Gone back to Elgar, short form with Barbirolli. Intro. and allegro, Serenade... The Elegy and, especially, Sospiri are just too beautiful for words.
Classical Music for Aficionados
I would like to start a thread, similar to Orpheus’ jazz site, for lovers of classical music.
I will list some of my favorite recordings, CDs as well as LP’s. While good sound is not a prime requisite, it will be a consideration.
Classical music lovers please feel free to add to my lists.
Discussion of musical and recording issues will be welcome.
I’ll start with a list of CDs. Records to follow in a later post.
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique. Chesky — Royal Phil. Orch. Freccia, conductor.
Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Vanguard Classics — Vienna Festival Orch. Prohaska, conductor.
Prokofiev: Scythian Suite et. al. DG — Chicago Symphony Abbado, conductor.
Brahms: Symphony #1. Chesky — London Symph. Orch. Horenstein, conductor.
Stravinsky: L’Histoire du Soldat. HDTT — Ars Nova. Mandell, conductor.
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances. Analogue Productions. — Dallas Symph Orch. Johanos, cond.
Respighi: Roman Festivals et. al. Chesky — Royal Phil. Orch. Freccia, conductor.
All of the above happen to be great sounding recordings, but, as I said, sonics is not a prerequisite.
I will list some of my favorite recordings, CDs as well as LP’s. While good sound is not a prime requisite, it will be a consideration.
Classical music lovers please feel free to add to my lists.
Discussion of musical and recording issues will be welcome.
I’ll start with a list of CDs. Records to follow in a later post.
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique. Chesky — Royal Phil. Orch. Freccia, conductor.
Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Vanguard Classics — Vienna Festival Orch. Prohaska, conductor.
Prokofiev: Scythian Suite et. al. DG — Chicago Symphony Abbado, conductor.
Brahms: Symphony #1. Chesky — London Symph. Orch. Horenstein, conductor.
Stravinsky: L’Histoire du Soldat. HDTT — Ars Nova. Mandell, conductor.
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances. Analogue Productions. — Dallas Symph Orch. Johanos, cond.
Respighi: Roman Festivals et. al. Chesky — Royal Phil. Orch. Freccia, conductor.
All of the above happen to be great sounding recordings, but, as I said, sonics is not a prerequisite.
Showing 50 responses by twoleftears
@ei001h Currentzis T6 is an adrenalin-rush, the musical equivalent of white-water rafting. I was so carried along/carried away by it, I didn’t really notice those features you mentioned. All that being said, I certainly wouldn’t want it to be the only T6 in my collection...but it’s sure nice to have. |
Recently went to a recital of the up-and-coming Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko. Blazing technique, but lacking a little bit of heart, I thought. His way with a Mozart Fantasia was quite analytical, pulling it apart. Most at home and best in the Godowsky/Chopin Studies/Etudes, with displays of quite extraordinary pianism. His left hand sounds like a minimum of other people's two (or three!). I will admit that at one juncture I turned on the inner audiophile and listened to the sound qua sound. I was sitting quite close. The nouns that occurred to me were body, immediacy, and clarity, not necessarily in that order. His bass fortissimos were resounding. The treble was interesting. The notes could cut through the overall sound envelope, but yet they were never astringent, just striking. I think that this is a tightrope act that not all audio systems (or recordings?) pull off. |
Embarked on a Sibelius retrospective. 1, 2 and 4 so far. Really liked 1 and 2, 4 not so much. I don't know why I haven't thought more about this composer. From previous listenings I only remember 5 as a favorite. Perhaps now is the time to change that. I see Lief Segerstam seems to be the favored conductor, followed by Berglund. |
Sibelius 4 and 5 with Karajan. I think I "get" 4 a little more with this version, but I can't say I really warm to it. I struggle to understand the progression, as I definitely like 1, 2 and 3, and 5 and 7 are firm favorites (6 is "up to the plate" tomorrow). BTW, this "old" EMI ADD sound is truly excellent! Either that, or one of the components in the system has finally broken in, way past the period when I thought all of them would be well done with that process. |
OK, so I know I've already recommended this, but on a second listening I like it even more. Dudamel's Beethoven 3 with the Venezuela orchestra. It has everything you'd expect from a first-class international orchestra PLUS an inner enthusiasm and, yes, joy that I find truly infectious. Really worth a listen. And while we're on the subject of recommendations, I think it was in this thread a while back that someone pointed to the Sibelius 1 + 7 on Ondine with Segerstram and Helsinki Philharmonic. Listening now and wow! Fabulous interpretation AND fabulous sound--that unheard of unicorn! |
I found these helpful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonies_po%C3%A9tiques_et_religieuses http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Nov/Liszt_harmonies_8573773.htm Contents of Howard disc: https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA66421/2 And Osborne: |
