My Essential Classical Albums.

[Bob Stern]

I share your distaste for some of his more depressing music, but I think the piano trio is poignant in a beautiful way, not a depressing way.

[AnotherSpin]

1 hour ago, Bob Stern said:

I share your distaste for some of his more depressing music, but I think the piano trio is poignant in a beautiful way, not a depressing way.

 

I believe it is not a matter of taste. Probably I was listening too much of S. music in my Soviet childhood, it was virtually every day on radio and tv. I may be too subjective, but almost all Soviet music shares some certain pecularities to my ears which I am trying to stay away these days. 

[rando]

With the thread starter's permission I'd like to ask if anyone has a favored version of Brahms "Alto Rhapsody" they could share. The Telarc Horne/Shaw disc I listened to this morning piqued my interest in this female "Wanderer Fantasie."

 

As anyone who pays attention to my Album of the Evening posts can attest. I stray far from the normal labels and again farther yet on vocal recordings.  Particularly at the college level. In fact one of my preferred "Ein Deutches Requiem" is a self released offering by Michigan Tech.  Please don't be shy about suggesting unknown or unappreciated performers. 

[Musicophile]

2 hours ago, rando said:

With the thread starter's permission I'd like to ask if anyone has a favored version of Brahms "Alto Rhapsody" they could share. The Telarc Horne/Shaw disc I listened to this morning piqued my interest in this female "Wanderer Fantasie."

 

As anyone who pays attention to my Album of the Evening posts can attest. I stray far from the normal labels and again farther yet on vocal recordings.  Particularly at the college level. In fact one of my preferred "Ein Deutches Requiem" is a self released offering by Michigan Tech.  Please don't be shy about suggesting unknown or unappreciated performers. 

 

Unfortunately can’t give you any unknown performers.

 

Beyond the classic Otto Klemperer/Christa Ludwig recording I’d go with Herreweghe:

 

https://musicophilesblog.com/2015/06/03/brahms-lesser-know-choral-works-brilliantly-painted-by-philippe-herreweghe/

 

 

[sphinxsix]

8 hours ago, rando said:

With the thread starter's permission

Permission granted

[rando]

This work appears to have been much more popular in years past. Resulting in widely varied intepretations from deeply religious to superficial treatment of the dramatic elements.  Chancing to be in the middle of reading an English translation of the lyrics when I received notice of the solemn event mentioned in Album of the Evening inspired a deeper look from all of these angles. 

 

The Klemperer above, Aafje Heynis w/Sawallisch, and Sinopoli keep coming up in searches for their ability to fully encompass depth of emotion. Could anyone offer impressions of the much more recent Dausgaard?  

[Bob Stern]

This is a good example of the value of the Idagio classical streaming service.  Even though they don’t sell downloads, you can audition recordings on Idagio to decide which ones you want to buy from some other site or as a used CD on Amazon.

 

Idagio has about 40 recordings of the Alto Rhapsody, including all the ones mentioned above.  Listening for yourself is infinitely better than guessing whether someone else's taste matches yours.

 

Idagio is only $10/month.  All music are streamed at Redbook resolution.

[rando]

@Bob Stern The more inward looking a piece is the more interesting those tastes become.  Cultural and other differences shed light in new and unexpected places.  Of those roughly 40 recordings did any of them appeal to you?

 

Quite openly I'm looking through the pile of available options.  Heynes voice is very pleasing to my ears and I welcome chance to own more of her. In the spirit of this thread I'm also hoping to find reason to expand enjoyment by understanding selections that would have been passed over otherwise.  

 

Thank you for your insight and recommendation. 

[Bob Stern]

I didn’t say I'd listened to the 40 recordings on Idagio.  I recommended that you use Idagio to listen to the ones suggested here so you can discover your own favorite.  You don’t even need a credit card for the 30-day free trial.

 

My only recommendation is not quite on point:  If you're receptive to Brahms songs, there is a terrific 2-CD set by Jessye Norman and Daniel Barenboim.

