Album of the Evening

Hugo9000 · February 10, 2018

Howard Shelley/Bryden Thomson/Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Sergei Rachmaninov

Piano Concerto No. 4 and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

from this 2-CD set:

Hugo9000 · February 11, 2018

Jean Sibelius

Symphony No. 1

Osmo Vänskä/Minnesota Orchestra

Current favorite recording of this symphony, although that changes, I have 6 other recordings I also love, and they each have something wonderful that the others don't quite match.

Hugo9000 · February 12, 2018

4 hours ago, masch said:

Oh yes, absolutely +1

And don't forget the other two recordings in the series.

Yes, I have those as well. Also purchased The Essential Sibelius boxed set from BIS which has Vänskä's full symphony cycle with the Lahti Symphony. Overall, I think I prefer the newer cycle with Minnesota, but I enjoy whichever I'm listening to at the moment.

I also have Neeme Järvi's two sets with the Gothenburg Symphony, the first one on BIS, and the second on DG, along with his set of tone poems for DG. And I have Paavo Berglund's first two complete sets of the symphonies (couldn't pass them up on Amazon, they were around $10 for each boxed set lol), and a boxed set of Eugene Ormandy's Sibelius recordings for RCA, with the glorious Philadelphia Orchestra.

Hugo9000 · February 12, 2018

Howard Shelley

Felix Mendelssohn

Complete Solo Piano Music, Volume 1

First time listening to this, I just received volumes 1 through 4 from Amazon today.

Hugo9000 · February 12, 2018

26 minutes ago, rando said:

*cough* I do find it odd nobody has weighed in on this given the overwhelming regard for the cycle.

I only listened to Kullervo once, before I had a copy of the text and knew the subject matter. I probably won't listen again, as it's repulsive to me now haha. I have Vänskä's earlier recording with the Lahti Symphony, as well as Järvi's recording on BIS, and one of the Berglund versions. If a favorite singer were involved in another recording of it, I'd listen for the singer alone haha.

Hugo9000 · February 12, 2018

Howard Shelley

Benjamin Britten

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

Edward Gardner/BBC Philharmonic

another CD I just received today from Amazon (I got a bit of a scare seeing recently how many of Howard Shelley's recordings have gone out of print, so I ordered everything that seemed interesting that I didn't already own haha)

Hugo9000 · February 12, 2018

Gil Shaham

Johannes Brahms

Violin Concerto & "Double" Concerto

Claudio Abbado/Berlin Philharmonic

Now listening to another CD from the bundle I received today after a panicked search and seeing the work of favorite performers going out of print.

Hugo9000 · February 13, 2018

Gil Shaham

Gabriel Fauré

The Fauré Album

Hugo9000 · February 13, 2018

5 hours ago, rando said:

Thank you for bringing the true nature of Kullervo to my attention. That is not the heartwarming tale of national identity I thought it was. Funny you have so many recordings of something you have listened to once. I may try to find out why they chose to record this piece. After I can figure out what folk story prominently set to music I was thinking of which is actually heartwarming and reflective of Nordic culture to this day.

I'm sorry it's ruined for you now as well, but it's not my fault you let your curiosity get the better of you! I never actually stated what the tale was, haha!

Every version I have came as part of a boxed set that included other pieces that I wanted. Most of them are bundled with the symphonies. The Vänskä/Minnesota version wasn't included with symphonies or tone poems, otherwise I'd own that version as well, probably! As I get older, and dementia sets in, I may forget the story and want to listen to all of those recordings, as it's interesting from a musical standpoint, anyway. lol

The Lemminkäinen Suite is gorgeous, and while the background story is rather awful, as well, it can safely be ignored, since it's not enshrined in the piece via word-setting haha. Lemminkäinen is a character in the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. I think my favorite recording of it is Järvi/Gothenburg on DG, although I also love Ormandy's recording of the full suite with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Vänskä/Lahti is wonderful as well. The Swan of Tuonela is one of the movements from the suite, and there are tons of recordings of that movement on its own.

