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.
Inspired by Batsashvili I embarked on a fairly long play-through of all my Liszt piano recital disks. Over half way, and so far the most lyrical and likeable has been I think John Browning in the Petrarch sonnets. Volodos's recital has amazing piano sound, full, rich, very present; his playing is, when required, quite, err, forceful, and of course there's incredible dexterity.
@twoleftears Have you got Francesco Piemontesi playing the Liszt Years of Pilgrimage First year Switzerland and Second Year Italy. I love them as he has a beautiful touch at the keyboard and the recitals are beautifully recorded. A couple of years ago I attended a recital in my local town hall and he played Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto , one of the best concerto recitals I have been to.
I listen now Bach organ opus.... I own already the excellent Hurford interpretation...But the most extraordinary one for me, outpassing any I know of and probably even those I dont know yet :) , is the out of this world hypnotic rendition by the blind master Walcha...Incredibly moving and a portal to the astral world...The density of his playing is balanced by a perfect rhythmic-pulsating integration of all parts that sound like all melodies are fluid letters of a superior hologram.... If miracles exist this is one... Other organists plays well, sound in some case may be better (the Walcha sound is good tough) but Walcha plays Bach like Bach wanted to plays himself for himself, it is no more organ, it is pure music....I dont like organ music particularly and generally, I now know why, after that all is trials and errors... :)
The beauty exhaled most of the times is so powerfully radiant that heaven is on earth and the Bach music is this sensible proof played by Bach or Walcha...No more needs of the distribution of primes to remind me of the universal spirit encompassing all... That says something, if you are not deaf indeed, and even if you are, listen, and wait for the miracle, it will happen .... I apologize for my rant, but it is difficult to be mere" rational" in the ecstasy of reason.... My best...
last remark: the marvellous choices of his organs does not explain or replace the perfection of his rendition and of his playing...The sound of these organs indeed only participate in the miracles for sure...In a word these instruments sounded like metal in fusion stasis, more liquid than crystallised, like most other organs...
@jim204 No, I'm afraid not, no Piemontesi, and looking on Amazon the 2 CDs seem to command pretty high prices on the used market.
So far listened to Sudbin, Batsashvili (excellent), Hamelin, Browning (lyrical), Osborne, Kun Woo Paik, Howard, Hough (Italian, very nice), Volodos (excellent), and now Barenboim (again a lyrical recital, with the 6 Consolations, 3 Liebestraume/Notturni, 3 Petrarch Sonnets).
In the queue are Bolet, more Hough, more Howard, Ovchinikov, Tozer, and more Bolet.
Just listening to the force of nature that was Richter, on Idagio. Playing the slowest and most profound version of the Schubert Bb Sonata, D. 960, and the Wanderer Fantasy. Awe inspiring doesn't begin to tell the story.
Valentin Silvestrov I first heard his composition on a Jenny Lin recording ("Nostalgia") where she plays "The Messenger". I liked it so much that I downloaded some more, includingВалентин Сильвестров - Диалоги и посвящения, which is translated "Dialogues and Initiations". And another "Valentin Silvestrov - Hieroglyphen der Nacht - Anja Lechner, Agnès Vesterman (2017) [96-24]" Silvestrov is Ukrainian, still alive, has composed in many styles and for many orchestrations, from symphony to solo piano. I appreciate most his post Soviet compositions for piano, when he no longer had to worry about what the government thought of him.
Thats a great pity as he was a fantastic horn player. I had the privilege of hearing him in Glasgow many moons ago and he played Strauss and Mozart with great aplomb. He also was a very comic character.
Concerning Bolet, just listening to him in a 1974 Carnegie Hall recital playing Liszt transcriptions and other virtuoso fare on Idagio. Almost super-human immaculate dexterity.
Stephen Hough, first Liszt recital (not the Italian one), starts with Mephisto Waltz and continues with Tarantella. One wonders how anyone can move their fingers this fast, and yet also in a clean, precise, controlled and highly expressive fashion. If this is how Liszt himself played, no wonder he left his audiences slack-jawed.
@rvpiano I have just read your discourse on Bolet and I also love that you enjoyed the Carnegie Hall performance. When you consider who his teachers were it's a who's who of giants from the late 19th century. We have Moritz Rosentahl probably the best of List's students because he didn't die young and he didn't forget the piano to write operas. His other teachers were no less exaulted was Josef Hoffman who's teacher was the great Anton Rubinstein , also Leopold Godowsky who tutored Bolet on Godowsky's finger twisting creations . Unfortunately Bolet did not get on well with the big recording companies because none of them at the time wanted the Liszt Piano Sonata and his Transcedental Etudes so he did not get any big recording contracts until that stupendous Carnegie Hall recital. Thankfully Decca grabbed him up and they gave him a blank canvas to record what he felt like so we got a lot of Liszt and other virtuoso fare. He was actually primed to do some of Godowsky's Studies on the Chopin Etudes and I was there in Glasgow one day when he was giving a lecture on Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto and he had three students who were also taking a masterclass and being recorded by the BBC. When he was finished giving the masterclass both audience and orchestra gave him a standing ovation and quite buoyed by it he came back on and gave us an encore and it was one of the Godowsky Chopin etudes and it was two separate etudes at the one time and I still don't know how he did it. I was trying how to work out how it was possible because there skips and playing through the hands I just could not believe it and when he finished he gave a delighted bow and that was the last time I saw him. Yes Mr Bolet was a very special link to another age.
