Classical Music for Aficionados

Recovering from knee replacement surgery, my consolation from the extreme pain is Idagio streaming.  Thank goodness for such a wonderful service!

Sviatoslav Richter plays Scriabin Sonatas No.2, 5, 6, 9

00:00 - No.2 (Moscow, '50s)

11:10 - No.5 (Prague, '70s)

22:03 - No.6 (Moscow, '50s) 33:32 - No.9 (Aldeburgh Parish Church, 1966)  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvtyobSDcw8

I copied your list and will look for some of them.  Thanks

The Igor Zhukov version of Scriabin sonatas is one of the best there is....

He is only slightly under Sofronitsky for the sheer intensity, like all other pianists are, except a few, like Neuhaus another god....

:)

Now I see Shukov has recorded Scriabin Preludes and Sonatas, also a concerto and a symphony by Janis Ivanovs. Will check those out.

I have only one cd by Zhukov, and it includes only one Bach piece, i.e., Passacaglia in C Minor.  And I like it very much.
The rest of the cd is Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev.
The CD is vol. 16 of a series "Russian Piano School".
What else should I look for?

oups sometimes my head is nowhere to be seen....

Igor for sure.........But i guess you know him already...

:)

Igor Zhukov ?

Thanks Jazcador, you are very kind.....And someone else must read your post...I will concur with you....

But Sofronitsky is already my favorite pianist for Scriabin....

I listen to all great artists able to play Scriabin.... Like for Bach i enjoy all interpretation....

:)


But do you know also Boris Zukhov interpretation?

It is among the best....

Mag,
If you love Scriabin, you owe it to yourself to listen to Sofronitsky, whomarried Scriabin's daughter, and carried the flag for many years.  Sofronitsky died in 1961.

After Mompou discrete spiritual awakenings...

My beloved Scriabin by the great Michael Ponti, the recording alas! is not great but i listen to it with pleasure....(the recording is surprizingly better than it was in my improved audio system wow)

All piano of Scriabin for peanuts...

Scriabin and Bach are my gods.....

With Bach the emotions are reflected in an ideal mirror, and the soul is invited to be elevated freely to a higher dimension...Some angel gives to you his hand.....

With Scriabin the emotions are transmuted in more intense dynamical one and the soul is projected against his own will in a bath of never encountered new colors where man begins to discover himself greater than he is....(daimonic) Man is raped by an angel here.....

Once, when serving as a judge in the International Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, one of the contestants played a Prokofiev Toccata faster and louder than anyone else. Fleisher turned to a fellow judge, and remarked: “Why does he hate his mother?”

In an open letter in the Washington Post, “My White House Dilemma,” he protested the Bush White House’s policies regarding the Iraq War, the torture of prisoners, and other decisions that he said amounted to a “systematic shredding of our nation’s Constitution [that] have left us weak and shamed at home and in the world.” He ended up attending the event wearing a peace symbol and a purple ribbon.

https://www.juancole.com/2020/08/fleisher-reinvented-inspired.html

Mompou played by Mompou....

My favorite recordings of Rameau are by
Angela Hewitt, "Keyboard Suites"
and
Shura Cherkassky (BBC album)
and
Vera Dulova (harp, Russian Performing School)

For Rameau you might want to try the disk:

Une Symphonie Imaginaire conducted by Minkowski

Re: Babayan, Racmaninoff
Just got to say that "Lilacs" is the most beautiful piece I have ever heard.And it sounds a lot like "Here comes the sun", only slower and prettier.

Re: French composers
Yes indeed, love Rameau, love DebussyBut the French composer I listen to most often is Mompou, and my favorite recording is 3cds by the composer himself.

I know this will come as no surprise, but the Segerstam Sibelius 3 & 5 is also excellent. Listening to it now... In the last movement of the 5th when that low brass figure comes in over the strings, it always gives me the shivers...

@schubert  Len I'm glad you like our Icelander, I think he is super but I hope he doesn't give us any more Glass ( absolute tripe from me ).

