Review: Paavo Järvi's Complete Telarc Recordings

[@dexblue]

How can you not love Dave ...? He just gave us a wonderful analysis of a great "clump" (one of his favorite words) of the tail end of romantic symphonic music ... I'm ready to call my doctorate in music (thanks Dave ...) ...

[@charlescoleman5509]

After Telarc went down, Paavo and the CIncinnati Symphony created their own label entitled ‘CSO Media’ and came out with the album “American Portraits” with music by Jennifer Higdon, Kevin Puts, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Carter Pann and two of my works! I’ve known Paavo for years. And I’m very fortunate to have been among the few living composers he has commissioned. Great guy. And, of course, a great conductor.

[@markwolf1374]

I’ve got a DVD of their Steetscape performance!

[@charlescoleman5509]

@@markwolf1374 Niiiiice! Needless to say, I was fortunate to compose "Streetscape" for that inaugural concert, despite that it happened 3 days after 9/11. It was a privilege to be involved, let alone it became part of a commercial recording 10 years later.

[@michaelhughes1504]

I live in Cincinnati, and am fortunate to have purchased all of these recordings on their original Telarc releases, and I have them all signed by Jarvi! I'm also fortunate to have heard most of these works live with him in Cincinnati in Music Hall. In my opinion, the CSO never sounded sharper and more focused than under his baton. Of all these recordings, the two that are standouts for me are the Stravinsky Petrushka disc and the Elgar/Britten disc, though most all of them are outstanding as David clearly agrees!

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

Well done, sir.

[@markwolf1374]

And how awesome is the renovation to Music Hall!

[@garysmith8455]

Hello David. The interesting thing is, as I type this comment, I am watching Maestro Paavo LIVE from the Berlin Philharmonie (Digital Concert Hall) ! Ties TWO of your video presentations I watched this morning together ((O: How timely !

[@kenwuesq]

Coincidentally, I purchased the box from Classic Select World for $30 last week and it's still available. Some of the individual CDs are available for $3. Before I purchased, I relied on your reviews on Classics Today.

[@lawrencerinkel3243]

Still available at the same price. Just ordered it, plus $5 shipping to my location.

[@Don-md6wn]

I googled them (having never heard of them) and found a thread in a forum with multiple people saying they charge you immediately when you make a purchase, usually take 30 days or more to ship the product, and tend not to be very responsive to emails asking for order status. It sounds like they don't actually have products in inventory when you place an order, but procure them somewhere after getting an order, and that they use customer funds for working capital. I didn't see anybody who said they didn't eventually get their order filled, though some said they cancelled orders after long waits. I wouldn't get into a company like that for a lot of money.

[@Don-md6wn]

@@nathanshaffer3264 Thanks for the feedback. I have no personal experience, just wanted to pass on what I read from multiple people. The thread I read was from 2018, so hopefully they've improved their responsiveness. I don't care if it takes me 30 to 60 days to get an order if I get a good deal, but am uncomfortable with a business charging my credit card well before they ship an order.

[@davelaurence2254]

@@lawrencerinkel3243 sold out as of 3:28 PM, 3/3/2021

[@lawrencerinkel3243]

@@davelaurence2254 Could be. I ordered at noon US Eastern Time, got a confirmation email right away, got a UPS tracking number at 12:35 pm. Any idea where all those orders suddenly came from?

[@UlfilasNZ]

Great box! Bought on your recommendation, thanks Dave!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@BIGBAROK]

I recommend his Franz Schmidt Symphonies on DG

[@Cesar_SM]

Oh, yes. The 4th Symphony is the highlight for me. Sounds so exuberant in some fragments.

[@jimcochran1408]

Just bought it. 7 left. Great video.

[@DiegoGonzalez-nv9qv]

I owned a few of these recordings (Bartok and the Sibelius/Tubin), but inspired by your enthusiasm I took the plunge and ordered the box (although the price was a bit higher than 51$).

[@johnwright7749]

Paavo Jarvi has recorded some terrific Hindemith in recent years-the Violin Concerto with Zimmermann on BIS, and on Naive, Der Schwanendreher with Tamestit and another orchestral CD of Mathis der Maler, Symphonic Metamorphoses and Five Pieces for strings all with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. All of these are very fine performances. So at least he is keeping the Hindemith flame alive!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Yes, he is.

[@alanmcginn4796]

Dave. Great video. I had two of Paavo's discs - the Romeo & Juliet on Telarc and the Sibelius Cantatas disc on Virgin (it is absolutely gorgeous by the way). I just picked this set up on ClassicSelect world for 34.99 incl. shipping today. Not sure how you found this thing, but great job. Now I gotta listen to some Riisager after yesterday's talk.

