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What are your TWO favorite Symphonic Recordings?

Only one would cruel and unusual punishment.

My first would be Joseph Krips 1958 recording of Schubert's 9th on London with the London SO.There was a CD of it as well
which is also OP I believe. If you can find either it or the record at anything under a $1OO its a good buy. Personally
I would give 2K for one if I didn't have a copy.
More than once I've read a critic claim this was the greatest record ever made. The LSO was at the top of its game and gave
this uber- powerful symphony a power-house performance.

My second is the 1976 recording of the Brahms 2nd by James Levine and the Chicago SO in the acoustically wonderful Medina Temple in Chicago. Originally it was on RCA but can be had on Amazon as part of Sony Classical 3 disc set of all Brahm'4 symphonies and his great masterpiece the "German Requiem" for less than 15 bucks ! Very nice sound as well.
Levine does a near-miracle in capturing the 2nd Symphonys combo of power , lyricism and harmonic stability all at the same time.
Of all the great Romantic composers Brahms was the most learned, he literally had the music of 4 centuries at his fingertips, knew every note of Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven. It took me 30 years of listening before I really
got a glimmer of just how great he is.

A few words of Brahms on Schubert;

"Where else is there a genius like his,that soars with such
boldness and certainty ...he is a child of the Gods...who plays in a region and at a height to which others can by no means attain .
schubert
schubert OP
7,386 posts
 
I have and love the Battle/ Levine. last decade or so if Levine is conducting or playing I just buy it .
My fave is the Barbara Bonney with clarinetist Sharon Kam on Warner, who I never heard before,or since, but who to my ears has a lovely liquid tone.
My biggest problem in music is wondering whether Schubert's op.99 or op100 trio is the most beautiful music ever written.
Unless of course his String Quintet in C is, I heard with my own little ears Arthur Rubenstein say it was.
I took the moniker Schubert on here thinking it was just a bunch of rockers who never heard of him, tad red-faced now that I did.
schubert OP
7,386 posts
 
Brownsfan, these days sound is really secondary to the performance for me, will guess you can just get lost in the music as well.
In my exp.most 'philes are addicted to hard-edged "hi-fi" sound like Chesky and dislike natural sound like on the old Krips Decca.YMMV

I keep a pr of old Triangle Titus 202's monitors around, former class B streophile, because the tweeter is crossed in at over 6kz
and about anything sounds OK on them.
schubert OP
7,386 posts
 
FWIW, I recently had the very great pleasure of hearing a young Norwegian lady trumpet player, Tina Thing Helseth play
the Haydn Concerto with the Madison SO.
I could NOT believe how great she was, I truly could not hear a trumpet , it was as if a super-human female voice was singing.
I'm no expert, but the only brass player I ever heard I could
compare her to is Dennis Brain.
frogman
7,561 posts
 
Good calls on Kam and Helseth. Both are fantastic young players with beautiful tone and wonderful musicality. There is a wonderful video on Youtube of Kam playing the Mozart clarinet concerto on a basset clarinet with the extended range that Mozart wrote and intended as opposed to how it is usually played (low register passages played one octave higher because of the standard clarinet's more limited range). Helseth in particular has an unusually beautiful trumpet tone with a remarkable ease and lack of tension in her sound. For the geeks: notice the lack of tension in her face and mouth when she plays in contrast to the tightness and contortions that one sees from many brass players; a major contributor to that gorgeous tone. She had a great teacher.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ASB6hFUat4g
schubert OP
7,386 posts
 
Thanks, Frog . I've been to at least 1K, probally closer to 2k, classical concerts, NEVER heard anyone playing anything
with the ease Helseth plays the Trumpet.Well, perhaps Claudio Arrau,I heard him several times in Berlin, seemed like he just looked at the piano and sound issued forth. As I said , its really like she is singing, truly sounds like a female voice in the heavenly choir, as if God was her teacher.
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