My Essential Classical Albums.

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I too have trouble enjoying Mahler.

I love Bruckner but I need to be in the mood for it.

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My cousin's husband is some 10 years older than me. He is is still very much into rock and some pop (not commercial or mainstream stuff) and is constantly on the lookout for new bands.

He sometimes sends me his discoveries but I have slowly lost interest; still enjoy some of the bands that I was listening my late teens and twenties, things like Radiohead, early REM, Tom Waits, Nick Drake, Tindersticks, late Beatles, David Bowie...

 

But now that the boys have grown double digits I have been introducing them to some of the other bands of the old days like The Police, Supertramp, The Smiths, The Cure, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, The Pogues, Suzanne Vega, Bob Dylan, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Simon & Garfunkel... I usually play these in the car.

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The eldest's taste is unfortunately very much influenced of his friends who listen to awful rubbish teenage pop... I bought him a nice set of closed-back headphones. ?

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A couple more suggestions:

 

 

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This is my favourite VC recording

 

 

 

And my preferred 5th (long time since, will be listening to it this evening)

 

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Prokofiev; two suggestions:

 

 

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On 2/12/2019 at 1:59 PM, sphinxsix said:

BTW I really regret I can't go to this concert tonight:

https://www.concertgebouw.nl/en/concerts/simen-ten-holt-s-canto-ostinato-on-four-piano-s/12-02-2019

A remark from the Concertgebouw site

 

 

I have the two-piano recording. Love it.

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On 2/13/2019 at 4:32 PM, AnotherSpin said:

Masquerade is worth to check as well.

 

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One more... a bit marmite.

 

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This one is nice too:

 

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11 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

This is my problem with Dvorak, I listened to cello concerto and New World symphony too many times in the past.

 

It's nice "beginners'" music. 😁

 

I currently much prefer the 8th.

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21 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

The 7th is quite good too IMHO. He's definitely not among the most significant composers but I'm afraid most of the later ones have already been discussed here. I'm simply (as usual) looking for something I don't know yet.

Thanks for all your suggestions, guys!

 

I'm not particular experienced when it comes to off-the-beaten-track music but which second-tier and lesser known composers have you investigated?

Some may not have been prominent or particularly proliferous writers but there are many pieces worth investigating. I suggest the following:

 

Bloch Schelomo

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8028034--in-the-shadow-of-war

 

Delius VC and orchestral music

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8020030--delius-violin-concerto

 

Falla

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7923719--the-essential-falla

 

Field nocturnes and PCs

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7954754--john-field-piano-music-vol-2

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7952076--field-piano-concertos-nos-5-6

 

Gade

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7996480--gade-novelletter-for-strings

 

Herbert CC

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8050173--victor-herbert-cello-concertos

 

Karlowicz VC

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7994972--karlowicz-serenade-violin-concerto

 

Kodaly cello sonata

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7971482--starker-plays-kodaly

 

Korngold VC

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8080670--britten-korngold-violin-concertos

 

Respighi

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8021224--respighi-roman-festivals-brazilian-impressions-pines-of-rome

 

Rott

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7937612--rott-symphony-in-e-major

 

Rozsa

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8117707--rozsa-spohr-violin-concertos-tchaikovsky-serenade-melancolique

Saint-Saens

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8073391--schumann-lalo-saint-saens-cello-concertos

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7925135--lalo-saint-saens-ravel

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7923517--saint-saens-danse-macabre

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7942773--saint-saens-symphony-no-3-in-c-minor-op-78-organ-symphony-etc

 

Clara Schumann

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7955385--schumann-clara-the-complete-works-for-piano-solo

 

Scriabin

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8052602--scriabin-medtner-piano-concertos

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7959641--yevgeny-sudbin-plays-scriabin

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7923956--scriabin-complete-symphonies

 

Weber

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7980781--weber-the-symphonies

 

Wetz

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7946810--wetz-symphony-no-3-gesang-des-lebens

 

 

If you enjoy music from the Romantic period:

 

The Romantic Piano Concerto series

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/s.asp?s=S_1

 

The Romantic Violin Concerto series

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/s.asp?s=S_3

 

 

And then there are the recitals...so much to choose from.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7924056--horowitz-in-moscow

 

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On 11/11/2019 at 7:09 PM, sphinxsix said:

I agree Du Pre/Celibidache is the better one of these two. I got it a couple of days ago and some other albums recommended by you guys too, thanks a lot again!

