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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.


rvpiano
jcazador
417 posts
 
Jim
Yes I have read your story about Saint Saens and Wagner.
Edward Said wrote a slightly different version of this story.
Said says Saint Saens was visiting Wagner at Beyreuth, and that Liszt was also there.  (Wagner's wife Cosima was Liszt's daughter.)  Wagner and Liszt were chatting, Saint Saens sat down at the keyboard where Wagner had left his unfinished score of Siegfried.  And S.S. played a perfect rendition of the score, sight reading it and transposing the orchestral score to piano.
Edw. Said (in case you don't know) was professor at Columbia, most famous for "Orientalism", and before that for revising literary criticism.  He was also a classical pianist, and wrote reviews for NYT and other publications.
Said and Barenboim founded the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, bringing together young Israeli and Arab musicians.

https://books.google.com/books?id=IVp4jNhkffIC&pg=PA279&lpg=PA279&dq=Saint-Sa%C3%ABns+vi...
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Cosima was the illegitimate daughter of Lizst and the wife of Bulow before Wagner .Hard to believe but she was even more anti-semetic than Wagner himself and much of the utter vile in Wagners endless anti Jewish articles came from her.She was an early supporter of Hitler and was thrilled to welcome the great man to Beyreuth on his many trips .As I am sure Wagner would have . 

Not a few German Historians draw a straight line from the Wagner's to Adolf .

.



bey
jim204
881 posts
 
Jeremy, I see where you are coming from here and I know tales can get messed up in the telling. My source is Prof. Alan Walker the official biographer of Liszt who has written three huge volumes on Liszt and his circle .It is probably in volume 2 or 3 and they are huge and I have read them twice and also use them for reference. He writes about all the young pianists and profesional people who came to visit him.
jim204
881 posts
 
Len    you are spot on about Cosima she was a nasty piece of work, she even left her father on his death bed to go to her beloved Beyreuth and lord it over another of her beloved Richard's diatribes. She even stopped any of his pupils from coming in to tend to him and make his passing a little easier. No out of the three children he had she was definitely the worst and sad thing is she outlived Wagner by nearly forty years.
schubert
7,386 posts
 
You may not have a university degree jim , but I GUARANTEE you both know more that 90% of them that do and that you are a born scholar .
I tip my McDonald of the Isles glengarry to a braw man.
Lang may yer lum reek !
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