My Essential Classical Albums.

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21 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

 

Hearing some years ago Martha Argerich - Riccardo Chailly performance of Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3 quite explosively triggered my interest in the pianist (ok.. I'll be frank - it can almost be called a love affair), the composer - I like Rachmaninov a lot and in classical music in general. IMHO absolutely stellar performance. SQ could be better but I think the emotional impact of the music more than compansates for it.

 

 

 

 

I believe this version of Rachmaninov 3d is the best from many I heard. In a case I would be limited to stay with only one this will be the selection I will keep. Argerich recordings of Prokofiev and Ravel concertos and her Chopin could stand against any competition with grace and fervor.  

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8 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

I don't. I checked out the begining of the album before going to sleep yesterday. Sounds fantastic to me!

I think I will have to take a closer look at Liszt..

 

Liszt' Piano Concertos from Alexandre Kantorow are very good. I think this is the best Liszt I heard from new talent lately.

 

8 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

 

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5 hours ago, accwai said:

 

Well, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra was mentioned in the Album of the Evening thread recently. It's well known for its ravishing middle movement. That's rather essential. And of course, middle movement of the Mozart's Clarinet Concerto is equally ravishing. And along the same line, Carl Maria von Weber has the Concertino for Clarinet. Beautiful slow first movement develops into a lively sprint. Short and sweet.

 

There you go

 

Breaking things down into time period and/or genre would help focus the "seeding". So what interest you the most?

 

And, middle movement of flute and harp concerto...)

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11 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

Unfortunately I didn't find a lot of interesting microtonal music (someone can recommend something.?).

But I decided to explore Karlheinz Stockhausen a little. Some of his stuff (eg Stimmung, Mantra, Gruppen) is very interesting. I ended up watching this (beware - lots of analog noise )

 

Helicopter String Quartet is a part taken from Stockhausen's huge seven opera cycle Licht. I was trying to listen some of these opera, this is very impressive mass of work, but takes certain effort and time to digest.

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26 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

It definitely does! I skipped it (this time)..

 

 

 

I am listening opera for decades, and while Verdi, Mozart and Wagner give me more than I could dig in this life Stockhausen steals some attention as well.

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8 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

So one more question for you guys - could you name your 'desert island' solo piano classical recordings.? And if it's to general for somebody - ok, please concentrate on Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Rachmaninov

 

Well, those are too many fine recordings even if we focus on solo from these four names only. I will try to select a few.

 

1. Bach - DWK from Schiff, El Bacha or Zhu Xiao-Mei; Goldbergs - Tharaud, Dinnerstein, Ito Ema, Denk, Rana; Die Kunst Der Fuge - Aimard, Bahrami; English Suites - Anderszewski; Partitas - Perahia, Fray.

 

2. Beethoven - complete sonatas sets from Brendel (black box most), Brautigam, Buchbinder, Guilda, Korstick; Separate sonatas from Lupu, Pires, Giltburg, Perahia.

 

3. Mozart - sonatas sets from Uchida, Haebler, Bezuidenhout, Brautigam, separate - Brendel, Leygraf, Perlemuter, 

 

4. Rachmaninov - I am not listening for his solo music often, but I really love his 3d Concerto. Recording with Martha Argerich is very dear to me. From others version of this concerto I would name those from Bronfman, Gavrilov, Andsnes.

 

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3 hours ago, burnspbesq said:

(and of course some Keith Jarrett. If I can only have one, I'll take "Rio.")

 

This would be difficult choice. Virtually everything Jarrett recorded is very close to me. Well, if the choice would be necessary, it will be either Paris/London - Testament, or A Multitude of Angels. I also love Staircase. Köln I know by heart...)

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1 hour ago, sphinxsix said:

A question about one of the most inventive, according to many, piano players ever - your favorite Glenn Gould performances, guys.? (except from Bach as I have quite lots of Gould's Bach).

BTW I was quite suprised noone listed GG recordings among his favorite piano albums. A coincidence?

