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.
I go on with Pachelbel organ 2 complete sets.... Antoine Bouchard and Joseph Payne....
My impressions did not change and i prefer the more interiorized and intimate version of Bouchard than the more extrovert version and more spectacular one and more celebrated and more rhetorical gesture version of Payne...But get me right, the Payne version is very beautiful, and many will prefer it... I enjoy the 2 sets....Only in the case i would be in the obligation to choose i will keep Bouchard...in fact the 2 versions are so different that it double the pleasure....Almost 24 hours of Pachelbel with these 2....😉
I an very pleased by Pachelbel genius in simplicity, clarity, and soothing melodic inspiration....Pachelbel is a genius because nothing is never out of place or with less interest.... All is perfect .....I can have preference about some part or works but really all is on the same scale of beauty all the time....No low nor high really in the writing composition....It is like Scarlatti, amother giant, with no defect in his output ....
No boredom at all, only a sweet and immersive contemplation with an always perfect humility that persuade us with no arguments, some wave of sounds floating like swans on a lake of silence...
Some genius dont ask for attention and dont force the attention at all to their points for the sake of being known....They gives to us the precious gift of an attention of a new kind, an encompassing one....The music of Pachelbel walk with us or in us and never on us and passing us....It is a commentary on silence....
There is something taoist in Pachelbel....I am not surprized that at least 2 Bach admired him....
By the way with Bouchard we even forgot that the music is for organ, the organist disapear and even the instrument.....Not with Payne....
At my age time is of the essence . Like any Classical lover I have played all the LvB sonatas many times . Bach takes about 1/3 of my 5-6 hours daiily time. My biggest love has always been String Quartet and to me that’s LvB’s best music . His last are beyond compare .
Haydn needs no help there nor does Schubert or the 2 gems of Leos Janacek for starters And a few hundred others . If you want to go deep kids ,the Buxtehude outing on Naxos 8.557251 will get you there. As will Byrd, Purcell and the Bach of his time,the Great Josquin Desprez.
P.S. Jim , I have long thought the Haydn Piano pieces were up there with Mozart but never said so. Few years ago I heard Imogene Cooper the great knock out a few live in the wonderful acoustics of MACALESTER college in St Paul( started by Scots and one of the elite US liberal arts colleges ), the women was so powerful and skilled the audience was frozen . Say it to any one since !
@schubert Again in complete agreement with you Len, LvB string quartets no other comes near t hem I think especially the late ones. I love the last three esp. Op.127 and who cannot but admire the Grosse Fugue which if played to someone who doesn't know it would probably think Stravinsky had wrote it. Talk about tossing your lance into the future I'm sure it will still be thought as written in the Twentieth century long into the future. At the moment I am typing I am listening to a masterful reworking of Tchaikovsky's Seasons played by Trio Zadig on Qobuz. If you have Qobuz I think it is is a must listen as it brings a new slant to this lovely work. Of course if you want to listen to the original piano version then Mikhail Pletnev who I think is the definite best in this work. Enjoy your weekend everyone. Jim.
Got a wonderful set of Beethoven Piano Trios complete to recommend from a very talented French group. They are the Trio Sora and they have gorgeous tone, gorgeous playing and gorgeous girls. The pianist is an extremely gifted young woman, her runs are fast and faultless. That said both violinist and cellist are wonderful players also. They are just as good in the minor works as the major ones. A hearty recommendation and it is on Qobuz at the moment .
Paolo Restani, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Marco Guidarini.
There are moments that remind me of Mozart, others of Chopin. Not a bad combination. The slow movement of #1 had me thinking about the slow movement of Mozart's #21.
I've been into American Composers lately, particularly Symphonists of the first half of the Century. Howard Hanson, Walter Piston, Charles Ives, William Schuman primarily. I've been less enamored with Menin, Diamond, and Perischetti, but still American Composers are so underrepresented compared to their European counterparts
Tried to get a better sound on Maestro Puccini ’s 3rd Masterpiece above which was still sung as a human being can sing, bad sound and all . 14 years latter the drink had taken its toll . Here Jussi sings" O’Holy Night’ in his native Swedish and you will never hear it done better !
i am going on always with Pachelbel organ works....It is really a gift....His writing is so perfect that i cannot even choose a best of or a cd among the others.... Incredible perfection in the organ waving with pulsative melody....like i already said he was the very loved master of the older Bach brother, and Bach copied these partitions for himself with total devotion for sure....
How to improve Pachelbel ? Only Bach could in his way, he has improve it by his complex counterpoint, his complex harmony reaching a level that will never be exceeded.... But even Bach works hard to improve the unerring, foolproof, infaillible simplicity of Pachelbel; he succeed with his chorals, slightly more complex but paradoxically gifted with the same humble and powerful efficiency ....
Really an underscored miraculous work; and between the complex beauty of Bach work and the soothing simplicity of this one, it is impossible to choose.... We need these 2...These 2 are me favorite organ composers ....
I am very stun by the pleasure to flow so easily in the river of time with Pachelbel, and the pleasure of going so forcefully out of time with Bach....
Like Bach, Pachelbel is indeed irreplaceable.....
The 2 goes hand in hand, the mathematician touch more the brain/spirit, the poet more the heart/soul....The 2 are heart/brain/soul/spirit perfect catalyzers....
2 integrals of Pachelbel are not too much, even a third will not be too much.... Like the many interpretations i own of Bach klavier....
If you dont love the organ, this is your luck , try Pachelbel, if you dont like it, forget the organ forever....
