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 just picked up DGs 1988 issue of Messiaen's quartet (Barenboim, et. al.) and it's incredible. Any other recommended recordings of this piece? I need a couple of more interpretations!
Karajan at his finest! Got this a few weeks ago with a few other outstanding performances I'll post as I listen. Late to the party here and wish I found this thread years ago! Love it !
Chopin’s last piano gets its 19th-century features back
By Associated Press
Dec. 9, 2021
Texas-born expert on historic pianos, Paul McNulty, renovates the last piano that Frederic Chopin played and composed on, at the Chopin museum in Warsaw, Poland, today. The 1848 Pleyel piano was offered to Chopin’s family after his 1849 death by Scottish pianist Jane Stirling, and survived two world wars in Warsaw, but had modern strings put in in the mid-20th century, that destroyed the tone. McNulty aims at bringing it back to its original characteristics.
WARSAW, Poland >> The last piano on which Frederic Chopin played and composed in Paris is being renovated by a U.S. expert who is giving it back its original mid-19th century characteristics.
Paul McNulty is spending days at the Frederic Chopin Museum in Warsaw filling in some cracks in the soundboard and putting in wire strings like the ones used by Paris piano manufacturer Camille Pleyel — Chopin’s favorite — in 1848.
“We’re very, very close to the character and the identity of this instrument when we put the correct strings on, everything else being in very good condition,” McNulty told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Pleyel made the instrument, with serial number 14810, available to Chopin, already seriously ailing at the time, in the fall of 1848. After Chopin’s death in October 1849, the piano was bought by his Scottish student and friend, Jane Stirling, who then offered it to Chopin’s eldest sister, Ludwika Jedrzejewiczowa.
The piano arrived in Warsaw in 1850 — it still bears the red customs seal of Russia that ruled Warsaw at the time. It survived two world wars, including the destruction of the 1944 Warsaw Rising.
Given the provenance and the good condition of the instrument, McNulty said it is “priceless.”
Texas-born McNulty says this is the “best preserved Pleyel piano in the world,” despite having quite a dramatic history. It was played, but treated well by Chopin’s family and was not used for concert performances, also because of a failed renovation attempt.
It had most of its iron wire strings changed for much stronger and tighter modern ones during renovation in the late 1950s that destroyed its tone and put strain on the whole structure.
McNulty and museum authorities believe the current work will bring it as close as possible to the sound that Chopin heard.
“We hope it will sing for us again,” said Aleksander Laskowski, spokesman for The Frederic Chopin Institute that houses the museum.
“So an opportunity to hear the sound of Chopin’s piano as he heard it when he composed is quite likely,” Laskowski said.
McNulty, who has restored and built replicas of hundreds of historical pianos in the past 35 years , says the new sound “will be within the confines, the expectations of the builder.”
The instrument will serve as a resource for research and maybe as a model for a replica, but is not intended for performances.
Among the copies McNulty has made is the 1749 Silberman piano that Johann Sebastian Bach improvised on.
Chopin, Poland’s best known and beloved classical music composer and pianist, was born in 1810 in Zelazowa Wola near Warsaw to a Polish mother and a French father. He left Poland at 19 to broaden his musical education in Vienna and then in Paris, where he settled, composing, giving concerts and teaching the piano.
He died on Oct. 17, 1849, in Paris and is buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. His sister Ludwika brought his heart to Warsaw where it is in one of the pillars at the Holy Cross Church.
Glad you enjoyed it, rvpiano. Fantastic score by one of the great American composers. Recorded at NYC’s “Manhattan Center”. NY Philharmonic/ Gustavo Dudamel cond. Please forgive a bit of self promotion; the saxophone solos are by yours truly.
Ashokan is a reservoir in upstate New York, not a lake.
The "Ashokan" in Ashokan Farewell refers not to a body of water but to a nearby camp.
Its composition had nothing to do with the Civil War.
It is not classical music. If "White Christmas" were played by the Vienna Philharmonic, that would not make it classical music.
Ashokan Farewell is a folk tune composed by a folk fiddler, Jay Ungar, celebrating the camp experience. His inspiration was Celtic fiddle tunes of a similar nature.
As for the Civil War connection, it was adopted, many years after its composition, for the Ken Burns PBS documentary series on the Civil War. It was played during the entire series and was not focused upon New York soldiers.
I don’t know which experts think it is the "one of the best pieces written in America." That would seem to bypass a great many American classical composers, not to mention Jazz and "American Song Book" composers. It is a good tune, no doubt. I knew Ungar and am confident that’s what he thinks.
This is the internet and people just dump their notions here. Be careful what you read.
melm, thanks for the background on "Ashoken Farewell".
When Burns' film "The Civil War" was released I was fascinated by much of the music, so bought the CD soundtrack. But I was particularly taken by "Ashoken Farewell" so also picked up Ungar's Fiddle Fever album which introduced that song. I still find it beautiful and haunting. No matter if it was not written as a tribute to the Civil War and those wounded or killed then, I felt it was a perfect choice by Burns.
