Album of the Evening

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On 9/30/2020 at 7:55 PM, Kal Rubinson said:

Yes, that is only one reason to disqualify the Currentzis.  OTOH, there are many excellent recordings of this from the reference (if that's possible) Mavrinsky to the massive Honeck (in multichannel DSD256).  

A late comment,
 

Honeck’s Beethoven 7th symphony with Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra is even more massive in NativeDSD’s upsampled 512 stereo version. Recently Tom Caulfield remastered it using HQPlayer Pro’s ASDM7EC filters and it’s quite something else when played through a NOS system.

 

And another thumbs up for Berliner’s debut recording Tchaikovsky 6th symphony for their own label. One of my test recordings for soundstage. Curious to try their Beethoven’s 7th.

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I find I can improve horrible recordings by spending more on my hifi and horrible music by listening longer... 😄

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On 11/3/2020 at 6:29 PM, biosailor said:

Thank you for this recommendation.  Very nice album and well recorded too! Brilliant 👍🏻🙏🏻

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Here's some Opera for the season! :-D

 

https://artsandculture.google.com/experiment/blob-opera/AAHWrq360NcGbw?hl=en&fbclid=IwAR3ugHTtb6ChjOXC4KpYwr4fkKMNRDenEhGVNO8YAVK0GNdfqYO4NiEFVSE&cp=e30.

 

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1 hour ago, AnotherSpin said:

Ayn Rand as an authority within the context of music criticism? For some reason the story of the young Brahms, who came on foot to Weimar to hear the great Liszt play and fell asleep at the author's performance of a B Minor Sonata, comes to mind.

 

 

Won't fall asleep with Horowitz's version of the B Minor (tracks 9-11), played when he was in his mid-70s.

 

What an intepretation! And his dynamics - wow!

 

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Here's another of Prokofiev's PC3, a favourite by Bryon Janis. Great recording.

 

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Album is perfect for a wine and conversation get together. 

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Good set of traditional and modern classical, from Max Richter’s beautiful Mercy to the excellent Violin concerto: 1726 by Jennifer Higdon

 

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Here’s something different - a chinese rock/pop album on Tidal.
 

“北京北京" by 汪峰 https://tidal.com/track/148463652

 

It’s track 12. Talks about making it in a city coming from a small town. Some trivia - Wang Fen’s wife is Zhang ZiYi who acted beside Michelle Yeo in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. 
 

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On 9/28/2021 at 4:49 AM, orresearch said:

Excellent, personal album! Music like the name all slow and beautifully played with his family. It seems that the Argerich, Janine and Rachlin tracks don’t appear in the streaming versions. Only as bonus tracks in the CD
 

 

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17 hours ago, jiminlogansquare said:

 

What an excellent album! Thanks for recommending it @jiminlogansquare. I especially liked Ravel’s Duo and the way it was recorded makes the sound so energetic and immediate. Were those enthusiastic foot thumps? 😄

 

And how appropriate Widmann‘s 24 with the recent 007 flick out..

 

Qobuz has a high res offering with tracks in correct order. Not so with Tidal.

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Joshua Bell lyrical style matches the music in this album. Especially like the Cesar Franck sonata in A major 

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On 6/26/2022 at 6:59 AM, JoeWhip said:

24/192

 

 

Super! Thank you.

 

There's a follow up album "The Poll Winners Ride Again!" in '59 in Tidal/Qobuz. 

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Another Russian girl (too young to have any political sides probably). Her Mendelssohn Piano Concerto 1 is beautiful. No recorded albums as I can find but we should keep an eye out on her. Check out the 3rd movement, Presto.

 

 

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Following is the winner of the 2022 Cliburn Competition and the best Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 3 I have heard in recent memory. Yunchan Lim, at 18, doesn't seem to have CDs out yet but I'll be eagerly waiting for them. In the meantime, he's in Youtube.

 

So many Rac3s around, being the standard showpiece for all recent top pianists. But this is another level. The performance gradually gets better with the final movement simply astounding! 

 

..despite the hairstyle 😂

 

 

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A 30min explanation of Rach3 by Garrick Ohlsson (ex Warsaw Chopin Competition winner). Helps to understand the ways pianists approach it.

 

https://youtu.be/owfrXIaIwz4

 

But if you want how it was played during Rachmaninov's time, one has to go back to the past and hear some of the 1930-40s Vladimir Horowitz's versions when they were contemporaries. It's played much faster than by today's pianists. 

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21 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

If we want to know how Rachmaninov's 3rd Concerto "should" be played, we need not ask Horowitz, who himself, among other things, has never been known as a follower of orders or rules. There are recordings of Rachmaninov playing his own concertos. Oddly enough, few people see them as reference performances.

After a certain level of mastery, there shouldn’t be a way any classical music should be played! I didn’t say that at all.
 

It’s all about the interpretation. Goodness, how sad if there is only one perfect way to perform music. It’s the multitude of approaches that make music rich. And for me, performances should vary depending on the artist feeling on the day or even the year it’s played as the artist matures.
 

It’s not surprising that Horowitz with his huge dynamic range with exceptional touch made him one of the top pianists of his generation. But for me it’s precisely his lack of rule following ie interpretation that makes him so beautiful to listen to and makes him my favourite pianist of all time. That man isn’t just a pianist, he’s a painter. I see colours when listening to his playing.

 

Check out his Liszt B Minor - stupendous performance, simply wow! Tracks 9-11 here: