"’Bach is a terminal point. Nothing comes
from him,,every thing merely leads up to him."
Albert Schweitzer
On my monthly run to Barnes and Noble for my Gramophone. I found an absolute treasure , ":Gramophone Presents J.S. Bach"
A 98 page book with small print that made much of it a 200 pager !
So much on everything Bach in the manner you would expect
from the British Classical Bible, very through, unreal so .
Can not even begin to say anything other than for a Bach lover the
$25 bucks USA is a gift . |
In the Digital area are the youth have become unable to think for themselves.
In USA 40% think vampires are real .
Last winter I picked up a girl at the University of Minnesota who had
car trouble on a very cold day .
Now U of MN is not Oxford but only 10 % of a MN High School class
can try to get in and it is good enough to make Times 100 every year.
I found her in a row of 13 girls where every single one was on their smart
phone and not even looking at another much less speak to them .Robots !
My greatest fear is the virus has put a lot of Classical musicians out of a job .
And here both Classical and Jazz together had less than 5% of the audience before that .
I do not go to any large group and don’t plan to myself, but I do send good amount to our 2 World Class bands . |
If Fisher is not the foremost Conductor alive , he's very close . |
Got my fingers crossed for Met 802 ! |
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How it's possible for Schubert to do so much in so short a life is unreal.
Brahms who was a Schubert fan, said ,( He did in 15 minutes what the rest of us took 6 months ) ! |
I learned a lot when few years ago when the Minnesota had about 18
months out.
It has always been a good orchestra but Osmo Vanska made them a
Great Orchestra , with great musicians playing better than they thought
they could .
Twin Cities have a lot of Forbes 500 firms and natch some of the CEO’s
were on the board .
Guys making 20 times (or More) though it was a crime for someone
who just plays music to make and who did more work in a month they
did in a year, to make 90,000 $ a year. |
The Netherlands in many ways are the most progressive nation in the world .
One way is to fund their Bach Orchestra and to make every outing as
clean as a hounds tooth . I’ve head much of their work but not 42.
Thanks , rv .
Truly a Jewel !
P.S . If anyone takes a trip there put a Canadian patch on your jackets , in WW II they were starving to death
and many did because 20 SS Divisions ate all the food and all the allies could could not move them.
Ike and Brits decided to send in the best troops they had, the 3 Canadian Divisions do or die.
16, 000 Canadians did die but in six months the Germans were beaten . Dutch LOVE Canadians !
Send 100,000 Tulips every year free to Ottawa . |
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Don't we know it rv. don't we know it ! |
This is one of my favorite Beethoven pieces , his op 59 Quartet . It’s played by the Gewandhaus Qt, from the great orchestra of that name. I’m addicted to the beautiful Leipzig tone which is so LvB . Tad of pianissimo . https://youtu.be/C_pM4Huh03o |
They are my 2 best pianists , Lisiecki hear I come . |
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I loved it when Strauss said’ I’m the best of the second-hand composers’,
he was correct and showed what that could be .
Thanks Jim , as piano is not my first, {unless it’s Schubert or Brahms}
I have 5 Albums of her I haven’t played in years , doing it today .
Then back to symphonic with best winds .
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I have not heard Olafsson on Mozart . What I have heard is his DG with Debussy . Rameau and thought it was very good . Rameau is one of my favorites , I listen to him a lot , have too , you won’t hear him live in US . You will ,IMO. in the most interesting city in North America , Montreal . https://youtu.be/wChgk4qq3KcHe’s my man , Olafsson says Rameau is second only to Bach ! https://youtu.be/qTwqBVt2Clw |
Idagio, When you get the best in Berlin highly unlikely there is any better. |
Over the years I have thought the Great English Lindsay Qt. have done the best for Schubert . However not always sound on here, but this is Ok . https://youtu.be/KBDeBU2O0NQ https://youtu.be/Eh-vKcysJCw His Quintet in C may be his Best . Sound could be better this but how Lindsay treats Schubert is there . The sound on record comes in about 20 seconds . |
Hey ROK , with these guys and real ROK’s if China wants to play we can throw in our Navy and the rest of us could stay home . https://youtu.be/CHUdzWqUsUI |
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This Great American Conductor , Jo Ann Falletta , has made the rust-belt Buffalo Symphony into a first-class orchestra for 25 years , and she will stay till she retires if she does. The first conductor that won Mahler for me . https://youtu.be/9_v_7gEiqKA |
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The best to my hears is the LSO with Solti on Decca .
Solti made a good 1-9 with the Chicago , but the LSO is better .
The 5th seems the most loved .There is one by Barbirolli's with New Phil
as a EMI " Great Recordings of the Century " that is one of the best anything I have heard ! |
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I agree with you gg107 ,Thanks . |
Can't argue with that,twoleftears, she is a Queen .
I really love her in Schubert and Elgar as well .Just about in all, really .
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Canada was a haven for run-away American Slaves and refused to give them back and refused to allow any in Canada itself . Some Americans still resent this . Most don’t . https://youtu.be/Bf3e9Cl1-BsA very few resent that in both WW1 and WW11 The Canadian Army had the best Battle Record of all the Allied Armies . |
Jim, watching the 5 PM BBC here the Bexit fun in England is unreal!
Pray it's not that bad in Scotia .
The only good I can see that might come to the English is that yes , your
Empire IS gone and YES you need others .
