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.
Your comments on Scotland and education are very interesting, so I hope none will be offended if we wander outside of classical music. I have never been to Scotland, but that is where 75% of my ancestors came from (the Sutherland clearances) and I feel a connection. I know so little of the reality, e.g. about schools, that I do not pass judgment. However, in the grand scheme of things governmental/political I firmly believe that Scotland has no need for Trident. And it has no need for any governance but its own.
Jim forgot to mention, I share your view of classical music post Shostakovich My teacher once said: "if it is not in tune and it is not in time, then it is not music."
Jeremy I see where you are commig from but I shall not say any more on the Scottish Question as I don't want to get blamed for highjacking the thread so please all forgive me.On a completely different tone I see from twoleftears he has dusted off the Busoni. I have been fascinated by him for since I can remember, I love his Bach/Busoni transcriptions especially the Great Chaconne which is one of my all time favourite piano pieces. I am not too keen on a lot of his original material however I give his Fantasia Contrapuntistica an airing every now and then and I do like it a lot. If you want to explore more of his Bach outings I can recomend a disc by Nikolai Demidenko on the Hyperion label on which he does the ubiquitous BWV565 to great aplomb but he does many other great Fantasies and Fugues also and with hyper virtuousity to boot.
Vox made a really nice set of Romantic Piano Concertos years ago. It had a lot of Micheal Ponti, buy also other pianists. My Fav is the Rubenstein #4. @schubert , What is '
combo of iI duce and maggy'? Did Mussolini go to Minnesota? Bob
So what do you piano mavens think of Cristina Ortiz? She sounds pretty good to me in the Stenhammar #2 (which, curiously, strikes me as better recorded/engineered than the matching #1).
The world nowadays is full of talented pianists but it is what they do with the notes rather than the velocity of them that interest me. What do I think of Christina Ortiz well she is a very clean pianist but she certainly is no Martha Argerich.
If anyone likes the music of Alkan I would recomment a disc by Olli Musstonen on Decca playing Akans 's 25 Preludes and Shostakovich's 24 Preludes. I love that recording.
Jim Re: Shostakovich Preludes So many wonderful recordings! If I had to choose a favorite, it is Ashkenazy,24 Preludes and Fugues, op 87, Decca 466 956-2
Jeremy I think you and I have a love of the same things pianistically , I have allways loved the 19th century hyper virtuoso composer pianists and Alkan being one I am especially fond of . If you have the interest of getting more Alkan look at the wonderful recordings of Marc-Andre Hamelin on Hyperion. the one I would espescially draw you to is Alkan's the Four Ages of man , Hamelin does a herculean task here of just getting through the welter of notes on offer. What he also does is offer it in a way that he makes it all cohesive which is also needed in my favourite pianist composer Franz Liszt. With Liszt his music demands a virtuoso with a transcendental technique so that he or she can then make musical sense of it . I am quite sure by now some of you are saying what sense IS there in his music as a lot of the players today are taking on things that are way above the technique they have available. Heven knows I have been to many concerts that I heartilly wished that the ground would open up and swallow them (some of them were big names)One of the greatest virtuosos I have ever witnessed live was Boris Beresovsky a great bear of a man who I witnesed playing Mussorgsky's Pictures and other Russian composers. It was a stinking night and I drove from Ayr to Edinburgh in rain so bad my wipers couldn't cope with . I eventually got to The Queen's Hall with literally minutes to spare and it was a particularly small audience that night and when Beresovsky walked on and saw the audience he couldn't hide his disappointment. He then pointed to his watch and said he would be back in 5 minutes. He went backstage and told the management to invite all the people upstairs to come below and fill the bottom half meaning it was much more cosy. The people did not know what they had let themselves in for it was literally the most exciting piano recital I have ever attended. He started off with some Lyadov then Glasunov and then some other composers I can't recall but he came back on in the second half with Pictures and I was in awe of how one person could get that amount of sound and nuaunce from a model D Steinway. Some of the young women in the audience were actually holding their ears during The Great Gate of Kiev. After three encores he came back onstage and treated us to the best Islamey I have ever heard the speed of it was unbelievable and not a splt note or mistake anywhere. Yes that was indeed a night to remember.
