2. music
  3. 132810-89202

Classical Music for Aficionados

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.


128x128rvpiano
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
NIGEL KENNEDY'S GREATEST HITS
Nigel Kennedy (violin)
EMI Classics  1989-2002

English Chamber Orchestra / Kennedy
City of Birmingham Symphony / Simon Rattle

The Notes:  Kennedy gives his thoughts on each tune.  Several nice pictures.

the lark ascending  (Vaughan Williams)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrVDwNt1Nz4

danny boy      (trad)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Keo0Xf4RUsY

scarborough fair   (trad)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVFBVAtSZ7k

csardas   (Monti)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwrjjsh_aMs

Cheers


mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,011 posts
 
If you want to know if your system is good acoustically...

Listen to the voices surrounding you in this magnificent recording...A studio recording where the singers walk and plays together, one can hear when they turn their head singing... in some part the voices come from behind my back... The interpretation is in german inimitable... 

One of my loved modern opera....With the Busoni Faust....


The soul of an era.... Kurt weill with Lotte Lenya the best recording of the three pennies opera:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR33bL5aNTk&t=850s
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
HI-FI FIEDLER
Boston Pops Orchestra - Arthur Fiedler
RCA Living Stereo SACD
Recorded in 1956, 1958 and 1960

This man did as much as anyone to popularize Classical Music. Always came across as, ’this should be fun’. It was for everyone to enjoy, not just the self-appointed ’elites’. Worked in my case. His cover art and musical selections said it all. Some say, ’light’ Classics, I say, ’the good stuff’.

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Franz Liszt)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaVL6uhZ7xA

William Tell - Overture (Gioachino Rossini)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ3xTFmYOwA

Marche slave (Piotr Tchaikovsky)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl9VzrciZUk

Cheers





rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
Johann Sebastian Bach
ENGLISH SUITES 1, 3 & 5
Piotr Anderszewski (piano)
Warner Classics  2014

Seems like a lot but they are all very short pieces.  

The notes give an account of the history of these works.   They also talk about 'repeats', for example --  "when all the repeats of the pieces are observed, the revised version can make for a rather awkward structure, skewing the formal balance of the suite away from the other movements"...Anderszewski

I have read other accounts of composers being criticized for using repeats.   I guess Bach, Beethoven etc... would say, "do you know who I am?"

Suite No. 3 in G Minor, Prélude
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM8cP6tzKIY

Suite No. 3 in G Minor, Gigue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-td1Cw3OBg

Suite No. 1 in A Major, Prélude
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSSdoR03Kms

Suite No. 1 in A Major,  Gigue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQPiknYhggs

Suite No. 5 in E Minor,  Prélude
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUej83R4sng

Suite No. 5 in E Minor,  Gigue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH2gCpa9hI0

Cheers


rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

SINFONIA CONCERTANTE IN E-FLAT K364
Vilde Frang (violin)
Maxim Rysanov (viola)
Arcangelo  --  Jonathan Cohen
Warner Classics    2015

allegro maestoso
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXdYvB3rACs

andante
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zfSICtEEIM

presto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0A896-KCG4

From the Notes:  "If Mozart was a good but unwilling violinist, he was more comfortable with the viola.  It was on this lower-timbred, usually supporting instrument that he played in string quartets with Haydn, and for which he composed some of his most personal works, including the 'Kegelstatt' Trio K498 and the Sinfonia concertante K364...is a milestone of compositional maturity."

Cheers
More to discover