@ rok2id -- Your got me searching my record shelves. Yes, I've got that Heifetz Brahms Violin Concerto on a half-speed master "Red Seal .5 Series" LP.
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 43 responses by edcyn
I just reached into my vinyl collection and dragged out a British EMI Eminence reissue of the Beet's Eroica Symphony played by the London Symphony Orchestra under Eugen Jochum. The performance is uniformly loud and in-your-face. Good imaging but the sound is a bit gritty. I'm betting I got the LP from a record store's used bin. |
rvpiano -- Yeah! That Mahler Des Knaben Wunderhorn recording is indeed my favorite record of all time. I have three copies -- one CD and two Vanguard LPs (my wife accidentally put a scratch in my first one and guiltily tracked down another). Thanks to my recent purchase of a Mytek Brooklyn Bridge DAC, the CD is now just as emotionally involving as the vinyl. Mahler's music and the artists' performances, especially those of bass-baritone Heinz Rehfuss, act as a time-machine, effortlessly transporting me back to a lush, magical, sometimes terrifying ancient Europe. |
I have Pollini vinyl from both the EMI and DG eras and I got no quarrel with either, other than DGs' slightly cool tonal quality. As a matter of fact, it was the DG volume of Chopin Etudes that induced me to drag my childhood piano out of my parents' house and start going at it again. I may have mentioned this previously but I saw him live once. Utterly superb. |
I love reading the disagreements here. Differences in interpretation is one of the things that makes classical music so endlessly absorbing & wonderful. twoleftears -- I love Brendel. I have his Beethoven Sonatas both on Turnabout and on Philips. I actually saw him perform live once. brownsfan -- Britten's Ceremony of Carols on Argo is regularly on my turntable. |
@ei001h I’ve got a couple Lutoslawski LPs. A Mercury Golden Import with Aftertones of Infinity. And Concerto for Orchestra and other works on Philips. A good guy... The LPs sit right next to my Lopatnikoff. |
I might have already mentioned this work somewhere in this thread, but try Symphony No. 1 by Florence Price. Available on Idagio in a surprisingly good-sounding recording on DGG. She's an African-American composer who worked in the early 20th Century. The symphony is filled with great tunes and is constructed with eminent skill and heart. Think of Dvorak... |
I've never gotten anything but harrumphs and eyeball rolling, but my favorite Fifth Symphony is Tchaikovsky's. Maybe it all started when, as a kid, I'd watch a TV show that recreated great moments in history...recreations doctored to make them look like aged, silent newsreel footage. The theme music for the show was the second tune of the Second Movement. |
Diary of One Who Disappeared, by Leos Janacek. Claudio Abaddo, Berlin Phil and various vocal soloists. A DGG CD I fished off my shelf. Bought used. In a generic jewel box with no liner notes. Did I buy it at Amoeba Records in Hollywood? At Moby Disc in Sherman Oaks? Anyway, utterly lovely music. Shockingly good 3D fidelity. A DG EQ but still eminently inviting. I'm listenin' pretty via my Sony player. |
rok2id -- Yeah. And how 'bout that, too! William Kappel on YouTube. The flipside of the record is even better. A blazing, take-no-prisoners run-through of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto #3. My dad gave me the record as a way to perhaps make me practice the piano more. The thing is, I didn't practice more. I just played the record all day long. How old was I? Eight? In any case, I still regularly play the Kappel Prokofiev Third. RCA reissued it on Victrola in 1970. |
My favorite Liszt Sonata/Six Paganini Etudes compendium is still Andre Watts' initial foray on CBS Masterworks. I wish the fidelity were better, but Watts plays them with unmannered, headlong passion. There's nothing cute in his performances. He has an innate sense of what the pieces are telling us and where the pieces should go. |
PRIMEPHONIC, the Classical streaming service is giving up the ghost and touting Amazon as its replacement. What do you dudes/dudettes think of classical Amazon streaming? Should I go for Idagio, the German classical streaming service instead? Yeah, Qobuz is pretty good with classical and, in the main probably even has better fidelity than Primephonic has(had). But I'd like to hear from you guys. |