What a great recital, you seem to have heard them all. Love Berezovsky, have his Liszt, Hindemith, Rachmaninov, and a couple of live recitals, including Godowsky. One of these is a video of a recital at La Rogue d'Antheron. I am in awe of Hamelin including the Four Ages you mention, that cd includes Sonatine, Barcarolle, Le Festin D'Escope. Also have his Symphony for solo piano, Salut, Alleluia, Super flumina Babylonis, and Souvenirs. Also Concerto for Solo Piano (Music and Arts Program of America CD-724). Sometimes I find Hamelin overwhelming, he seems to choose the most difficult music to record.
Jeremy - I have looked up the Laurent Martin recording of Alkan's Esquisses and find it to be a lovely recording both in the playing and in the recording ( thanks for th tip ). My friend at one time had Martin playing The Alkan 25 Preludes and I found it to be too slowly played for my liking and unfortunately that kind of made me shy away from anything Martin did but I have found a new interest in him again ( thank you Idagio ).I think I shall record some of his stuff onto my desktop this weekend. Have I ever mentioned to any of you how to get recordings for free ( after you have paid for the App though ) . This is an App called Sound Tap which you download onto your PC then open whichever streaming app you use and record what is playing through "for me it's Idagio" and once the stream is finished you have a facimile of the stream and I can't hear a difference between the stream and the recording. It also saves you downloding crappy Mp3 files from dodgy sites.
Re: Jean Martin Glad you liked it. Consider Martin's Faure, mostly nocturnes + romances, preludes. I downloaded a 5 cd collection, 2 of the cds were Martin, exquisite; the others were Volondat de Hooge, which I did not appreciate as much. Also: his rendiction of Stephen Heller preludes Opp. 81 and 150. Marco Polo 8.2234.34 I read that he has recorded a lot more, but have not found yet.
In my concerto survey, Bortkiewicz's no. 1 on Hyperion struck me particularly favorably (probably more so than any of the other more or less obscure compositions on the CDs that I own of that series). So when I found out that he had composed two more, it was game on. The CD arrived today, label: Piano Classics, Stefan Doniga w/ Janacek Philharmonic conducted by David Porcelijn. Nearly through no. 2 (for the left hand), and it's also great. I don't see how anyone who likes Rachmaninov wouldn't also like these (though, obviously, they don't rise to the same level). A pleasant discovery.
JimThanks for the correction, I seem to have conflated Laurent Martin and Jean Martin. It is Jean's Faure that I like so much. And it is Laurent's Alkan Equisses. The Heller Preludes are Jean.
Jeremy, Thank's for the links to Laurent Martin's website , I shall give it a good look over tomorrow. It looks very interesting and quite diverse .Thank's again, Jim.
My system is the most revealing it's ever been--and I'm not always liking it.
I've been immersed in Rachmaninov the last few days. Listened to Daniil Trifonov for no. 2, and Argerich for no. 3. Then I put on Boris Janis, on Mercury (2 & 3), which I thought was supposed to be a classic performance and recording. The contrast wasn't subtle. The piano was overly loud throughout in terms of the balance with the orchestra, and I wasn't getting a lot of shading of volume from the piano in "p" and "f" passages. The piano itself sounded kind of monotone: muscular and woody and lacking in air. Strong preference for the live Argerich in no. 3, where she wasn't as fierce, ferocious or aggressive as I'd thought she might be. And sound-wise it was no contest. Also preferred the Trifonov in no. 2, though I don't think he imbued it with all the lyricism that's possible.
Any recommendations for a truly "romantic" rendition of no. 2?
twoleftears, My favorite rendition of the Rachmaninoff PC's is by Earl Wild and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jasha Horenstein.
This has been around for many years (for good reason!) and it is presently available from Chandos. A set of all the PC's as well as the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. If these was the only versions of the PC's that I owned (and its not, I've got a lot, old and contemporary) I'd be very happy.
I’m listening to the Byron Janis recording, and I hear what you mean. The lack of subtlety is typical of Mercury’s “close-up” sound technique. Placing microphones so close to the orchestra and soloist is their trademark. Some people like that. But it does rob the sense of perspective.
