I totally agree. Those remasterings of early stereo recordings on CD are wonderful. The majority of CDs however don’t have the space that most LPs do.
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Sevs,
It was my pleasure.
Enjoy!!
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Schubert,
The Franck Violin Sonata et al finally arrived.
I had almost forgotten how beautiful this piece is. The performance by Chung and Lupu is lush and luscious, especially the first movement. Never heard it played so sensitively. The Debussy and Chausson are a nice addition. |
Newbee,
I had to order from Europe, but finally obtained the Grechaninov disc.
”Snowflakes” is delightful I also love “Missa Sancti Spiritus.”
I haven’t listened to the symphony yet, but will.
Thanks for the recommendation! |
I agree with Schubert. The doctor had very eclectic, excellent taste.
I think that it would be difficult and not very helpful for us to start picking choices for you.
That would be our taste. You should develop your own taste.
Schubert has some very good guidelines above.
Start with the more well known composers.
In my experience, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Vivaldi appeal to neophytes most. The doctor’s taste was quite far reaching, so you might find other composers that appeal to you.
It can be an exciting venture of discovery for you.
Have fun!
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Re: RVWilliams
My favorite of his is Symphony #2 “A London Symphony”
Captures the city with Big Ben and street sounds, musically interpolated.
Truly wonderful work.
Also “A Sea Symphony” (Symphony #1). The opening bars are thrilling — an evocation of the sea.
“Symphony Antarctica” is actually from a film score evoking the aloneness of that continent.
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Well, I just had to order the Tabakova, too.
Just listening to a Nonesuch record I bought over a half a century ago, with some of the best sound ever recorded. It’s of Bach Cantatas No.140 and No. 57.
Karl Ristenpart leads definitive performances of these wonderful works. “Selig ist der Mann “ is a not well known, but gorgeous cantata, along with the ever popular “Wachet auf....”
I’m not sure if this cantata series ever made it to CD. |
There was a whole series of Bach cantatas with Ristenpart on Nonesuch.
All of them with amazing sonics.
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I’ve been away for ten days and unable to contribute anything to this thread, but now will try to catch up.
Khatia Buniatishvili is indeed an extraordinary pianist. If you want to hear how incredible she is, listen to her take on Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
totally original concept, with Horowitzian technique. On the same CD is a sizzling Ravel’s “La Valse.”
On the subject of the most most difficult piece to perform, several decades ago, I bought tickets to hear Strauss’ “Ein Heldenleben” conducted by Klaus Tennstedt.
when I showed up at Carnegie, there was an insert saying he was ill and was being replaced by James DePreist. I was bummed out because I had bought these tickets months in advance to hear Tennstedt.
But I was bummed out even more after I heard I believe it was The Philadelphia Orchestra totally butcher the piece into unrecognition. The only conclusion I can draw, is that the piece must be a bear to play, and that DePreist couldn’t bring it together with limited rehearsal. |
Schubert,
How did you ever guess!? I was on a cruise ship, which is a germ generator. As I write, I’m coughing my head off and wheezing out lyrics to songs.
I didn’t exactly get the flu, but something very close to it, and have been laid up all week. Not a happy camper!
I’ve been following the discussions, though.
I’ll contribute something when I feel more human. |
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Lots of love for Glenn Gould here. One of the great musical minds of the 20th century. And, what a pianist!!!
Also a big fan of Jeux. A masterpiece.
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This forum seems to have dried up since I was taken Ill.
Thank goodness, I’m feeling a lot better. I’d like to revive it.
I wonder if there are any Mahler lovers out there.
If so, who is your favorite Mahler conductor?
I know Horenstein is considered by many to be the non plus ultra, but I like Solti a lot, even though he’s put down by many Mahler aficionados.
Who do you like? And for that matter, who are some of your favorite conductors in general? |
I have both the Sony and DG Bernstein/Mahler sets. I have to listen to them more often. I like Abbado for Mahler and in general. George Szell has wonderful recordings of the 4th and the 6th, and of, course, I like him for everything else. Von Karajan is up there with Mahler. And, believe it or not, my favorite Mahler 9th is conducted by Kiril Kondrashin with the Moscow Symphony. The aforementioned Solti is great in Mahler as well as Horenstein.
Off the top of my head, these conductors come to mind.
I’ll look through my collection and come up with more later.
btw, What’s your favorite Mahler symphony? Mine is the 9th. After that, it’s a toss-up. Each is so unique and wonderful.
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I also like Barbirolli in 5, Leinsdorf as well. It’s hard to find a bad performance of 5.
The 7th is a tough nut to crack. I hated it for years, but now love it.