Schubert,

Just listening to Olafssohn’s French album.
Really attractive playing.  He uses very little pedal in Debussy, helping highlight the similarities between the two composers.
Very fine pianist.  I like his playing here more than his Bach.

@rvpiano    RV I thought you would like the Babayan recording especially the Volodos transcription and I thought his piano tone was luscious with such a warm glow over everything. It takes a great pianist to turn a fundamentally staccato instrument into such a warm legato instrument. "Hats off gentlemen a genius" ( Schumann ).  

Greetings all. First time on this thread. So many threads, so few looms.
My CD collection is now under review. Streaming is starting a cull of old CDs.

Just want to give a heads up to Qobuz freaks that the new recording from BIS is now streaming:
Lament by Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen
A mix of orchestral/choral/electronic recorded like BIS does.
This is really a must-hear IMO. Tests everything.
Not affiliated, just like it enough to post a quickie "go listen."

Jim,

I just happened to listen the Babayan Rachmaninoff album yesterday.
I like the fact that he doesn’t play the pieces in order.  Just skips around between Preludes, Etudes Tableaux etc.
Particularly beautiful is his rendition of the Volodos arrangement of the Cello Sonata 2nd movement.  Almost as great as the master Volodos himself.

Other side of Rameau with powerful French band .

https://youtu.be/RKvd4tMkFHc


And his clavecin magic .https://youtu.be/NK3-URQntcg?t=2

Jim204
I just completed my Olafsson Debussy& Rameau CD.
The pride of Iceland was born to play this French music !

Very well balanced , no great this or that , just the music as written with
the clarity of a mountain stream and as agile as a deer .

He makes the music sound like it was written just for you in any time and any place .He understands what a artist is , a servant of the music .

The path from Rameau to Debussy is there in spades . and a lovely lane it is .
5 .5 Stars from here !

I have for at least 40 years thought Rameau was in the line just below Bach .
https://youtu.be/wChgk4qq3Kc?t=4

I’m just listening to a wonderful recital from the yellow label and the moment. Rachmaninov from Sergei Babayn and let me tell you it dosen’t get any better than this, with one dreamy piece after another and played to perfection. Definitely a must try, RV you’ll love it.

Or from God himself .

I might have missed one or two retrograde inversions during the performance of the. chorus.
 Seriously , though, this mind must have come from a more advanced civilization than we have here on earth.

Although I have sheet music on the way and have studied this ,
this is where  rv  has me  .
If you chose to  learn this you can you can be a great composer too !

https://youtu.be/iBB9UDpLfIA?t=2

Not bad for 5, indeed.

 No rvpiano  but not bad for 5 .


https://youtu.be/QMgbwtiLwBo?t=4

https://youtu.be/kmHR6GWQOWU?t=3
Something tells me pop music  was better 5 centuries ago .

As of late we have seen the light ,

https://youtu.be/CwGWocp80-o?t=2

https://youtu.be/DqZE54i-muE?t=4

If Bach was the only music in the Universe music  would still be Gods greatest gift to man .

That Ravel recording is by Monteux, remastered version.  Sorry for the omission.

melm,

Welcome to the site!
Your input is most appreciated.

I’m a classical music lover who just found this thread, as I’ve come to the site over the years for hardware info. To get acquainted I went through a bunch of posts randomly. I see that there is a great love of solo piano music in these parts.

My own tastes run more toward orchestral music and I try to find recordings with sound quality good enough to let me fool myself to being back in a concert hall. At least excellent if not the VERY best performance and the same for the sound.

A few of the digital recordings that work for me are:

Shostakovich Symphony 15 Haitink LPO
Berlioz Romeo & Juliet Muti Philadelphia
Bach Brandenburghs Dunedin Consort
Ravel Daphnae & Chloe LSO
Mozart Requiem Savall
Chopin Ballades & Mazurkas Moravec
Mahler Wunderhorn Songs Norman Shirley-Quirk Haitink

I also watch the Berlin Phil’s digital site from time to time. There are some performances there that I think are are unmatched on recordings.

