My Essential Classical Albums.

[AnotherSpin]

On 2/24/2019 at 7:59 AM, Musicophile said:

Maybe that's the issue 🙂 I've never been 100% a Mahler fan. Many of the symphonies are just "too much" for me. I get the accessible ones, 1, 4, maybe even 5, but most of the others I'm still struggling with. 

 

Generally I like Currentzis, his Tchaikovsky 6th sounds quite nice for my ears. Maybe because it is on a more popular and easily accessible side of classical? But Mahler is a totally different matter, imho. And his choice of Mahler's 6th to start with was... too bold. Too complicated piece for Currentzis, waters too deep, ocean too open. 4th would fit much better for his talents and abilities, if I could offer my 5 rupees on this matter. And tinkering with recording technique which may be acceptable with popish Tchaikovsky is just out of place in Mahler's universe.

 

How about Mahler's 7th? One of my most adored late night listening pieces.

[Musicophile]

7 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

Generally I like Currentzis, his Tchaikovsky 6th sounds quite nice for my ears. Maybe because it is on a more popular and easily accessible side of classical? But Mahler is a totally different matter, imho. And his choice of Mahler's 6th to start with was... too bold. Too complicated piece for Currentzis, waters too deep, ocean too open. 4th would fit much better for his talents and abilities, if I could offer my 5 rupees on this matter. And tinkering with recording technique which may be acceptable with popish Tchaikovsky is just out of place in Mahler's universe.

 

How about Mahler's 7th? One of my most adored late night listening pieces.

I really need to go on a Mahler rediscovery trip. 

[Musicophile]

7 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

Generally I like Currentzis, his Tchaikovsky 6th sounds quite nice for my ears. Maybe because it is on a more popular and easily accessible side of classical? But Mahler is a totally different matter, imho. And his choice of Mahler's 6th to start with was... too bold. Too complicated piece for Currentzis, waters too deep, ocean too open. 4th would fit much better for his talents and abilities, if I could offer my 5 rupees on this matter. And tinkering with recording technique which may be acceptable with popish Tchaikovsky is just out of place in Mahler's universe.

 

How about Mahler's 7th? One of my most adored late night listening pieces.

I really need to go on a Mahler rediscovery trip. 

[Bob Stern]

11 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

How about Mahler's 7th? One of my most adored late night listening pieces

 

Yes, the last movement is very soothing to put you in a sleepy mood.

[Bob Stern]

3 hours ago, Musicophile said:

I really need to go on a Mahler rediscovery trip.

 

Try skipping the first movement of the 3rd.

 

(Unlike my preceding post, this comment is not facetious.)

[Musicophile]

11 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

 

Try skipping the first movement of the 3rd.

 

(Unlike my preceding post, this comment is not facetious.)

I‘m also suffering a bit from the lyrics in the 3rd (Bimm bamm ...) which unfortunately I really cannot block out. 

[Musicophile]

22 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

 

 

How about Mahler's 7th? One of my most adored late night listening pieces.

Ivan Fischer's version was just released on Qobuz. Will check it out tonight. 

[Bob Stern]

2 hours ago, Musicophile said:

I‘m also suffering a bit from the lyrics in the 3rd (Bimm bamm ...) which unfortunately I really cannot block out.

 

So, consider movements 2–4 as a complete work.

 

Also I'd suggest the middle movements of the 1st, the last 2 movements of the 6th, all of the 7th, the first and last of the 9th, all but the 2nd movement of the 5th, and the only completed movement of the 10th.

 

I know you're not crazy about lieder, bu you might try 2 of the cheeriest songs from Das Knaben Wunderhorn: Rheinlegendchen, and Des Antonius Von Padua Fischpredigt.  Das Lied von der Erde is incredible, except for the drunken first movement.

[AnotherSpin]

2 hours ago, Musicophile said:

Ivan Fischer's version was just released on Qobuz. Will check it out tonight. 

 

Didn't listen Ivan Fischer's. Comes to mind Kondrashin with Concertgebouw, Kubelik on Audite, Bernstein on Columbia. However, many fine and quite different versions available to choose from. As with most of Mahler's symphonies. It is difficult and good thing at the same time, if you don't like one particular performance you may try another one always.

[AnotherSpin]

14 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

 

Yes, the last movement is very soothing to put you in a sleepy mood.

 

Sophisticated art may be not so accessible at instance, but time and effort work wonders if on tries really hard.

[Bob Stern]

Just now, AnotherSpin said:

Sophisticated art may be not so accessible at instance, but time and effort work wonders if on tries really hard.

 

I was just trying to joke that the last movement doesn’t fit into most peoples' idea of nachtmusik!

 

I enjoy all of the 7th.  Don’t understand why it's considered the most difficult of the Mahler symphonies.  I can better understand that reaction to the 8th, altho I love it — transcendent.

[Musicophile]

1 hour ago, Bob Stern said:

 

So, consider movements 2–4 as a complete work.

 

Also I'd suggest the middle movements of the 1st, the last 2 movements of the 6th, all of the 7th, the first and last of the 9th, all but the 2nd movement of the 5th, and the only completed movement of the 10th.

 

I know you're not crazy about lieder, bu you might try 2 of the cheeriest songs from Das Knaben Wunderhorn: Rheinlegendchen, and Des Antonius Von Padua Fischpredigt.  Das Lied von der Erde is incredible, except for the drunken first movement.