Abbado recording finally did the trick. Maazel also has a delicious 4th with Kathleen Battle ideal in the final movement. Besides Kondrashin, there are almost too many good 9ths to name, but Rattle does a good job. In the 6th, von Karajan is my favorite. Solti in the 1st, 3rd and 8th. Mehta is a surprising choice in the 2nd with the Vienna Phil., NOT the Israel Phil.
These are favorites at the moment. Like most Mahler lovers, I have to go through myriad performances of the others I own to come up with more.
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Let’s get this forum rolling again!
Who are some of your favorite pianists, violinists, cellists?
What about your favorite composers, concertos, sonatas, symphonies, tone poems, etc.?
Horowitz, Rachmaninoff, Pletnev and Glenn Gould top my list of pianists.
Violinists include Milstein, Bell, and, of course, Heifetz.
As for cellists, there’s Maurice Gendron, Janos Starker and Wallerstein.
Composers are a hard one. I love so many. But aside from the obvious Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and Brahms, there’s Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Stravinsky, et al.
Favorite symphonies are Beethoven “Eroica”, Rachmaninoff 2nd, Mahler 9th, Mozart “Prague”, Prokofiev and Shostakovich 5ths, Stravinsky “Symphony of Psalms” and many more.
Favorite Concertos: Any Mozart Piano Concerto, Glazunov Violin Concerto, Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto, Prokofiev’s 2nd Piano Concerto, Rachmaninoff’s 4th Piano Concerto.
Any Strauss Tone Poem.
Beethoven’s 2nd and 3rd Cello Sonatas, and just about any of his piano sonatas.
This is just a partial list.
As you can see, my taste is quite conventional.
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Hindemith is certainly underplayed. |
Kef_lover,
Many wonderful recordings in that list!
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I have LP’s of a lot of the older recordings you mention (e.g Hanson, Mercury, Maag, London, Munch,RCA)
They still sound wonderful.
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The Dorati “Rite” is also my favorite of the dozen or so recordings of it I own.
Has been for many years. I had the digital LP before the CD was released.
Wonderful sound for early digital, I believe recorded on a sound stage.
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kef_lover,
Do you have the LP’s of the recordings in your last post?
I’ll list my favorites of your selections in my next post. |
Yes, the Victrolas and the London Treasurys are often from the original master.
A great example is Stravinsky’s “Song of the Nightingale” by Reiner. It’s demonstration quality and rivals the expensive Analog Productions reissue.
Similarly, the Peter Maag LP’s on London Treasury of Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture” and Third Symphony sound wonderful.
I’m going to order the Monteux CD set. |
Yes, Victrola, with “Lieutenant Kije “ on the flip side.
Label is black and gold.
l really love the Haitink performance of the Nocturnes, with the atmospheric Concertgebouw sound, on Philips.
I have the LP and CD.
CD sounds great. |
kef_lover,
Just got the Monteux set.
Gorgeous performance of the Nocturnes!
One question though. It’s probably my system acting up again, but I heard most of the audio coming from the right channel. I don’t notice that with the next selection (Tchaikovsky.) Do you have the same phenomenon on your set?
I would guess not. I think my preamp has to be defective. |
Schubert,
I got the beginning of your post regarding Mahler’s 7th Symphony in my email but it seems the full text was removed from the forum.
What’s up with that?
It seemed you were beginning to say you liked the symphony, although I know you’re not a Mahler lover. That is the most challenging symphony of the lot for most Mahler aficionados. It took me a long time before I “got it.”
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To me, Mahler is the greatest symphonist since Beethoven. It took me a long time to come to that conclusion. I, for a long time, considered him to be disjointed and arbitrary. But, once I found him, there was no turning back.
Now Bruckner, I still have a very hard time with, but haven’t yet given up.
Of course it’s all very subjective.
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pryso:
Welcome to the forum.
Good, solid recommendations.
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Indeed, I love Brahms. Wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on him.
Also, Haydn. Master symphonist. I even love some of his earlier symphonies.
Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony is, to me, a masterpiece of symphonic writing as well as his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and other works.
Of course, there are several other great symphonists.
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I know I should love my music regardless of sound, but since my NuForce amplifiers broke down and have thus far been unfixable (although there is now hope,) I have not been able to reach that Nirvana except in a couple of cases. Shouldn’t be, I know . But it is.
Really devastating! |
twoleftears,
I am using the Belles 350A amplifier, with which I replaced the 150A (I liked better) and, unfortunately, can’t return (a $1500 loss.). Doesn’t nearly match up to my NuForce monoblocks.
I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with the Belles per se, but it’s a poor match for my system, most noticeably lacking in bass. I had audio Nirvana for many years with a perfectly balanced system and am very spoiled for anything less.
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As a trained musician, who started studying piano at the age of six, I can tell you that music is something that is perceived not as much by training, as by listening.
