Album of the Evening

[Bob Stern]

Gil Shaham

 

Two of his Redbook recordings that I recommend are:

 

Bartok violin con 2, Boulez conducting, DG. Superb perf & vastly better SQ than the Abbado Brahms.

 

Faure sonatas & trio on Canary Classics label.

[Bob Stern]

Does that Rostropovich set include Dutilleux's "A Whole World Distant, Absent"? If not, I can recommend the BIS recording by the young cellist Poltera. (Downloadable from eClassical.)

[Bob Stern]

Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 - Emil Gilels - Fritz Reiner - Chicago Symphony (redbook). Maybe THE best Brahms 2 of all times.

 

I love this piece. I consider it the best piano concerto ever written, and possibly Brahms' best composition.

 

I haven't heard Gilels/Reiner, although a critic friend considers it relatively brisk.

 

Of those recordings I have heard, my favorite by a long shot is Serkin/Szell.

[Bob Stern]

Chopin, Artur Rubenstein: The Chopin Collection The Nocturnes Disc 1. XLD conversion redbook CD to AiFF. Just marvelous.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3954[/ATTACH]

 

FYI, that album cover is from RCA's first CD release. The 2001 Rubinstein Edition (either as a set or each disc sold individually in a cardboard sleeves) has much clearer sound. Apparently the latter set was reissued in 2012 with a few additional tracks.

 

Amazon.com: Arthur Rubinstein - Chopin 19 Nocturnes (Vol. 49): Frederic Chopin, Artur Rubinstein: Music

[Bob Stern]

Beethoven's 4th piano concerto by L. Fleisher and G. Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra. Sound quality is just fair IMO, but this is a nice recording nonetheless.

 

The Brahms 1st concerto from that set is fantastic.

[Bob Stern]

Schnittke's string quartets...

 

Since you like the string quartets, I bet you'll love his piano quartet even more. There's an excellent 1991 recording by the Borodin Qt on Virgin. Unfortunately, that album includes the 3rd string quartet, which would be redundant.

[Bob Stern]

Heifetz: Brahms Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77/ Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35

The Brahms is a very idiosyncratic interpretation, but I like it a lot.

 

 

Hybrid SACD XLD conversion to AIFF.

How did you do that? I didn't think ripping SACD was possible without a Sony Playstation.

[Bob Stern]

Brahms' Second Piano Concerto by L. Fleisher, G. Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. First listen, and it goes straight to the top and becomes my preferred version, displacing Serkin-Szell.

 

FWIW I have the opposite preference. I've never found a recording of the Brahms 2nd as beautiful and sophisticated as Serkin-Szell. On the other hand, I do consider Fleisher-Szell my favorite in the 1st.

 

As far as I know, the only good CD transfer of Serkin-Szell Brahms 2nd is this one in the "Art Of Interpretation" series, which is almost impossible to find:

Art Of Interpretation -brahms: Piano Concerto No 2 / Serkin | ArkivMusic

[Bob Stern]

This evening, an aural trip to Spain.

John Williams playing Rodrigo & Albeniz.

Manuel Barrueco - Tarrega.

 

Two additional suggestions in that vein:

 

Pepe Romero's 1995 collection called "Noches de España". (Used copies are dirt cheap.)

Amazon.com: Noches De Espana (Romantic Guitar Classics): Music

 

Albeniz "Iberia" by Nicholas Unwin on Chandos (1999):

Albéniz: Iberia

[Bob Stern]

Simpson recommendations?

 

Q for goldsdad or anyone:

 

Is the 9th your favorite of Robert Simpson's string quartets? What other of his music do you like and dislike?

 

My only experience with Simpson is a 1991 Hyperion album by the Coull Quartet of Simpson's string quartet 12 and his string quintet. I like the first half of each. I find the 2nd half of qt 12 dissonant in an unattractive way (I don't find all dissonance unappealing), and the 2nd half of the quintet unpleasantly noisy.

[Bob Stern]

Gyuto Monks: Tibetan Tantric Choir

 

If you like that sort of thing, look into these recordings of Kiirtan chant according to the Ananda tradition. Audiophile Tony Lauck hosts the download site, but you'll have to ask him if he made any of the recordings himself:

 

Free MP3:

Free Music from InnerSong

 

Redbook quality for sale:

Innersong - Downloadable Products

[Bob Stern]

Mahler 1 I discovered when I was very young, it was probably one of my first 50 albums, and for years it's been the only Mahler symphony I ever liked. Even today, I'll occasionally dip my toes into 4, 5 or (very rarely) 7 or 9, but still I keep a lot of affection for the 1st.

 

I would expect you'd find 2 and 3 more approachable than 7 and 9.

 

There's a great 1 hour film discussing Mahler's 3rd called "What the Universe Tells Me". The first 2 1/2 minutes is fluff, then the discussion begins.

 

[Bob Stern]

Curzon/Szell; Richter/Leinsdorf; Gilels/Jochum; Freire/Chailly etc. etc., there are luckily so many great recordings of Brahms 2nd piano concerto that could aspire for the status of reference recording of this beautiful work.

 

Don't forget Serkin/Szell, my favorite. (I imagine Serkin was much less widely admired in Europe compared to the US.)

[Bob Stern]

I almost never like the sound of a fortepiano, but it seems a perfect fit for these sonatas. Ronald Brautigam does a great job.

 

eClassical - Haydn - Complete Solo Keyboard Music, Vol.7 - Esterházy Sonatas II

[Bob Stern]

I have to agree about operas not usually working on DVD, but here's another exception IMO.

 

 

This Cinderella is the diametric opposite of the minimalism and raw emotion of the Traviata - totally camp and over the top. The sets, the costumes and even the performers' hair are a riot of colour. Still, if you like Rossini, this performance works in spades. Again, the vocal performances are first rate. I have seen a 10 year old sit through this totally enthralled.

