My Essential Classical Albums.

[AnotherSpin]

1 hour ago, Boris75 said:

 

I very much agree with both your points. The symphony transcriptions do not make much sense to me in our age, when it is so easy to listen to anything anywhere. It was a different story before recordings existed. I like the song transcriptions, on the other hand, because they get rid of the voice, which, in certain listening circumstances, I do not want to hear.

 

It would be fun to see transcriptions as an attempt of a kind of reverse composing, from all instruments back to initial bare piano. 

[AnotherSpin]

9 hours ago, semente said:

Here's another Argerich recording that I really enjoy, Tchaikovsky's PC 1 with BPO/Abbado:

 

 

Did you try Ravel and Prokofiev concertos with Argerich?

[semente]

1 hour ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

Did you try Ravel and Prokofiev concertos with Argerich?

 

I have the Ravel with BPO/Abbado for DG but it hasn't been played in years.

That honour goes to Michelangeli.

Will do so tonight.

[semente]

Since some of you have mentioned transcriptions I will suggest two, of Rachmaninoff's works:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhThc39l2UE

 

 

 

 

[accwai]

3 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

It would be fun to see transcriptions as an attempt of a kind of reverse composing, from all instruments back to initial bare piano. 

 

That's exactly the point. It's in the age when we can hear almost anything that we have opportunity to listen to these rare pieces. They are a thing in themselves and shouldn't be treated as stand in for the originals.

 

In any case, the Symphonie fantastique transcription is jaw dropping. Will probably sample some of the Beethoven symphony and Eine Faust-Symphonie transcription down the road.

[sphinxsix]

52 minutes ago, accwai said:

In any case, the Symphonie fantastique transcription is jaw dropping. Will probably sample some of the Beethoven symphony and Eine Faust-Symphonie transcription down the road.

Could you recommend some performances?

[AnotherSpin]

5 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

Could you recommend some performances?

+1

[semente]

5 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

Could you recommend some performances?

 

4 minutes ago, AnotherSpin said:

+1

 

+2

[AnotherSpin]

7 hours ago, semente said:

 

I have the Ravel with BPO/Abbado for DG but it hasn't been played in years.

That honour goes to Michelangeli.

Will do so tonight.

This is the beauty of classical music where we would have not a single best performance, but a luxury of at least several...)

 

I like Michelangeli approach in selecting just a few pieces to perform for entire life, like 3d Beethoven sonata. It seems to me Argerich is doing something similar, even if in a wider extent. 

[semente]

1 hour ago, AnotherSpin said:

This is the beauty of classical music where we would have not a single best performance, but a luxury of at least several...)

 

I like Michelangeli approach in selecting just a few pieces to perform for entire life, like 3d Beethoven sonata. It seems to me Argerich is doing something similar, even if in a wider extent. 

 

I have just found another Ravel PC in my library, this one by Ivan Moravec with Prague Philharmonia directed by Jiri Belohlavek on Supraphon:

 

[sphinxsix]

My only version of Ravel PC is actually by the lady who was discussed earlier in this thread

and BTW it's her only recording in my collection.

 

 

 

[AnotherSpin]

Yuja Wang twenty years ago:

 

[sphinxsix]

27 minutes ago, AnotherSpin said:

Yuja Wang twenty years ago:

As usually in a provocative dress...

[accwai]

On 7/7/2017 at 7:14 AM, sphinxsix said:

Could you recommend some performances?

 

For all Liszt obscurities, the default answer is Leslie Howard. Top notch performance and SQ. And quite often it's one of the very few choices available. Just get it and be done for the rest of your life

 

The Symphonie Fantastique was album of the evening April 17, 2017. I've been meaning to doing something about the Beethoven symphonies but never got around to it yet. The middle movement of Faust Symphony is also in there somewhere. Liszt's own transcription of the outer movements are for 2 pianos (too crazy even for Liszt?), so not in the Howard set. I understand there is a modern single piano version. And the Dante Symphony is supposed to have a two piano transcription also. Haven't looked into those yet.

[tdimler]

 

 

Quote

I remember c.1990 walking into the music section of a local store.  The classical section, while not large, was always well stocked with a good mix of new releases and performances that never go out of print.  This time was different.  The classical new releases were all right out front with the heavy metal and soft rock.  Bodices, upscale lingerie, provocative body language, () the classical albums managed to out sleaze metal and sell borderline disrespectful sex better than the slow dancing soft rock albums.  It was so disruptive to my world view I didn't listen to a lick of classical for a good decade or more.  

 

Yuja Wang in her shocking red dresses and David Garrett airing out his sheets are just one more example of (NSFW) this coming around again.(NSFW)  Tom Jones is headlining at The Proms in support of the anniversary of some debauched tour if that gives you any further idea the tactics currently in play to drum up interest in classical music.  Sales of recordings are awful and letting old people decide ways to attract youth into the concert hall isn't working so hot either, internationally.  Old money will win out as it always does in this world and everyone will be back to living in luxury hotels and taking private cars to their performance.  

