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
Yes Jeremy you are in good company with Claudio Arrau, He is great in almost anything. His Debussy discs are so liquid and his Liszt Transcendental Etudes are so powerful and so tender by turns and to think he was 75 years old when he committed them to disc. His Beethoven is peerless , I went down to London to hear him play the last three sonatas and in the train back up to Glasgow I was in cloud 9 all the way I couldn't get those trills from the ending of Op.111 out of my mind. Yes although it was my only concert with Arrau it was enough to tell me he was / is the best pianist I have ever heard. Has anyone heard any of his CDs of recordings done in the Forties and Fifties, oh how I wish the recording quality was better because they show a man at the very peak of his powers. You should have heard his Albeniz it is explosive and the technique is faultless , every bit as good as Horowitz but with a far bigger repertoire. Yup, for me he is the man.
Jim
Just an estimate: I have at least 150 Arrau cds.  Not cd discs, but copies on my external hard drives.

Doubtless some are duplicates, re-releases.
Yes the recording quality on some is not as great as others, but overall it is superior to many other pianists, e.g. Richter.
Also noteworthy is what a person he was in the full sense.  Improving his mind constantly, aware of political/economic issues, including the tragic overthrow of Allende in his home country.
And never a scandal, never an impropriety, never an insult.Just grace, humility, compassion, love.

What a man!
Indeed , he was a man’s man !
Jim , just read the wee frees delusions .

What a bunch of nuts !
About time Alex Salmond   got justice .
Yes Len they have had the knife in Salmond since he lost the Independence referendum . Out of all those who accused him not one of them was proved. Something stinks.