Forums - Classical Music Thread

CAJames

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Re: Classical Music Thread
Reply #1000 - 07/21/25 at 22:00:42

Wow. 1000 posts in 22 months. This has been a lot of fun. And (queue "Ode to Joy") I guess it is serendipity (or the law of large numbers, if you prefer) that for the 1000th post we have Beethoven's Ninth.

DSD rip from Japanese Sony SACD

There was a film, The Dead Poet's Society, in the late 80s that was a medium big deal. What I mostly recall was the gorgeous, beautifully burnished performance of The Ninth that was used in the sound track. I was not surprised to learn it was Fritz Reiner's Chicago Symphony performance on RCA Living Stereo. One of the very last recordings he made.

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CAJames Seasoned Member "I've run every red light on memory lane." Posts: 2646	Re: Classical Music Thread Reply #1001 - 07/23/25 at 15:13:53 Beautiful piano music beautifully played. 16/44 FLAC download
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CAJames Seasoned Member "I've run every red light on memory lane." Posts: 2646	Re: Classical Music Thread Reply #1002 - 07/24/25 at 20:39:06 A blast from the past: Carol Rosenberger on Delos. She made a series of early digital audiophile recordings featuring a Bosendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. And 40+ years later they sound really good. 16/44 FLAC download This is a collection of more "contemplative" music by e.g. Chopin, Faure and Debussy.
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CAJames

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Re: Classical Music Thread
Reply #1003 - 07/25/25 at 18:35:08

Mozart's c minor Wind Serenade is both one of his greatest masterpieces and biggest enigmas. Unlike virtually everything else he wrote he didn't discuss the piece in either letters or his catalog of works. In general a wind serenade would be a light, upbeat piece for background music at court. But this one is intensely dark and brooding.

16/44 FLAC download

I love the Mozart Serenades and have several recordings. They are all excellent, none better than Sabine Meyer's Bläserensemble.

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CAJames

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Re: Classical Music Thread
Reply #1004 - 07/26/25 at 04:05:06

For my money Igor Stravinsky's masterpiece is the Symphony of Psalms. And for that money there are two recordings equal to the glory of the symphony: Leonard Bernstein's in New York and the 60s, and Karel Ancerl's contemporaneous recording in Prague. Both are magnificent, but the Czech Philharmonic Chorus tips the scales in Ancerl's favor.

On CD.

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CAJames Seasoned Member "I've run every red light on memory lane." Posts: 2646	Re: Classical Music Thread Reply #1005 - 07/26/25 at 16:43:36 One of my desert island recordings, von Karajan's Mahler 9. Staggering music and performance. And your system needs to be able to play very loud and very soft. Japanese SHM-CD
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CAJames

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Re: Classical Music Thread
Reply #1006 - 07/27/25 at 15:37:24

Andras Schiff blew up in 80s thanks to his Bach recordings on London. Which were an engaging mix of serious and lyrical, I'd call them lyrically serious. Twentyish years later he rerecorded Bach and it was perhaps even more lyrically serious. His playing and the resonant recordings by ECM invokes a harpsichord, but with all the dynamics and dexterity available on a modern concert grand.

16/44 FLAC download

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CAJames Seasoned Member "I've run every red light on memory lane." Posts: 2646	Re: Classical Music Thread Reply #1007 - 07/28/25 at 20:43:00 It seems like pretty much everyone likes the cello. So a bunch of them playing a mashup up of Villa-Lobos and Bach is going to be good. And when you add Arleen Augér singing the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 and Delos' spectacular sound you have an album that is very good indeed. 16/44 FLAC download
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CAJames Seasoned Member "I've run every red light on memory lane." Posts: 2646	Re: Classical Music Thread Reply #1008 - 07/30/25 at 21:57:08 Palestrina may have been born in 1525, although no one really knows. So this may or may not be his 500th birthday, but any day is a good to enjoy his magnificent music. On CD
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CAJames

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Re: Classical Music Thread
Reply #1009 - 07/31/25 at 15:27:48

Glenn Gould was both a unique musician and a bit of an eccentric, or as George Szell said after playing a concert with him "that nut is a genius." He didn't like performing live and stopped doing it as soon as he became successful enough to stop it. But he loved the studio where he could control every aspect from the sound to the ambiance, and that makes his recordings, like the English Suites, worth careful listening (on a high resolution system).

