11:37 In the Hindemith Sinfonia Serena there are places where I see some important string writing on the page but simply don't hear them at all, more an engineer thing, I think, than Blomstedt. Yes, that Mahler 2 is glorious.
And less then a year after, it is of course out of print 😕. And the worst part is - it's Decca and it's limited edition, so it's never coming back ever again. I really can't stand how utterly incompetent this company is. They rarely release what they have, and when they do, it goes out of print immediately, never to be seen again. These people did the same with the Monteux box, the Karajan one, the Haitink legacy (the Mahler, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky cycles not being available is just criminal) and so on. And don't let me get started about how many problems the few boxes they release have - the Grumieux edition, the Ancerment... It's weird seeing one of the major labels being that incompetent and it's the only one that's that bad - Sony, DG, Warner, while not perfect, release more stuff, keep it in print, reissue it and so on. Sorry for the long rant, but I was devastated after ordering the box literally MONTHS ago, back when it was in print, it never arrived and when I asked what is happening they just answered that they don't have it anymore and it's now out of print. Sad stuff 😢
I'm not really fond of his Strauss cycle, except for Alpensinfonie, really one of the greatest. He recorded Zarathustra with Dresden on Denon and that is a magnificent recording. Ein Heldenleben from about the same time also with Dresden is not at the same level.
I was pro Blomstedt when S.F. hired him, and I was pro Blomstedt when he stepped down, after some of the players spread the rumor that Blomstedt wasn't all that great, and was too much of a task master - making them stay until the end of the scheduled rehearsal time (god forbid). Now all that has come back to bite them, as Blomstedt is basically welcomed back as royalty by the paying audience. Sorry, but I've not been a fan of that orchestra ever since. Good, yes, but I think L.A. has the better hall and the better string section.
We lovers of classical music truly are living in a golden age, with so much incredible music, of such high quality, previously difficult to obtain if not out of print, now so readily available in these gorgeous boxed sets, at modest price. It’s just unbelievably wonderful. This message can be lost in the “noise” if we get too nitpicky about detailed comparisons of various discs. (My favorite this, my favorite that - boy, don’t we have choices.) We should savor the moment. Thank you for your wonderful channel, I learn something new and enjoy myself with each video.
Now on to a complete Decca Dohnanyi? Please?
Seconded, heartily!!!
No commercial prospects sadly unlike yes even something like Blomstedt
Just saw a few hours ago a 95-year old Blomstedt conducting a spectacular Mendelssohn 3rd Symphony with Chamber Symphony of Europe in Cologne. Blomstedt is amazing. All the SF recordings I've heard of him are excellent indeed
I`m glad to hear that. The fact that he has chosen not to retire most probably contributes to him not dying, and he truly is an inspiration. Many have seen the delightful video from this year, available on youtube, "Happy 97th Birthday, Herbert Blomstedt !", in which the orchestra does not play your regular happybirthdaytoyou, but has taken the trouble to find out and prepare his fav Swedish summer psalm, "I denna ljuva sommartid", which means something like "In this summertime full of light". Now, I don`t think conductors behaving badly, however great, get that from an orchestra. This gesture from musicians I find most moving. Times are not all bad.
Got this box on your suggestion. Definitely made my long weekend (and many weekends to come). Thank you!
I'm not much of a CD collector, but I might have to pick this box up. So many of these discs are at the tippy top of the upper echelon of my absolute favorite recordings.
The San Francisco recordings are my reference recordings, and have been since they have been released. I like Blomstedt's Bruckner 4 and 6 with San Francisco, and Schubert 9th -- the sonics are some of the best if you have a good digital play-back system. Straus Alpine Symphony is wonderful at high volumes, it can get your entire neighborhood shaking.
I've been a fan of SF symphony for years. They are a great, world class orchestra which has been super fortunate to have a long line of 1st class music directors, but the HB Era is musical magic.