[@stanpunzel1920]

Have the Berlioz and Stravinsky/Nielsen on SACD. I will admit to being a fan of SACD. That Nielsen is fabulous. And the bells in the Fantastique are nice and deep. IIRC they had to be recorded out in the street. Will have to look for some of the others....

[@dmntuba]

Wish Paavo's tenure in Cincinnati had been 20 years long.

[@jacoboderegoyossainz3104]

Hi david. Thank you for your reviews. Thanks to them I'm spending again good money on cds like old times, and I guess this is a good thing for the industry and the artists... (I think I love Cds more than any other format). One question concerning this box set. I guess you have the TELARC versions. Have you compared the sound with this membran under license cds? I say that because, I bought them after watching your video, but when I play them, even if they sound good, I have the impresion they should sound even better because when I listen to other recordings the orquesta and the soloists are more "fresh" and open. So, maybe they are not the same transfers than the originals... Maybe I'm wrong but... Just asking. Anyway, thaks again for the the review and all the fun you give us with these videos. Regards.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

They sound pretty much the same to me--as these are all original digital recordings there really ought not to be any difference since all sources should be identical, theoretically.

[@jacoboderegoyossainz3104]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Thanks. Happy to hear that :)

[@frankgyure3154]

Let’s give a lot of the credit (or all of the credits) to the Management of the real Telarc especially owner Robert Woods( I think that was the owner. Correct if I may be wrong)

[@michaelhughes1504]

Yes, and certainly to Michael Bishop and the late great Jack Renner for their world class engineering.

[@barryguerrero7652]

Paavo Jarvi recently recorded a Stravinsky disc in Tokyo (NHK) for RCA that I would really like to have. However, of course, it's had zero distribution outside of Japan so it costs a fortune. It has three works I love, together on a single disc in really good modern sound: "Symphony in Three Movements", "Jeu de Cartes" and "Apollon Musagete". But I ain't payin' 50-something bucks for it.

[@chihamats]

I actually heard this recording(it’s live and was televised in Japan), and it’s totally not worth the price-boring as hell. The NHKSO not Jarvi himself do not have the fire in their belly at all to do the Rite

[@indranilpoddar7195]

Great find David...also available on Jpc.de at a ridiculously reasonable price

[@msilverz]

Too bad they didn't include multichannel SACDs. Järvi's multichannel Telarc recordings are some of my favorites (from a purely sonic point of view).

[@frankgyure3154]

I agree. I have some of the Telarc multichannel recordings. I can play them in multichannel

[@pbarach1]

I thought about buying this set, but what's the point when most of the performances are very good but rarely top notch? And yes, some of the programming is intelligent, but that is much more important when you're going to a concert?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Ah, but many of them are top notch, both interpretively and sonically, and good programming is good programming, not only in terms of value, but for continuous listening if one is so inclined.

[@pbarach1]

@@DavesClassicalGuide it would be a great purchase for someone who doesn't have other recordings of these pieces. I agree the sonics are really good.

[@AlexMadorsky]

Sounds like this is a worthy box overall, although perhaps enough misses to illustrate why I tend to skip maestro-based boxes. This box does what more recordings and live performances need to do - program the works in an appealing way! The deep, innate conservatism of most American music directors shouldn’t be a difficult problem to solve - just pair an excellent, unheralded composer with one of the greatest hits. I don’t understand why people don’t get you can get away with programming a wonderful Tubin symphony if you pair it with something like Sibelius 2. This is just as true on disc as it is for the concert hall. Maestros and studios, pay heed to what Telarc has done here. If you want us to listen to Brahms 1 or Beethoven 7 for the umpteenth time, at least throw a more interesting ingredient into the stew for us to savor.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Sorry Alex, you are talking like a hard core collector, which most concert-goers are not. They want to hear certified classics played by big name artists. It has always been that way, and always will be. That's the difference between live concerts and recordings, and even with recordings an unfamiliar work is as likely to be a turn-off as a turn-on.

[@AlexMadorsky]

@@DavesClassicalGuide fair enough. As people in my generation continue to grow their wealth while remaining blessedly ignorant of classical music I have a hope (cockeyed optimist though I may be) that pressure on concert programmers will eventually ease. People under 40 don’t generally even know who the “big names” are in the way that Boomer arts patrons do. Likely to happen in a significant way? Probably not, but I think there’s at least an opening that may not exist now.

[@dmntuba]

Wish you would do a discussion on the history of Telarc.

