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What Classical Music Are You Listening To?


StarThrower

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On 9/14/2020 at 10:24 AM, Larry Kart said:

I've got and like both Kamu-Berwald discs, though I recall  that the old Ehrling was a bit better -- but in rather dim early '60s  LP sound IIRC. Yesterday I ordered the Dausgaard set, cheap now on Brilliant Classics (two CDs for about $9). Some said it was very good, though some said it lacked punch. I don't think of Berwald as a very "punchy" composer though. We shall see. 

I think I can say without fear of contradiction that Berwald is not an easy composer to get just right, and when he isn't gotten just right or close to just right, some find him to be mererlty workmanlike, with a quirk or two, That particular swatch of time -- 1840s-'50s -- was pretty unsettled in Euorpean music in general, and Berwald's position in Denmark seems to have been especially equivocal for reasons that seem to have been related to that country's then rather provincial musical culture. For instance, Berwald's forte seems to have been orchestral/symphonic music, but Denmark had no taste for that sort of music at that time; opera was what was wanted there, and IIRC his major orchestral scores got no hearing win Denmark at the time. Also, not being able to make a go of it financially as a composer, Berwald got involved In running a lumber mill IIRC. When Liszt eventually heard Berwald's music, he was enthusiastic about its harmonic and formal subtleties, which in retrospect seem dead on.

Further Berwald report: I got the Dausgaard, and while I like his foregrounding of the winds; heard alongside Kamu (whose virtues shine by comparison) he's too (rather self-consciously) delicate, even a bit persnickety in his phrasing. Most troublesome is the very broad dynamic range of the recording (originally on Chandos); I have the Brilliant Clasic reissue). Adjust your (at least my) volume  control so as to clearly make out the more delicate passages and you'll be blasted elsewhere. OTOH, a comparative listen to Dausgaard and Kamu did make me hone in on the virtues off the latter. You listen and learn.

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