Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov SCHEHERAZADE Chicago Symphony Orchestra Fritz Reiner RCA Living Stereo / BMG SACD 1960 / 2005 Notes: "Deems Taylor once wrote that thrice-familiar staples of the concert repertoire should periodically be placed under a five-year moratorium, during which time their existence would be conveniently be forgotten. The five-year ban elapsed, one would presumably return to them with ears refreshed and musical appetite eager to relish them again. There are those who argue that 'Scheherazade' merits a moratorium." It seems to have obtained "warhorse" status.
Scheherazade, Op. 35:
I. The Sea and Sinbad's Shiphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKOAvPxpDu0
II. The Story of the Kalender Prince
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx3keUuPGJ8III. The Young Prince and the Young Princess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRSllaa15DU
IV. Festival at Bagdad - The Sea - The Ship Breaks Against a Cliff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtZ-TlpqSnECheers
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@rvpiano A pleasure. I was so taken with it that I've ordered their Brahms CD. Looks promising. |
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Gioachino Rossini OVERTURES Orpheus Chamber Orchestra DG 1985 Notes: "...many of these masterpieces of wit and rhythmic vitality were performed in versions the composer would hardly have recognized as his own, The basic structure and spirit were still Rossini’s, but the musical details were often drastically transformed." "These overtures embody what Stendhal called Rossini’s "candeur virginale". And their special qualities are immeasurably enhanced when, as here, they are performed by a chamber ensemble using scores faithful to the composer’s intentions." L’italiana in Algeri - Overture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay9rjkgCmRUIl barbiere di Siviglia - Overture (Sinfonia) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRMpzy6GG4E Il Signor Bruschino - Overture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLlA4SR8PVQA Rosette Recording: The penguin guide to Compact Disc. Cheers |
Gioachino Rossini
OVERTURES Chicago Symphony Orchestra Fritz Reiner RCA Gold Seal / BMG 1958 / 1990 Notes: Gioacchino Antonio Rossini--child prodigy, boy soprano, composer of almost 40 operas in about 20 years--was born on February 29 (leap-year day, as he was fond of pointing out), 1792 in Pesaro, Italy. Rossini wrote his first opera, 'Demetrio e Polibio', at the age of 16, although it was not produced on stage until four years later at the Teatro Valle in Rome. 'La cambiale di matrimonio' followed in 1810, and after that operas flowed from his pen, never fewer than one a year and sometimes two or three, ending with William Tell, a grand opera first produced in Paris in 1829. After that Rossini composed no more for the stage, although he was to live until 1868. Why a composer of such international fame chose to abandon opera while still in his 30s and at the height of his career is still one of the great mysteries of musicology.
La gazza ladra / The Thieving Magpie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JK7cLxxxWsLa scala di seta / The Silken Ladder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrugBmgKIIQ
La cenerentola / Cinderella
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxobxMdR1AA
Guillaume Tell / William Tell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJNGz0RL6qoCheers |
I’m not sure if anyone here has mentioned it, but there’s a wonderful set of Rachmaninoff piano selections by Sergei Babayan which can be found on Qobuz and Idagio. Atmospheric and highly sensitive. He spins magic.
One could imagine Rachmaninoff himself playing. |
Franz Schubert 3 PIANO PIECES Mitsuko Uchida (piano) Philips 1998 Notes: "The Three Pieces D.946 were composed in May 1828 and were the last piano works Schubert wrote before embarking on his final three sonatas. Schubert's autograph lacks the finishing touches he gave his music when preparing it for publication; nor do we know if he intended the pieces to form a coherent group, along the lines of his two sets of impromptus. At any rate Brahms, who first edited them for publication in 1868, gave them the neutral title of
Drei Klavierstücke."
3 Piano Pieces, D.946
No.1 in E flat minor (Allegro assai)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-VLCaP0vQc
No.2 in E flat (Allegretto)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngsHbxQE5-I
No.3 in C (Allegro)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51LCccZqHVICheers |
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Franz Schubert
PIANO SONATAS Mitsuko Uchida (piano) Philips 2000 Notes: "The Sonata in A minor, D784, dates from February 1823. It was Schubert's first piece of it's kind for several years, though just three months earlier he had composed his greatest and most important piano work to date--the "Wanderer" Fantasy. The sonata is as different in character from that work as could be imagined, yet the two have an important feature in common: both seem to be conceived without regard for the limitations of the piano."
Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 14 in A Minor, D. 784
1. Allegro giusto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8mVi1pKNaY
2. Andante
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoM4Xs_yN9Y
3. Allegro vivace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq5TJx2XZpQCheers |
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Schubert and Mozart were the only truly natural genius of all the great composers .
The greatest of them all had but one answer the many times he was asked how he did what he did .
" I work hard " . |
And that is why there will never be anyone from our age to equal him because todays people do not want to work hard other than the special instrumentalists we have today. Todays' composers spend days if not months "composing" a five minute piece of tripe and expect to be exalted to the highest levels for it. It's even so bad now that prior to a concert by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra we are "treated to a piece by a leading female computer games composer" yawn. Heaven help us, there is no future for new classical music. |
In the Digital area are the youth have become unable to think for themselves.
In USA 40% think vampires are real .
Last winter I picked up a girl at the University of Minnesota who had
car trouble on a very cold day .
Now U of MN is not Oxford but only 10 % of a MN High School class
can try to get in and it is good enough to make Times 100 every year.
