Mitsuko Uchida leans towards the brooding and dramatic in her recordings of some of Schubert's lesser known sonatas.



On CD.

We've batted around and are back at the top of the order: Beethoven's 1st. I choose Otto Klemperer, who may be better known as the father of Colonel Klink from Hogan's Heros than as one of the great conductors of the 20th century. His performances are typically called "granitic" as in of or pertaining to granite. And I've never understood how that applies to music. The thing I find most characteristic is the performance always has forward momentum, even if it is on the slow side, which Klemperer's often are. And he makes Beethoven's 1st every bit as epic as the 5th or 7th.

There are plenty of ways to interpret Mozart's Haydn Quartets. The Alban Berg Quartet bills their approach as "the precision of the Julliard plus Viennese gemütlichkeit", and it is a great way to do it.



14/44 FLAC download

I like the young ABQ from their Teldec collection.

Leos Janacek was the next big thing in Czech music after Dvorak.



16/44 FLAC download

The Many Passions of Leos Janacek is an interesting mashup from his long and somewhat confusing life and career. From early stuff that is a lot like watered down Dvorak to the later masterpieces when he finally figured out how to mix Czech lyricism with his unique and uniquely modern voice.

Back from vacay and the first CD I spun up was:



On CD.

Like pretty much everything in the Zubin Mehta/LA Phil box it is well played and very well recorded.

Been a while since I’ve posted in the classical music thread. I’ve been listening, just been busy with other projects.  Finally listening to my first Decca Album…and it did not disappoint.  Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 3 on vinyl

So, Decca. I may have hawked this one already, but regardless it is certainly worthy of repeated posting, and listening.



On CD.

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem is certainly one of the great recordings of all time. The music (and recording) are almost exactly as old as I am, so I struggle to call it "modern" whatever it is, it is genius. The work is about contrast, between the Latin Mass for the Dead and Wilfred Owen's anti-war poetry, contrast in a lot of technical musical aspects of its construction, and even the biographies of the two male voices (both close friends of the composer): a lifetime English pacifist and a former foot soldier in the Wehrmacht.

Mozart's "Dissonance" Quartet.



On CD.

There is a bunch of back story to Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, perhaps not surprising when the father of two young girls writes music for Songs on the Death of Children. But back story or not the music is beautiful, and deeply affecting. Micheal Gielen's performance with Cornelia Kallisch is one of my favorites.



On CD, from the Gielen/Mahler box.

Yefim Bronfman playing Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto.



16/44 FLAC download.

The more I listen to the Villa-Lobos Choros the more amazed I am at both the variety and the originality of the music. Some of it is pretty "modern" but it is never hard to listen to, YMMV.



16/44 FLAC download.

The Naxos collection of the complete Choros and Bachianas Brasileras is good for many, many hours of listening enjoyment.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (first name pronounced Rafe, FWIW) wrote some of the most beautiful music ever composed: the Fantasias, Serenade to Music and the 5th Symphony are some examples. But, like many composures, he was deeply affected by the world wars and they inspired music of a more agitated character, like the 4th Symphony.



On CD, from the Previn/Vaughn Williams box.

Even at his most distressed RVW's music is perfectly listenable, and contrasted with moments of pastoral stillness. And you can't go wrong the Andre Previn's Vaughan Williams from the 70s, perhaps that best stuff he has ever done.

Today at work I’ve decided to seek out some of my favorites in Qobuz that were Hi-Res.  Decided to play Leonard Bernstein’s Beethoven’s 9th Symphony streaming at 24/192 with the AQ Dragonfly.   This is such a powerful and dynamic album….its a must have to save in your favorites.  

It seem like the Sibelius 2nd was much more popular decades ago than it is now. To be clear I'm all in favor of his more "abstract" symphonies, but the 2nd is so immediately likable, and has one of the most powerful finales in all of music that it ought to be played as often as Beethoven's 7th.



On CD, from the Ormandy/Sibelius box.

There are many, many great performances and I'm not saying that Ormandy's late 50s recording is any better than the others. But the Philadelphia Orchestra plays the piece like they own it, and that makes the recording special.

