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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
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

SCHEHERAZADE

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Fritz Reiner
RCA Living Stereo / BMG    SACD    1960 / 2005

Notes: "Deems Taylor once wrote that thrice-familiar staples of the concert repertoire should periodically be placed under a five-year moratorium, during which time their existence would be conveniently be forgotten.  The five-year ban elapsed,  one would presumably return to them with ears refreshed and musical appetite eager to relish them again.  There are those who argue that 'Scheherazade' merits a moratorium."

It seems to have obtained "warhorse" status.

Scheherazade, Op. 35:

I. The Sea and Sinbad's Ship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKOAvPxpDu0

II. The Story of the Kalender Prince
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx3keUuPGJ8

III. The Young Prince and the Young Princess
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRSllaa15DU

IV. Festival at Bagdad - The Sea - The Ship Breaks Against a Cliff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtZ-TlpqSnE

Cheers

twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,315 posts
 
@rvpiano  A pleasure.  I was so taken with it that I've ordered their Brahms CD.  Looks promising.
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
Gioachino Rossini

IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA

Thomas Allen, Agnes Baltsa
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Sir Neville Marriner
Philips   1962, 1963  /  1983

(Highlights)

Act 1 - No.2 Cavatina: "Largo al factotum"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC4okbDrqNU

All`idea in quel Metallo
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc7XQ-3EmCQ

Act 1 - No.5 Cavatina: "Una voce poco fa" - "Io sono docile"
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwJ-IUMZMP4

pace e gioia sia con voi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y97nKnplAjQ

Finaletto II: "Di sì felice innesto"
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anqQU7zp21w

Cheers


rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
Gioachino Rossini

OVERTURES

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
DG 1985

Notes: "...many of these masterpieces of wit and rhythmic vitality were performed in versions the composer would hardly have recognized as his own, The basic structure and spirit were still Rossini’s, but the musical details were often drastically transformed."

"These overtures embody what Stendhal called Rossini’s "candeur virginale". And their special qualities are immeasurably enhanced when, as here, they are performed by a chamber ensemble using scores faithful to the composer’s intentions."

L’italiana in Algeri - Overture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay9rjkgCmRU

Il barbiere di Siviglia - Overture (Sinfonia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRMpzy6GG4E

Il Signor Bruschino - Overture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLlA4SR8PVQ

A Rosette Recording:  The penguin guide to Compact Disc.

Cheers
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
Gioachino Rossini

OVERTURES

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Fritz Reiner
RCA Gold Seal / BMG     1958 / 1990

Notes: Gioacchino Antonio Rossini--child prodigy, boy soprano, composer of almost 40 operas in about 20 years--was born on February 29 (leap-year day, as he was fond of pointing out), 1792 in Pesaro, Italy.

Rossini wrote his first opera, 'Demetrio e Polibio', at the age of 16, although it was not produced on stage until four years later at the Teatro Valle in Rome.  'La cambiale di matrimonio' followed in 1810, and after that operas flowed from his pen, never fewer than one a year and sometimes two or three, ending with William Tell, a grand opera first produced in Paris in 1829.  After that Rossini composed no more for the stage, although he was to live until 1868.  Why a composer of such international fame chose to abandon opera while still in his 30s and at the height of his career is still one of the great mysteries of musicology.


La gazza ladra  /  The Thieving Magpie
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JK7cLxxxWs

La scala di seta  /  The Silken Ladder
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrugBmgKIIQ

La cenerentola  /  Cinderella
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxobxMdR1AA

Guillaume Tell  /  William Tell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJNGz0RL6qo

Cheers
More to discover