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
Another:

Pre 1600 !!!!! Stunning use of chromaticism and dissonance:
One of my favorite composer...

the Scriabin of the human voices....

He wrote like Scriabin not to move the human heart only  but to make it more vast and livelier...

Monteverdi use his art to express all there is, he create opera, but Gesualdo sometimes tear the human heart in two parts...One who suffers and the other who recreate....

Thanks for the magnificent unknown to me French interpretation...
NIGEL KENNEDY'S GREATEST HITS
Nigel Kennedy (violin)
EMI Classics  1989-2002

English Chamber Orchestra / Kennedy
City of Birmingham Symphony / Simon Rattle

The Notes:  Kennedy gives his thoughts on each tune.  Several nice pictures.

the lark ascending  (Vaughan Williams)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrVDwNt1Nz4

danny boy      (trad)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Keo0Xf4RUsY

scarborough fair   (trad)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVFBVAtSZ7k

csardas   (Monti)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwrjjsh_aMs

Cheers


If you want to know if your system is good acoustically...

Listen to the voices surrounding you in this magnificent recording...A studio recording where the singers walk and plays together, one can hear when they turn their head singing... in some part the voices come from behind my back... The interpretation is in german inimitable... 

One of my loved modern opera....With the Busoni Faust....


The soul of an era.... Kurt weill with Lotte Lenya the best recording of the three pennies opera:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR33bL5aNTk&t=850s
HI-FI FIEDLER
Boston Pops Orchestra - Arthur Fiedler
RCA Living Stereo SACD
Recorded in 1956, 1958 and 1960

This man did as much as anyone to popularize Classical Music. Always came across as, ’this should be fun’. It was for everyone to enjoy, not just the self-appointed ’elites’. Worked in my case. His cover art and musical selections said it all. Some say, ’light’ Classics, I say, ’the good stuff’.

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Franz Liszt)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaVL6uhZ7xA

William Tell - Overture (Gioachino Rossini)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ3xTFmYOwA

Marche slave (Piotr Tchaikovsky)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl9VzrciZUk

Cheers