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
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



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
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






Bach is so great that we tend to act as if classical started with him .
 Truth is that from the 11th to 15th century there were composers at his level but they wrote things we don't listen to much today, as in religious
music .
You are right...

Obrecht and Tallis and one hundred other geniuses...

Hildegard of  Bingen is older but what a creative mind...