I will be purchasing this box 👍
Excellent review as always. Happy I got to see him conduct the Bruckner 4 in person this year. I’m a huge Mendelssohn fan, so I’ll definitely have to check out the 3rd and 4th plus the Brahms choral stuff, since I’ve always defaulted back to the RIAS Kammerchor stuff with Marcus Creed for the Brahms choral stuff.
Thanks for another great review, Dave! :) I've seen on another video review of yours that you didn't like Blomstedt's latest Brahms cycle, which I agree with as well. I was looking around on some websites to get his latest Bruckner cycle with the Gewandhaus from the beginning of this year. What I realised everywhere is, that without exception people made very bad comments on it and the star reviews don't get higher than 2,5-3 stars. I would really love a short video about your thoughts on the matter. Is, probably, really his age the matter? I really enjoyed his Bruckner with the San Francisco and a little less so with his earlier Gewandhaus, but still. It never has been as bad.
I will put this on my wish list! one of the greatest maestros of music history and life!
I have been waiting for this box. And just ordered my set. For the absurdly low price DECCA is asking, we should all fork out and buy the set. I of course have many of the recordings but great to see it all packaged together. Can’t wait to hear the hindemith. Dave. Great video
Oh wow!
I just ordered the box before it's out-of-print Decca style. I am so glad you broke this news for us.
The first classical concert I attended was Blomstedt with San Francisco so these recordings are extremely meaningful to me. I have many of these discs but have not been able to find all of them for rational prices so I'm going to cherish this box.
What was the program?
Man, there's been too many great box sets released (or rereleased) so far this year and my bank account is not happy with me now.
This Blomstedt Decca box; the re-print of the RCA Living Stereo box; the Haitink Decca Concertgebouw box; the Dorati Detroit box; the massive Abbado DG/Decca/Philips box; the Ansermet Stereo box; the Trevor Pinnock Archiv box; the John Eliot Gardiner Warner box; the Frank Peter Zimmermann Warner box; the updated Emerson String Quartet box; then the soon-to-be released Klemperer Warner box and I'm sure a number of others that I missed!
Do you have a favorite of all the box sets you listed? Even asking the question is unfair but I'm curious.
I really haven't thought about it...
@@sjc1204 For me, probably the RCA Living Stereo box. There's just so many great recordings crammed in there. I missed it back when it was originally released, so I was really excited when I saw that Sony re-printed it (and made it available for a reasonable price).
Of the [actually] new boxes, I'm probably most excited about the Klemperer box, though it's the only one from that list that isn't available yet.
I was lucky enough to attend Blomstedt conducting these concerts in person in San Francisco from the mid 80's to mid 90's at Davies Symphony Hall. Back then, you could buy an annual subscription in the second tier (6 seats) for not that much, but when singles came on sale in August, you could buy the chorus seats -- when of course a chorus was not playing -- and get a chose up view of "Herbie" as he was affectionately known. These seats sold out fast, I believe they were 10 or 12 dollars each back then. You could buy two of them for every concert, so I pretty much attended every concert Herbie ever did in San Francisco. (One thing -- Blomstedt would use a recording studio at Davies Symphony Hall, located under the actual stage. Tilson Thomas insisted on a live audience -- the space used for symphony recording sessions has now been transformed into a smaller performance space.
Thank you, David. I waited too long and now it is not available anymore except for astronomic prices. How can that be that it is released in May and completely out of print in November - while it was not even labelled as "Limited Edition"?
It's crazy. Figured I'd have more time to pick one up given that it only came out in 2023. In fact, I had only become aware of it around the time it was all gone.
That Till Eulenspiegel is fantastic, so it's incomprehensible that anyone would substitute anything else. (Does anyone talk about Kurt Masur any more? Does anyone recommend any of his recordings as being the "reference" of anything? I swear I haven't heard that name in years.)
I was always surprised that Blomstedt never did any Schumann, since I thought he'd be great in that music. Considering how good he was at Mendelssohn, Schubert, Dvorak, Brahms, etc., his apparent aversion to Schumann was interesting, and I never heard any explanation as to why.