Hugo9000 · February 13, 2018

I kept trying to edit my post to embed the Lemminkäinen Suite from youtube, but I guess I'm too stupid to figure out how to do it on this forum, so I gave up. lol

Hugo9000 · February 15, 2018

Howard Shelley

Orchestra of Opera North

Schumann, Grieg, Saint-Saëns

Piano Concertos

24/96 downloads of this album:

To my ears/mind/heart, Howard Shelley can do no wrong ♥

Hugo9000 · April 14, 2018

Marie-Nicole Lemieux

L'heure exquise

Gorgeous singing, beautifully recorded!

Hugo9000 · June 11, 2018

I've recently been searching for the best recordings of my favorite Rachmaninov song, В молчаньи ночи тайной (known in English as In the Silence of the Secret Night), and finally hit upon a very recent release by Linn Records while searching on arkivmusic.com, a CD of songs by Sibelius and Rachmaninov, performed by baritone Jacques Imbrailo and pianist Alisdair Hogarth. I decided to take a chance and order it, and now I'm listening to it for the third time in a row today. Bliss!! And not just that song, but the entire album! I'll be writing to Linn Records to let them know I'm eagerly anticipating their next album with this wonderful singer.

Hugo9000 · July 23, 2018

Kathleen Battle and Jean-Pierre Rampal

In Concert

From this set:

Not a tremendous fan of her work, but in this repertoire, I think she is superb.

Hugo9000 · July 30, 2018

Sergei Rachmaninov

Symphony No. 2

Lan Shui/Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Gorgeous performance (Shui is my favorite conductor of the Rachmaninov symphonies), and wonderfully clear and dynamic recorded sound as usual with BIS.

For connoisseurs of this symphony, this recording is of the uncut score, and includes the first movement exposition repeat. (Many recordings are listed as "complete" or "uncut" but do not have the repeat noted in the score. I have over 40 recordings of this symphony haha.)

Hugo9000 · August 5, 2018

Edvard Grieg

Symphony in C Minor

Neeme Järvi/Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

Hugo9000 · August 5, 2018

Diana Damrau

Franz Liszt

Lieder

Other than the occasional song or two in a live recital, I wasn't really familiar with this side of Franz Liszt until this album by Diana Damrau. It's wonderful to find something new to love at my age! (49 haha, but I've been listening mostly to classical music since I was around 5 years old, and have somewhere over 2000 CDs in my collection--all played at least once lol, so I've done a fair bit of exploring over my time haha!)

Here's a sample from youtube, with a lovely trill at the end:

Hugo9000 · August 6, 2018

Time for an old favorite:

Leif Ove Andsnes

Johannes Brahms

Piano Concerto No. 1

Rattle/City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Hard to believe that in September this recording will be twenty years old already lol. Well, it's still fresh and exciting to me

Hugo9000 · August 6, 2018

3 hours ago, rodrigaj said:

I've had this for awhile. Outstanding!

Edit: if anyone can suggest a better (or favorite) 4th, please offer your suggestions.

I'll start with the disclaimer that I'm no expert on Shostakovich, and my other recordings are different, not necessarily better!

I like Wigglesworth's version on BIS, and Petrenko's on Naxos, as well as the one you have by Gergiev. The Petrenko can be purchased on its own, as well as in a complete set of the symphonies. Wigglesworth has also recorded the full cycle, but BIS hasn't put them in a boxed set offering as yet. BIS's individual discs are all hybrid SACDs, with surround as well as stereo on the SACD layer, and stereo on the CD layer, if that interests you. Now that I think about it, I believe the Gergiev is a hybrid SACD as well, but I haven't listened to it in a while. I'll have to get it down from the shelf and listen again one of these days haha.

Here's the first movement with Wigglesworth conducting: