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'm new to all this audiogon stuff but was really pleased to find this particular discussion! Thank you for the recommendation. Now that I have things mostly set up I have been looking for more and more things that I can sit back and listen to.
@likat I am afraid I haven't heard your recommendation for Scarlatti but if you want outstanding pianism, wonderful dynamics and superb recording quality go to Mikhail Pletnev and I am sure you will love it.
Got the Ingrid Fliter Chopin disc with Sonata #3 and a miscellany of other pieces (3 Mazurkas, Barcarolle, Grande Valse Brillante, Ballade no.4). Very nice but generally not transcendent. The three Waltzes (op. 64) were what I liked best, so I’ve ordered up her CD of complete waltzes. Reviews on Amazon all over the place, so we shall see...
I've just finished listening to a first class SACD of Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony doing a spectacular, heart-rending rendition of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. All I can say after listening to it is that very little has changed in Bartok's corner of Europe in the eighty+ years since Bartok wrote it.
What’s the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?
Laurence Dreyfus (in his wonderful “Wagner and the Erotic Impulse”) made me aware that Richard Wagner had a fetish for composing in silk lingerie, and he sent Nietzsche out shopping to get him new undergarments. The vision of Nietzsche browsing in the underwear store!
Why a ‘Peanuts’ Collection Has Stuck With Jeremy Denk, Concert Pianist
@jim5559 Miss Fliter is a very fine pianist Ideally suited to Chopin and I have been watching her since her days as a BBC adoptee and some lovely Wigmore Hall recitals she has given.
I Love Ein Heldenleben, it has some gorgeous tunes in it as you would expect from Strauss. I love the beautiful finishing duo with the violin and French Horn, it's so tender.
As we all know Ein Heldenleben is neither easy or short .
I heard it live at last , after I played 2 years of Self -Qurantine, I was good at ,
at the Minesota Orchestra Hall .
While I was gone some rich person had gifted them 4 ancient Italian Basse’s giving
more great base they already had , Cost, somewhere over 2 million,
I was upstairs with my 400$ deer glass, most folks don’t seem to know many musicians are tuning why playing , I love to watch the tiny flip of the little finger ,
which at times is talking to the conductor . This orchestra , right now, could play with the Wiener or Berlin . But they would need Klieiber .
Diary of One Who Disappeared, by Leos Janacek. Claudio Abaddo, Berlin Phil and various vocal soloists. A DGG CD I fished off my shelf. Bought used. In a generic jewel box with no liner notes. Did I buy it at Amoeba Records in Hollywood? At Moby Disc in Sherman Oaks? Anyway, utterly lovely music. Shockingly good 3D fidelity. A DG EQ but still eminently inviting. I'm listenin' pretty via my Sony player.
Talked to my man in Berlin. Germany always has a problem because of what the nation did , To their credit EVERYTHING is thought in every German school ,
Today they lifted their face up and sent 1,000 anti-tank and 500 air missiles to Ukraine .
@jim5559 Yes my friend the ship was on it's way to St. Petersburg filled with new cars but I'm betting that's not all it was filled with. I am really fearful for the people of Ukraine as that swine Putin is mad and bad enough to do anything , and do remember he was head of the KGB and other black operations so he knows every trick in the book.
Tuning in to the zeitgeist, for about the last month I've been listening to a lot of Shostakovich, particularly the symphonies. Listening to, for example, the Eleventh Symphony, you can imagine Russian troops in action. Or you could just turn on the news.
Of the versions of Shostakovich's 11th Symphony I possess on CDs -- Nelsons, Stokowski and Barshai -- I'd recommend Barshai. It has the feeling of an invasion.
Chopin's Nocturnes. I have four versions (Ohlsson, Moravec, Arrau, Lisieki) and just ordered two more (Freire, Pires). But kinda bummed that I can't get a CD of Engerer anywhere at a reasonable price. Seems like the other one that everyone should hear. And no, I don't stream.
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