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

Your reviews of scrumptious and tempting box sets are always a delight, but, for the sake of my financial and storage and anti-hoarding stances and states of affairs I have to let them remain ever thus unbought. I have thousands of discs of the basic repertoire and by in large -- as much as I would like to "keep on listening" -- must draw a certain line. I'm putting my recreational money into red wines and cigars. lol.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Hey, it's your dime. I have no financial interest in selling this stuff--I just call it as I hear it for the benefit of the curious.

[@frankgyure3154]

Jarvi also bounces from orchestra to orchestras and that may be another reason

[@lawrencerinkel3243]

Young Person's Guide: I would have bought it alone for this. Why do you say a lot of people don't do it terribly well?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Because they don't?

[@lawrencerinkel3243]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Uh, yeah. But could you maybe be a little more specific?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

@@lawrencerinkel3243 1. There should be no narration. 2. Consequently the variations need to flow into each other naturally. 3. The accompaniments are also very colorful and the variations shouldn't ignore them just because one instrument (or group) is featured. Otherwise, the piece just sounds like a bunch of solos rather than a composition for orchestra. 4. The closing fugue needs to be clear in texture and, while quick, not so quick that the individual entrances fly by in an undifferentiated blur.

[@lawrencerinkel3243]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Cool, thanks. Definitely agree about the narration, which was useful for the original film but pointless in the concert hall. Actually one of my favorite ways to experience this terrific little piece was as choreographed by Jerome Robbins for his ballet Fanfare. Each instrument is portrayed by a solo dancer or small group, and it is occasionally revived by the NYC Ballet.

[@markwolf1374]

Two disappointments with their recordings: (1) Pictures on regular CD is a very low level sound. Have a crank it up to hear it. (2) I wish there was something else, anything else, coupled with the Planets since it repeats the YPG.

[@jacoboderegoyossainz3104]

Sorry, I don’t understand your first point, maybe because I’m not enhlish speaking native: you say the sound is not good...? Or the quality of the printing sleeves is not good enough? Thanks

[@markwolf1374]

@@jacoboderegoyossainz3104 , the sound level on the recording of Pictures at Exhibition on the original Telarc release on regular CD, is very low. Can’t hear it unless I turn the volume high.

[@jacoboderegoyossainz3104]

I bought the box. But I’meeally disapointed with the sound quality in general. I can’t believe Telarc recorded them that bad. I think something went wrong with the transfers. Of course they are licensed and there is no reason bfor a bad transfer. But the siund is not good in my opinion.

[@johnpalmer7636]

I’m late getting to this review, but you might be interested to know that Telarc originally planned on Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis as a coupling but the recorded performance did not pass muster, hence the emergency coupling (as Telarc was on the way out).

[@presbyterosBassI]

The manufacturer listing says "Nca (Membran)". It looks like Membran has stepped up their game from mediocre transfers of public domain recordings.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Yes, I saw that, but this is better quality stuff then their usual--the box is decent, there's a good booklet, original jackets, etc. Some have argued that the sound quality is less good than the original issues but it sounds fine to me, and none of the complainants who posted here have actually heard the recordings or made real-time comparisons, so that's hearsay. The name "Telarc" is also used up front and unambiguously, and since Telarc is now owned by Concord, who is very proactive in enforcing copyright, I can't believe that this set was not legitimately licensed.

[@mickeytheviewmoo]

The reviews on amazon are not favourable. The main gripe is the transfers do not compare to the original Telarc pressings.

[@UlfilasNZ]

@@mickeytheviewmoo They're not "pressings" or transfers, they're digital recordings.

[@jacoboderegoyossainz3104]

But even “digital” recordings hsve diferent quality dependi g on the source... I bought the box, and I also feel like the sound is something not what it should be... if someone has compared the telarc originals with these, it could be usuful. Thanks.

[@mickeytheviewmoo]

These guy is one of the greatest modern day conductors but he is so wasted. Doing the same repertoire over and over again. On the other hand the Schmidt's complete symphonies were a real success. There is so much stuff out there that would really suit Jarvi's style . So frustrating.

[@charlescoleman5509]

As I posted here before: After Telarc went down, Paavo and the CSO decided to form their own record label called CSO Media, which lasted two cds. One of which featured the music of Jennifer Higdon, Kevin Puts, Carter Pann, Jonathan Bailey Holland and me. So, once in a while, Paavo will branch out beyond the usual repertoire. His brother Kristjan and father Neeme have done this a lot more, but Paavo has still made his mark. I’m very fortunate to have written pieces for all three of them.

[@dexblue]

@@charlescoleman5509 I just listened to your "Carmilla"; I liked it; I'm a fan of up-tempo, heavy bass - like much in Villa Lobos; fine string work too - congrats & cheers!