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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.


128x128rvpiano
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 
Embarked on a Sibelius retrospective.  1, 2 and 4 so far.  Really liked 1 and 2, 4 not so much.  I don't know why I haven't thought more about this composer.  From previous listenings I only remember 5 as a favorite.  Perhaps now is the time to change that.  I see Lief Segerstam seems to be the favored conductor, followed by Berglund. 
jcazador
417 posts
 
Schubert et alI love Schubert, and the recordings you mention, i.e., Volodos, Richter, Cooper, also Arrau and Brendel.  To my ear, Cooper sounds very like Brendel, with whom she studied, and I mean this as a compliment. 

Missing from this discussion is Kempff, who popularized Schubert.  His recordings are limited by the technology of his time, but they stand up well for me; when I listen, I think of nothing else. 

Did you know that Rachmaninov never heard of Schubert's sonatas?  That is the darkness that Kempf illuminated.
jim204
881 posts
 
Arrau in Schubert's Last sonata in B Flat Major D960 always makes me feel so sad as he plays it like someone who themself knows he has very little time left on this earth. Arrau actually said that of all the composers he played he always found Schubert the most  difficult to express. Another thing Arrau did was play an horrendous cut that all other pianists did not play , the great Brendel and Cooper also did the cut much to the detriment of the first movement of this sonata. I remember in the late sixties having Kempff's whole set of these sonatas and I loved them but Kempff was from an entirely different age where people were grateful that someone had taken on the task of committing the herculean task of the complete sonatas that his set were not as dissected as "scholars" today would do. After all this I still hope Volodos commits a lot more to tape.
schubert
7,386 posts
 
I don’t think that cut is on the Coopers 2009 . I will try to see what is what .I have all the Kempff vinyl myself, still love and play them .
I’ve read several tomes lately by scholars who are coming to believe we have just begun to understand the genius that was/is Schubert.
AYE , say I .



Cooper was in St .Paul last year under the auspices of the Schubert Club
which is old ladies with old money who bring the best artists to a 350 man Hall
at Macalester College . ( Founded by Scots in 1800’s.)This is one of THE best private liberal college colleges in the USA .And millions have been spent on their Hall’s acoustics which are superb .

Her program was mostly Haydn and Cooper really woke me up on that !She is a very powerful player , at times I thought the ghost of Arrau was in the house .

P.S . The old girls brought us the pride of Scotland last spring , Nicola Benedetti . Sadly I was under the weather .

jim204
881 posts
 
Len   That was a pity you didn't see Nichola last year  as I have seen her play once but have seen her many times in Ayr my hometown as she was schooled here in Ayr where I live and when home she goes shopping in Ayr with her mum.
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