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...

Thanks Jim .

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.

Amen to that. Charaid.

Friends , there is something on here with the NY Phi. and a Great Conductor,

something you well NEVER see again if you live to be 200 !!

In NY there are people that understand the worst of in war in  more than in any American City.

As one , no Soldier that been though real hell has nothing but praise for the Ukraine Army !

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!

Strong and Brave  always up from such others can not !

And the same to you my friend. Hope you can land on Scotias fair shores.

Great minds think ............

Lang may yer lum reek, Mo Charaid

Ist for the Horn is fantastic in the Minnesota

@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 .

Jim204 , there is no way I could know anything you and twolefteas think., both good musicians , of what is at present great Chopin . And I mean that!

Nor is the piano my "wheelhouse" as they say .

But I do play around some times to see what I think MY poor ears like.

This is what I’m playing recently .

I am so glad you are enjoying Pires, she sure has a special way with Chopin.

FInally got the Pires Nocturnes and am loving it.

Thanks !

jim5559     From where I stand I think Boris should open the gate and let those people come into this country instead of fudging about all over the place.

Yeah, I love Janacek. A modernist but a highly accessible one. Plenty of spirit and life. Ravel meets Stravinsky.

jim204.

From here it looks like Boris Johnson is growing up .

Looks OK on US TV , what does the Scottish Gent think ?

Right you are 204, many are trying to mix classical with rock and roll  and call 

it talent .On Tv a lot.

He's certainly miles better than the junk we have to put up with today's "composers" and I am not in the least bit apologetic for that comment.

IMO Janacek is one of the best  modern  composers .

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.

Proms is not best place but the Brimingham Symphony was up to it .

My favorite Walton is 1st Symphony with Preven/LSO .

And Midori plays him! 

In England ,  he must  be not allowed in USA  .

My main bitch in Music  is that WALTON  never gets recorded or played in USA.

All most fell of my chair when one of our greatest artists , Gil Shaham, is in love

with him.

AMEN !

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 .

Segen dir Deutschland !

That truly humbles one.

Just so 204 , the man has mental problems but stupid he is not .

The people of Ukraine  are making heroic  efforts .

Some engineers had put TNT on a bridge , with a radio to send it off at the right time, but the radio was broken.

One soldier just stood up and walked down to set it off with his hand and himself .

How brave can a man be !

@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.

Jim204,

Just heard the UK has taken a Russian Cargo ship in the English Chanel .

Seems like only the Royal Navy could do that ?

Need a lot of guts anyway one looks at it.

I  can  only have the outmost respect for the fight of the Ukraine people but see no

way they can win.

Few months ago Gramophone  declared the Minnesota the Orchestra of the Year. 

THE MINNESOTA  ORCHESTRA  IN CUBA !

The Greatness of Grieg , to Me at least , is his music can speak to any and all 

facets of being  a human being whether they know it or not .

A True Aficonado of Music knows what and that it did not come easy or soon.

I plan to listen to this  Sonata at least 3 times more today , its a school .

P.S , Julia got a pianist of her class , WOW !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Pei_1-kOQ

Here are Brigitte Engerer's complete Nocturnes.  Sounds pretty good to me, as it did to the people who commented on youtube.

Agree about Barshai you get the feeling of invasion and brutality.

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.

Grieg's lovely Flute piece , VERY seldom heard !

My two pence, if you have Arrau Moravec and Pires I would say you have all bases covered.

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.

Very much enjoying the Classical Newest Releases playlist on Spotify this afternoon.  Check it out!

Thanks,204 .

I'll see if I can buy one .

The D  Chaconne is one of the Masters  best !

I have just came upon Leonidas Kavakos new recording of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin on Idagio and am very impressed by them. I find him to have a totally original approach to them in that he uses decorations in the repeats which no other present day soloists do according to the ones I have heard in the last few years. His intonation is perfect with no portamentos to slide up to the correct note. I find his violin tone to be not so penetrating and sterile as a few I could mention. He starts of with the E major Partita and ends with the D minor partita so he knows how to get the ball rolling and end on a high. His rendition of the great Chaconne in D Minor is an awesome piece of recording a violin to give it's utmost tone and purity. If you are going to try any of them do watch the volume control as Sony's recording misses nothing. 

@rvpiano Thank you