[AnotherSpin]

3 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

This is a good example of the value of the Idagio classical streaming service.  Even though they don’t sell downloads, you can audition recordings on Idagio to decide which ones you want to buy from some other site or as a used CD on Amazon.

 

Idagio has about 40 recordings of the Alto Rhapsody, including all the ones mentioned above.  Listening for yourself is infinitely better than guessing whether someone else's taste matches yours.

 

Idagio is only $10/month.  All music are streamed at Redbook resolution.

 

I've been thinking about Idagio for a while. Quite impressed with selection. There is some problem with playing it through my sound system, but I am pretty sure it would be resolved. 

[Bob Stern]

24 minutes ago, AnotherSpin said:

I've been thinking about Idagio for a while. Quite impressed with selection. There is some problem with playing it through my sound system

 

I devised a scheme for transmitting 16/44.1 lossless audio from Idagio or any other program to HQPlayer Desktop.  The scheme "hijacks" the audio and feeds it to an Icecast server, which transmits it to HQP Desktop.

 

I believe it also would work with Audirvana with only minor modification if Damien has not removed "Slave mode" AppleScript control from the upcoming Audirvana 3.5.

 

I've delayed posting my scheme because it involves installing some open source software and running scripts, and I was afraid I'd be bombarded with more questions than I could handle at this time.  Would this be useful to you?

 

My implementation requires Idagio (or other music playing program) to be on a Mac, but HQP Desktop can be on any OS.  Also, the Mac portion could be adapted for Windows by someone with elementary programming skills and familiarity with open source software, but I could not help with that.

[AnotherSpin]

2 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

 

I devised a scheme for transmitting 16/44.1 lossless audio from Idagio or any other program to HQPlayer Desktop.  The scheme "hijacks" the audio and feeds it to an Icecast server, which transmits it to HQP Desktop.

 

I believe it also would work with Audirvana with only minor modification if Damien has not removed "Slave mode" AppleScript control from the upcoming Audirvana 3.5.

 

I've delayed posting my scheme because it involves installing some open source software and running scripts, and I was afraid I'd be bombarded with more questions than I could handle at this time.  Would this be useful to you?

 

My implementation requires Idagio (or other music playing program) to be on a Mac, but HQP Desktop can be on any OS.  Also, the Mac portion could be adapted for Windows by someone with elementary programming skills and familiarity with open source software, but I could not help with that.

 

Thank you! I also use HQplayer on mac OS, but will return to Idagio later, possibly.

[Hugo9000]

On 3/12/2019 at 11:35 AM, rando said:

With the thread starter's permission I'd like to ask if anyone has a favored version of Brahms "Alto Rhapsody" they could share. The Telarc Horne/Shaw disc I listened to this morning piqued my interest in this female "Wanderer Fantasie."

 

As anyone who pays attention to my Album of the Evening posts can attest. I stray far from the normal labels and again farther yet on vocal recordings.  Particularly at the college level. In fact one of my preferred "Ein Deutches Requiem" is a self released offering by Michigan Tech.  Please don't be shy about suggesting unknown or unappreciated performers. 

 

Nathalie Stutzmann's second recording of the Alto Rhapsody is my favorite, with John Eliot Gardiner:

 

Ann Hallenberg with Herreweghe as recommended by @Musicophile is also superb.

[Musicophile]

1 hour ago, Hugo9000 said:

 

Nathalie Stutzmann's second recording of the Alto Rhapsody is my favorite, with John Eliot Gardiner:

 

Ann Hallenberg with Herreweghe as recommended by @Musicophile is also superb.