Jim, please, please try listening to V-W's Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus. If that doesn't win you over, nothing will. The problem with The Lark is that it's pretty instantly appealing, and so it gets trotted out overly frequently and hence becomes a chestnut. A moratorium of a few years would help a lot. Bruckner; I'm a Mahler fanatic and also a sucker for slow movements. Hence 7, 8, and 9 rank high in my personal pantheon. |
So I listened to Mariam Batsashvili's CD of transcriptions. Music: I'm no expert, but the pianism seemed really excellent. Sound: the timbre of the piano was very natural and entirely credible. But... the audiophile in me had a problem with the soundstage. There was no sense of the room, the space, the acoustic, in which the piano was being played. If I had to guess, I'd say it was miked very close up. I tried to get a sense of the perspective from which we were supposed to be listening to the recital. For some of the time, it seemed as if the perspective was more or less looking at the piano/pianist head-on, so that the lower register tended to the right speaker and the upper to the left. But then this would collapse or even flip in another passage. Hmmm. |
Since there's been a lot of love in this thread for Schubert (the composer) I decided to pull what CDs I had off the shelf and work through the (very incomplete) piano sonatas. So far: D. 157: Volodos--excellent D. 784: Brendel--as usual (and I apologize in advance) leaves me cold D. 845: Lupu--as usual, very stirring and engaging |
Just finished playing through the Schubert sonata disks I own, and evidently different people respond differently to different styles of playing (all of which is doubtless excellent). Anyway, it allowed me to appreciate even more the Volodos disk of 1 and 18, which is absolutely splendid. After that, I most enjoyed Clifford Curzon's classic rendering of the last sonata. And then Lupu. Brendel and Pollini just don't move me, for whatever reason. It appears that Volodos has recently recorded some more Schubert, likely a must-buy. https://www.sonyclassical.com/news/arcadi-volodos-his-new-studio-recording-of-schubert-works |
Several posts ago we were discussing the sound of piano recordings. Rooting around in the miscellaneous section of the CD racks, I found I had a BIS SACD of a Sudbin recital of Liszt, Ravel, and Saint-Saens. And indeed, the recorded sound is both very present and natural. I have the Scarlatti disc on order. |
Inspired by Batsashvili I embarked on a fairly long play-through of all my Liszt piano recital disks. Over half way, and so far the most lyrical and likeable has been I think John Browning in the Petrarch sonnets. Volodos's recital has amazing piano sound, full, rich, very present; his playing is, when required, quite, err, forceful, and of course there's incredible dexterity. |
Here's another strong recommendation for a Beethoven 3, this time a semi-historical one to go with the modern one done by Dudamel + Venezuela. Barbirolli, BBC Symphony Orchestra, 1967, paired with An Ellizabethan Suite arr. Barbirolli, issued by the Barbirolli Society and remastered by Dutton Laboratories using their CEDAR method. Splendid all round with a truly majestic slow movement. |
@jim204 No, I'm afraid not, no Piemontesi, and looking on Amazon the 2 CDs seem to command pretty high prices on the used market. So far listened to Sudbin, Batsashvili (excellent), Hamelin, Browning (lyrical), Osborne, Kun Woo Paik, Howard, Hough (Italian, very nice), Volodos (excellent), and now Barenboim (again a lyrical recital, with the 6 Consolations, 3 Liebestraume/Notturni, 3 Petrarch Sonnets). In the queue are Bolet, more Hough, more Howard, Ovchinikov, Tozer, and more Bolet. By then I think I'll be thoroughly Liszted. |
Stephen Hough, first Liszt recital (not the Italian one), starts with Mephisto Waltz and continues with Tarantella. One wonders how anyone can move their fingers this fast, and yet also in a clean, precise, controlled and highly expressive fashion. If this is how Liszt himself played, no wonder he left his audiences slack-jawed. |
I presume you guys saw this news too. https://www.classicfm.com/artists/vladimir-ashkenazy/russian-pianist-conductor-retires-public-concerts/ |
Here's one final Liszt recommendation: Geoffrey Tozer, Liszt Piano Transcriptions [just about everything/everyone other than the set of Schubert transcriptions] on Chandos. Very natural, good piano sound, and some fine pianism. Tozer is mainly a Medtner specialist, but he ventures into a number of quite different composers. |
Sudbin came up in the context of good recorded piano sound (BIS, SACD). Here's another recording whose piano sound I'm enjoying, the acoustic is different, there's a bit more resonance, but it does sound very much like a piano in a room. Paul Lewis: 2 CD set of Schubert: Sonatas D. 840, 850, 894, plus Impromptus D. 899 and Klavierstucke D. 946. See what you think if it's available streaming somewhere. The playing seems somehow more "human" to me than some Schubert recitals I've heard. |
Tremendous work from the Barbirolli Society. 63 issues and counting. https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/labels/190/browse?size=10&view=large |