@jim204 -- I actually listened to Vikingur Ollafsson's Mozart earlier today. It seems his DG album was featured on my Qobuz home page. Yeah, he's truly excellent, and I enjoyed the heck out of his readings. But he still needs a bit more time to fully tap the depths that lie beneath the stuff that the kid from Salzburg brought to us. In other words, I'm still not ready to give up Perahia or Brendel. |
My first impressions of living with Idagio rather than Primephonic classical streaming... 1. The selection ain't quite as luxuriously, mind-bogglingly complete as the late, lamented Primephonic but there's no doubt they've got excellent taste. 2. I have yet to encounter the streaming glitches that often made dialing up specific Primephonic selections more a role of the dice than a done deal. 3. Through my system, sound quality can sometimes be slightly thicker and less-spacious than through Primephonic (or for that matter Qobuz), but it's always still enjoyable as heck. 4. Idagio is extremely easy and intuitive to log into and navigate. Anybody else share my impressions? |
My second impressions of Idagio -- Yeah, I'm learning how to navigate it. There's a lot more repertoire to explore. It's just a bit hidden. I was able to jack up the sound quality. Yeah, again the way to go about it is a bit hidden. Is it now quite to the level I got from Primephonic? I must continue to button push... |
I'm currently being bowled over by an Idagio stream of Mozart's Symphony #40. Played by the Ensemble Rezonanz. Conducted by Riccardo Minasi. Far from polite, it's a compelling, full-on romantic fireball rendition we might have heard in the days of Beethoven or Mendelssohn. Sound quality is just as excellent. |
I've just finished listening to a first class SACD of Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony doing a spectacular, heart-rending rendition of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. All I can say after listening to it is that very little has changed in Bartok's corner of Europe in the eighty+ years since Bartok wrote it. |
Hey, in this semi-modern era it's easy to search down whatever piece of music you're curious about and give it a couple minutes listen. I'm not saying, of course, that it's 100% okay to judge Glass or his generously scaled opera entirely from a brief encounter, but it will lend you at least a glimpse of the sound world that Glass creates. If you find that world to be inviting (and I'm confident you will), dip your toe in a bit more. |
Just finished listening to an Idagio stream of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by William Steinberg. Recorded who knows when, sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s. Anyway, a compelling, full-blooded performance that satisfies on all levels.
Interestingly, it seems the producers/engineers had to move their mike positioning for the fourth movement to make room for the chorus and vocal soloists. Sound quality took an unmistakable hit. What was previously spacious and lovely was now a bit flat and buzzy. Dynamics went south, as well. Still, a performance eminently worth visiting. |
Do you guys ever randomly cruise the classical music sites for stuff you've never heard of by composers you've never head of?
Right now I'm enjoying the heck out of an Idagio stream of orchestral pieces by Wranitzky, a contemporary and supposed buddy of both Mozart and Beethoven performed by the very capable Chamber Czech Orchestra of Pardubice. |
Lately I’ve been cruising Idagio and have just randomly pressed the play button for composer Paul Wranitzky, a contemporary of both Beethoven and Mozart. His Symphony Opus 31, "La Paix", is currently streaming my way. It’s bright, happy, tuneful, and beautifully recorded, I don’t know about you guys, but streaming has gained me entrance into Aladdin’s cave. See you on the flip side, if streams do indeed have flip sides. |
Queue up the recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 1, "the Titan," .performed by the orchestra Les Siecles.. The label is Harmonia Mundi France..On Qobuz. Hi-Def. As good a performance & recording of the work as I’ve ever come across. It even gives the famous Bruno Walter recording a run for its money. For those not familiar with the work, it’s got drama, comedy, grandeur, intimacy, and most of all tunes to die for. The way I hear it, Mahler is telling us the story of Planet Earth.. |