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
 
Mozart
DIVERTIMENTO IN E-FLAT  (K.563)
CBS Records Masterworks  -  1985
*also available on conventional disc & cassette  :)

Notes:  State this work is infrequently played and is astonishingly little known in spite of it being one of Mozart's greatest masterpieces.  Perhaps the reasons have to do with it's generally dark, even severe cast...dedicated to the Mason, Michael Puchberg, who so often had helped him in his troubles, i.e. money.

Allegro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buvM8PvOFrY

Adagio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSaK98LZ6R0

Allegro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZuxADlAqhY

Cheers

rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
Aaron Copland

COPLAND 100
Minnesota Orchestra  --  Eiji Oue
Reference Recordings
HDCD   Recorded 2000

The Notes:  "In 1942 Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony commissioned and premiered eighteen new fanfares over the course of the symphony's 1942-43 season.  "It is my idea," explained Goossens, "to make these fanfares stirring and significant contributions to the war effort."  Copland's 'Fanfare for the Common Man' premiered on 12 March, 1943."

"The special qualities of Copland's 'Appalachian Spring(1944), one of the composer's most popular works, owed much to choreographer Martha Graham, for whom it was written."  ... "there's something prim and restrained, simple yet strong, about her which ones tends to think of as American."

Fanfare for the Common Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku3kH7-sUTs

Appalachian Spring
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3luGMG3PoY

The music definitely has that 'American' sound to it.  Optimistic, like, everything will be alright.  We can do it.

Cheers
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D, OP. 35
Julia Fischer -- violin
Russian National Orchestra -- Yakov Kreizberg
Pentatone Classics SACD 2006

Excellent Booklet. Lots of info on Tchaikovsky, Fischer and Kreizberg.

Notes: Talks about the most profound crisis in Tchaikovsky’s personal life, i.e. his marriage to Antonia Milyukova in 1877: "The marriage had only just taken place, and I had been left alone with my wife, realizing that fate had linked us inseparably, when it suddenly came upon me that I did not feel even simple friendship for her- rather, an aversion in the truest sense of the word."

Maybe it’s possible to know too much about these guys.

Allegro moderato
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI6MnhNJedU

Finale: Allegro vivacissimo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1NyEV-7ZgA

Julia Fischer, born in Munich in1983. has worked with almost every top tier conductor in the world, except Karajan. She was only 6 when he died. Started playing before age 4. Her instrument is of Italian origin made by Jean Baptiste in 1750.

Cheers



rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
Johann Sebastian Bach
PARTITA NO.1 IN B-FLAT MAJOR, BWV 825
Murray Perahia (piano)
Sony Classical   2008-2009

Tidbits from the notes:  In Bach's day music was treated as a consumable commodity,  here one day, gone the next, so new pieces were required on an almost daily basis. --  Bach's music was rarely performed, but widely studied by academics and composers-including Mozart. --  There is scant evidence that Bach played any of his music in public. --  The set of six Partitas were the first works Bach published with the designation "Opus 1."

Praeludium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml4mw0L-0Eg

Menuet I & II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyMEKW3zF3Q

Gigue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vle0Jc7of-E

Cheers
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
BOLERO - ORCHESTRAL FIREWORKS
Minnesota Orchestra -- Eiji Oue
Reference Recordings HDCD
Recorded 2000

From The Notes: Extremely interesting snippets on the origin of each piece on this disc. "I have written only one masterpiece," Ravel said, toward the end of his life; "that is the bolero. Unfortunately, it contains no music."

Eiji Oue became the ninth music director of the Minnesota Orchestra in 1995. A native of Hiroshima, Japan. The Orchestra was founded in 1903. Has had some big time music directors over the years. Including Marriner, Dorati and Ormandy.

Rimsky-Korsakov: Tale of Tsar Saltan, Op. 57: Flight of the Bumblebee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YJDbVJoRJk

Klemperer: Lustiger Walzer (Merry Waltz)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWK-MVlNshg

Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 3 in F Major
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kETy5k6ipiQ

Ravel: Bolero
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO_AFmqLbZU

Not my idea of ’Orchestral Fireworks’, but a nice collection.

Cheers






More to discover