Cheers |
Thanks , Jim , sad indeed ! This is a wonderful play of an Elgar Sonata VERY ever seldom heard in US by one of the best musicians alive , A true Jewel ! https://youtu.be/2X96YaspfK0 |
God vacations in the Adirondacks , his best creation ! https://youtu.be/qa9IBbNMooUJim , The Highlands would be like this if they had not been raped . State of New York ruled the Adirondacks would be Forever Wild , over a century ago . A 6 million acre park . https://youtu.be/YeY4h0lGGeUI spend much of my youth about 50 miles North in the Park , just a wild and about 50 miles from Montreal as the crow flies. Many Canadians hike here or did before the virus . Lake George is 40 miles long and 600 feet deep. I once caught a 30 lb Pike . A favorite place of rich Swiss who say it's the most beautiful lake in the world . https://youtu.be/C3TAXkd39rw |
Thanks , 204 ! ,It looks better in life and there are hundreds of lakes , all
beautiful . They are the most ancient mountains on the Planet , thousands of miles higher than ANY
others on the world at present .
There is a hiking trail of 125 miles cut in a 45 % manner south to north , I have hiked it over 50 times ,
My doc says she has never seen such rock-hard legs in a man my age in her 30 years on the job .
I didn't tell her the Adirondacks are , according to many American Native tribes , the power center of the earth . |
That’s all true and very well written .
In late 50’s I knew something called "rock" would destroy the Big-Bands
and the Chopin I loved to listen to.
I did not mind saying so !
You have to be a complete fool to say " art for arts sake " . |
I live in a large city with two world-class orchestras and thousands
of music students , well worth hearing .
And several superb halls .
With the concerts of the students , which I love, audience is other students, family and about ten old people like myself .
In the two world-class the audience is 90% over 70 .
Now with 4 million people you can pack the 1,500 hall and 2,500 hall
but 10 years from now , you guess .
I must say that the Saint Paul CO and the Minnesota Orchestra play
only the best . SPCO is a good a Mozart band as any .
The Minnesota IS the best Sibelius in the world .
Of course they have the best Finnish conductor in the world .
One thing will still be here , as this is the ground zero for Choral Music.
As it is also ground zero for the Lutheran brand of Christianity , count on it . |
As those who run the UK live in about 1810 ................. |
To Jim and anyone else awake. This is the most remarkable thing in Music I have ever seen and that on one of the hardest instruments . Unreal ! https://youtu.be/w3frQW6zLE4 |
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Perhaps you might like this 204, she about blew me off my chair ! Sol Gabetta, in the last part of the Saint-Saens Cello # 2 , both it and her seem little known in US . This little outing won her the Opus Klassic ,the leading award in Germany for Classical Music . Hard to believe a rather slim women can play like a powerhouse ! https://youtu.be/6lomOwF-LFsWell , she can do his totally different 1st as well. https://youtu.be/gdk7ELY68Ec?t=2And make known the Greatness of Haydn on his 1st Cello Concerto . https://youtu.be/gdk7ELY68Ec?t=2 |
Whoops ! got 2 Saint-saens 1st. This is the Haydn Concerto in C , one of my fave’s period. Sol does improvise , in her case check the cadenza. She surely is a Great Artist ! https://youtu.be/g99hqqNFvg0?t=5I’m not sure, but from that church and her name , I’d say she is from the large Italian group in the Argentine |
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Yes, when you come to the top of the mountain you don’t want to skip-rope . This Perahia Brahms Op 79 I’m about to put on is because IMO he understands Brahms perfectly as both don’t have a phony bone in their body . There might be better takes , I don’t care , for ME this is the best .The little fills and great bass of Brahms,,,,,,,,,, Same with say , the Beethoven 5th with.Bernstein might well be the best, I would not ague with anyone or call him anything but to ME he seems phony waving about hither and yon . I would go to and do go to Herbert Blomstedt,, in his 90’s and still wanted world -wide . He uses his baton no more than needed and I know he is a very pious Christian . For ME he is the best ! https://youtu.be/0h2uIaHwJrU |
Glad you like it gents!
Esp, Jim 204 , The walking Scot keyboard expert ! .
I thought Piemontesi was very Lyrical which is what I wanted on Mozart's
last .I don't try to judge piano other than how I like it.
I give my opinion my on a symphony and will argue on a String Qt or Quintet . |
Has a lot to do with fact the players love him .
After rehearsal he asks what do they think.
And he means it ! I have seen him say " good ideal" and change
to the players idea .RIAS Berlin .
That's easy rok. the Staatskapelle Dresden is a Jewel !
For a person with education , culture and class Dresden is the best city
in Germany . |
The Man himself conducting a Symphony always loved in casa Schubert, Sebelius 2. That long thing after NDR =Hamburg Symphony , which is about as good as it gets . https://youtu.be/wb3gsiKBAjA?list=RDwb3gsiKBAjAWhen you see profs of that level giving the conductor all he wants you are at a Masterpiece ! |
One of the most moving Mozart Piano Concertos I have heard ! B flat major KV 595 https://youtu.be/vlooWcPIakYThe sound is as good or better than anything I have heard on You Tube . The strings are better than most live concerts I've been to and every thing else is superb ! Facts are facts , you want to hear a Germanic concert get a Germanic band . |
Thank you . This is IMO the greatest of all Symphonies done by the best rendition ever made ! https://youtu.be/Vi85_BDRFXoThe elegance of classicism melded with romanticism, only he could do that in such glory ! |
P.S Foolish folk say that that was wrong at .28 , that at. 40 as if humans could do the same every time .
This LP was from 1958 , Krips was their leader before and the players
of the Great LSO wished he still was.
They gave their him their all and loving soul will win .
P.S.S
I'm sure you all noticed that Schubert backed off the strings in favor of the brass and wind , PURE genius . |
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Not as good as Jim204.
Of course Jim has the big advantage of Scotland ’s air , sky and folks . |
