Classical Music for Aficionados
Well rv, old buddy and Great Leader , if there is any little bit of Bruckner you might tolerate , my guess it might be this little bit .(for Bruckner) . https://youtu.be/iOTzCgMxy_o?t=1 |
Since it seems I may never see my beloved Germany again , I have to get as close to my Heaven as possible . "Peer Gynt" , Perfect German Voices , with Masur and his Gewandhausorchester. https://youtu.be/o4ed-5p2Efs?t=1 |
Jim , after your elegant post , I bow to you. With being almost 20 years in Germany , this is my German as it gets group . https://youtu.be/CfjG5ybOS2Q?t=19 P.S . ETERNA was a DDR label . |
All the elites smirked, even Ravel, but it’s still around, and is his most popular work. This is my favorite performance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI73PK06MQc Cheers |
Len my friend thank you for your words , you are very kind. We seem to be on the same planet regarding lots of things and especially music. I have always loved Kurt Masur and did you know that none other than Claudio Arrau revered Masur especially when going over Europe concertizing. We are in good company then. I also love deep in my heart the German Romantic tradition, Wagner excepted. I am glad that music in Germany is still in rude health. The new German Baroque Orchestras that have sprung up in the last 10 years has been so great with the Freiburg band a notable example. I hope you are feeling a bit safer now you have had your 2 jabs. Be safe my friend , slangevar Jim. |
I used to say what was the difference between an American house -painter and a German one . Ans . Neither knew LvB ’s music from a rock , but the American says he doesn’t listen to that uppity trash, and the German said , O’ Great man, Great man ! When you get into the German grove, hard to live anywhere else , you always know where you are and where you are likely to be. I did know that about Arrau . My wife and I often went down to Liepzig in the DDR to hear the Gewandhaus and Masur , About 3 bucks US . Americans could do that anytime . At times we had been at the Berlin with von Karajan the day before . Many the day we both thought Masur and company the better of the two. Every man in the Gewandhaus was trained in the Leipzig School and with the original Mendelssohn scores , Now . that’s old school ! Cheers . Len P.S., Jim , here is another Piano man who liked Masur . https://youtu.be/76DXQLbXEks?t=1 I've said it and I don't regret it , You just don't need more . |
More "entry level", i.e. a good place to start. My favorite, because of the Chorus. Also available on SACD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Vpb9mRsOM Cheers |
Every year towards Easter I play most of the greatest Religious Pieces. On here 2 hours + will not fly . This Great Vesper from perhaps the Greatest Russian composer of modern times solves that and is fantastic . https://youtu.be/XfDreatXYeU?t=3 Start https://youtu.be/U2NSfTXjEPI?t=2 All Vesper |
Jim , IMO this is Classical Music . My favorite when I hung around some lad’s from the Argyll and Sutherland in Germany . Still play it ! https://youtu.be/PDzP37DOhD0?t=1 Many of the National Service men stayed in Germany when they found out how well off the other side was. And how the German lass’s had all their teeth . More Classical . https://youtu.be/XPcnZLeextk?t=2 |
Beethoven Complete Piano Sonatas: Get it while you can, it will soon be in the clutches of "these sellers". 9CD Box. Sony. Excellent packaging. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWpLVh6IIRA Cheers |
@schubert Hi Len I have just got round to good old Alfred's Emperor concerto and must say he and Mazur were certainly enjoying the experience. I also listened to some of your pipe band records and it took me back to the sixties when I used to play in the Ayr Pipe Band but gave it up because I was always getting tinnitus so I stayed with the guitar and lute. |
I knew Pipers and Drummers that did and more ,Jim . My youngest Aunt was an excellent Highland dancer . Came in 2nd at the greatest Highland Games in North American , Maxwell. Ontario , damn near deaf . I would think a Band from Ayr must be a good one. God Blessed me in all that , hear well as ever and have 20/20 no glasses well in my eighties , was 20/10 in my youth , came in handy as a Infantryman . simao, I need to get after that . I’m clueless why , but I have heard "Peer Gynt" a least a thousand times and yet every time seems like the first time . Only piece that does . |
@schubert I found my copy the other day tucked away in a record store for $6.99. Cleaned it and was impressed by how enfolding the music was, not to mention the organic precision of von Karajan's conducting. https://www.discogs.com/Edvard-Grieg-Berliner-Philharmoniker-Herbert-von-Karajan-Peer-Gynt-Suiten-1-2-Sigurd-Jorsalfar/release/2537818http:// |
