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Classical Music for Aficionados

I would like to start a thread, similar to Orpheus’ jazz site, for lovers of classical music.
I will list some of my favorite recordings, CDs as well as LP’s. While good sound is not a prime requisite, it will be a consideration.
  Classical music lovers please feel free to add to my lists.
Discussion of musical and recording issues will be welcome.

I’ll start with a list of CDs.  Records to follow in a later post.

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique.  Chesky  — Royal Phil. Orch.  Freccia, conductor.
Mahler:  Des Knaben Wunderhorn.  Vanguard Classics — Vienna Festival Orch. Prohaska, conductor.
Prokofiev:  Scythian Suite et. al.  DG  — Chicago Symphony  Abbado, conductor.
Brahms: Symphony #1.  Chesky — London Symph. Orch.  Horenstein, conductor.
Stravinsky: L’Histoire du Soldat. HDTT — Ars Nova.  Mandell, conductor.
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances. Analogue Productions. — Dallas Symph Orch. Johanos, cond.
Respighi: Roman Festivals et. al. Chesky — Royal Phil. Orch. Freccia, conductor.

All of the above happen to be great sounding recordings, but, as I said, sonics is not a prerequisite.


rvpiano
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
1,457 posts
 

At the risk of going slightly OT, seems like this is best directed at readers of this thread.

Has it occurred to anyone else that Mahler must have heard the Adagietto from Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite no. 1 before he composed his own, utterly sublime, Adagietto in Symphony 5?  The more I listed to the Bizet, the more I hear echoes...

schubert
4,867 posts
 
I've read  articles that listed  dozens of stuff lifted from Buxtehude by Bach . Not unusual .
craigl59
306 posts
 

TwoLeftEars

Think you're right: the texture and crescendo sound very derivative. Have often thought that Mahler was in the same mood when he composed the slow movements for symphonies 4 and 5. Still go back to the Bernstein recodings for Mahler and Bizet...and think that the flutist in the Carmen Intermezzo should have been given an award.

twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
1,457 posts
 
Does anyone have the Oliveira CD of him playing different Stradivarius and Guarneri violins?  Instead of using one's system to hear the more or less subtle differences in the sonorities, I was wondering if one could take those differences for granted, and instead use the CD for testing the resolving power of different systems.
craigl59
306 posts
 

Don't have that CD but think the approach will work and will tell you a good deal about the timbral accuracy of the audio system. Check this out with my systems regularly for piano CDs as well as the tapes made in my studio on a German Grand. It is VERY difficult to capture completely the timbre of an instrument you know well. Not even tuned studio equipment will always produce perfect results. The free software app REW can do a lot to check out the accuracy of your system but it requires measurement mics and a quality converter.

Have two CD cases recently where the timbre of the instrument has been caught extremely well: 1. the 9' Steinway Ashkenazy uses in his Rachmaninoff Concertos (Decca) and 2. the Geissenhof violin Kurosaki uses in his Beethoven violin sonatas (Accent). For me, the first is a plus, the second a minus. The extreme clarity of the Geissenhof is sabatoged by the dry style Kurosaki prefers.

My experience has been that violins in particular differ more than many acoustical instruments in their overall timbral quality and often it is worthwhile to check multiple offerings though online 30 second samples to find an instrument you can appreciate. Recently did this with the Franck violin sonata and settled on Perlman's violin and performance.

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