On CD.

My system is sounding better than ever, and even though I know these performances well I'm still hearing new details of Gould's fabulous technique and subtle intrepretation.

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CAJames

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Re: Classical Music Thread
Reply #1010 - 08/01/25 at 15:45:05

J.S. Bach was one of the first great keyboard virtuoso/composers and Sergei Prokofiev one of that last. Prokofiev's 7th Piano Sonata, written at the height of WWII, is both intensely emotional and dazzlingly virtuosic.

On CD

The Prokofiev Sonata may have been Maurizio Pollini's first commercial recording for DG in 1972, and while I was not paying attention at the time apparently it caused quite a bit of excitement. It still does every time I spin it up.

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CAJames Seasoned Member "I've run every red light on memory lane." Posts: 2646	Re: Classical Music Thread Reply #1011 - 08/02/25 at 17:40:36 Brahms' late works are infused with what they call "autumnal melancholy." Whatever it is is on full display in the 2nd String Quintet and the (meltingly lovely) Clarinet Quintet. 16/44 FLAC Download As usual the Delos recording is excellent.
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CAJames Seasoned Member "I've run every red light on memory lane." Posts: 2646	Re: Classical Music Thread Reply #1012 - 08/03/25 at 01:36:21 One of the great keyboard albums of the 21st century. YMMV. 16/44 FLAC Download Leif Ove Andsnes' late Schubert is as good as anyone's, and better than most.
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CAJames

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Re: Classical Music Thread
Reply #1013 - 08/04/25 at 01:06:31

And now for something completely different. The Trio Sonatas of Jan Dismas Zelenka, for two oboes, bassoon and continuo. Zelenka is hardly a household name, but he should be much better known and is a bit of a cross between Bach and Handel. So Bandel, or Hach. However you want to label it the music, and the playing of the Ensemble Berlin Prag are scintillating.

16/44 FLAC download

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Sentry

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Re: Classical Music Thread
Reply #1014 - 08/04/25 at 05:11:40

I’ve been a big fan of Zelenka for a long time. I have the two multi-CD sets by Trevor Pinnock from many years ago. I went through a phase of vintage instruments recordings from Hogwood, Gardiner, Pinnock and a few others. I have a listening session or two or three planned for these sets.

Thanks again for all your suggestions.

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CAJames

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Re: Classical Music Thread
Reply #1015 - 08/04/25 at 23:18:53

That is awesome! I hadn't heard of him until a few years ago when an oboe playing buddy turned me on him. Like most baroque composers he wrote a lot of church music, that I need to dig into. His Mass in D is excellent, with plenty of descant trumpet which is all to the good.

16/44 FLAC download

He is more popular in and around Bohemia, so not surprising the Czech Philharmonic and Chorus have recorded a lot of his stuff. This recording isn't great, but the music is.

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CAJames Seasoned Member "I've run every red light on memory lane." Posts: 2646	Re: Classical Music Thread Reply #1016 - Yesterday at 15:31:46 It isn't a big jump from Zelenka to Bach organ music. On CD Micheal Murray's Telarc recording sounds great, and if my 6 1/2" single driver speakers don't plumb the depths or rattle the rafters they certainly resolve all the musical detail in Bach's music.
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CAJames Seasoned Member "I've run every red light on memory lane." Posts: 2646	Re: Classical Music Thread Reply #1017 - Yesterday at 17:58:00 Johann Nepomuk Hummel was best known during his lifetime as a keyboard virtuoso, but I think today he is known better for writing the "other" great trumpet concerto, besides Haydn's. Like everything in Ludwig Guttler's 20 CD box, the Hummel Concerto is stylishly played and superbly recorded.
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