This Lady really suffered in the "Worker's Paradise" during the "Cultural Revolution". They know how to destroy the meaning of words. Bach: Goldberg Variations Zhu Xiao-Mei -- piano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqrhGsB80Mk&list=PLr0MsaDpKsY9Rx6Mkk3mGuYnBPFx3UnfW Cheers |
Lots of good recordings out there: Toscanini/ Philadelphia in Schubert's 9th Sym; his Brahms 1st Sym with NBC; all the Pierre Monteux on London/Decca, RCA, and Philips, especially his Swan Lake excerpts, Elgar/s Enigma Variations, and Brahms Sym 2 and Franck D minor Sym; Rubinstein in the Chopin Scherzos; Karel Ancerl and the Czech Phil in Dvorak's New World, Sym 9; Dvorak's Slavonic Dances with Szell and Cleveland; Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet with Maazel and Cleveland orchestra. and so forth....... |
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Jim, our "Syracuse Scottish " wasn't all that much. We did have one VERY good Piper , a 18 yr old lad who wandered in the Stadium in Syracuse during our Highland Games . He had never head a pipe but in two years my uncle, Dan McGill , a good technical piper, had him winning solo in real Highland Games and us the odd ribbon . And oh , he was 100 % Italian from a wealthy family who took the lad to Scotland and bought him the best pipes in the land ! |
Schubert, you mentioned Gustav Mahler; what do you think of this? It's from the movie "Shutter Island" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWtqr4VJiCo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmmJsgfNSIM |
Not much, Mahler always seems to me a dog chasing his tail . What do you think of this O-10, perhaps the greatest recording ever made ! https://youtu.be/ldRUt5tU9A0?t=1 |
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Schubert, I'll pass on Bach, but I have a Beethoven to submit; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JaHvcEiMBc As well as a "Carmen"; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1c2CRp56dg |
I never thought about it before, but that's so true, our genre chooses us. That's why so many great jazz musicians are from Detroit and Chicago. I was in Detroit when it was "the" greatest city in this country for the working man. It seemed everybody drove a brand new car, dressed well and lived in a nice home. Michael Moore, who's from that area, thought they were rich when he was a child; he always got what he wanted for Christmas and his family went on a vacation every year. His father worked on an assembly line, the same as other people in the Detroit area who enjoyed a high standard of living. Len, I think I'll try to learn about Classical music, but I didn't like Bach. |
Beethoven 9, 2nd movement: I remember when this was the Theme for the NBC nightly news, with David Brinkley and Chet Huntley. This was before we had channels devoted to either Left-wing liars or right-wing liars. Back then, they just reported what happened that day. Seems sort of quaint now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8FnmdNi-Xc I actually have this performance of the 9th on CD. Did not realize until this very moment that it's on SACD! Cheers |
I liked Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, 2nd movement, it had drama and movement. Rok, everything that speaks the truth gets deleted. The 1% controls it all, they're even trying to control what we think. I think this is one of the most beautiful things ever written https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvFH_6DNRCY |
A shortlist of my favorites:
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Very interesting Modern Mass intended for The Death of Christ . https://youtu.be/wVRLoUknC9o?t=1 Never stops amazing me how amazingly musical of the highest order the Czechs are . |
I liked Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, 2nd movement, it had drama and movement. Classical Music: It was not ’Classical’ when it was written. More like ’Popular’ or church music among the powers that were. All Classical music is not created equal. Even from the same Composer. All performances of the same Classical piece are not equal. No One likes it all. In some cases, even the composer did not like what he had written. Beethoven wrote 9 symphonies. 1,2,4,& 8 are not in the same league as 3,5,6,7 & 9. And 9 is in a class of it’s own. So find the stuff you like, and explore that. Cheers Everything follows a bell curve. IOW, the more modern it is, the more noisy it gets. |
Always amazing how this Great Pianist made the most difficult pieces seem so simple and lovely. https://youtu.be/a8MdCABDhSc?t=1 https://youtu.be/bTYCrbnlSFA?t=6 |
I find this most interesting ; does anyone have comments? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5poSw7tFLB4 |
