Classical Music for Aficionados

Listen to the first 1’ 30" and see if you don’t want to keep on listening.

Parry, Symphony no. 5

Johnny R (audioconnection) used to carry the Belles, but now I see they're gone from the website.

Back to classical.  Farrar, Orchestral Pieces, on Chandos, is superb-sounding, a notably deep soundstage and some great bass thwacks.  Style is post-Elgar/Vaughn Williams.  (Warning: don't set the volume on the basis of the first few seconds of track 1, or you'll be in for a surprise.)

At the risk of stating the obvious: Tallis Scholars, Allegri, "Miserere".

I've listened to a good deal of this style of music, and this piece and this recording still come out tops.  In my secondary system which is in a room with a cathedral ceiling (no pun intended) the acoustics are extraordinary.

At the risk of going slightly OT, seems like this is best directed at readers of this thread.

Has it occurred to anyone else that Mahler must have heard the Adagietto from Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite no. 1 before he composed his own, utterly sublime, Adagietto in Symphony 5?  The more I listed to the Bizet, the more I hear echoes...

Scriabin was very taken with that whole Symbolist doctrine (involving synaesthesia) of correspondences between the senses. See Rimbaud’s poem on the different "color" of each of the vowels of the alphabet.

This was in Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, years ago. There was definitely some correlation of the more obvious sort (darker sonorities, dark blue, brighter, yellow, louder, red, etc.), and it was interesting as a curiosity, but you ended up thinking about those possible correspondences rather than just immersing in the music.

P.S. D'Albert two piano concertos in the Hyperion 19C series last night.  Pleasant, but not compelling...

Here's a vote for Rachel Podger, she's quite well established now but I heard her years ago and remember thinking then that she was going places.  I have a few CDs by her, and they never fail to please.

Today's recommendation: Corelli, Violin Sonatas, Op. 5, Avison Ensemble on Linn, 2 CDs.

I've been hooked on Mahler for decades.

The first set of LPs I got were by Solti, so to a large extent I learnt them all in his interpretation, and as we all know, teenagers are impressionable, and his way has become for me in many ways the right way.

That being said, I will admit a soft spot for Bernstein.  His romantic way with the slow movements seems right--to me at least.

Then there are a number of other conductors' individual versions of symphonies that are great.

I'll pull out my favs and post a list later.

Whole symphony: 2nd.

Cherry-picked slow movements: 5th, 6th, 9th, 3rd.

Least liked: 8th; second least-liked, 7th.

Overall, I'll put in a vote for Sinopoli.

Individual recordings:

Kaplan 2 should be heard

Welser-Most delicious 4 (I recommend the 4th as a gateway symphony to Mahler)

Barbirolli 5

Rattle 10

@rvpiano Didn't you get a Belles amp that you liked?  I thought that worked out OK.  I'm already anticipating the release of the new integrated, the Belles Virtuoso.

Took up clarinet at age 11.  Played in all sorts of school orchestras (very musical school).  Nothing like experiencing it "from the inside".  Continued on in scratch bands through college.  Friend at high school--father had a "fancy" stereo for back then, expensive Garrard deck, etc. etc., played me Mahler for the first time.  A revelation.  Soon after heard a series of broadcasts of Bernstein performances.  Though by then I'd already started collecting Solti on Decca.

Although my first love is late Romantic/decadent big symphonic movement, I've recently completed a thorough exploration of Stylus Fantasticus, from early Italian origins through Bohemians et al.  In many ways I find it more enjoyable than the "predictability" of the high Baroque (Bach, Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi, etc.).

OK, so the natural "progression" (backwards) from Mahler is to Bruckner.  Over the years, here's what I've acquired based on a whole variety of recommendations.

#0: Chailly, RSO Berlin

#1: Sawallisch, Bayerisches Staatsorchester

#2: Solti, Chicago SO

#3 [first version]: Inbal, Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt

#4: Jochum, Berlin PO

#5: Haitink, Vienna PO

#6: Klemperer, New Philharmonia O

#7: Inbal, R-S-0 F

#8: Chailly, RSO Berlin; Haitink, Concertgebouw; Ballot, Oberosterreichisches Jugendsinfornieorchester

#9: Walter, Columbia SO; Giulini, Vienna PO; [completed version] Schaller, Philharmonie Festiva

Number of CDs clearly reflects preferences among the ten.

I've heard Celibidache in concert, and am surprised to find I don't have any recordings of his.  What the "best" interpretation of any of these that I'm missing?

+1 to pianist recommendations.  I also like Vladimir Ashkenazy.

For earlier keyboard, Andreas Staier is really hard to beat.  Top choice for me.

@jcazador Does that include this?

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=14872

If not, please give it a listen.

And a second plug for John Field.

Here's another name, Andrew Manze, to add to Andreas Staier, Rachel Podger, etc., as a great modern musician.  Both as a performer and a conductor, there hasn't been a disc of his that I haven't liked.  (We can't always stay wrapped up in Walter and Dorati.)

And while I think of it, another Andrew, Lawrence-King, with another across-the-board recommendation, though his Spanish Dances CD is very special.

The last movements of 2, 3 and 9 are all clear runners up, but I’m a sucker for the Adagietto in 5.

Otherwise: Vaughan Williams, Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus.

@newbee Do you still have your Boleros? (-:

The KZ Chopin concertos have been my go-to for years.  He floats the piano part in, as you say, a magically lyrical way.

Do you have the Radu Lupu late Brahms piano pieces?  If not, I'm 99% you'd really like them.

How are the Schubert Piano Duets?

The earlier Rachmaninov Preludes disc seems to have got good but not universally good reviews (Amazon).

Just listened last night to Teodor Currentzis/MusicAeterna's performance of Tchaikovsky's 6th (Pathetique).  On Sony Classics.

WOW.  DOUBLE WOW.  An extraordinary rendition.

Crank up the volume, turn out the lights, sit back, and prepare to be... well, overwhelmed.

[If anyone listens to this, can you report back on what you hear re. soundstaging and the orchestral seating.  I hear divided violins, left and right, but also double basses hard left, which was a little disconcerting.]

@jim204 I listened to disc 2 last night and liked it even more than 1.  I found the playing meditative--perhaps matching my mood.  I also think the recorded piano sound is superlative, at least I was really liking what I heard on my system.

Also, does this new recording outdo one of my desert-island-discs, the Radu Lupu recording of late Brahms?  Hard to imagine that it could.

I just saw that Steven Hough had come out with a new disc of Brahms 116, 117, 118 & 119.

Anyone heard it?

Any thoughts on it--or some other cherished version--vs. the great Lupu?

@jim204 Thanks!

I embarked recently on a listening journey through piano concertos.  Started with Dussek, worked through Beethoven, and last night was three from Hummel.  Beautifully played by Stephen Hough.  What happened to him?  I remember he made a splash with a number of recordings and those two "Piano Albums".  Then.... ?

Who's up next.  Chronology will decide.  John Field must be approaching.