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.
Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin) Berliner Philharmoniker Hebert von Karajan DG 1981
Notes: "Any discussion of the outstanding violin concertos of the 19th-century German repertoire inevitably centres upon four works: the concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven(1806), Felix Mendelssohn(1844), Max Bruch(1866) and Johannes Brahms(1878). In many respects these works fall into two pairs: while the concertos of Beethoven and Brahms are considered particularly "demanding", those of Mendelssohn and Bruch enjoy enormous popularity both with audiences and among violinists."
A very young Anne-Sophie Mutter.
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E minor, op. 64
Murray Perahia (piano) St. Martin-in-the-Fields Neville Marriner CBS Masterworks 1975 / 1984
Notes: "The Concerto No.1 in G minor for piano and Orchestra, Op.25, was sketched in Rome, in November 1830, and finished in Munich during a visit by the composer in 1831, when he was twenty-two years old. Describing it as "a thing rapidly thrown off," Mendelssohn played the premiere himself in Munich in October 1831."
Concerto No.1 for Piano & Orchestra, in G minor, Op.25
@rok2id6 Regarding the Liszt Sonata I fully concur with the Arrau version but make sure it is his 60s analogue version and not his 80's digital version because by then he had slowed down considerably. Also another one to look out for is Krystian Zimmerman who is a blistering performance but I personally like the older Arrau version for it's passion and technical prowess.
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.
Lilian Watson (soprano) Delia Wallis (mezzo-soprano) London Symphony Orchestra Andre Previn EMI Classics 1977 /1985 / 2002
Notes: "It is not surprising that Mendelssohn grew up with an interest in, and a love for the works of William Shakespeare, since it was his father's brother-in-law, August Schlegel, who had translated them into German. In 1826, when he was seventeen years old, Mendelssohn composed "in a state of delirium", so he said, an Overture inspired by Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Seventeen years later he added to this some incidental music for use at performances of Shakespeare's play in Berlin."
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Incidental Music, Op.61
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig Kurt Masur Philips Classics 1984
Notes: "Simply, he overestimated the role of the gipsies at the expense of older native Hungarian folk-musics, this later being corrected by
Kodály and Bartók
. Liszt naturally admired the romantic aspects of gipsy style, but failed to realize that a typical Hungarian melody is a distillation of a historical succession of several melodic veins in which the 'fioriture' of the gipsies, who came from Asia, is only one element."
Sarah Chang (violin) Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Charles Dutoit EMI Classics 1995
Notes: "It was a new virtuosity that required new music, music that demanded of a composer more than a casual awareness of the violin’s newly enhanced technical and expressive potential. The Romantic age was at hand, and the Classical rules needed updating. Gone was the fey intimacy of the aristocratic salon, replaced by the vigorous, heightened atmosphere of the concert hall."
Symphonie Espagnole for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 21
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Nikolaus Harnoncourt Teldec Classics / Warner Classics and Jazz 1987-1993 / 2006 5CD Box Set
Notes: "...The last phase of the Turkish wars was two years past, but its horrors must have impressed Haydn deeply, for his choice of "Turkish" instruments was not designed to be exotic and picturesque, but rather to serve as a warning. In this sense it would be permissible to speak of an "anti-military" Symphony."
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Sir Colin Davis Philips 1977,1978,1980,1981,1982 / 1994
Notes: "Symphony No.96 in D, scored like No. 95, was for years known, incorrectly, as "The Miracle" (see No. 102) and was possibly performed at Salomon's first concert in 1791, on 11 March."
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Sir Colin Davis Philips 1977,1978,1980,1981,1982 / 1994
Notes: "Symphony No. 95 in C minor is scored for strings and pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets and timpani and was probably performed for the first time on 29 April 1791. It is the only one of the London symphonies not to begin with a slow introduction, and the only one in a minor key (although this only applies to the first movement, which ends in C major, and to the minuet)."
Lynn Harrell (cello) Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Neville Marriner English Chamber Orchestra Pinchas Zukerman EMI Records 1980-1983 / 1992-2001
Notes: "The Artists: Sir Neville Marriner was music director and conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra (1978-86) and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra(1986-89). He was made a CBE in 1979 and knighted in 1985."
"Pinchas Zukerman was music director of the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota (1980-87) and has also conducted or played violin in the premieres of works by Boulez, Lutoslawski and Takemitsu."
Lynn Harrell (cello) Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Neville Marriner English Chamber Orchestra Pinchas Zukerman EMI Records 1980-1983 / 1992-2001
Notes: "The Artists: Lynn Harrell studied at the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute, making his debut with the New York PO at Carnegie Hall in 1961. At the age of 18 he became a member of the Cleveland Orchestra, and from 1964 to 1971 was principal cellist there."
Leif ove Andsnes (piano) Berliner Philharmoniker Mariss Jansons EMI Classics 2003
Notes: "There are some legendary recordings of this pair of concertos and it's challenging to put on disc two such popular works that have been recorded so often. But it's music of great richness and there are always new interpretative possibilities."
"In 1962 the orchestra relocated to its present home at Lincoln Center. The acoustics of Philharmonic Hall were tested during a "tuning week" in May, and the first public concert, on September 23, elicited enthusiasm from some and concern from others. By the time this recording of ’The Grand Canyon Suite’ was made the following spring, the consensus was that Philharmonic Hall was not an acoustic success. Between 1963 and 1969 three separate remodeling attempts proved ineffective and in 1976 the hall was gutted, reconfigured, and reopened as Avery Fisher Hall, thereby saluting the philanthropist who financed the overhaul. Although recording technology could obviate the hall’s original shortcomings, this reading of the Grand Canyon Suites documents a bittersweet time when the orchestra struggled to make beautiful music despite the shortcomings of its hall." James M. Keller
Emanuel Ax (piano), Issac Stern (violin) Jaime Laredo (viola), Yo-Yo Ma (cello) Sony Classics 1992
Notes: "Perhaps no other composer has ever been so generally ignored outside of his own country, while at the same time enjoying an unquestionably eminent reputation at home." -- Aaron Copland "The first piano quartet is a work of almost incredible accomplishment. The writing, especially for the piano, is completely idiomatic, and creates a kind of intensity combined with transparency that is entirely
Fauré's own. If one of the indications of great music is that the composer has his own individual sound, certainly
Fauré's is a member of that elite ."
Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello No.1 in C minor, Op.15
Colette Boky (soprano) Huguette Tourangeau (mezzo soprano) Richard Hoenich (bassoon) Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal Charles Dutoit Decca 1983 The Three Cornered Hat Part 1
Nigel Kennedy (violin) London Philharmonic Orchestra Vernon Handley EMI 1984 / 1991
Notes: "Nigel Kennedy's interests go beyond classical music into Indian music and Jazz; he has given concerts with Stephane Grappelli and played at the Chichester and Cork Festivals with American Jazz musicians. Nigel Kennedy plays a Stradivari violin loaned to him through J&A Beare LTD., at the express wish of its former owner, the late Mrs Dorothy Jeffreys of Trebetherick, Cornwall."
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