Classical Music for Aficionados

I love the Hogwood Mozart Requiem, but it’s a curio because he refuses to use any notes that might have the taint of Sussmayr, so it sounds very truncated.  I think that is being a bit extreme, since Sussmayr was an accomplished 18th century composer, had been a student of WAM, and was the choice of Frau Mozart to finish it off.

  I found digital copies of all the Ristenpart Bach recordings, a 6 CD set from France, via eBay, at about $15 per CD.  A bit pricey, but I had bought a turntable and phono pre just so I could play treasured LPs that are unavailable digitally, and a substantial fraction of my lp collection are the aforementioned Ristenpart Bach recordings.  I had bought a handful of other Nonesuch and Vox/Turnabout recordings that I now have been able to locate digital versions as well.  Considering selling the analog rig as listening to these noisy, poorly pressed records is reminding me of why I got out of vinyl in the first place

My Nonesuch and Turnabout LP’s are still in excellent shape. As far as sound goes, with my new analog rig some, but not all, are audiophile quality. I use them to demonstrate the SQ of my set.

I love the Hogwood Mozart Requiem, but it’s a curio because he refuses to use any notes that might have the taint of Sussmayr, so it sounds very truncated. I think that is being a bit extreme, since Sussmayr was an accomplished 18th century composer, had been a student of WAM, and was the choice of Frau Mozart to finish it off.

You are right about the "truncated aspect"...

Sussmeyer addition sound right ..

But to defend Hogwood choice, observe that it drive the orchestra and chorus and soloist as in an opera not as in a mass... This dramatic choice is the reason why in my mind this version is so enthralling and hypnotically efficient suggesting at the same times what lack in any other version : the childish fear of death and fear of the Grime reaper and the childish innocence and aspiration to death as a mother; the two contradictory emotions creating the drama ...

No other more liturgical interpretation touch it ...

It is like an operatic mass...Or a sacred Mysteries introduction as with "the enchanted flute "mysteries drama... Mozart was a serious freemason after all ...

Hogwood is a genius...

The amplifiers on my Triton 1 speakers’ subwoofers were broken by a power surge in my neighborhood. Consequently I’m not listening to much music with a lot of bass lately.
I’ve begun a project of listening to the Beethoven string quartets. So far I’ve listened to op. 18. Quartets. Beethoven’s genius is palpable in these works.  He devoured the classical style whole and spit out masterpieces that surpassed even Haydn and Mozart in invention. And this is to mention only one genre he worked with.

The op. 59 quartets are next on the agenda

Can you use headphones?  Also -just curious if listening sans subs puts any significant strain on the rest of your speakers, though I suspect not.  
  I actually used a recording of Beethoven op 59/1 and 59/3, the first and third Razumovsky Quartets, to audition a sub, many years ago.  The salesman was aghast and kept trying to play some rap to show the boom factor.  My reasoning was that the Beethoven with its extended cello parts would reflect the kind of bass that I was more likely to reproduce.  I had also remembered reading that a musical sub should make even a solo flute sound better by enhancing the room ambience.  I would use other music now-Shostakovich Fifteenth Symphony comes to mind-to test a sub, but the Beethoven Quartets would still be useful.

  Regarding the Op. 18 works, I prefer: 1) ensembles who play them big and bold, and not like embryonic Mozart; and 2) Vibrato, please.  I really dislike Quartets that eschew all vibrato (and coincidentally play at crazy speeds) and completely blow the expressive effects of the music.

  My longstanding favorites are the Hungarian Quartet (stereo version)) and the Cleveland Quartet.  Most of the more modern recordings I’ve heard are HIPP and therefore excluded by at least one of my criteria