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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
schubert
7,386 posts
 
This is another treasure from Jussi and Victoria and Pucccini.
This is a not so hard to find , a "Great Recordings of the Century""from La Boheme .
https://youtu.be/PRHuqqEk3Bk?t=2
I recall a long TV interview with Pavarotti. Interviewer asked the big guy about this and that tenor , what he felt about then , what he has learned from etc . The perpetual smile of the big guy never left his face.When he asked Pavarotti how he compared him self to Bjorling , his face turned dead and he said , "Do not ask me that Question , I am only human ’". He wasn’t joking .
jcazador
417 posts
 
schubert
you say:
"Puccini wasn't picking on Americans,. He was a liberal who was against the Italian Fighting for colonies in North Africa .If he used an Italian Navy man he wanted to the Opera would be banned ."
If Puccini has used an Italian Navy man, he would not have been composing an opera about Japan.
It was USA Commodore Perry that forcibly "opened" Japan in 1854.  Italy had nothing to do with it.
And what makes you think that Puccini "wanted" to use an Italian Navy man?

schubert
7,386 posts
 



Because Puccini said so . He wanted  to use a North African setting butUS Navy  wasn't there and  and making a Italian would have got him in
jail .

I knew  about Perry when I was ten years old .


















jcazador
417 posts
 
On Madame butterfly, Puccini made extensive use of Japanese melodies. 
Quite different from "North Africa" melodies.
"One of the more striking aspects of exoticism in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is the extent
to which the composer incorporated Japanese musical material in his score. From the earliest
discussion of the work, musicologists have identified many Japanese melodies and musical
characteristics that Puccini used in this work."
Kunio Hara
jcazador
417 posts
 
Puccini based his Madame Butterfly on a short story by John Long, which was based upon a French novel by Pierre Loti.  Subsequently, David Belasco wrote a one act play "Madame Butterfly, A Tragedy of Japan" which Puccini saw in Londonin 1900.
More to discover