+1 for Bolet . Re; Volodos and Schubert . IMO he does some things really well , notably very good at low levels .. But , at overall balance I 'd still take Brendel .
It is during these early years of the 1930s
that Bolet had some sessions with the legendary pianist Leopold
Godowsky, going up to New York City for lessons. JB’s teacher at
Curtis, David Saperton was Godowsky’s son-in-law and had arranged the
connection. (Godowsky resided in the luxurious Ansonia Hotel on the
Upper West Side, at 2109 Broadway, between West 73rd and 74th Streets,
but moved into an apartment with his daughter Dagmar on Riverside Drive
overlooking the Hudson River after his wife Frieda’s death in December
1933.) Bolet would practise some of Godowsky’s fiendishly difficult
music (few other of his contemporaries were up to the task) and then
play it to the composer.
‘Jorge’s scores of
these pieces bore Godowsky’s markings in red crayon—the daunting
“Passacaglia,” based on themes from Schubert’s “Unfinished” symphony;
the “Fledermaus” and “Kunstlerleben” symphonic metamorphoses; the “Java
Suite”; the Sonata in E minor; pieces from the “Triakontameron.” ’
[Albert McGrigor]
Bolet listed these
lessons for 1932-3 in a submission to Grove's Dictionary; but they do
not seem to have been systematic lessons. Gregor Benko has said, 'I
remember a party at Sidney Foster’s house when he, Bolet and Abbey Simon
reminisced about Leopold Godowsky, who apparently used sarcasm and
insults with students..., and it left an indelible impression on these
great artists, who had all played for him and suffered abuse.'
Godowsky's biographer, Jeremy Nicholas, states: ‘Occasionally, Saperton
and Bolet would go to New York and visit Godowsky, and Bolet would play
Godowsky to Godowsky, as it were, and get advice from him. He said that
in that sense, yes, he had studied with Godowsky. Of course he also, in
the same way, had advice from (and played for) Hofmann as he was head of
piano at Curtis. But his main teacher was Saperton, though Bolet told
me the greatest purely musical influence was the French musician Marcel
Tabuteau, first oboe with the Philadelphia Orchestra – the greatest musical mind I have ever known.’
The famous (notorious) EtudesGodowsky's most famous work in this genre is the 53 Studies on Chopin's Études (1894–1914), in which he varies the (already challenging) original études using various methods: introducing countermelodies,
transferring the technically difficult passages from the right hand to
the left, transcribing an entire piece for left hand solo, or even
interweaving two études, with the left hand playing one and the right
hand the other. The
pieces are among the most difficult piano works ever written, and only a
few pianists have ventured to perform any of them. Among such pianists
are Marc-André Hamelin, who recorded the entire set and garnered a number of prestigious awards. Other pianists who frequently perform Godowsky are Boris Berezovsky and Konstantin Scherbakov.
@jcazador Hi Jeremy that was a very informative piece that you wrote about Godowsky . Have you got Constantin Scherbakov playing Godowsky's Baroque transcriptions on the Marco Polo label I love it, notably the Musette and Rondeau in E Major I find it hypnotic and I usually play it at least three times in a row when I am in the mood.
i did not write it, entirely quotes source is the link providedthere is a lot more there including pictures etc about Bolet's life including his "Mikado" in occupied Japan in 1946
I went with the Rhapsody In Blue: Saint-Säens, Ravel, Gershwin performed by Benjamin Grosvenor and The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, James Judd. It's a fantastic performance.
Secondary to this was Gershwin Plays Rhapsody In Blue (First Recording 1924 from Rare Piano Rolls). I like this performance, especially the 'music history' significance and story, however the quality (for the recording I have access to) isn't high quality.
The Benjamin Grosvenor recording helped with my component and power cable evaluations.
Thanks to all who helped out with their suggestions and guidance.
I just purchased a used set of Haitink’s Shostakovich cycle, which was split between the Concertgebouw and the LPO. I had owned a couple of them on lp, none digitally. All I can say is wow. Not only is BH inside of DSCH idiom, but the late seventies Decca analog recordings are superb in their impact
We will miss Haitink ( now retired ) and Blomstedt very much when they go. In the summer of 2019 I watched some BBC Proms performances and one I really loved was Haitink at the helm of the VPO and he played Bruckner 's Seventh and after a few curtain call you could see he was quite upset as that was to be his last performance in the UK. I remember the last parting shot of the back of his head as he recieved a standing ovation from the audience and the orchestra. Very touching and the end of a very great career.
