Classical Music for Aficionados

Or from God himself .

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.

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

Other side of Rameau with powerful French band .

https://youtu.be/RKvd4tMkFHc


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

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.

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."

@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 ).  

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.

@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 ).

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...

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.

For Rameau you might want to try the disk:

Une Symphonie Imaginaire conducted by Minkowski

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

Mompou played by Mompou....

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

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.....

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.

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....

Igor Zhukov ?

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

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

:)

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?

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

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....

:)

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

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

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

rvpiano, I had knee replacement last December.  I did not know what pain was until after my surgery.  I had a period of about a week when I didn't get much sleep and there was no relief from the ever present pain.  My condolences.  It will pass.  At this point, I have no regrets about having the surgery.  

brownsfan,

Thanks for the feedback.  You’re right, the pain can be brutal.  Fortunately, if I stay in my elevated chair and listen to music, it’s tolerable.

rv
opiates are good for pain
bad for digestive system!
mj is good for pain
no problem with digestive system
opiates and mj have very different effects
opiates obliterate the pain
mj allows you to find the range of motion that is painful
and helps you learn to exercise it carefully so pain diminishes

you will probably be glad you did knee replacement
but you will probably never do your other knee

that's my story anyway
good luck

one more thing:  do your physical therapy exercises conscientiously

jcazador,

Thanks for the tips.
For some reason, opiates have never helped me in the least with pain.
I take them and nothing happens.  So, i don’t take them anymore.
you’re right, other knee not likely!

And dont laugh but i suggest to you against pain, some music designed to calm pain.... Only use the typewriter and the word " pain" calm or pain killer music, or any words about pain on "youtube channels".... Try the music that soothe you and you will see.... You must try some to chose the right one for you...With headphones sometimes it is better....Just try....



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJRpoUk-mpU&t=338s

This one help me tremendously but with anxieties and panic attack....

When i feel bad i cannot listen to ANY music, except those designed to help....
How to listen to anything when your brain cannot relax? It is necessary to calm the brain.... Some sound and REPETITIVE frequencies can do that.... It is one of my discovery in my last years of music and audio research....


Music and sounds technology is way more powerful than people imagine.... And yes placebo work, but placebo work all time being constitutive of human feeling and perceptions...

I use music to calm physical anxiety and it works better than any heavy side effects medication...

Each music has his own sphere of action in the body tough.... Bach will not soothe a tooth pain, some gong and chimes frequencies will do for example....

My best to you and i wish you good health...

One more suggestion:
Hang a trapeze bar over your toilet, tie it to the rafters.
Rings work too.
Make it easier to lower and raise your body.
https://www.amazon.com/Essenc-Trapeze-Playset-Playground-Trapezoidal/dp/B08FM9NLTN/ref=sr_1_138?dchi...

Thank you all for your good wishes and suggestions.

Arrau Nocturnes.  Arrau for touch, Moravec for interiority.  Glad to have both.

@twoleftears     I certainly agree with you but I would also say that Arrau's 
piano tone was second to none and you always left a concert saying to yourself that whatever he played in the concert couldn't be replicated by anyone. It is just a pity that his early recordings are marred by the recording pitfalls of the time. His recordings from the forties and fifties are technically unbeatable and every bit as good as Horowitz.
A funny story - he was in attendance at the Berlin debut of Horowitz in the twenties . His mother who was with him and had nothing but insults for every other pianist she heard sat watching Horowitz dead silent. At the end of the concert Arrau was expecting a tirade from his mother , she looked round at her son and said you had better go home and practice because at the moment he plays better than you. I think he caught up with Horowitz though.

Jim
You are so lucky to have heard these giants in live recitals!
Arrau was 8 months older than Horowitz and died 20 months after Horowitz.

Yes Jeremy, Halcyon day's indeed.

Have you heard?

Chopin evocations
DG No. 4797518 2017

Daniil Trifonov ..................... piano
Sergei Babayan ................... piano 2 *
Mahler Chamber Orchestra .................
Mikhail Pletnev ................. conductor

Tracklist
01-03. Chopin - Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No. 2 In F Minor, Op. 21
04-11. Chopin - Variations On "La Ci Darem La Mano", Op. 2
12. Schumann - Carnaval, Op.9: 12. Chopin
13. Grieg - Moods, Op.73-5: Étude "Hommage À Chopin"
14. Barber - Nocturne, Op. 33
15. Tchaikovsky - 18 Pieces, Op. 72: 15. Un Poco Di Chopin
16. Chopin - Rondo In C Major, Op.73 *
17-19. Chopin - Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No. 1 In E Minor, Op. 11
20-32. Mompou - Variations On A Theme By Chopin
33. Chopin - Fantaisie-impromptu In C Sharp Minor, Op. 66

Sounds  great!  Cannot find it for sale anywhere.

Found it on Idagio.  Listening now.
Pletnev orchestrations of Chopin very nice.

I’ve listened to most of the Trifonov compilation.
Very competent playing.  I wish I could be more enthusiastic about the interpretations.  He certainly has the chops to play this music.  In fact, he chooses slower tempos to bring out the incredible melodic beauty of Chopin’s writing even in runs.  I just feel he doesn’t yet capture the magic of Chopin.
He is still very young.

@rvpiano         Totally agree with you RV , when I was listening to The Chopin concertos the only thing on my mind was how I would love to hear Pletnev himself doing those arrangements. I have heard Pletnev live a number of times and two things he can really play are Chopin and Rachmaninov , in my opinion he is as good as anyone on the circuit these days. I have been listening to him since the early eighties and can say that in the early days he was quite an explosive pianist himself as evidenced from his Edinburgh Festival recitals at the Queen's Hall.
I am sure Triifonov will grow into his fingers as they say. Maturity only comes with age.

http://www.openculture.com/2020/08/hear-ten-of-bachs-pieces-played-on-original-baroque-instruments.html?fbclid=IwAR3gqxHxJ28If6OcfnxUBfUkdhrAaQstVE2jlPHbxT_rWl-1CyKJY02SwVo

http://www.openculture.com/2020/08/hear-musicians-play-the-only-playable-stradivarius-guitar-in-the-world-the-sabionari.html?fbclid=IwAR3A9Q7ZKUJDXmGac0bc8SwFoMFe9DmJMI7IdRSYmm37H8CF5uWD49lT0G8

Jim,

I had the same thought vis a vis Pletnev.
One of the greats.

Hang in there rv .
https://youtu.be/lSii-jC6-Uo?t=2

I’m trying!

@rvpiano     I'm so sorry I did not wish you luck earlier but I do hope you feel better soon. It's at times like this that we need our music. RV my very best to you and I hope you start getting some relief soon.

Here is a beautiful rendering of a true masterpiece seldom heard by
the most seldom played great composer of the last century .
https://youtu.be/NxN2vrDeFjk?t=4