"Earl Wild was one of the great pianists of the 20th century"
Hard to argue with that statement and, FWIW, he was made in America. :-)
I'm very partial to his recordings for solo piano, and especially his transcriptions. Easy recommendations for 'Rachmaninoff Songs', a 'Schumann Recital', 'The Art of Transcripion - Live from Carnegie Hall', and a six CD set of Liszt including Transcriptions and Paraphrases.
I'm not sure how much of this is still in print, but if they can be found they are well worth hearing.
A couple of others I over looked worthy of mention - 'Earl Wild plays his transcriptions of Gershwin', and for Piano and Orchestra, Variations on an American Theme (Doo-Dah) and the Concerto in F. These Doo-Dah variations are unique - the disc, for no other reason, is a must have for Wild enthusiasts.
A recent recording of Wild's transcriptions/arrangements worth hearing and will give a fairly good idea of Wilds music in good hands (pun intented) Xiayin Wand's "The piano music of Earl Wild" on Chandos.
The Fountain Head, a towering Masterwork from one of Bach’s greatest influences . Played about as well as it CAN be played ! I have a fine USB DAC pluged in my computer with a pair of Beyer headphones playing this better than 90% of all Systems ! You are there for about 400 bucks .
Yes Len that sure is one super recording, I'm afraid Buxtehude can be sadly neglected over here in the UK. Everyone tends only to listen to his younger star and all others are ignored. I don't even hear Radio 3 pushing much organ music either. Our local town council have organised some splendid recitals in Ayr and surrounding areas with some really good soloists, I have been to quite a few and they tend to be about once a month.
Been listening to Buxtehude for over 50 years. There was a series of recordings by Alf Linder on Westminster Recording Co., played on the
Organ of Varfrukyrka in Skänninge, Sweden, made in 1772 by Lars Wahlberg and Anders Wollander." Interesting that Buxtehude played on organs that were NOT well tempered. I have heard/read that old sacred music loses something significant when played on well tempered organs. Of course the limitation was that old organs were limited in what keys they could play.
The entire world neglects " early music ", to its own disadvantage .
I am very fortunate that the Twin Cities has a dozen first-class early music ensembles and, literally, a hundred choirs of which a dozen are world class .
IMO , a classical lover who knows not composers like Josquin des Prez, Du Fay, Gesualdo, Palestrina , Lasso, Gibbons, Byrd, Monteverdi and the mother of both lyricism and flow of musical line , Hildegard of Bingen,, is like a man who prefers McDonalds over a 3 star Michelin restaurant .
Well , perhaps I exaggerate a bit , but you get the gist of it .
And I beg the pardon of the Dutch and Belgians , Amsterdam, Brugge and Ghent continue to fly the flag .
I hear you jcazador . If you listened to my post that young Frenchwomen
playing German music on a Dutch organ sure didn’t miss anything .I had some of that Westminster stuff and was quite fond of it as well . I am a religious person and that aspect is more important to me than the technical side , not that it isn’t important .As I’m not a musician I don’t understand much of it in any event .
I have a whole shelf-full of consort of viols CDs, mainly English (the composers I mean). I'm particularly fond of an album entitled "Crye" done by an ensemble called Concordia. Worth seeking out if this is your thing.
"
Research in my teens into historic organ tuning, and thence a decade of
experiment and research instigated by contemplating Chopin's 2nd Sonata
in Bb minor brought a realisation that it's the modern tuning that has
robbed us of the differences between the keys, and that it wasn't my
ears at all. It seemed as though Chopin was deliberately intending the
effect of the key of Bb minor to express the cold wind whistling over
the graves and I knew from historic organs that that is what the tuning
would do. The colour has been robbed from us and the true meaning of
"Chromatic" is so lost to us now that Colour isn't mentioned in the
relevant Wikipedia article.
The consequence of this is that our
classical music has been reduced in the number of dimensions in which it
communicates and that this has led to increasingly mere mechanical
performances that don't engage so well emotionally, leading to a
degradation in musical appreciation and of its value as emotional
communication and literature.
"
Mahler Symphonies are my passion. And today is Mahler’s birthday. Listen to your favorite Mahler Symphony recording to celebrate. I’m going to have a Mahlerthon and listen to all ten symphonies.
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