Classical Music for Aficionados

Incrdedible version!

Alas! i dont own it save for youtube...

This woman is miraculously  perfect in Couperin spirit, spectacular....  

Try these well less known pieces of Haydn...

How to beat this poetry with Neumann and Ruzickova?

In my next life i wanted to be a musician....And perhaps encounter this angel.....😁😊

Why not Martinu?

Ruzickova is spectacular in EVERYTHING she touch !

She is by far my favorite harpsichordist....

Four years in at least 4 concentrations camps and heavy communist regime forbid her to teach music and malaria, malnutrition, ulcers, bubonic plague left her untouched at the end !

She learned harpsichord after Theresienstadt , Auschwitz, Terezin and Bergen Belsen , playing 12 hours a day for the years lost!

Now i cannot wait to read his autobiography, i just learmed that it was published 2 years ago ...

«In this January 2020 discussion, author Wendy Holden talks with Deborah Oppenheimer about the process of creating a memoir with Ružicková's own words.»

Miracle indeed !

A mini-one is how little the music of the great Hindermith  is played in North America  .

Or how the Great German "second" orchestras are !

Almost as good as the Big Boys .

And Girls !

Igor Levit

The nyt times loves him.

So do I.

I started a retrospective of British composers pre- and post-Elgar and Vaughan Williams.

First up: Sir Alexander Mackenzie.  Nice but not outstanding.  I recommend sampling the Violin Concerto and Pibroch Suite.

Currently: Hubert Parry.  So far I'm through Symphonies 1 and 2. Parry has real orchestral chops.  I can't understand why he is not more popular and most often played.  I guess he's known mainly as a choral composer, but that does him a considerable disservice.

Interesting!

I will listen Parry choral and symphonies... Thanks..,.

twoleftears (and anyone else who might care), I noted in another post that you recommended a Schubert solo piano piece...so, have I got a deal for your!  Larissa Dedove playing Schubert's piano sonatas on Centaur. A 5 cd set for about $25 to $30. I'd never heard of her - they came to me by recommendation - since I love Schubert's music for solo piano I couldn't resist (even though my CD drawer(s) overflows.)  

Bottom line - excellent playing, excellent SQ, AND CHEAP. What more could your ask for (even though you didn't). This is easily one of the best sets that I have. :-)

Who needs more Sibelius, I know I don't, but then ......

A new 4 disc set of his Symphonies. Just came out. A young (age 26) conductor I've never heard of, Klaus Makela (A Finn, what else) leading the Oslo Philharmonic. Very, very, good I think and certainly worth exploring (which I am doing). Got a great and detailed review in Gramaphone. And all for $25. FWIW.

I think this may be a conductor to follow...........

Queue up the recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 1, "the Titan," .performed by the orchestra Les Siecles.. The label is Harmonia Mundi France..On Qobuz. Hi-Def. As good a performance & recording of the work as I’ve ever come across. It even gives the famous Bruno Walter recording a run for its money. For those not familiar with the work, it’s got drama, comedy, grandeur, intimacy, and most of all tunes to die for. The way I hear it, Mahler is telling us the story of Planet Earth..

@newbee        I agree 100% with you about the new Sibelius cycle, the playing and conducting are inspirational. Anyone looking for the complete set could not do any better, I am always dipping into it now.

I can't get enough of Sibelius  , Finnish music and people in general .

Where's the best  to buy other than Amazon ?

Presto in England. Cheaper than Amazon - larger catalog - prompt delivery especially if you buy any quantity and they ship UPS. Slower if they ship USPS. I buy about 80% of my CD's from them. FWIW their service is great.

Sibelius:

Complete Symphonies and Tone Poems   ---   Boston / Colin Davis  - Decca 

Currently on Ebay and amazon.   I have ordered several items from Presto, and you will receive them eventually.  I received one order within 7 days from order, and two others 45+ days after order.  And that was with $11 shipping.  Of course, nothing is normal these days.

Ebay also has the same performances on Philips Classics  2fers.

Cheers

Hi Len, If and when I get the odd CD it is usually from Presto but I understand it can take a bit of time to get them from the UK. Have you ever thought of downloading them from Presto as I often have as you can download flac or wav and put them on a hard drive and play them with something like J River which is rather affordable and not like Roon which is a rip off. Stay well my friend, Jim.

I don’t like Tech of any form , wish i was like you Jim , but I’m just not .

I just finished with Presto for the Sibelius with a bit of Bach,Grieg and Holst  as well .

From "The Carls O’ Dysart "

We’ll live a’ our days

And them that comes behin"

Let them do the like.

And spend the gear they win .

 A week in Scotland is worth a year  anywhere else ,lucky you !

Cheers

Gaun yersel big man !!!

This is a Scottish composer who composed about any type of serious music there is.

I find him interesting but having a Scottish bias ............. I must be right !

I am fond of all his choral works...So much i even did not listen to his others works i must confess...

Voices dont lie...

He is a genius for me, Scottish or not....

But for sure viva Scotland!

😁😊

Listen to the first 1’ 30" and see if you don’t want to keep on listening.

Parry, Symphony no. 5

If this is not a Great Orchestra there is no  such thing !

WOW !!!!

This simply beautiful and masterfully written and composed! I'm looking forward to more! 

Merveilleusx album! Merci....

Compositeur intéressant au plus haut point....

oups! 

Thanks for this great post!

You got to love It, a great French composer, a German Band and a Japanese violinist !

I LOVE Grieg ! So does she . I'm not much, she is FANTASTIC !!

This is the Grieg Piano Concerto, one of the "war-horses" often played .

The German Artist ,Julia Fisher. plays very well as you will hear.

Oh , by the way she is widely considered to be by many to be the worlds Greatest

Violinist .

She had just finished a Violin Concerto and has a fine voice as well .

The Orchestra is the Young German in Frankfurt

I think Miss Fischer is so talented and yes is in my top 3. A superb musician.

When the people live in a bubble there is nothing but trouble .

Why do anything when you are already perfect ?

204, do you mind naming the other two ?

If not , no bad feeling at all.

Hi Len , not at all they are Maxim Vengerov and Leonidas Kavakos and all three in no particular order.

Thanks Jim, I have a bit with the later but I think not at all  from Vengerov .

Have to do some on both .

Hi Len , have you tried Kavakos in the Sibelius Violin Concerto in the two versions, the first version which most violinists of the time couldn’t get their fingers around so Sibelius revised it. In the revisions he simplified some of the dificulties without harming the thing as a whole and it shortened the concerto a little. With Kavakos playing the original version you can’t hear the imense difficulties of the piece because he is such a good player but when you listen to the revised version I think it just gels better. The concertos are on the BIS label so there is no worry about quality. If you haven’t got this release then I would say it would be well worth having even for the novelty of it because no other violinist will ever be able to release an alternative version as the Sibelius family only gave permission for Kavakos only to release it and then it was sealed back up again.

I hope you are keeping well my friend and getting your dailly dose of Bach.

From your friend in Alba, Kind regards Jim.

Yes, I forgot I do have that BIS . As you know If I see BIS I buy it without looking !

Alba?, even Glasgow will do !

I'm Braw for a wee bottle 'o ginger .

Aye Len, I used to like a wee bottle o ginger masel, Cream soda and Irn Bru.

Gaun yersel.!!