 

I couldn't agree more.  I don't think Martha's career suffered any from wearing more appropriate clothing!   Perhaps Yuja Wang has donned some subtle dresses, but I've not seen it.  Plenty of times I've seen her trot out on stage in something more suited to a night out clubbing, or maybe more like a nightgown.  I think it is a disgrace.  Goodness knows classical musicians can use lots of help in the fashion department, but attempting to make one into a sex symbol while sitting down to a Steinway in the concert hall?  Another story altogether.  Even if I though she was a great pianist (which I don't!)....the stage presence is too much to overcome.  

[sphinxsix]

@accwai Thanks! 99 Liszt CDs are definitely a bit too many for me (at the moment..) but I will check out some single albums from this set.

[AnotherSpin]

3 hours ago, tdimler said:

 

 

 

I couldn't agree more.  I don't think Martha's career suffered any from wearing more appropriate clothing!   Perhaps Yuja Wang has donned some subtle dresses, but I've not seen it.  Plenty of times I've seen her trot out on stage in something more suited to a night out clubbing, or maybe more like a nightgown.  I think it is a disgrace.  Goodness knows classical musicians can use lots of help in the fashion department, but attempting to make one into a sex symbol while sitting down to a Steinway in the concert hall?  Another story altogether.  Even if I though she was a great pianist (which I don't!)....the stage presence is too much to overcome.  

 

Well... I do not think it makes a sense to dismiss this or that musician just because his/her look doesn't come up to this or that expectation. Some are wearing strange dresses, some may even look strange. Anyway, music comes through ears, not eyes.

[semente]

2 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

Well... I do not think it makes a sense to dismiss this or that musician just because his/her look doesn't come up to this or that expectation. Some are wearing strange dresses, some may even look strange. Anyway, music comes through ears, not eyes.

 

 

[AnotherSpin]

Classics by its own:

 

[AnotherSpin]

 

 

[semente]

What are your performance suggestions for some of these great violin concertos?

 

For Bruch, Mendelssohn, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky I am happy with the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

But about Bartok, Beethoven, Brahms & Mozart?

 

[EuroChamp]

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto In E Minor, Op. 64:

Ruggiero Ricci, London Symphony Orchestra (Pierino Gamba)

Hilary Hahn, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (Hugh Wolff)

Henryk Szeryng, London Symphony Orchestra (Antal Dorati)

Erick Friedman, The London Symphony Orchestra (Seiji Ozawa)

Jascha Heifetz, Boston Symphony Orchestra (Charles Munch)

 

Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26:

Jascha Heifetz, New Symphony Orchestra of London (Sir Malcolm Sargent)

 

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto In D Major, Op.35:

Ruggiero Ricci, London Symphony Orchestra (Sir Malcolm Sargent)

 

Beethoven: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op.61:

Zino Francescatti, Columbia Symphony Orchestra (Bruno Walter)

Jascha Heifetz, Boston Symphony Orchestra (Charles Munch)

 

Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.77:

Arthur Grumiaux, New Philharmonia Orchestra (Colin Davis)

 

Of course very influenced by my knowledge and my bias to the Golden Age recordings.

 

You can think of that Heifetz where my favorite, but this is not true. The mentioned results are purely based on database queries in my J.River. Personally I do really admire Ricci, Grumiaux or Hahn.

 

Which Mozart concerto do you mean?

 

Cheers,

Bernhard

[semente]

3 minutes ago, EuroChamp said:

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto In E Minor, Op. 64:

Ruggiero Ricci, London Symphony Orchestra (Pierino Gamba)

Hilary Hahn, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (Hugh Wolff)

Henryk Szeryng, London Symphony Orchestra (Antal Dorati)

Erick Friedman, The London Symphony Orchestra (Seiji Ozawa)

Jascha Heifetz, Boston Symphony Orchestra (Charles Munch)

 

Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26:

Jascha Heifetz, New Symphony Orchestra of London (Sir Malcolm Sargent)

 

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto In D Major, Op.35:

Ruggiero Ricci, London Symphony Orchestra (Sir Malcolm Sargent)

 

Beethoven: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op.61:

Zino Francescatti, Columbia Symphony Orchestra (Bruno Walter)

Jascha Heifetz, Boston Symphony Orchestra (Charles Munch)

 

Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.77:

Arthur Grumiaux, New Philharmonia Orchestra (Colin Davis)

 

 

Which Mozart concerto do you mean?

Of course very influenced by my knowledge and the bias to the Golden Age recording.

 

Cheers,

Bernhard

 

Mozart VC3 please, but you can suggest others.

To be honest I listen mainly to Romantic music...

 

I am also partial to that era of recording and have both LvBs, the Brahms, the Bruch and a couple of the Mendelssohn's you've mentioned.

 

Thanks,

Ricardo

[semente]

I must also add three second tier Violin Concertos that I really enjoy:

 

 

 

 

[EuroChamp]

2 minutes ago, semente said:

I must also add three second tier Violin Concertos that I really enjoy:

 

 

 

 

 

I am sure, they are great. But I do not even know all three of them ... (

 

For the Mozart VC3, I would select the Isabelle Faust, Il Giardino Armonico (Giovanni Antonini) from 2016.

All in all I have 11 versions in my database.