 

Meanwhile I heard Stravinsky's Petrouchka on the radio while coming back from work (I don't know who the performers were) and I think I really 'dug' Stravinsky's ecstatic rhythms for the first time. So recently my attention has shifted to .. you've guessed it right - Igor Fyodorovich.. 

 

I think that my favourite recording of Dvořák's Cello Concerto is the one by Rostropovich with Berlin and Karajan on DG.

 

This one is also worth a listen, recorded on the 21st of August 1968:

 

 

The Prom of Peace

Series in which Paul Gambaccini recalls classic concerts.

 

On August 21, 1968, Russian tanks entered Czechoslovakia to put an end to Alexander Dubcek's Prague Spring. An extraordinary irony saw the Soviet State Symphony Orchestra making its debut at the Proms on the same day in a programme featuring Czech composer Antonin Dvorak's Cello Concerto. The performance by soloist Mstislav Rostropovich remains one of the greatest ever live recordings of the piece.

 

The heckling began as soon as the Soviet State Symphony Orchestra took to the stage on 21 August for Prom 30 of the 1968 season. "Go home!" someone shouted. "Russians out!" added another.

The shouts were not the orchestra's fault. Overnight, the Soviet Union and its allies had invaded Czechoslovakia, sending several hundred thousand men, and several thousand tanks, into the country to stop the Prague Spring, a period of liberalisation and reform in the Eastern Bloc state. The invasion shocked the world and the orchestra found itself the most obvious target for protests in Britain.

It didn't help that the orchestra and its star, the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich (pictured), were programmed to play Czech composer Antonin Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor. The choice had been inspired, but now seemed like an insult.

Rostropovich, somehow, saved the evening. His playing was so emotional, filled with such anger and sadness at what was happening in Prague - the city where he had met his wife - it felt more like an apology than a piece of music. He cried as he played, recalling later that he imagined people being killed through the tears. At the end, he held the score high in a gesture of solidarity.

It would be nice to say his playing changed everyone's view of the orchestra, but that wasn't the case. One of the final things the musicians heard as they left for their hotel was a shout of "Russian murderers!"

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b007xgjy

 

 

 

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https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/search?search_query=braga santos naxos

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2 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

 

@semente Thanks! I'm only familiar with Mompou's name (but not his music), I will check out your recommendations, especially since I know our tastes are very compatible in many areas!

 

 

Like you I'm still tentatively dipping my toes. Some stuff is just plain inedible...

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I second Jansen's and Brautigam's.

And because I am very fond of the cello:

 

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8363545--mendelssohn-works-for-cello-piano

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9 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

 

Thanks, will for sure check it out!

 

My album of the evening. It seems that a clear, bright sounding double basses are as standard in DB concertos as Steinway D grands in case of PCs and it's understandable - they (just like Steinway) can be more clearly heard in the orchestra. Once I heard a recording studio engineer commenting on my (also clear and bright sounding) Fender Jazz Bass Marcus Miller Signature that it is often used not only by jazz and funk musicians but also by heavy metal ones. 'It can be easily heard in a dense, wall of sound kind of mix' - he explained the whole thing to the surprised me. 

The second disc of this album is a slight stretch - these are two G minor cello sonatas by Chopin and Rachmaninov transposed to E minor for the double bass. Haven't heard the 2nd disc yet, the first one is IMHO also really good.

 

I have and like that one.

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8 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

6000 posts isn't it the right moment for some celebration with eg a little bit of Porto? 

 

 

Still recovering from an apendicectomy, so no alcohol for the time being. 😇