Classical Music for Aficionados
rv, one of my favorite works by Ravel. Sensuous indeed. I will check out the Luxembourg, thanks. Try this one on for size. The sometimes forgotten Victoria de Los Angeles sounds glorious: https://youtu.be/BOntupq6yGM https://youtu.be/Sir3Ap5lbAc https://youtu.be/lATgEroT4vA |
@rvpiano, it sounds like you installed the Roon Remote app on your iPad and expected it to connect with your streamer. Roon doesn’t work like that. You must install and run Roon Core on a computer (PC/Mac/Linux), which connects with your streamer. The iPad would be used like a remote control for the Roon Core on the computer. See the Roon website: https://roonlabs.com/howroonworks |
@rvpiano I have had both Qobuz and Idagio and I have noticed a difference between the two in that on CD quality 16/44 files there is not much difference. I do notice that Qobuz definitely has the edge in the higher resolution files with a blacker noise floor and a more dynamic presentation. The Idagio site on the other hand is far superior in the sheer diversity in it's classical library compared to Qobuz. If I look up something on Qobuz it will come up with a few different Artists and bands. If I look it up on Idagio there are a whole lot more to chose from and if your tastes are a bit eclectic then Idagio is certainly for you. |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart SINFONIA CONCERTANTE IN E-FLAT K364 Vilde Frang (violin) Maxim Rysanov (viola) Arcangelo -- Jonathan Cohen Warner Classics 2015 allegro maestoso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXdYvB3rACs andante https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zfSICtEEIM presto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0A896-KCG4 From the Notes: "If Mozart was a good but unwilling violinist, he was more comfortable with the viola. It was on this lower-timbred, usually supporting instrument that he played in string quartets with Haydn, and for which he composed some of his most personal works, including the 'Kegelstatt' Trio K498 and the Sinfonia concertante K364...is a milestone of compositional maturity." Cheers |
Johann Sebastian Bach ENGLISH SUITES 1, 3 & 5 Piotr Anderszewski (piano) Warner Classics 2014 Seems like a lot but they are all very short pieces. The notes give an account of the history of these works. They also talk about 'repeats', for example -- "when all the repeats of the pieces are observed, the revised version can make for a rather awkward structure, skewing the formal balance of the suite away from the other movements"...Anderszewski I have read other accounts of composers being criticized for using repeats. I guess Bach, Beethoven etc... would say, "do you know who I am?" Suite No. 3 in G Minor, Prélude https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM8cP6tzKIY Suite No. 3 in G Minor, Gigue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-td1Cw3OBg Suite No. 1 in A Major, Prélude https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSSdoR03Kms Suite No. 1 in A Major, Gigue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQPiknYhggs Suite No. 5 in E Minor, Prélude https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUej83R4sng Suite No. 5 in E Minor, Gigue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH2gCpa9hI0 Cheers |
HI-FI FIEDLER Boston Pops Orchestra - Arthur Fiedler RCA Living Stereo SACD Recorded in 1956, 1958 and 1960 This man did as much as anyone to popularize Classical Music. Always came across as, ’this should be fun’. It was for everyone to enjoy, not just the self-appointed ’elites’. Worked in my case. His cover art and musical selections said it all. Some say, ’light’ Classics, I say, ’the good stuff’. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Franz Liszt) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaVL6uhZ7xA William Tell - Overture (Gioachino Rossini) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ3xTFmYOwA Marche slave (Piotr Tchaikovsky) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl9VzrciZUk Cheers |
If you want to know if your system is good acoustically... Listen to the voices surrounding you in this magnificent recording...A studio recording where the singers walk and plays together, one can hear when they turn their head singing... in some part the voices come from behind my back... The interpretation is in german inimitable... One of my loved modern opera....With the Busoni Faust.... The soul of an era.... Kurt weill with Lotte Lenya the best recording of the three pennies opera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR33bL5aNTk&t=850s |
NIGEL KENNEDY'S GREATEST HITS Nigel Kennedy (violin) EMI Classics 1989-2002 English Chamber Orchestra / Kennedy City of Birmingham Symphony / Simon Rattle The Notes: Kennedy gives his thoughts on each tune. Several nice pictures. the lark ascending (Vaughan Williams) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrVDwNt1Nz4 danny boy (trad) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Keo0Xf4RUsY scarborough fair (trad) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVFBVAtSZ7k csardas (Monti) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwrjjsh_aMs Cheers |