Yes, Rubinstein. I got there on a different path, I was thinking about variations. Beethoven and Bach wrote very famous sets of variations for solo keyboard, and then there is Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini for keyboard and orchestra. As musical carpentry it is every bit as technically accomplished as Bach or Beethoven, but it doesn't get much respect for an obvious reason: one of the middle variations is the theme turned upside down (technical jargon: inverted) and it becomes one of the most instantly recognizable (and beautiful) melodies ever written. And, since musical criticism don't have the tools for dealing with a catchy tune the whole piece gets kinda disrespected (for the same reason a lot of Rachmaninoff's music gets disrespected by "critics").



DSD download from HDTT

There are many recordings of the Rhapsody but I only know a few. Because if Rubinstein and Reiner play it, and RCA Living Stereo records it, it's going to be really really good.

One more Rubinstein . Everyone knows him from his RCA Living Stereo recordings, and they are some of the most important recordings ever made of the piano, or anything. But for me, the younger, more dramatic Rubinstein of the 30's is even more interesting, even if the sound is some what limited in comparison.



16/44 FLAC download

His recording of Chopin's Mazurkas are probably my favorite of them all.

Dom FWIW there are copyright issues with a lot of historical recordings in the US. I was able to download the Rubinstein albums from Presto, Qobuz gave me grief as well.

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I didn’t realize that there were that kind of issues with historical recordings.   Thanks for the heads up.  I’m glad Spotify had it to stream since I was able to play it at work.

A different look at the Sibelius 2nd, my Bloomstedt and the San Francisco Symphony.



On CD.

Bloomstedt is a little quicker, and the London/Decca recording is a lot better than Ormandy.

Recent acquisition.



16/44 FLAC download.

I've always found Handel's music a little more lyrical that Bach's Lutheran Severity (not that there is anything wrong with Lutheran Severity). Add a resonant sounding concert grand with plenty of damper pedal and you have one of my new favorite baroque keyboard albums.
 

Robert Schumann used "heavenly length" to describe Schubert's hour long Symphony no. 9 and he wasn't wrong. Schubert was mostly in miniaturist, inventing the art song and writing such miniature masterpieces as the Impromptus and Moments Musicaux. But at almost the end of his life he managed a way to mix his almost limitless creativity with the form and structure of a symphony, and the result is, in  a word, heavenly.



16/44 FLAC download.

There are plenty of great performances of "The Great C Major" but Leonard Bernstein's later recording on DG is one of my favorites, probably because of the playing by the Concertgebouw soloists.

Quote:

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This CD is at the very back of my Orpheus Box and I hadn't listened to it. For on thing it was "geographically undesirable" and for another thing, I'm not a big fan of the the title track: The Siegfried-Idyll, for reasons that escape me. But now I've listened the CD, and the Idyll is fine and the other stuff is really good. The Italian Serenade in its original string quartet form is a favorite, the the OCO does a great job with it and everything else.

Thanks for the tip Dom!

One of my buddies just told me he'll be playing English Horn in Mahler's 2nd early next year. So naturally I spun it up.



DSD rip from SACD

I went with Ivan Fisher and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, ripped from SACD. It is a great performance and one of the best sounding recordings I own. I've been fortunate to hear Mahler 2 live a couple of times and it is an overwhelming experience.

And just to give equal time to the AGMCC^tm I spun up Brahms' Academic Festival Overture and Haydn Variations.



Japanese Sony CD

I'm not going to say they are better or worse than Rossini, but I feel like they do activate a different part of my brain. And the Philadelphia Orchestra sounds amazing on this Japanese CD.

Thanks for the suggestion and the kind words Sentry. My goto  William Tell has been Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony for (gulp) like 50 years, ever since I figured out how to play my parents scratchy mono LP as a tweenager.



DSD download from HDTT

Now in the 21st century I listen to the DSD remastering from High Def Tape Transfers. But, during the pandemic I found another performance that I might like even better:



16/44 FLAC download

In the last few years I've become a huge fan of Karel Ancerl and his recordings with Czech Philharmonic and the performance of Billy T. has all the sparkling virtuosity and perfect control of Reiner and the CSO with the added bonus of the colorful Czech winds. It doesn't have Living Stereo quality sound, but it sounds perfectly fine. As an aside the CD also has a performance of Ruslan and Lyudmila that out Reiner's Reiner, which I didn't think was possible.