I’ve always gone out of my way to hear Blomstedt. My idea of the perfect conductor and of the German symphonic musicians I knew as well . Haitink is one of the few conductors one just buys as you know the recording will be as good as it gets with sound to match if recording in Amsterdam .
I know this is almost a year old but I recently discovered this sad news and did not see any mention here on Agon. One of my favorite conductors growing up.
Here's one final Liszt recommendation: Geoffrey Tozer, Liszt Piano Transcriptions [just about everything/everyone other than the set of Schubert transcriptions] on Chandos. Very natural, good piano sound, and some fine pianism. Tozer is mainly a Medtner specialist, but he ventures into a number of quite different composers.
While we are on a Liszt theme at the moment I have been listening lately to some stunning piano playing from Daniel Barenboim from 1973 to 1983. It is called The Romantic Piano 1 and it is on Idagio at the moment with a complete set of the Chopin Nocturnes , Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words and some stunning Liszt. He plays the Swiss Pilgrimage and also most of the Itallian one and some of the list Wagner transcriptions. There is also a superb account of the B Minor Sonata which I had never heard from him before. He really was some player before he went over to the dark side ( conducting ).
Jim Love Barenboim's playing most anything, one of my favorites. Have you listened to his "on my new piano"? I don't know about his "dark side". I do appreciate his collaborations with the late Edward Said to form the
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
@jcazador Hi jeremy yes I have heard and have his new piano album and I think it gives a more tangible link to the 19th century piano playing and I think it also has a wonderful tone. Yes the dark side was meant to be a bit flippant because one side of me says we already have enough wonderful conductors and one says without these pianist's contributions we would be bereft of the benefit these pianist conductors. I do hate though going to concerts where the pianist in a concerto would be thoroughly triounced pianistically by the conductor. I'm afraid the Scot in me says I am being short changed.
Jim , all you hear in US is former Prince Harry soap opera , do Scots care that much that The Queen bared he fangs ? Both countries are similar IMO because all spins around the City and/or Wall Street . The circus keeps the poor folk occupied . Hope he can get by in Canada ( a good country) on his 50 million pounds pittance .
Quite honestly Len the Scots couldn't give a stuff about the Royal family.I think the Queen and the prince of Wales should be the only ones that the state should keep, the rest get out and find a job ( too many hangers on ). In fact Len the Prince of wales is the only one who works and pays tax, he has the Dutchy of Cornwall and he has turned it into a very profitable place through farming and tree production. Yes I do like Prince Charles he is a very intelligent and astute man. Ask any true Scot who should be on the throne and they will always come up with the Stuarts.
Thanks Jim . I think no country should have one . To me it's it's a way to keep the masses from ever really growing up . The things I've seen Charles in lead me to the same conclusion as yourself .I flew on a KLM jumbo from Chicago to Amsterdam few years back .The pilot was the King of the Netherlands . That's a real job !
Listening now to Sudbin's Scarlatti on BIS. The piano sound is indeed very natural. Enjoying it and the contrasts between the short sonatas. Sometimes you can distinctly hear Bach in there, and sometimes very different composers.
Host
David Dubal begins a new series on two keyboard masters born in 1685:
Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti. These two composers were
the titans of the late Baroque period, and their work has continued to
inspire ever since. Tonight's program features some of the greatest
players of Bach and Scarlatti, including Andras Schiff in Bach, and the
renowned Scarlatti interpreter Vladimir Horowitz.
Program Playlist:
Scarlatti: Sonata in C, K. 502 —Sergei Babyan, piano
Scarlatti: Sonata in F, L. 384 —Solomon, piano
Bach: Three Part Invention No. 9 in E Minor —Andras Schiff, piano
Bach: Sarabande from Partita No. 6 in E Minor —Piotr Anderszewski, piano
Scarlatti: Sonata in A, K. 113 —Maria Grinberg, piano
Scarlatti: Sonata in B Minor, L. 33 —Vladimir Horowitz, piano
Bach: French Suite No. 5 in G - Gavotte, Courante, Gigue —Andrei Gavrilov, piano
Scarlatti: Sonata in F Minor, K. 184 —Alexis Weissenberg, piano
Bach: Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue - Fantasy —Andras Schiff, piano
Bach: Two-Part Invention No. 13 in A Minor —Andras Schiff, piano
Scarlatti: Sonata in B, L. 224 —Vladimir Horowitz, piano
For the last weeks I listen to the Bach trio sonatas at the organ with Helmuth Walcha, by far the more spiritual interpretation of Bach, with the likes of cellist Fournier, violinist Henryk Szeryng and few others...
When I compare with Hurford, a good organist by all standard, I am way less moved... It is like the blind master summon his prolific god behind his hands.... My best...
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