The thing is, I’m currently already on a quest to properly discover Shostakovich. But. Then again, musical discovery and exploration is what this hobby is all about, right? (Or maybe I’d be better off debating the merits of DSD vs. MQA?)

[Bob Stern]

5 minutes ago, Musicophile said:

I’m currently already on a quest to properly discover Shostakovich.

 

To me his most beautiful works, hence arguably atypical, are his piano trio op 67, cello sonata, and preludes & fugues op 87.

[AnotherSpin]

12 minutes ago, Musicophile said:

The thing is, I’m currently already on a quest to properly discover Shostakovich. But. Then again, musical discovery and exploration is what this hobby is all about, right? (Or maybe I’d be better off debating the merits of DSD vs. MQA?)

 

Do you see any influences of Mahler on Sh. symphonies?

[Musicophile]

20 minutes ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

Do you see any influences of Mahler on Sh. symphonies?

I‘m still too much of a newbie on Shosta  to judge that, the reason I said this is that unlike let’s say Brahms or Beethoven both aren’t immediately accessible to me and require active effort.

[Musicophile]

26 minutes ago, Bob Stern said:

 

To me his most beautiful works, hence arguably atypical, are his piano trio op 67, cello sonata, and preludes & fugues op 87.

My initial entry points were the piano quintet and symphony no. 9. 

[austinpop]

23 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

 

Yes, the last movement is very soothing to put you in a sleepy mood.

 

The 7th has not one, but two movements entitled "Nachtmusik," so the late night theme is very appropriate!

23 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

 

Try skipping the first movement of the 3rd.

 

(Unlike my preceding post, this comment is not facetious.)

 

Sacrilege!

[austinpop]

9 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

Didn't listen Ivan Fischer's. Comes to mind Kondrashin with Concertgebouw, Kubelik on Audite, Bernstein on Columbia. However, many fine and quite different versions available to choose from. As with most of Mahler's symphonies. It is difficult and good thing at the same time, if you don't like one particular performance you may try another one always.

 

Every new version of a familiar piece can jar at times, because it doesn't conform to the version you're familiar with. I am finding this Fischer version growing on me. So DO listen to it.

 

Beyond that, my favorites are MTT/SFS, Bernstein/NYPO, and Jonathan Nott/Bamberger on Tudor.

[Bob Stern]

Shostakovich:

 

11 hours ago, Musicophile said:

My initial entry points were the piano quintet and symphony no. 9. 

 

The piano quintet certainly is one of his greatest works.  

 

I haven’t learned to appreciate sym 9 even though Bernstein thought highly enough of it to record it late in life.

 

I'm usually not in the mood for the many symphonic movements in the style of militaristic marches.

 

Sym 7:  3rd movement is wonderfully performed by Bernstein/Chicago/DG.  1st mvmt has the banal theme parodied in Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

 

Sym 10 may be considered his greatest.  I like the last 2 mvmts.

 

Sym 4 is an interesting, complex piece before he relented to communist party pressure to write the populist sym 5.

[Daverz]

On 3/2/2019 at 10:13 AM, Bob Stern said:

 

Yes, the last movement is very soothing to put you in a sleepy mood.

 

Snerk.

 

I admit, I tend to lose concentration somewhere between the first and last movements.  Listening to the Qobuz 192 kHz stream now.

 

EDIT: Interesting that I hear a "tick tick" noise in between movements.  Due to the conversion from DSD to PCM?

 

Has anyone had a chance to compare with his brother Adam's recording?

 

 

[Daverz]

1 hour ago, Daverz said:

 

Snerk.

 

I admit, I tend to lose concentration somewhere between the first and last movements.  Listening to the Qobuz 192 kHz stream now.

 

EDIT: Interesting that I hear a "tick tick" noise in between movements.  Due to the conversion from DSD to PCM?

 

Has anyone had a chance to compare with his brother Adam's recording?

 

 

 

And playback died about 9 minutes into IV.

 

EDIT: and then died some minutes into V.  So I'm playing Bernstein 1 instead.

[AnotherSpin]

13 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

Every new version of a familiar piece can jar at times, because it doesn't conform to the version you're familiar with. I am finding this Fischer version growing on me. So DO listen to it.

 

Beyond that, my favorites are MTT/SFS, Bernstein/NYPO, and Jonathan Nott/Bamberger on Tudor.

 

Of course. I just tried to say Mahler's versions may be very different.

[AnotherSpin]

On 3/3/2019 at 11:37 AM, Bob Stern said:

 

To me his most beautiful works, hence arguably atypical, are his piano trio op 67, cello sonata, and preludes & fugues op 87.

 

Which versions of op.67 you prefer and why?

[Bob Stern]

9 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

Which versions of op.67 you prefer and why?

 

In the piano trio my priority is to maximize poignancy rather than modernity.  My preference is Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson, 1995, Arabesque label.  However, Stern and Ma (with Ax) remain unmatched in the poignancy of the first half of the first movement.

[AnotherSpin]

1 hour ago, Bob Stern said:

 

In the piano trio my priority is to maximize poignancy rather than modernity.  My preference is Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson, 1995, Arabesque label.  However, Stern and Ma (with Ax) remain unmatched in the poignancy of the first half of the first movement.

 

That is the issue with this composer output, it could be too poignant, or plain depressive. Or sardonically frolic to the effect which is even harder to swallow.