 

 

Another wonderful Rossini Cinderella video is an old La Scala production starring Frederica Von Stade. The comic spirit is done perfectly by the entire troupe, especially Cinderella's father. The staging is excellent too. I think it would be a fun introduction to opera for kids or adults.

[Bob Stern]

Inspired by Moosbrugger's question in the other thread:

 

Bruckner: Symphony no. 7 - Wand - Berliner Philharmoniker, from this great box:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8351[/ATTACH]

 

 

I have symphonies 7 and 8 on RCA (BMG) recorded in 1999 and 2001, respectively. Are those the same recordings as in your set?

 

I love 7, and I would love 8 too if it weren't for the terrible gain riding by the engineers that steals all dynamic range from the performance. It would be great to discover another mastering of 8 with full dynamic range.

 

(I find 4 from that series somewhat bland.)

[Bob Stern]

Since Sony owns RCA and Sony is introducing DSD downloads, hopefully the Paavo Jarvi recordings will be available as DSD downloads in the near future.

[Bob Stern]

Isn't this originally recorded in 96kHz like all the recent BIS recordings?

 

No, it's 88 KHz. Recorded in 2004 -- the first of Vanska's Beethoven cycle.

 

BIS still does a lot of recordings in 44.1. Chamber music tends to be 96 KHz, whereas orchestral recordings more often are 44.1. I suspect it's because the orchestral recordings require more microphones and they don't have a hi-res mixer with that many channels.

 

FWIW, this is the only Vanska Beethoven album that I like. The subsequent ones seem willfully eccentric. On the other hand, I like the Vanska/Minnesota Sibelius albums a lot, whereas I find the Vanska/Lahti Sibelius too eccentric.

[Bob Stern]

Cedille is a great classical label that now records entirely in 24/96, and they are only $12. (The older 44.1 recordings are $10.)

 

Some multi-disc sets are even cheaper. The Shostakovich string quartet albums by the excellent Pacifica Qt are two for the price of one, and their Mendelssohn quartet set is only $20 for 3 discs.

 

http://cedillerecords.org/music/index.php

 

(You can ignore the weekly specials because they generally apply only to CDs, not downloads.)

[Bob Stern]

Wand to my knowledge has recorded the Bruckner symphonies with three different orchestras. One complete cycle in Cologne with the local adio symphony orchestra, one incomplete in Hamburg with the NDR symphony, and this box (also incomplete) recorded at the end of his life with the Berlin Philharmonic. Furthermore, there have been selected live recordings with the NDR symphony as well (e.g. the 8th in Lübeck cathedral, that I was able to attend in person). This one may be a potential alternative to the Berlin 8th, although it suffers a bit from too much reverberation in the church.

 

Amazon.com: Bruckner: Symphony No. 8: Music

 

Overall, the last set in Berlin is somehow special, as it is rather "dry" both sonically and from an interpretation point of view. Nevertheless, I appreciate it very much.

 

Wand also recorded Bruckner with the Munich Phil near the end of his life, concurrent with his Berlin Phil recordings. They are on the Profil label. I just bought the 8th, and it is excellent. Sound is hardly state of the art, but I like it better than Berlin. Dynamic range is less compressed than Berlin, and tonal balance is warm, like back of the hall, rather than dry like Berlin. Most importantly, performance is slower and much more romantic than Berlin. The orchestra's style reflects its training under Celibidache (although not nearly as slow).

 

eClassical - Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 / Schubert: Symphony No. 8

[Bob Stern]

Thanks for sharing. I'll look into it. I just hope that there is not too much of Celibidache left here, his recordings are really just TOO slow.

 

At the eClassical website, you can buy just one track at a time, so your financial risk is low.

 

Also, you can preview each track in its entirety online!

 

(I'm a big fan of eClassical.)

[Bob Stern]

Another enthusiastic Saint-Saens recommendation:

Charming, delightful chamber music for various combinations of instruments by the Nash Ensemble, on Hyperion 67431.

It's a 2004 recording, 44.1 KHz only.

 

A money-saving tip re Hyperion downloads: If you pay in advance (like a prepaid phone card), you get a discount depending on the size of the advance payment.

[Bob Stern]

Do you know whether any of Rubinstein's recordings are available in high-def?

[Bob Stern]

Schubert String Quintet

played by Arcanto Quartet on Harmonia Mundi.

Exceptional amount of variety and attention to detail.

Two members of the quartet are famous soloists: Tabea Zimmermann, viola, and Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello.

24-bit download is only 44.1 KHz unfortunately.

 

eClassical - Schubert: String Quintet Op. 163

 

Arcanto is now my favorite stereo recording of this pinnacle of Schubert's art, but an even greater favorite is the 1952 mono recording by Stern, Katims, A. Schneider, Casals and Tortelier on Sony. It has a gravity and tragedy unlike any other.

[Bob Stern]

Chopin

 

@mkrzych:

 

Ballades by your compatriot Krystian Zimerman.

 

Mazurkas by Michelangeli.

 

Piano Sonata 2 by Andsnes.

 

Piano Concerto 2 with Zimerman conducting a hand-picked youth orchestra. (Concerto 1 on same disc is more eccentric.)

 

Piano Concerto 1 by Blechacz, Semkow, Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Emphasizes drama and structural rigor more than sentimentality, which you may consider a plus or minus.

 

Piano Trio by Ma, Ax, Pamela Frank.

 

(I concur with recommendation of Rubinstein's Nocturnes.)

 

I'd be interested to hear recommendations for the Scherzi. I like Ax's recording of 1 and 3 from 1987, but numbers 2 and 4 from 1975-77 seem disjoint and self-conscious.