Another:One of my favorite composer... the Scriabin of the human voices.... He wrote like Scriabin not to move the human heart only but to make it more vast and livelier... Monteverdi use his art to express all there is, he create opera, but Gesualdo sometimes tear the human heart in two parts...One who suffers and the other who recreate.... Thanks for the magnificent unknown to me French interpretation... |
Another: Pre 1600 !!!!! Stunning use of chromaticism and dissonance: https://youtu.be/mR-ylavYCSI https://youtu.be/qFXrMrp1o60 https://youtu.be/i3JwLnK6Efw |
Bach is so great that we tend to act as if classical started with him .You are right... Obrecht and Tallis and one hundred other geniuses... Hildegard of Bingen is older but what a creative mind... |
BOLERO - ORCHESTRAL FIREWORKS Minnesota Orchestra -- Eiji Oue Reference Recordings HDCD Recorded 2000 From The Notes: Extremely interesting snippets on the origin of each piece on this disc. "I have written only one masterpiece," Ravel said, toward the end of his life; "that is the bolero. Unfortunately, it contains no music." Eiji Oue became the ninth music director of the Minnesota Orchestra in 1995. A native of Hiroshima, Japan. The Orchestra was founded in 1903. Has had some big time music directors over the years. Including Marriner, Dorati and Ormandy. Rimsky-Korsakov: Tale of Tsar Saltan, Op. 57: Flight of the Bumblebee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YJDbVJoRJk Klemperer: Lustiger Walzer (Merry Waltz) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWK-MVlNshg Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 3 in F Major https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kETy5k6ipiQ Ravel: Bolero https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO_AFmqLbZU Not my idea of ’Orchestral Fireworks’, but a nice collection. Cheers |
Johann Sebastian Bach PARTITA NO.1 IN B-FLAT MAJOR, BWV 825 Murray Perahia (piano) Sony Classical 2008-2009 Tidbits from the notes: In Bach's day music was treated as a consumable commodity, here one day, gone the next, so new pieces were required on an almost daily basis. -- Bach's music was rarely performed, but widely studied by academics and composers-including Mozart. -- There is scant evidence that Bach played any of his music in public. -- The set of six Partitas were the first works Bach published with the designation "Opus 1." Praeludium https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml4mw0L-0Eg Menuet I & II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyMEKW3zF3Q Gigue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vle0Jc7of-E Cheers |
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D, OP. 35 Julia Fischer -- violin Russian National Orchestra -- Yakov Kreizberg Pentatone Classics SACD 2006 Excellent Booklet. Lots of info on Tchaikovsky, Fischer and Kreizberg. Notes: Talks about the most profound crisis in Tchaikovsky’s personal life, i.e. his marriage to Antonia Milyukova in 1877: "The marriage had only just taken place, and I had been left alone with my wife, realizing that fate had linked us inseparably, when it suddenly came upon me that I did not feel even simple friendship for her- rather, an aversion in the truest sense of the word." Maybe it’s possible to know too much about these guys. Allegro moderato https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI6MnhNJedU Finale: Allegro vivacissimo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1NyEV-7ZgA Julia Fischer, born in Munich in1983. has worked with almost every top tier conductor in the world, except Karajan. She was only 6 when he died. Started playing before age 4. Her instrument is of Italian origin made by Jean Baptiste in 1750. Cheers |
Aaron Copland COPLAND 100 Minnesota Orchestra -- Eiji Oue Reference Recordings HDCD Recorded 2000 The Notes: "In 1942 Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony commissioned and premiered eighteen new fanfares over the course of the symphony's 1942-43 season. "It is my idea," explained Goossens, "to make these fanfares stirring and significant contributions to the war effort." Copland's 'Fanfare for the Common Man' premiered on 12 March, 1943." "The special qualities of Copland's 'Appalachian Spring(1944), one of the composer's most popular works, owed much to choreographer Martha Graham, for whom it was written." ... "there's something prim and restrained, simple yet strong, about her which ones tends to think of as American." Fanfare for the Common Man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku3kH7-sUTs Appalachian Spring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3luGMG3PoY The music definitely has that 'American' sound to it. Optimistic, like, everything will be alright. We can do it. Cheers |
Mozart DIVERTIMENTO IN E-FLAT (K.563) CBS Records Masterworks - 1985 *also available on conventional disc & cassette :) Notes: State this work is infrequently played and is astonishingly little known in spite of it being one of Mozart's greatest masterpieces. Perhaps the reasons have to do with it's generally dark, even severe cast...dedicated to the Mason, Michael Puchberg, who so often had helped him in his troubles, i.e. money. Allegro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buvM8PvOFrY Adagio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSaK98LZ6R0 Allegro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZuxADlAqhY Cheers |