Beautiful tune and beautifully played by Ungar. As to whether it is “Classical” or not, while I’m not sure where exactly the genre dividing line can be drawn, it should be remembered that quite a few Classical composers have incorporated the folk music of their native lands in their works. Antonio Dvorak, Bela Bartok, Zoltan Kodaly, Manuel DeFalla, Ralph Vaughn Williams and in the USA, Aaron Copland of course, to name a few.
As to Ashokan, I know the area well. Beautiful area in upstate NY. Every time I drive by I marvel at how the water that comes out of my tap in NYC comes from a reservoir 130 miles away.
Hey frog, if that marvels you just imagine living in San Diego. Much of the water there is piped from the Colorado River but some comes from northern CA by way of LA, so that is several hundred miles. Of course everyone adds their upcharge along the way so it becomes very expensive by the time it reaches the consumer.
It's Important to distinguish between folk music and the classical music inspired by folk music.
There may be examples where they are hard to distinguish, but Ashokan Farewell is not one of them. It is so very clearly on the folk music side. First, watch Jay Ungar play. He never leaves first position on the fiddle. That is typical of folk music. I've never seen that on any piece considered classical. It's a very easy, simple tune and the reason that millions of amateur fiddlers play that it, most often by ear. The tune's simplicity is marked by having only one accidental note, one time anywhere within its two parts. It has a VERY easy harmony. I'm not much of a musician but I have improvised harmony on that tune as I play it on a folk instrument. All of these are indications of simple a folk tune. Also that its composition was inspired by other, traditional, folk tunes.
So for Ashokan Farewell it's not a close call--for a tune we all love! But, just a good tune.
Anyone interested in superb fiddling get on to Idagio and listen to Leonidas Kavakos 's album Virtuoso for a musical delight. The playing is so easy for him and he programs flashy showpieces by 19th century virtuosos and arrangements of other so well known pieces.
Melm, I don’t disagree with you re Ashokan Farewell at all; that was not the thrust of my comments. Where we may disagree, in part, is over the ultimate “importance of distinguishing” between genres, particularly when the distinction is based upon things such as technical ease of playing, simplicity of harmony, number of accidentals, etc; all characteristics which in fact can be found in some Classical works. Those things are not what necessarily define a genre. Btw, here are some violin works clearly in a Classical style played entirely in first position that may be of interest to you:
Sometimes something is deeply moving in a way impossible to understand...
Distinguishing is good but we must not separate and oppose what we distinguish in opposing directions, one presumed primitive the other presumed sophisticated...
At the end for the heart what is deep may be simple and sophisticated at the same time, because succeeding to move all heart together is not a simple feat at all...
Then the "ashokan farewell" is folk tune yes, but so powerfully beautiful that Bach could have used it also... Like all "perfect" work of art it is more at the end a mystery than a folk tune for me...
Some people just like to argue and like to fool themselves into believing they have made an irrefutable point.
Your post is ridiculous. What you have referred me to is a series of didactic, pedagogic pieces written in a pseudo-classical style intended for young students learning the violin. I have run across more than one of these in the Suzuki teaching series my son went through when he was about 9 years old. In fact a recording of his playing a Seitz piece, one of those on this page, at that age is my ring-tone for him.
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and waddles like a duck and has all the indicia of a duck, it's a duck.
Similarly, Ashokan Farewell has ALL the indicia of a folk tune. It's a folk tune.
SAying that a duck is a duck is not the peak of knowledge...
Everybody know what a folk tune is...
And everybody know that some melodic line and simple harmony could be also deep music in a way we dont understand...
a duck is a duck only for walking unobservant distracted person...
No duck are like one another, even between ducks there is someting called individuality that pointed to somethink else about "ducks"...
Folk tune are not always only folk tune, they are sometimes key formula in esthetical and in spiritual experience...
The line between folk tune and classical music is not a THIN PERFECT line...
If it was so music would be not a so deep mystery....Ask Bartok...
By the way what i just said is almost common place not an "irrefutable point".. because there is no arguing here save for you...
But a duck is duck is also a common place affirmation but a bit more superficial...
I will say it my way: all folk tune are not made equal, and all folk tune are not only simple folk tune thats all...
Life is a mystery not always a common place habit...
This folk tune interrogate most people by his beauty and reveal why the frontier between folk music and sophisticated music is not a common place ethnomusical matter only... Bartok thought so....
Melm, you miss the point. Moreover, why the need to be so heavy handed? As I said, I don’t disagree with you about Ashokan. No desire to argue, but the particulars of your “argument” leave something (much) to be desired.
Was listening to this other great Brahms sonata just last night. Dedicated to Richard Muhlfeld whose playing inspired and caused Brahms to come out of “retirement”:
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