Is he passé.? Or maybe it's just that noone here likes Gould.?

 

 

I like Gould, and didn't mention his albums just because we were focused mostly on new recordings, isn't it?) I only named some old recordings from the artists who are not popping out in memory immediately.

 

I like Gould's Haydn, and Mozart and Beethoven too, even thou some people think his readings of those are quite bizarre. In fact, I am very comfortable with almost every his recording with rare exceptions.

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18 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

Not necessarily! As I said earlier - music and performance are always more important to me than SQ.

 

BTW - a good documentary, IMO worth checking out if you don't know it :

 

 

Oh, well. I just love archival modest quality recordings, some of them have warmth and heart which modern recordings totally missed...) If we speak about solo piano, I am not going to miss Rosalyn Tureck and Edwin Fischer (first recorded WTK ever) for Bach, Schnabel and Kempff for Beethoven, Lili Krauss for Mozart..)

 

Did you see documentaries about Glenn Gould from Bruno Monsaingeon?

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44 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

No. I will check them out! Thx !

Monsaingeon is making a lot of very valuable image movies about classical music. His pays great attention to Soviet musicians as well, and he loves some of them (Richter, for example) much more than me...)

 

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1 hour ago, Musicophile said:

At the risk of getting some haters here, I haven't heard any Gould beyond Bach I'd still find relevant today. 

 

No hate...) I can imagine why people would believe Gould is not relevant anymore, and, of course, anybody would and should have its own opinion about anything he or she likes. Also, our preferences may ground on very different criteria. One of the reasons I like Gould is his "otherness", his intention and ability to see and play everything in his very own way. And he was very organic within realms of his unique world. And, I would never doze while listening his recordings)))

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1 hour ago, rando said:

You wouldn't be the first to get lost in the goings on and start humming along with the barefooted genius.  

 

I bought my first Gould LP more than 40 years ago....) It was his first Goldbergs published by Melodiya in USSR – I think it was not licensed. Well, until now I didn't start humming)

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8 hours ago, rando said:

Your русский pique, Meloydiya discs, etc are wearying

  

Hum along, or don't, as you wish.  The mannerism is well documented as having limited interest in professionally recording him.  Which has a very direct bearing on his legacy being directly associated to a single work.  

 

 

 

You have problems?

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59 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

 

BTW - your favorite Beethoven's sonatas (especially late ones) recordings, guys.?

 

 

I do not have one favorite set of Beethoven sonatas. I like various by various reasons. From new sets I would recommend to hear Korstick's.

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Also if we speak about one-album sets of Beethoven sonatas the one from Boris Giltburg impressed lately. Igor Levit's late sonatas received quite favorable responses, this recording was mentioned here already, I guess.

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28 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

Seems I didn't commit a sin when I bought his complete Beethoven sonatas. What would be your second (or maybe even third) choice? I think about getting some more B. sonatas as I love them.

 

Brautigam set is very good - I agree with Musicophile completely. It is in my current toplist, along with sets from Korstick, Gulda, Brendel (first Philips set), Buchbinder.

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11 hours ago, Musicophile said:

He's very good as well but I'd prefer Bezuidenhout for both solo and concerto when talking fortepiano.

 

https://musicophilesblog.com/2015/10/27/my-must-have-mozart-albums/

 

And for modern piano, I already mentioned above Fazio Say's recent complete set. 

 

 

You mean Fazil Say? I heard some of his Mozart, it is good, I find interesting virtually everything what I head from him.

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10 hours ago, Musicophile said:

One can't have enough Beethoven, vey much like the other two Bs, Bach and Brahms. 

 

Levit has already been mentioned. Among the classics, Schnabel (VERY Lo-fi) Kempff, Brendel, and Pollini (his old set, not the so-so recent re-recording) stand out. 

 

For the more recent cycles I often go to Andras Schiff on ECM or Paul Lewis, both are relatively straight, no-nonsense interpretations. I was also positively surprised by Richard Goode. 