I found her in a row of 13 girls where every single one was on their smart
phone and not even looking at another much less speak to them .Robots !
My greatest fear is the virus has put a lot of Classical musicians out of a job .
And here both Classical and Jazz together had less than 5% of the audience before that .
I do not go to any large group and don’t plan to myself, but I do send good amount to our 2 World Class bands . |
Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 8 Wiener Philharmoniker Carlos Kleiber DG 1979 Notes:"The ethereal quality Kleiber brings to the final pages of the ["Unfinished"] symphony gives his readings a very special poignance unmatched by any other performance I have heard." Stereo Review (1980) Those were the days. SR never steered you wrong on music. Symphony No.8 In B Minor, D.759 "Unfinished"
1. Allegro moderato
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHI9yCe8bVg
2. Andante con moto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsxLHZ-Jz74Cheers |
@schubert Yes Len sad to say I have to agree with you regarding the young of today , I was recently in the company of a couple who have a daughter at Glasgow university and was appalled to find out she was studying 12th century stained glass windows. What on earth good will that be to her when there are probably less than 20 places left who have got stained glass left from that period.
I too give a donation each year to the RSNO to hopefully keep them floating a wee bit . |
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If Fisher is not the foremost Conductor alive , he's very close . |
Ivan Fischer:
He does seem to be everywhere these days. I am about to introduce myself to Mahler and will start with his Mahler 2.
Cheers |
His brother Adam is no slouch either. |
@rok2id His Mahler 4 is superb , that is my go to reference nowadays. Superb recording too, very detailed. |
His Mahler 4 is superb , that is my go to reference nowadays. Superb recording too, very detailed.
Thanks. I will check it out. Cheers |
Got my fingers crossed for Met 802 ! |
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@schubert -- I'm a La Petite Bande fan, too. I love their recording of the Bach Orchestral Suites on Pro Arte. |
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**** Got my fingers crossed for Met 802 ! ****
Agreement ratified just yesterday. Considering current circumstances, the deal could have been worse. Associates still negotiating. Thanks for the concern. |
Franz Schubert
WINTERREISE (Winter's Journey)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau(baritone),
Gerald Moore(piano)
EMI 1955 / 2002
Notes: "When a singer has recorded the same music more than once, a critical formula comes conveniently to hand whereby the later version is recommended for the maturity of its artistry and the earlier one is complimented for freshness of voice. With 'Winterreise' such vocal freshness is not necessarily a virtue; and with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau his mature artistry has never been in question even if we go back to the first recordings of all. Though this was his first recording of the cycle, Fischer-Dieskau had already sung it many times, the first being at the age of 19 with an interval of three hours for an air-raid. The second in 1944 with the singer on leave from the Russian front..."
From EMI's 'Great Recordings of the Century' series.
Winterreise, D 911
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAvdaXMLRBQCheers |
I learned a lot when few years ago when the Minnesota had about 18
months out.
It has always been a good orchestra but Osmo Vanska made them a
Great Orchestra , with great musicians playing better than they thought
they could .
Twin Cities have a lot of Forbes 500 firms and natch some of the CEO’s
were on the board .
Guys making 20 times (or More) though it was a crime for someone
who just plays music to make and who did more work in a month they
did in a year, to make 90,000 $ a year. |
How it's possible for Schubert to do so much in so short a life is unreal.
Brahms who was a Schubert fan, said ,( He did in 15 minutes what the rest of us took 6 months ) ! |
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schubert.
Brahms was so right! |
The Netherlands in many ways are the most progressive nation in the world .
One way is to fund their Bach Orchestra and to make every outing as
clean as a hounds tooth . I’ve head much of their work but not 42.
Thanks , rv .
Truly a Jewel !
P.S . If anyone takes a trip there put a Canadian patch on your jackets , in WW II they were starving to death
and many did because 20 SS Divisions ate all the food and all the allies could could not move them.
Ike and Brits decided to send in the best troops they had, the 3 Canadian Divisions do or die.
16, 000 Canadians did die but in six months the Germans were beaten . Dutch LOVE Canadians !
Send 100,000 Tulips every year free to Ottawa . |
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Here's a splendid recording: Rebel's "Les elements" coupled with, yes, Vivaldi's 4S. Performers are Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin.
"Program music" at its best. |
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Don't we know it rv. don't we know it ! |
This is one of my favorite Beethoven pieces , his op 59 Quartet . It’s played by the Gewandhaus Qt, from the great orchestra of that name. I’m addicted to the beautiful Leipzig tone which is so LvB . Tad of pianissimo . https://youtu.be/C_pM4Huh03o |
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A special thank you to Jim for his recommendation this spring of the music by Zlata Chochieva. I got it all presently available. I'm especially fond of her Etudes by Chopin. Lyrical and then some. :-) |
I just got Jan Lisiecki's Etudes, and now comes this recommendation... |
PRIMEPHONIC, the Classical streaming service is giving up the ghost and touting Amazon as its replacement. What do you dudes/dudettes think of classical Amazon streaming? Should I go for Idagio, the German classical streaming service instead? Yeah, Qobuz is pretty good with classical and, in the main probably even has better fidelity than Primephonic has(had). But I'd like to hear from you guys. |
I have both Qobuz and Idagio. You’re right, Qobuz is pretty good for classical, but Idagio is great. I found it much better than Primephonic. The search engines are really useful and they sometimes do live music (for a fee.)
‘I also find Idagio sounds better than Qobuz for classical. I’ve commented on this many times. |
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