Finally, in my meanderings I saw that someone here was surprised to find himself in a not so good seat at Carnegie Hall. Has there been much talk in this thread about halls? As for Carnegie, I can tell you that there are many, many bad seats. The reasons are easy to figure out. I’ve been there a lot. It’s really overrated.

The Fournier is my favorite .

Your heart is more sensible if possible than your ears...

My best to you....

The Fournier is my favorite .

Most Americans don’t know where Canada is

Who need to know where something is with a cell?

How old are you to use for no reason than memory your precious brain?

Man only need A.I , who gives a dam where the communists of america are?

:)

My cell just told me there are in Quebec  city now.... Health is free, and those who dont work have money even  without pandemic....

Ok back to Bach....

I will listen to Fournier cello  rendition, the only one that is on par with some  Starker version....

From Quebec to Louisiana, french canadians were there living with the Indians all across America in Colorado and Louisiana when american ancestors were coming on the east cost... :)

Spaniards were in California and Texas already and they were not living with the Indians at all...

By the way the first tribe, the Huron-Wendat, that welcome the french in quebec city lives nowadays at the same place....It seems they had survived relatively well....Where are the others in America?

Most Americans don't know where Canada is and  if they did would
not believe they had an Army .

Not only that but in the field of heroic action and superhuman one take a look at this real french canadian Rambo not the faked one ... :)

Too many heroic feats for only one movie....And too incredible to make a good movie.... Rambo need help of this man.... :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mtzJPGmwTA

In Italy the SS feared only the french canadians by the way...... You now have a clue why .... :) 

But back to music with this works of a 10 years old french canadian genius no one knows here like the "french Rambo" .... :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRAh533yY-c

Aye , and a little known fact . In both WW 1 and WW II the Canadians
did better than ANY other allied troops .

I was astonished to learn the Canadians with a wee 3 Divisions were the "British" shock troops for last 2 years and never were a day off the line !
They took so many casualties the German soldiers would not shoot at any wounded Canadian trying to crawl back to their lines .The Ultimate respect from one soldier to another.
A nation with less than 8 million people put 600 , 000 men though its forces .


The iconic film any in WW II D-day film is British soldiers with great elan up and at them jumping into waist-deep water .



Only it is the Canadian 1st Division .
Needless to say many of the Canadians in both wars were Scottish immigrants .

@schubert     Yes Len the Jocks and the Micks were always the first into battle while the Sassenach generals sat in the
french chateau's drinking the cellar dry.

Jim, I saw your Bag Pipe advice and right you are .
I’m caught between being an old squatty and hating war .

Well , the 51st HD was the best example  of Scottish cannon fodder  in English Military History in both WW1 and WW II and this IS Classical Music .

https://youtu.be/_MBeVU4_oPI

As you said sometimes you are never the same .

Granny meant all things come to an end Jim .

@schubert      Gosh Len haven't watched uni challenge in years, I'm glad Strathclyde won though (I always gloat when the Sassenachs get cuffed) 
That quote was a new one on me.

@jcazador    I have a recording of Ogden doing the Fantasia Contraputistica and the Liszt B minor Sonata and although they have their merits I,m afraid Ogden was never the same after his psychotic incarcerations. He just never made any mistakes in his playing before them but after his playing was littered with fudged notes and memory slips. No he was never the same after that.

Well Jim , it’s a happy day when I see Strathclyde took London Imperial
down in the BBC Uni challenge .

And a bad one when I see Sturgeon fair in tears as she watches the fools swally their lives away with the pubs opening .
Oh well , as my Gorbels Granny used to say (if memory serves ) ,

"It’s a lang road that’s no goat a turnin "
Cheers

Thanks for the suggestion...

Ogdon is the genius who can play the impossible and incredible opus clavicem ballisticum of Sorabji ( more than 4 hours) and he gives us the best version possible...

Then i will look for his Bach.... Thanks...

Dershavina and now Ogdon seems very interesting interpretation...

With Bach, and particularly with Bach  we never had too much interpretations or transcriptions...