I separate the two. I started LISTENING to all kinds of music as a pre-teen, not just piano repertoire. Not to be boastful, but that set me apart from the majority of Juilliard pianists who perceived music through their fingers. At many Juilliard student recitals, little in the way of musical communication was present. (That was years ago, the standards may be higher today.)
The point is that music is an aural art, not a technical one when it comes to appreciation. Even musical analysis, which can help you “understand” the music, cannot tell you how to you FEEL it. There are music professors who have orgasms over the intricacies of musical structure, who often don’t get the point which, of course is COMMUNICATION.
So, I feel on equal footing with those who love music but don’t have musical training.
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Just listening to three symphonies (35,36,38) by the miracle that is Mozart.
Whereas, arguably, Haydn may be the better symphonist, and unarguably, Mozart’s piano concertos are more inspired, his symphonies are gems of creation, perhaps with a greater divine spark than are Haydn’s, although not as clever.
How do you feel? |
I just checked Tianwa out on Amazon. She has quite a discography on Naxos.
At your urging, I ordered her Sarasate set.
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No need to pay me back.
If I had a dollar for every dud I bought, I’d have enough for a new system!
Not that I expect her to be a dud. You have excellent taste.
I love Sarasate’s violin pieces. Years ago, I had an LP of Ruggiero Ricci playing many of them with his teacher Louis Persinger at the piano.
Very attractive repertoire.
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Well, I finally (hopefully) got my NuForce amps back from repair and my system seems to be in balance again.
What an ordeal!!! |
The Gershwin recording, perhaps
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I think TT is one of those conductors, like Stokowski, who takes a hand in the final product of a recording — spends some time in the control room. I’ve found that many of his recordings sound very natural.
Stokowski would do all sorts of weird things (like boosting the bass) that might not sound natural, but sounded very good nonetheless.
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Schubert,
I’m sorry I gave up stamp collecting as well.
My system has given me, by turns, agony and ecstasy.
Sometimes within the same day! |
Without the craziness of HiFi-mania, I generally get more consistently involved in the MUSIC with the car radio than with my set. Oh well........
And yes, there was that girl ..................
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kef-lover,
i hear much much more in the recording now than I heard before.
my opinion still is that it is gorgeous .
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kef-lover,
I couldn’t agree with you more.
First of all, I can tell you from my years of experience teaching, it’s just about all but impossible for even the most intelligent and musical adult to take up the piano and be able to fluently play it. You are to be congratulated for trying such a difficult task. And yes, even if you get the notes, the mastery needed for extracting the music is daunting.
It can be a very frustrating experience, but if you enjoy it, it’s worth the effort just to see how the music works.
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Strangely enough, even though the balance of my system has been perfect on almost all my CDs and records, there is still a predominance of the right channel in the Nocturnes. So much so that I began to worry that the problem had returned.
But not so, it was fine on other CDs.
It’s probably my set, but to be honest, on my system, the sound of the Nocturnes, although quite good, doesn’t quite match the best of the RCA’s such as the best Reiners and Munches. Of course, It has everything to do with the imbalance I’m hearing. Without that imbalance, it seems to be a superior sounding CD.
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Kef_lover,
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll look it up.
Bolet was quite a pianist! |
My greatest musical shortcoming is lack of opera appreciation. I do know and love some of the popular ones, such as The Marriage of Figaro, La Boheme, Turandot, Die Meistersinger, etc. but I really can’t say opera is a regular part of my listening regimen. I can trace it back to an early mentor and piano teacher (a well known accompanist of major performers) who put opera down as lesser music. It had a major impact on me from which I never recovered.
unreceivedogma,
I would loved to include records to my lists. The majority of my listening is to LPs.
The reason I don’t is that most of my records are decades old and not readily available today.
However, since you mention it, I’ll start compiling a list.
(Right now, I’m listening to a wonderful sounding LP of a great performance of Ravel’s La Valse conducted by Pierre Boulez with the New York Phil.) |
kef_lover,
I watched the utube episodes.
iI was very impressed with the pianists as well.
But, you’re right, Bolet is the master.
R |
kef_lover,
Master classes are fascinating. You can get into the way a master thinks, and yes, it is impressive the way the pianists can change their interpretation on the fly.
That’s what you have to do when studying with any great teacher. Sometimes it’s a daunting task.
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jcazador,
Thanks for that article on Debussy. Very informative, though it cut off in the middle for me.
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Schubert,
I just got the Sarasate set (4 CDs!).
Youre right, Tianwa Yang is quite the violinist!
I’m surprised she’s not better known.
btw, In an earlier post, you mentioned that you saw Ashkenazy in a high school auditorium. That’s where I first saw him as well. Strange he would give performances in that venue. He was already known by then. Saw him also at Carnegie in a stupendous performance of Prokofiev’s 2nd Piano Concerto.
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