"
he remained an engaged and worldly businessman, who managed to sell the score of the Missa Solemnis
to three different publishers at once (the triple-dating only came to
light when two of the publishers met at a trade fair in Leipzig).
" https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n01/james-wood/a-great-deaf-bear
Between Pachelbel organ works by Antoine Bouchard and Bach Well tempered Klavier with Andras Schiff and my favorite version with Vladimir Feltsman i go on with:
Samuel Feinberg sonatas. this Russian giant pianist among other some Russian giants pianists, was also a great composer...
His sonatas, greatly influenced by Scriabin, even if they are under the best of Scriabin, are indeed very beautiful and over many other composers works anyway...
I am in love with them.... They are my favorite with Shostakovich piano works....The only version i know by Nicolaos Samaltanos and Christophe Sirodeau is very good if not more than that.... 😊
When Scriabin died, all Russian people take a mourning for a long time....God sad for them, knowing anything from the beginning of time, gives them Feinberg sonatas, and Shostakovich piano works and one, if not the best, piano school there is in the world to console them....Then russian people can goes on listening Scriabin played in an optimal way....
And the rest of the world underestimate Scriabin and dont even know Feinberg works....
Here's a real revelation for me. Mendelssohn, complete piano music, played by Howard Shelley, on Hyperion. The playing is excellent, the recording is superb (the piano is in my room), and the music has come as a most pleasant surprise. I started with vol. 2 as that's the CD that arrived first: Rondo, Fantasias, Lieder, etc. Delicate, lyrical, and muscular, forceful by turns, I'm enjoying this more than a recent transversal of Schumann. Highly recommended.
For those which can be interested by her, this documentary illustrate his talent by astonishing example of solo chants classical pieces and the greatest of all negro spirituals ever sang and probably never to be sing again with so much deep rendition: "crucifixion"....
These are at least on the same emotional level than Maria Callas.... In fact i prefer the more natural and simple interpretation of Anderson...
Like Sibelius said to her visiting him: " my roof is too low for you " I dont think that the old composer was meaning it to be only a compliment, more a fact in his heart after listening her ....
At this moment I am listening to Quarteto Casals playing the Beethoven string Quartets Op.18. on Quobuz and what a treat they are .You know you are in the presence of a supreme master even with these quartets . This group are superb , they match each other in virtuosity of ensemble playing and their tone is beautifully matched to each other. The recording is by Harmonia Mundi and I don't think I have heard better from any other recording company , I urge you to give it a try.
To my friends ,Len, RV and Maghister, have a great Christmas Holliday and keep clear of that horrible bug.
"Lang may yer lum reek" an old Scots saying , Long life to you.
One my way to Amazon for the HM cut Jim. IMO The greatest for the last are the American Yale Qt.But very hard to find . I have the original Vinyl and if I could only keep one LP it would be it .Seen the Vinyl going for over $500!I’ll see if I can find one ,try in UK, if I find one here I’ll send it to Scotia . The first are as good as the last, just in a different way .
@twoleftears Have you tried Olli Mustonen playing Alkan's 25 preludes Op.25. Beautiful little character pieces and as an added bonus on the original CD you were also treated to the Shostakovitch 24 Preludes Op.34 as well . I have the digital downloads now archived on my SSD and still listen to it often.
@schubert Len I have never heard the Yales doing LvB lates , my go to was always the Alban Bergs whos full set I had and a good job they were on CD as if vinyl I would have been replacing them every month. Alas Len I never had the time to learn the Gaelic but my granny was from Islay and when she watched us sometimes when we were kids she would nurse us and sing Gaelic lullabies to us. Lovely times with her and I would love to meet her again. Jim.
Hi Jeremy , I have been listening to that recording for many many years , Alkan certainly knew how to stress out a pianist. I don't see his name anywhere for live concerts and he doesn't seem to be producing any recordings either .Maybe he is now teaching somewhere and prefers that. It's a pity because he is a lovely player with a great technique as that Alkan and Shostakovich shows. Jeremy you have a lovely New Year and keep away from that virus.
The Gealic was God Bless You , Jim. I don't know that in Glasgow . God Bless You Next Year ! With a good wife and loving daughter he has done well so far .
Yes! Next up on the stack is Bernard Ringeissen playing Op. 35 Etudes, then Laurent Martin in the Op. 63 Esquisses, then Mustonen with the Op. 31 Preludes to round off this set.
Fou Ts’ong Chinese pianist, 86 years old, has died of corona virus. He gained fame in europe beginning in 1955, and eventually sought refuge during Mao's time.I found 2 recordings by him: Chopin mazurkas and Scarlatti sonatas.Article about him in today's NYT.
A great Organ piece of "Wachet Auf" The problem with Bach's words in his greatest Cantata is that words , in any tongue , only get in the way with a choir .
@schubert Len your lovely Gaelic message to me in Glasgow is "The Big Man's askin fur ye" As Robert Burns was want to say, Wha's like us naebody the're a' deid. Good Luck and God bless.
@jcazador Jeremy I remember in the eighties my friend and I travelled up to Glasgow to catch a concert with Fou-Ts'ong playing Tchaikovsky' 1st Piano concerto. When the piece stared he launched into the the opening with the wrong chord sequence and continued playing wrong chords until the main piece was established. My pal and I were horrified and wondered why they didn't stop and start the piece again. At the end of the piece we all gave him a huge ovation and we could see a look of massive relief on his face. he made a little speech after that and said how he loved the Scottish people and would try to do more concerts up here and then he treated us to three beautiful Chopin pieces.
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