@rvpiano RV just to let you know I have listened to the recording of Pablo Fernandez cello recording. Rachmaninov's music never sounded better than on the cello as he had a great affinity with it . Yes all in all a great recording to while away the hours , literally. You are so right about the tone Ravishing it is. |
Beethoven PIANO TRIOS VOL. 1 Ashkenazy, Perlman, Harrell EMI 1979-1984 2CD set. Notes: Standard fare. No good gossip. Synopsis of each Trio. Does point out that Haydn thought this trio, in C minor, was too 'advanced' for a Viennese public; most musicians would now consider it the finest of the set. -- Andrew Huth Well, it's not too advanced for us Aficionados!! :) Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 1 No. 3: I. Allegro con brio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dvBJKlA_94 Cheers |
Beethoven PIANO CONCERTO No. 5 Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Andsnes Sony 2014 Notes: Talk about the events happening during the time this music was written. Esp Napoleon's rampage across Europe. Tells the story of Beethoven seeking shelter in his brother's basement when Vienna came under fire from Napoleon's cannon. Beethoven pressing pillows to his head in an effort to protect his sensitive ears. "If I understood as much about the art of war as I do about the art of music," he is reported to have exclaimed,"I would have defeated him!" Of that, there is no doubt. piano concerto no. 5 in e-flat major, op. 73 "emperor": I. allegro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE7RSyCfMyU Cheers |
Beethoven SYMPHONY NO.7 IN A MAJOR, OP.92 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Manfred Honeck, Music director Reference Recordings SACD Recorded 2015 From the Notes: "Critics did not comment on the poetic melodies, but rather on the rhythm as the main element of this symphony. Richard Wagner would later famously refer to the Seventh as "the apotheosis of the dance" and Carl Maria von Weber even remarked that with this work, Beethoven was certainly "now ripe for the madhouse." also As Beethoven wrote in his diary,... there were 18 first violins, 18 second violins, 14 violas, 12 cellos, 7 concert basses and 2 contra bassoons. We have likewise played both the fifth and the seventh symphonies in Pittsburgh with a similarly large cast. ... Additionally, we have used the Viennese classical setting of the orchestra, with the violins sitting on opposite sides of the stage, thus making it possible to bring to life the strong Orchestral drama. -- Manfred Honeck I think they succeeded. Allegro con brio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPzR6kaRsAc Cheers |
Beethoven EROICA - VARIATIONEN Bruno Leonardo Gelber (piano) Orfeo Label Recorded 1984 In the notes, they talk about and use the word 'improvisations' a lot. Maybe this should have been posted on JFA. Seems like here, the improvisations are done by the composer, not the player. 15 Variations & Fugue in E-Flat Major, Op. 35 "Eroica" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMt8IgOMjMc Another one from the dawn of the CD age. Made in West Germany DM35.80 Cheers |
Each string section (1rst violins, 2nd violins, violas, cellos and basses) has a “Principal” (“Concertmaster” in the case of the 1rst violins), an “Associate Principal”, and in some orchestras an “Assistant Principal” in addition to the “Principal” and the “Associate Principal”. In some orchestras a player auditions for and would hold a specific chair in a specific stand (usually two players) in the section and that is where they will always sit. A very smart alternative method is the revolving seating method. In this method, with the exception of the “Principal” players, who will always sit in the first stand of the section, the other section players will rotate and take turns sitting in the various stands. The rotation can take place for different concerts or for different works within a concert. This allows each player to have an opportunity to sit in closer proximity to the section’s principal (and conductor) and avoids any one player having to sit in the last stand of the section which is sometimes comprised of a single player. There are very real musical advantages to this method. |
Beethoven VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MAJOR Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin) New York Philharmonic -- Kurt Masur DG SACD Recorded 2002 The Notes Consist primarily of a conversation between Joachim Kaiser and Sophie Mutter. ASM: "It was in 1978, a year after my debut with Hebert von Karajan. He thought I should study the Beethoven next, which I did for half a year with my teacher Aida Stucki. Then, as agreed, I traveled to Lucerne to play it for Karajan. But a little way into the piece he said to me:"Go home and come back next year." (This is so 'German' of the Big Guy.) "Beethoven certainly never intended with this concerto to oblige violinists' cravings for technical antics" Beethoven: Violin Concerto In D, Op.61 - 1. Allegro ma non troppo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0Wc1cIJBRE Excellent booklet with wonderful insights into ASM, HvK and Beethoven. Thick booklet with glossy color photos and LARGE type. :) Includes a Complete Roster of the NYP. Cheers |