 

Yes...)) Schnabel stands separately, I was hesitant to recommend because of the recording quality. BTW, did you compare different editions? What is your choice? 

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3 hours ago, Musicophile said:

I only have one set I bought ages ago on CD. I´ve never investigated that much as I see this more of intellectual value than for musical enjoyment.

 

I even had Schnabel LP set once, and the quality was so awful, it diverted me from this wonderful performances for many years...( Now they make several CD sets which sound quite differently. I like one from Membran, one from Dante is not bad too. Many believe Pristine edition is very good, I didn't hear it.

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5 hours ago, tdimler said:

What about the hard to get Annie Fischer Beethoven sonatas that some are wild about?  Have you ever been through them?  I'm sure the sonics are somewhere between poor and abysmal, but she always crops up when discussing absolute reference Beethoven interpretation.  

 

TD

 

Annie Fischer's set sound quality is ok. It was recorded in mid-70 in Hungary by Hungaroton, which produced very decent quality recordings at that time. The performance is very good, she is very precise and perfect in her readings. I believe Annie Fischer was trying to reach 'ideal' of Beethoven sonatas in platonic sense as further, as human can. Naturally, she was not able to be completely sure she did everything possible, and her set was published only after her death at the end of the century. I think this set is out of print now and would be obtained on rather premium price, but if one wants to have several best sets of Beethoven sonatas this collection should be considered.

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23 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

Let's change the subject. I've heard Alban Berg's Piano Sonata,  Concerto for Piano, Violin with 13 Wind Instruments and Concerto for Violin and Orchestra 'To the Memory of an Angel' and they've just both touched and intrigued me. I liked the fact that the pieces sound very different from anything I've ever heard and their lyricism. Think I'll order this 8CD collection (4 would be enough for me cause I don't like opera in general and I wasn't impressed with Lulu and Wozzeck either):

 

 

That is unless you guys recommend something else.

 

 

 

 

I like Berg's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. Kremer performance is good, even though I like one with Isaac Stern slightly more. As a whole DG box seem to be solid representation of Alban Berg. 

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I can not tell I am listening Alban Berg often. In fact, the only piece which I am interested in recent years was Concerto for Violin mentioned here. By some reason Stern's performance impressed me more than others I heard, maybe because of its warmth. One could even dismiss it being not enough toothaching and less cerebral than strict Second Viennese school ruling demands? I like two operas, Lulu and Wozzeck as well. I even believe Berg created most important modern operas after Richard Strauss and Puccini. But I love opera. Would you tell more why from all 20th century music you are interesting in Berg? Maybe it would help to give more useful advisory, if it is possible. 

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4 hours ago, accwai said:

Quick question: If one were to have only one version of Haydn's London symphonies, which version would be most essential?

 

I had London Symphonies with Thomas Beecham years ago on LPs, and they were probably the best I heard, but the recording quality was very modest. From new recordings with good sound I would name two period-instruments collections: late symphonies cycle from Mark Minkowski and Frans Bruggen set. If you want complete symphonies edition, Antal Dorati box is it. I will be glad to hear other recommendations as well, never watched Haydn too closely.

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7 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

Will check out this performance, thx!

Well, I know some 20th century composers - Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Schoenberg, Stockhausen and others but I've heard Berg for the first time some days ago and I liked his music. Decided to get some of it and the DG box seemed a good intruduction to his compositions. I'm still open to suggestions as far as his recordings are concerned..

Me either. Got just his string quartets selection - performed by Takacs, Kodaly and Alban Berg Quartets. An acceptable choice in your opinion, guys?

 

Takacs Q are Alban Berg Q are very safe choices. Didn't hear Kodaly Q.

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12 minutes ago, Musicophile said:

I find Haydn's string quartets to be much more attractive to me than his symphonies. I have yet to find my perfect version but like the Quatuor Mosaique's HIP approach very much, especially after having seen them live, playing op 33 some years ago.

 

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