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.

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.



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This is a collection of more "contemplative" music by e.g. Chopin, Faure and Debussy.

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.

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.



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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

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.

One of the great keyboard albums of the 21st century. YMMV.



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Leif Ove Andsnes' late Schubert is as good as anyone's, and better than most.

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.

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.

Janos Starker recorded the Bach Cello Suites 5 times: in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 80s and 90s. The early digital recording from 1984, on the tiny Sefel label, is pretty rare and my CDs may actually be worth more than I paid for them.



On CD

The recording is more laid back than his famous Mercury recording from the 60s, but the musicianship is equally remarkable.

The post-romantic French composers objected to calling their music "impressionistic," I guess because music is better than art or literature (just kidding). But it is hard to deny the similarities between the somewhat dreamy, slightly soft-focus music of e.g. Ravel, Satie and Faure with the paintings of Monet or the poetry of Baudelaire.



On CD

As expected the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra plays this music fabulously.

Long before Beethoven wrote the funeral march for his Eroica Symphony, he wrote one for his 12th Piano Sonata aka Marcia Funebre. To say it is not one of my favorites of his sonatas misses the point, because every Beethoven Piano Sonata is worth knowing well and listening to frequently.



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Claudio Arrau's Beethoven has been considered a reference since the day it was released. It is equal parts poised and passionate and always sounds "just right."

And then there is the thing-in-itself.

At least up until WWII the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester was Germany's second orchestra, after the Berlin Philharmonic. And based on Franz Konwitschny's Beethoven Seven they may very well have been that into at least the 1960s.



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This is an excellent Beethoven cycle, in the solid German tradition. And the 65ish year old East German recording sounds really good.

Eugene Ormandy has recorded Tchiakovsky's 5th almost as many times as I've listened to it. That is a joke, I believe he has recorded it 6 times, it is one of my favorite pieces and I've listened to it 10x or more times that all the way through, and many many more times if you count just bits and pieces. His final recording was made after he retired as the long time music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra was one of the first CDs I bought in the early 80s, but it wasn't a keeper. I've since re-acquired it and on my current system it sounds way more engaging than it did back in the day. The key to Tchiak 5 is to balance the massive brass parts with the dance music played by the strings and the woodwinds, and this performance does that masterfully.



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Using Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra to demo your system certainly  a cliché, and for good reason. It is gorgeous music that is loud, soft, low and high all within the first 5 minutes.



On CD (or LP).

I have a bunch of different recordings that are great in their own ways, but Herbert von Karajan's analog Berlin Philharmonic recording from the early 70s has a special glow about it.

On the cusp of the transition from late romantic to early modern:  Schönberg's Transfigured Night and Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy.  The LA Phil sounds glorious in classic late 60s Decca analog sound.



On CD

I've know by "best musical friend" for over 50 years, and we've been going back and forth about Stravinsky's Rite of Spring for almost that long. It is his favorite piece of music, and I just don't like it, while fully acknowledging its rightful place in musical history. But, to keep myself honest I listen to it occasionally, just to see if I'm warming up to it at all. And the answer is, maybe. I still can't say I like it, but I find it less annoying than I have in the past.



On CD.

If you're going to listen to Rite of Spring, you might as well listen to the best. Which is Leonard Bernstein's New York recording from the late 50s. YMMV.

There are different ways to play Mozart's last two symphonies: the "old fashioned" way that tends be lush and emphasize the beautiful, almost vocal, melodies. Or the "modern" way that is fast and transparent and emphasizes the harmonic complexity of the works. Or, there is the "just right" way that Gerard Schwarz and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra pull off on their Delos recording from the early 80s. It is quick, but never rushed, and the playing is so perfectly in sync that physical sound comes off as both lush and transparent. Which is a good trick.



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This is the best version of Mozart’s masterpieces that I know.

Carlos Kleiber was an "interesting" case. His dad was Erich Kleiber who was an important conductor in the the first half of the 20th century. But a lot of people think his biological father was Alban Berg. He was a fantastically gifted conductor but "personal issues" kept him from making many recordings, or holding a steady job. He is one of those musicians about whom it is said "he canceled more concerts than he played."  

When he did make recordings they were a pretty big deal, and he burst on the scene in the mid-70s with what was at the time a fairly revolutionary performance of the warhorse of all warhorses: Beethoven's Fifth.



DSD rip from SACD

The performance is fast, like breakneck period instrument fast before that was a thing, in places. In others it is luxuriously slow. But always superbly detailed, fabulously played, even by Vienna Philharmonic standards and exciting as heck. It is on a lot of people's short list for the preferred performance of a piece that has been performed probably more than any other, although for me it is a little further down the list. YMMV.

Tchaikovsky "Four Seasons" Fidelis SACD

Piano trio pieces, one for each month. I last listened to this with my Dad on the old family stereo in that beautiful cherry wood cabinet he had specially made in '62. I really miss that man. . . so much!

I've been listening to some opera lately, which isn't my usual. Starting with Wilhelm Furtwanger's Bayreuth Festival recording of Wagner's Die Meistersinger, from the summer of 1943. Meistersinger is Wagner's longest opera but it sure doesn't feel that way, esp. in Furtwangler's lively conception. The recorded sound is pretty remarkable considering the the source although there are plenty of places where the singers overload the early magnetic tape on which it was recorded.



On CD.

The recording isn't complete, a couple of parts including the magnificent Act 5 quintet are missing and the singers are mostly a little tired vocally, although outstanding musically and dramatically. But overall it is so good these are but minor quibbles. YMMV.

Another take on Die Meistersinger. This is overall my first choice: excellent mono sound, beautifully sung and played and Fritz Reiner leads it with his signature blend of passion and precision. It doesn't have the magic of Furtwangler's performance, where the music just floats like a halo around the singers, but it is pretty close and much better sounding.



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Because of our local heatwave I've avoided running my amps and have been mostly listening on headphones. And with 'phones, typically I like to listen to a lot of historical/mono recordings, esp. from my (more or less) hero, Wilhelm Furtwangler. Furtwangler is unquestionably one of the greatest conductors of whom we have a recorded record, but is a bit of a hard sell, even setting aside the political questions. The problem is that with one exception (Tristan und Isolde) all of his best work was recorded live, and in mostly pretty sketchy sound. There is a solution, that I'm happy to advertise, The Furtwangler Sound. It is run by a Venezuelan conductor who lovingly restores Furtwangler recordings to pretty good fidelity and sells them as reasonably priced downloads. I encourage anyone with an interest in Furtwangler to look up Furtwangler Sound.

So with all of that backstory I give you what is IMO one of the very greatest recordings in the history of the gramophone, the Bruckner 9th, with the Berlin Philharmonic and Wilhelm Furtwangler.



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You can draw whatever conclusion you'd like from the circumstances: recorded in Berlin in October 1944, only a few months before Furtwangler himself left German for Switzerland. But the performance is overwhelming. It is searing the in the intensity of the climaxes as well as the serenity and stillness of the quiet moments.

I know Michael Gielen for his excellent Mahler symphonies, but he has made his reputation as a conductor of modern music. So, no surprise his Late Stravinsky Masterworks are really good. I don't know the music very well, but I will certainly listen to it more.



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Fredrich Gulda is one of my very favorite pianists for Bach and Beethoven. But Debussy, not so much. It is certainly interesting, and he produces some lovely effects on the keyboard. But it is not for everyday listening. YMMV.



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