Fortunately I already own all of the SFS recordings.
You have delivered good tidings.
for those who would like to buy the decca box, there are several available on ebay, from around 165-175 shipped from japan no charge
Wonderful review of a conductor I am just getting to know better.
That was fun! An easy recommendation. Thanks!
Blomstedt’s Bruckner 7th (Denon) is my top choice of this masterpiece, too bad he didn’t record a complete cycle on Decca.
Yes, and he recorded the fourth early on with Dresden I believe. It was one of the first CD's I ever purchased back in the 80's, when not that much was out there at Tower Records.
@@eddihaskell really? Never heard of it
I find it dull--underplayed and too timid.
Doesn’t he have now a DVD cycle with Leipzig?
This looks like an amazing set! Dave, would you say this is worth buying on a limited budget if you already have the The San Francisco Years 15CD set Decca released previously?
Well, I don't know how limited your budget it, but yes. Sell the old set and get this one.
My favorite Carmina Burana by far.
RIP William Bennett.
Im enjoying this box immensely, though I already had some of it. One disagreement, I think Harbison's oboe concerto a knockout, just fantastic--and worth more than the other two works on the disc put together. 11:37
In the Hindemith Sinfonia Serena there are places where I see some important string writing on the page but simply don't hear them at all, more an engineer thing, I think, than Blomstedt.
Yes, that Mahler 2 is glorious.
Already got the smaller box! Such a pain to have to duplicate all those recordings. These labels know how to milk us listeners! How to resist?
You can always try to sell the smaller one ;P
@@janouglaeser8049 Good idea! Will probably gift it to a friend!
Mahler 2 should be an event & this recording is a BIG event 👍
Dave, can I ask you. Blomstedt did a Dvorak 8 with Dresden - one of his earlier recordings. Is it any good?
Wonderful.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Thanks, I will get it.
Well, my box arrived but was damaged. Resolving now.
And less then a year after, it is of course out of print 😕. And the worst part is - it's Decca and it's limited edition, so it's never coming back ever again. I really can't stand how utterly incompetent this company is. They rarely release what they have, and when they do, it goes out of print immediately, never to be seen again. These people did the same with the Monteux box, the Karajan one, the Haitink legacy (the Mahler, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky cycles not being available is just criminal) and so on. And don't let me get started about how many problems the few boxes they release have - the Grumieux edition, the Ancerment... It's weird seeing one of the major labels being that incompetent and it's the only one that's that bad - Sony, DG, Warner, while not perfect, release more stuff, keep it in print, reissue it and so on. Sorry for the long rant, but I was devastated after ordering the box literally MONTHS ago, back when it was in print, it never arrived and when I asked what is happening they just answered that they don't have it anymore and it's now out of print. Sad stuff 😢
I suspect Finster has a crush on Blomstedt 😀
I'm not really fond of his Strauss cycle, except for Alpensinfonie, really one of the greatest. He recorded Zarathustra with Dresden on Denon and that is a magnificent recording. Ein Heldenleben from about the same time also with Dresden is not at the same level.
I'm not impressed by his Dresden Strauss as compared to Kempe, for example, nor is Dresden Bruckner, which I find simply boring.
Consoling it needs to be 🙂
I was pro Blomstedt when S.F. hired him, and I was pro Blomstedt when he stepped down, after some of the players spread the rumor that Blomstedt wasn't all that great, and was too much of a task master - making them stay until the end of the scheduled rehearsal time (god forbid). Now all that has come back to bite them, as Blomstedt is basically welcomed back as royalty by the paying audience. Sorry, but I've not been a fan of that orchestra ever since. Good, yes, but I think L.A. has the better hall and the better string section.
Agree on all your points including Los Angeles being the top west coast endemble.
Well put.
You're asking a cat to behave itself? That's not going to happen!