Classical Listening

[tailor STATELY]

I am always uncomfortable with the use of 'classical music' as a catch all expression for that which exists outside the genre of popular music.

How does one define "popular music"? Offenbach, Lehard, Strauss II etc... were all the "popular music" of their time. To a great extent, the same can be said of Mozart, Dowland, or many examples of medieval or Renaissance folk music ("Greensleeves"?).

Page 99 discussion is in similitude to an article I just read this hour about the Classic Rock genre. Now bear with me, I'm not trying to interject Rock into your discussion in any way shape or form in comparison with Classical... whatever, but read the article and substitute your favorite niche of music and see if a similar algorithm isn't leading, manipulating, ... (je ne sais quoi) classical/popular music of your own bent: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...m_medium=email .

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY

[Emil Miller]

Robert Schumann has, with Franz Schubert, occupied that somewhat neglected symphonic era between Beethoven and Brahms. Although there are a number of recorded sets of his four symphonies, they are not performed in concert as frequently as they deserve. If they don't measure up to Beethoven's symphonic output or that of Brahms, the very beginning of this video until 1.20 is as great as anything in German music. To my mind it's the greatness that Germany was, is and will always be:

http://youtu.be/S-UfnzBhS0s

[stlukesguild]

Schumann's reputation has languished under the reputation of his having been poor at orchestration just as Brahms and Bruckner's have suffered from a reputation of being overly dense. A great performance of any of these works proves just how wrong these assessments were/are. George Szell was one of the greatest interpreters of Schumann. He took the attitude that Schumann was a great symphonic composer... wholly worthy of standing alongside Beethoven and Brahms... and his intensity and clarity has the listener in agreement. John Eliot Gardiner applied a great deal of research upon the instruments, orchestras, performing styles, and scores of Brahms and Schumann. His HIP (Historically Informed Performance) approach brings a greater transparency and muscularity to works that can sink under their own weight when weighed down with an excessively florid Romantic manner.

Good to see another admirer of Schumann.

[Emil Miller]

Schumann's reputation has languished under the reputation of his having been poor at orchestration just as Brahms and Bruckner's have suffered from a reputation of being overly dense. A great performance of any of these works proves just how wrong these assessments were/are. George Szell was one of the greatest interpreters of Schumann. He took the attitude that Schumann was a great symphonic composer... wholly worthy of standing alongside Beethoven and Brahms... and his intensity and clarity has the listener in agreement. John Eliot Gardiner applied a great deal of research upon the instruments, orchestras, performing styles, and scores of Brahms and Schumann. His HIP (Historically Informed Performance) approach brings a greater transparency and muscularity to works that can sink under their own weight when weighed down with an excessively florid Romantic manner.

Good to see another admirer of Schumann.

It's interesting to note that Karajan was much in favour of Schumann's symphonies and recorded them with both the Berlin and Vienna symphony orchestras. I have the Berlin set but I also like Bernstein's characteristically exciting conducting in these works. Bernstein doesn't believe in slavishness to tempi and knows when to let the orchestra play. In this regard he was like Beecham who famously said of conducting: 'Do what you like but don't be boring.'

[Emil Miller]

Here's part one of Rachmaninov's evocative Isle of the Dead, it was composed after he saw one of a number of paintings on this theme by Arnold Böcklin a Swiss painter. The one shown here is my favoured version but I saw another in the Kunstmuseum Basel when visiting Switzerland some years ago. A woman I had known for many years once lived in the road where the artist had a house and we visited it together. It was then an infants school and it was amusing to see pictures by the pupils pasted onto the windows.

http://youtu.be/N10YZ2Sk3Kg

[Lykren]

Hey StLuke, thanks for bringing Angela Hewitt to my attention. I'm listening to her Goldberg Variations right now and it's incredible!

[Emil Miller]

This rendering of Rachmaninov's Paganini variations is quite simply stunning. I have heard various versions of it over the years but never have I experienced a performance of such dynamism and commitment, where the orchestra brilliantly articulates the nuances of the piece and is so completely at one with the soloist. Exciting, thrilling, moving are but mere words that don't cover it; this item from the video's comments comes nearest.

snaaptaker
4 months ago

WOW!!! What a gutsy, fiery, almost savage, mad RUSSIAN performance! I loved it.
It's been awhile since I heard a competition contestant whom I thought deserved to win, but, IMO, he certainly did.
BRAVO!!!☺

http://youtu.be/AAu6BRWL8p8

[stlukesguild]

There was a point... perhaps around 10 years ago... where I found that my library (I'm talking books here) had reached a sort of saturation point and I found myself rarely purchasing new books... or rather books by authors who were new to me, or books by authors well-known to me that I had yet to have read. At this point I began to find that a good majority of my purchases involved obtaining better... or alternative editions of works I already owned: new translations, well made often hard-covered quality editions of favorite, dog-eared volumes.

