Schoenberg's opera (technically a monodrama because there is only a single actress onstage) is pretty much the outer edge of my comfort zone with atonal/expressionistic music. It is a weird story (it would have to be) about a woman looking for her lover (spoiler alert) and then finding she killed him. For me, the music requires not just active listening but concentration for about half an hour because it is very atmospheric but really only makes sense on a moment by moment basis.



16/44 FLAC download

The Sinopoli/Staatskapelle box of Second Viennese School "classics" is pretty excellent, for what it is.

My other favorite expressionistic opera: Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle. This is a little less weird, and more tonal than Schoenberg, but it is still out there.



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I'm surprised by how many recordings there are of this piece, but two of the first are still the best. YMMV. This one by Kertez on London and Dorati on Mercury. Both have great playing, great singing and great sound.

I was always told a piano is a percussion instrument because a hammer hits the strings but a harpsichord is a string instrument because the strings are plucked. Certainly the categorization of these instruments is both arbitrary and academic, but it does explain a lot about how they sound. Esp. the lautenwerck or lute-harpsichord which uses gut strings and sure sounds like some kind of guitar or lute to me.



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Listening to the Well Tempered Clavier on das lautenwerck is interesting, but not something I do very often.

Mo Mozart. On the short list of his greatest accomplishments are the serenades for winds. They are almost unique in the repertoire, as well as a unique canvas for Mozart's genius.



On CD

The music, musicianship and sound on this Telarc recordings are all top shelf.

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Nothing wrong with that. I've been on a bit of a Mozart bender myself. The slow movement from the K.467 piano concerto is one of the most recognizable, to say nothing of the most beautiful, tunes ever written. It became famous from its appearance in the Swedish film Elvira Madigan, about which I know nothing except that Geza Anda's recording on DG was used for the sound track.



On CD

Anda and the Camerata Academica Des Salzburger Mozarteum don't get a lot of critical respect, but I think they are excellent. More concerned with musical expression than technical perfection.

Mahler was both a musical genius and a bit of a manic-depressive emotional wreck. And all that through in the music that is by turns heroic, beautiful, spooky or sad. But always technically innovative and sophisticated. So there are generally two ways to approach the symphonies: to wallow in the emotional excess or to emphasize the orchestration and technique. Giuseppe Sinopoli leans into the latter for his Mahler cycle with the Philharmonia Orchestra.



On CD

A lot of critics are cool to Sinopoli's cool, intellectual approach to the 6th symphony, and I admit that it isn't my favorite. But it is beautifully played and recorded and an interesting contrast to the more emotional versions by e.g. Leonard Bernstein.
 

So for Father’s Day I treated myself to 2 vinyl albums from John Williams. Like I have mentioned in the past…I was so overwhelmed by his Netflix documentary, that I have been listening to more of his work.  This album was amazing to listen to on vinyl.  You can also watch and listen to this score on Netflix.  

Okko Kamu's Sibelius Symphonies with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra have quickly become a favorite of mine. Impressive, individual wind playing and a rhythmic "swing" really make these pieces come alive in a way that moves beyond the usual brooding and atmospheric mood typical for Sibelius.



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The BIS sound is top shelf, of course.

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I had not heard he passed. RIP.

My relationship with Brendel has "evolved" over the years. In the early 80s when I first started hording collecting classical recordings he was one of the biggest names in piano playing, and I got to hear him live a few times: in Symphony Hall in Boston and at the Hollywood Bowl. I acquired many of his recordings and thoroughly enjoyed his "intellectual" approach to music. But over the years as I've become familiar with a lot more pianists my taste has moved on a bit. I don't enjoy Brendel any less, there are just many others I enjoy more. Perhaps ironically it is his Liszt that still speaks to me most directly and I was listening to his recording of some of the Hungarian Rhapsodies from the 1960s.



On CD.

This Brilliant Classic box is a fascinating collection of his early recordings of Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt and others.

The fates were not kind to America's greatest mid-century pianists. Probably the most talented, William Kapell, died in plane crash just as his career was getting started. The best known, and for decades the best selling classical artist of all time, Van Cliburn, was bludgeoned into early retirement by critics. And my two favorites, Byron Janis and Leon Fleisher, were both hit with neurological issues in their hands. But at least they made recordings.



DSD download from HDTT

Leon Fleisher's recording of the Beethoven 4th Piano Concerto and the Mozart 25th with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra is close to an perfect recording. Only the sound is less than special. But HDTT does a great job of squeezing out all the SQ that is on the tape.

The Bach Cello Suites were lost to time when a young Pablo Casals found a copy of them in a used bookstore and started to perform them. And the rest is history, for both Casals and the Cello Suites. His interpretation is very different from my favorite, Janos Starker, but it is certainly worth hearing. As Stravinsky said "Casals is of course a great man. He is in favor of peace and plays Bach in the manner of Brahms." But these days I don't think you can get away with playing Brahms with the romantic abandon Casals brings to his Bach.



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I have the original EMI CD reissue of the Casals Cello Suites but the sound is, in a word, sucky. Much, much better is the Naxos remastering.

Fredrich Gulda's Beethoven Piano Concertos.



DSD Rip from SACD

And back to Mozart. The 6 string quartets dedicated to Haydn are perhaps the pinnacle of classical elegance. And the Suske Quartet plays them with all the elegance one might desire.



On CD

In my over educated and completely objective opinion Dvorak's Cello Concerto is one of the greatest pieces of music ever written. And if you want a performance of it there is Janos Starker's on Mercury, and all the rest. YMMV. But among the best of the rest is  Pierre Fournier and George Szell with the Berlin Philharmonic. Fournier was a great musician who happened to play the cello, and George Szell (who also conducted the famous recording with Pablo Casals) was a great conductor who was at his greatest conducting Dvorak. So no surprise this recording is a winner.



DSD Download from HDTT

The HDTT download sounds great, and includes Nathan Milstein's winning account of the (vastly underrated) Dvorak Violin Concerto.

Wagner's Ring is a gigantic accomplishment, almost equal to the ego of the man who composed it. But it is a lot. The last two installments of the cycle, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung are about 3 times longer then they need to be. But the first two, Rheingold and Walkure, are both pretty tight packages, and full of (relatively) interesting action and tunes. So if anyone were to ask me how to get started on the Ring, or Wagner in general, I'd say start at the beginning. Or, if you really want to fast track your Wagner start with this recording:  



24/96 HDTT FLAC download

Walkure is both great music and user friendly (for a Wagner opera). And Nilsson, Vickers and London are a dream team of singers. Leinsdorf and the London symphony are also very good. So, I think it is fair to say if you don't like this, Wagner probably isn't for you.

Beethoven's transcendental late period started pretty close to when he composition of his last two cello sonatas. Pablo Casals' performance is more romantic than is usual today, but still has plenty of transcendence.



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The sound on these 1930s recordings is pretty good.