I enjoyed the Hadelich Bach very much. You’re right, his approach is low key, very different from the usual. Effective though. His bringing out of the contrapuntal lines at the beginning of the Chaconne was very impressive. ‘I have a further recommendation for you of another wonderful string player: cellist Pablo Ferrandez. His new recording entitled “Reflections,” is one of the top recordings of the year for me. It contains mostly Rachmaninoff, but also Spanish composers. His tone is to die for. He sounds like Piatigorsky, which is not surprising in that he’s playing on Piatigorsky’s Stradivarius cello. The playing and sound is really extraordinary. It’s also available on Idagio and Qobuz. ‘Enjoy! |
@rvpiano You are right the miracle indeed is Mozart but the sound is wonderful. This is the first I have listened to a complete opera in years, Mozart was indeed the greatest operatic composer of his age. My last Figaro was Herman Prey and we could be doing with his power and wit in this performance , the rest of the cast are very good by the way. The orchestra is very vividly recorded and three cheers for the forte piano and lute, a period performance but with a full blooded orchestra. Yes I have to say I have enjoyed this very much, Curenzis notwithstanding sometimes. I have one recommendation of my ow this time , It's Bach - Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Augustin Hadelich. I have sampled the D Minor and E Major Suites. Don't expect a Fischer, Kavakos or Vengerov as his virtuosity takes a different route. He has a softer tone than the previous three wonders. The great Chaconne of the D minor suite is a wondrous affair as it is played in a distinctly romantic style full and very soft playing. At the beginning of the piece I was reminded of Nathan Millstein with superbly clean playing and his arpegios and especially his double stopping superbly clean. Although not for everyone at least his intonation and tone are beyond reproach. |
George Gershwin PORGY AND BESS (highlights) Simon Estes / Roberta Alexander Rundfunk - Sinfonieorchester Berlin Leonard Slatkin Recorded 1984 Another one with the German sales price sticker still attached. DM39.95 From the Notes: Talks about the deeper meaning of the piece. The ’complex’ relationship between Porgy, Crown and Bess. Porgy and Bess, Good and innocent, vs the evil Crown etc... They were not written by Gershwin, so they should be taken with a grain of salt. I think it was, just like most music, entertainment. A German Radio Band???? It will be played to 'perfection'. Act 1 - Introduction - Jazzbo Brown Blues - Summertime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2btC1lleG5k Act 1 - My Man’s Gone Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyGnw2aO6R4 Act 2 - I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L76mHyEIQCA Act 2 - I Ain’t Got No Shame - It Ain’t Necessarily So https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVv-GgJtlMQ Cheers |
In case it hasn't been mentioned before, I'll put in a recommendation for Rameau's Imaginary Symphony, as conducted by Marc Minkowski: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOZxiPU7wo4 https://www.amazon.com/Rameau-Une-Symphonie-Imaginaire-Jean-Philippe/dp/B000935TV8 A delightful recording, in excellent SACD sound. It's hard to imagine anyone who likes classical music not finding this enjoyable. |
I know I get carried away , but I just got through listening 3 times to the You Tube Shaman/ Abbado/Berlin Phil /Brahms Vn. It is the best clip I have ever seen on You Tube !Gil and Abbado are as one, the Berlin sounds like a SS Panzer and the audience stated normal clapping at the end and all of a sudden a 1,000 lb exploded ! . Film is fantastic as well . I see sometimes You Tube puts a square box on corner which you must tap if you want part 2 of where you are.IMO about as useful as boobs on a rattle snake . |
Jim., At least Nichola was not phony , I dare say she has done more for the youth of Scotia then Her Majesty . Over here It always looked like Charles was the pick of the litter to me because of his stands on keeping the Planet.Today I found on long BBC program here that his Dad had a lot to dowith that and many charities as well .Good on for Phillip ! |
I didn’t have time to listen to the Gil/ Abbado /Berliners and made a mistake. Been a while since I heard mine . They were not good , they were all that night, the Best in the World .The young Gil did what he does so well, play with imagination without going over the line And the Berliners went right with him ! You Tube did not finish it , at least on my "putter . But I imagine every one who hears it will buy one . rok, since it is THE greatest aria ever written all should buy that as well .I have 7 different ones and get my hanky out for every one . |
Last night while watching an episode of "Endeavor" on the internet, this aria was part of the music soundtrack. The main character, a Police Detective, is a rapid Opera fan. Looking at the credits I found out it was from ’Madame Butterfly’. After searching my shelves, I discovered I had it on disc, 'The Ultimate Puccini Collection', and by the same singer that was on the soundtrack. Here she be. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZZrD4_OAM4 I was not familiar with Ms Crespin Cheers |