I find that over the last year, my approach to purchasing music has headed in a similar direction. The number of recordings of music that is wholly "new" to me has greatly dwindled. Instead, I am focused upon better productions and alternative recordings of the music that is most beloved by me. Over the last year, the number of recordings I own of Mozart's Magic Flute has increased to more than 10... while I have more than 5... often closer to 8... recordings of most of his other major operas (Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, etc...). Back in October I picked up this set of Wagner's Ring cycle:



This set... in a hard-box with each of the four operas in their own hard-box... comes complete with full librettos and illustrated books. It features a marvelous cast (Jessye Norman, Lucia Popp, Peter Schreier, Kurt Moll, Cheryl Studer, Siegfried Jerusalem, and more...) and has been critically acclaimed as being among the finest productions/performances of the Ring. So far I have listened to Das Rheingold and must agree it is a worthy recording... and it was had for $20 US!!!

I toyed with the idea of purchasing this set:



It features all of Maria Callas' studio recordings... brilliantly remastered... and presented with their original covers and a hard-bound book. Unfortunately, I found I just couldn't justify the $200 price right now at the holidays... especially when I'll be shelling out a good chunk for a trip to NYC. I did, however, pick up a number of the individual opera recordings... most of which go for around $9.50 US...















I'll probably pick up the majority of these over time. It may cost a bit more... even considering that I probably won't get all the various recital discs... but it won't be such a big bite at once... especially as I'm getting other recordings as well:



I have most of these... but Szell is worth a good box set... especially for a little over $8 US.





I should be ashamed of having so little by Heifetz... in spite of collecting box sets by any number of other great violinists of last century.



This set replaces 4 two-disc sets of Debussy and Ravel by Martinon. I've been listening to it for a week now. Spectacular! I'll probably "gift" the 2-disc sets that this replaces to a classical music-loving friend. I'll do the same with the individual Szell/Beethoven discs.



This just arrived today. For quite some time I've sworn by Karajan's 1963 Beethoven cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic. I knew of his later recordings from the 70s and 80s... but I wasn't even aware of the existence of this set with the Philharmonia. So far I've listened to the 3rd. Good stuff. Karajan was at the top of his game in the 50s.

Many of the box sets that I have purchased involve alternative recordings of major works by composers who are among my favorites... but who I never set about listening to in alternative recordings... for whatever reason. Since Summer I picked up a couple of sets of Mahler:











For far too long I underestimated Sibelius... but repeated listenings to these two sets has changed that. I especially love the Barbirolli set.

[free]

Bach - Piano concertos. Make me cheerful.

[stlukesguild]

I'll take it you mean Bach's keyboard sonatas as Bach didn't write any Piano Concertos for the simple reason that the Piano didn't exist as of yet.

Personally, I love Bach's concertos played on Modern Piano:



And Bach always seems to be the perfect music for the season.

[stlukesguild]

And Bach always seems to be the perfect music for the season.

That reminds me... I must play the Christmas Oratorio here soon:

[Emil Miller]

Here's a piece I am learning over Christmas.


http://youtu.be/GNUpWAQuuVA

[stlukesguild]

The last post was Christmas Day? No classical music fans here?



I was quite impressed with what I heard in sampling this set on Spotify and so I put in an order for it. It arrived today and I'm listening to the first disc which features the "Unfinished" 8th and no. 6. Many of the recordings that speak most to me are those which offer an interpretation quite new from what I am used to hearing... or one which is quite insightful... revealing elements of the work that I had not really recognized before. Gardiner's performances of Brahm's, Schumann's, and Beethoven's symphonies, for example, fit this bill, IMO. Immerseel's Schubert does so as well. I find it holds up well and adds something of real worth and insight among some of the finest recordings of Schubert's symphonies, including those by Von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Marc Minkowski, Carlos Kleiber, Furtwängler, Bernstein, Marriner, etc...

[North Star]

Immerseel's Beethoven is top-notch, and I've certainly heard good things of the Schubert. Gardiner's Brahms and Schumann are excellent.

A couple of beauties I've been listening to recently:

[stlukesguild]

Silvestrov's Silent Songs is possibly his greatest work IMO. I must get those Brahms' sextets considering I tend to feel Brahms' chamber works are perhaps his greatest achievements.