+1

[sphinxsix]

While Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev haven't made it to the top ten of my favorite composers [yet?] (thanks once again for your fantastic recommendations, guys!), I'm getting more and more interested in Shostakovich. His 5th is just amazing! I think I can understand why the Soviet regime used to feed the whole nation with this music on the radio. After having listened to it I'm almost ready to go to the war with the world capitalism   OTOH it's hard to imagine simple Soviet peasants being able to digest these pieces. They are quite far from easy listening genre

[AnotherSpin]

6 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

While Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev haven't made it to the top ten of my favorite composers [yet?] (thanks once again for your fantastic recommendations, guys!), I'm getting more and more interested in Shostakovich. His 5th is just amazing! I think I can understand why the Soviet regime used to feed the whole nation with this music on the radio. After having listened to it I'm almost ready to go to the war with the world capitalism   OTOH it's hard to imagine simple Soviet peasants being able to digest these pieces. They are quite far from easy listening genre

 

When your urge to fight world capitalism will go out of control try Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. It will work nicely as an antidote.

[sphinxsix]

4 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

When your urge to fight world capitalism will go out of control

Don't worry, it won't

 

4 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

try Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love

As for rock bands from the early 70's LZ is actually the one I go back to most often.

 

[sphinxsix]

And one more thing (I shouldn't say it loud as I openly expressed my negative attitude towards opera here on more than one occasion) - as for Strauss I ordered my first two opera recordings - Salome and Elektra (both by Solti - Vienna Philharmonic). Their fragments that I checked out seemed so intriguing musically that I decided to give it a try. And I don't regret. Pretty adventurous stuff IMO!

Thanks once again to everyone who contributed to this thread recently!

[Bob Stern]

That's quite a dramatic introduction to opera!

 

If you want to explore more Strauss opera, I suggest "Die Frau Ohne Schatten" as a hybrid of the dramatic aspects of the first two and the much more melodic style of his subsequent operas.  Again, the Solti recording is an excellent performance.  

 

Rosenkavalier is by far the most famous of his melodic operas; it's so unlike Elektra you'd never guess it's the same composer.  The Karajan recording with Schwarzkopf is the benchmark.

 

If you want to explore the more dissonant successors to Elektra, you might try Berg and Bartok, although I don’t pretend familiarity with either.

[AnotherSpin]

6 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

And one more thing (I shouldn't say it loud as I openly expressed my negative attitude towards opera here on more than one occasion) - as for Strauss I ordered my first two opera recordings - Salome and Elektra (both by Solti - Vienna Philharmonic). Their fragments that I checked out seemed so intriguing musically that I decided to give it a try. And I don't regret. Pretty adventurous stuff IMO!

Thanks once again to everyone who contributed to this thread recently!

 

Both Salome and Electra are not so lengthy, so it is easy to listen without too much effort. Bartok's Bluebeard Castle is even shorter. 

 

If you will like Strauss, you may try to listen a short selection of instrumental pieces from Wagner's Der Ring recorded by Solti. Or, I would suggest to check a particular selection with Maria Callas below.

 

I am trying to recall what brought me to opera many years ago. I think I was very much impressed with opera fragments in some films as well. 

 

 

[Peter Hyatt]

Great thread.  

[sphinxsix]

11 hours ago, Peter Hyatt said:

Great thread.  

I totally agree with this statement! All due to the fantastic CA/AS classical music lovers contribution!

When I started this thread I thought it would be 4-5 pages long. Things just didn't go according to plan..

[Peter Hyatt]

I love live recordings. This one is energetic. 

[sphinxsix]

I listened recently to 2 Albinoni albums:

 

These are two very (!) different performances. I may be accused of lack of taste but I like both, in a different way though. My question is - can someone recommend a well recorded Albinoni album similar in style to I Solisti Veneti 'serene' (chill out.? ) recording?

 

[Peter Hyatt]

4 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

I listened recently to 2 Albinoni albums:

 

These are two very (!) different performances. I may be accused of lack of taste but I like both, in a different way though. My question is - can someone recommend a well recorded Albinoni album similar in style to I Solisti Veneti 'serene' (chill out.? ) recording?

 

 

 

Isn’t being accused of poor taste a rite of passage compliment?