Have a listen on You tube to Khatia playing the Schubert / Liszt Standchen and before you blast the head of me Liszt only arranged it and what a wonderful job he made of it. Give it a shot she makes a beautiful job of it. Jim.
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.
3,875 responses Add your response
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Jim I am with you Re Maria Joao Pires, especially love her Chopin Nocturnes. Also appreciate Yuja Wang's piano, but so not much her clothes (or lack thereof). The recording of Moravec/Vectomov is on cd #10 of that compilation entitled "Portrait".
more on Moravec (including his refusal to accept Szell's interpretation of Beethoven) here https://www.naxos.com/person/Ivan_Moravec/8428.htm
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Hi Jeremy, I have looked for the recording you mentioned but cannot find it on Idagio. I have consolidated my streaming now , I have given up Qobuz because of this dammed decision to play music by female composers, before any of you jump on me I have not got it in for female musicians or composers in fact my third favourite pianist is Martha Argerich so I am just saying that I am fed up with each month taken up by lesser musicians so I stopped Qobuz. What I will ay there is a disc with Yuya Wang and a cellist ( forget his name ) doing the rounds and she is playing Rachmaninov and it is really special. I would have a look out for it if I was you as I am sure you will enjoy it . Another very special female musician is Maria Joao P Pires which at the moment I am listening to her Chopin - Piano Concerto No 1, It is absolutely beautiful as is all things from her. |
I would like to say that Claudio Arrau and Vladimir Horowitz were fully up to and in certain ways passed Moravec with their playing. As far as Arrau is concerned you only have to look on Idagio at the moment and he is playing the 4 Ballades and the 4 Scherzi. which was a stupendous disc when it came out at first. I went through a couple of LPs by constantly playing them. It was so strange for a lot of people to believe that a South American who trained in the Germanic tradition could play Chopin so well. He had a repertoire that ranged from Bach to Schoenberg. His Debussy was beautifully liquid and his rubatos were wonderful. And now of course we have Mr Horowitz who I think got better as he got older and thank goodness he still had a reasonable technique left to give us some wonderful recordings for us to savour. Get your wallet out !!! |
Give me any pianist name that play at the same level or better i will buy his album right now...If i dont already know him ... 😊 Moravec is one of my FEW gods on piano....All his album are TOP artistic playing with none musically underpar with the others...I listen to them all...If he is not the best he is beside the best interpreter of a piece...This pianist is not so well known because probably he is too great to be true... His color sense is astounding and his mastery of the flowing "hues" unsurpassed save by few other gods....he dont play piano , he is a painter... Do you want to SEE the "cathedral engloutie" under water? I was in love with Debussy after listening him....Never before... When your eye catch what look like a cathedral under water you never forgot it... I discovered Moravec because of a friend who wanted to cure me at all cost of my Sofronitsky and Nyiregyhazi serious disease for months....He succeeded...I was able at last to listen to another pianist....😁😊
«Only a diamond can replace a diamond»-Lazare Kaplan diamond cutter
listen to it at 4m41s. |
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@rvpiano A true one off. Incomparable !! |
I was surprised when a few post back the mention of Sir John Barbrioli's Mahler as it was a series I planed to look into years back after a sample of the 4th from HD Tracks. I received a complete box set offered on Amazon at a great price and I'm smitten by the sound and performance and see why it's the favorite of some. My go to's are Fisher, Tilson , Karajan and Zander's 5th. Thanks for the nod on this fantastic rendition as no Mahler fan should be without. |
Well, you do have great taste , mahgister ! I need to go back from most present composers because there is a lot of dissonant and very little consonant . Only Janacek got over that mountain ,at least to my taste . Of course he was Czech, build into his native tongue . Basis is Basic . You can NOT be too passionate when it comes to the greatest feat of the Western World !! All else in Art is a picture of something else , Classical Music is the thing itself . |
Vivaldi is very young when he published his sonatas opus 2... He was very motivated by the Corelli domination of all Italian musical scene.. I imagine him, offering his work with a real but also some " distorted sense of humility" to the older Master.. With the back tought to prove itself to the old master in the Corellian writing style and form itself.... These Vivaldi sonatas are very Corellian inspired one but with the characteristical Vivaldian melodic pulse and rythmical surge though...And some say erroneously that they lack the depth of the future works to come, they dont lack depth they dont look for depth at all, here Vivaldi was looking for a magical SPELL and he succeeded... I imagine the old master reading them or playing them and thinking about this young man like the future master of all musicians by his seductive spontaneous inspiration , save perhaps Bach or Beethoven or Mozart and very few others to come.. Corelli is great indeed...And the Vivaldi "greek gift" is a testimony to the old master also...But also a treat....These Vivaldian sonatas are a pure masterpiece, never surpassed by other Vivaldian sonatas to come, they are not an imperfect work by a beginner at all, even if vivaldi is 21 years old....These pieces a no less achieved and polished than any of his future best works, they present a cohesive rythmical unity between them that is marvellous...Vivaldi wrote and never work hard save for certain works where he put some hard polishing effort, the "4 seasons" for example and these sonatas i think because he wanted to impress the Corelli roaring lion... I listened to these sonatas opus 2 near one thousand times, almost each day for more than three years when i was writing ... I know, i know i am a bit too passionate and excessive man in music or in love ... 😁😊 I prefer this old interpretation on conventional modern instruments to the new one with old instruments...
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IMO Corelli is at the head of the Great , who cares, in North American at least. He had influence on two Germans , Bach and Handel, esp. the later.. When I need both rest and energy I often go to Corelli . The orchestra is the Slovak Chamber Orchestra out of Prague in 70's and 80's . More proof of my cry that the Czechs are the most Classical Music people in the world .
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I have found one Schubert disc in what may appear to be a set to come on the CPO label. String Quartets include Rosamunde and Death and the Maiden which are up to their consistently high standards. The dynamics are superb with a lovely rich and well layered sound. I would certainly recommend it. It's on Idagio at the moment. Let me know what you think if you find it. |
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@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. |
Has anyone heard of Witold Lutoslawski ? Polish composer. Just listened to his Variations on a theme of Paganini (1941) arr. for Piano, strings and percussion. There is only one recording made by Denis Matsuev on Idagio. This recording also includes a powerful performance of Shostakovich Piano concerto 1, and Schnittke Concerto for Piano and orchestra, which I also found very interesting. Appears Schnittke was influenced by Shostakovich. |
Barenboim is one of the greatest musicians on the planet right now. He will be sorely missed when he goes. If you want to hear him at his best with his conductors clothes on go to Qobuz or Idagio and look up Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Liza Batiashvihli on fiddle, fireworks galore. Thanks jim for the Schumann. |
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pryso, missed your question; sorry about that. You are exactly right; so that not all the stands of (in this case) violins have to turn the page at the same time. Notice that the violins with pages 1&2 of the music showing are also on the outside, closest to the audience. Optics. This is the job of the orchestra’s music library. Photocopying page 2 of the music which is often on the backside of page 1 makes it possible to have both pages visible without having to make a page turn. Sometimes music publishers don’t pay enough attention to where it makes most sense to put a rest written in the part and the player is forced to make a very quick page turn; sometimes even in the middle of a phrase forcing the player to have to play a measure or two from memory. Of course, in any given score not all instruments have the same number of notes to play and while the violins may have two pages of music in the first movement of that concerto (as is the case in this work) a different instrument or section of instruments may have all the music for that movement on just one page. Hope this helps and best wishes.
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