The always entertaining P.D.Q. Bach (Peter Schickele) passed away this week at 88. He was a favorite of my father's and they both went to Swarthmore College (my Dad was 2 or 3 years ahead of him there.)

Peter Shickele is in the rear, photographed at Swarthmore.

Enjoying Zuill Bailey Bach Cello Suites as I evaluate my Err’s with the new Duelund Resistors.  Feel free to read more about this in the Err section.  

Hello folks.

I had an SE84 for a brief spell years ago, I'm now on the Godot list. Hope I'm not intruding.

I love the French Romantic/impressionists. Ravel, Debussy, Saint-Saens, Faure, etc. Just can’t get enough.

C'est moi! Hi Geno.

The record you cited also has the Gershwin Piano Concerto in F. Not sure who's version I like best, but the most entertaining (for me) is from Oscar Levant in the movie An American in Paris (third movement).

This is a great sub-forum, thanks CAJames.

R.I.P. P.D.Q.



On CD.

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Interesting. I had Bailey playing the Cello Suites on a Telarc CD several years ago, and wasn't crazy about it. The sound was kinda funky, very un-Telarc like. I assume this one sounds awesome. Of course the classic performance of the Cello Suites has always been Janos Starker on Mercury.



24/176 FLAC Download.

For me it is the perfect mixture of discipline and passion (for my money Bailey over does the latter at the expense of the former, but YMMV). And it has been an audiophile classic ever since it was recorded back in the early 60's. By my (unofficial) count it has been remastered and re-released almost as many times as Kind of Blue. For me personally I have 3 versions, which is highly unusual for my Scottish Heritage:  the original CD, a (pretty unimpressive) LP reissue, I forget which one, and the hirez download that is what I usually listen to when the mood strikes me these days. FTR I'm a huge Janos Starker fan (I've been trying all morning to come up with some version of "Swifty" that I can use, but no go). I have 3 different recordings of him playing the Cello Suites: besides Mercury there is the 50's mono on EMI and early 80's digital on the tiny Sefel Records label. Note to self: check and see what the going price for the Sefel recordings are...

Is there an opposite of the dreamy French im/expressionism of Ravel and Debussy? How about Brahms. Brahms, the bastion of the Austro-Germanic tradition from Bach thru Beethoven and Schubert and defender of the faith against the "new music" of Liszt and Wagner, to say nothing of the heathens west of the Rhine. (To be clear Brahms himself didn't actually feel that way, as far as I can tell, but his so called supporters made a big deal out of it).

By any standard Brahms was a very great composer who is both respected and popular today, just as he was in his lifetime and all the time in between. And perhaps the reason he is so respected and admired is that his music is endearingly tuneful, emotionally intense, and a master class in compositional technique. And those come together in the forth and final movement of his forth and final symphony like nowhere else. As musical carpentry it is unsurpassed.  



On CD, from the Ozawa German Masterworks box.

Ozawa isn't my first (or even second) choice for the "German Masterworks" but this is a very well played and well recorded collection, and unlike most recordings these days is still unapologetically old school. Which I think is all to the good. YMMV.

For anyone who is interested in a peek behind the curtain at why Brahms is considered such a genius I'll suggest this analysis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXwzfAu1BXI

(I love this guy, one of the very few youtube channels to which I'm subscribed, FWIW)

I'll tell you right now it is a lot, unless you spent your Saturday mornings in music theory class before youth orchestra rehearsal. Or even if you did.

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I'm pleased my post motivated you to listen to the piece, and very impressed you listened to any of the analysis. But, and hopefully this goes without saying, just because Felix Weingartner heard a veritable orgy of destruction in the finale of Brahms 4 doesn't mean you must, or should. And just because Richard Atkinson (and I) think it is a work of genius doesn't mean you're under any obligation to even like it. All the highfalutin music theory is a means to an end, and the end is (or should be) an engaging musical experience that means something special to you.

With all that said, the Klemperer Brahms symphonies are certainly classics. One of the great "Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle controversies" among record collectors is Klemperer or Bruno Walter.



On CD.

If I had to pick one I'm on team Walter, but I'm glad I don't have to choose.

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Schumann, like Shostakovich, is a composer I just don't get, in spite of their obvious ability to write quality music. But the Piano Concerto is one of the pieces that I listen to from time to time. The other is Kinderszenen.



On CD.

As an aside, I thought I knew all the Reiner RCA albums, but I don't know that one. I have the Todentanz on another CD, but I didn't know Janis recorded the Schumann or Rocky 1 with Reiner.

And since Schumann was an early supporter of Brahms, let me get in one more thing about Johannes. He has a reputation for being relentlessly serious, which is well deserved. His idea of a relaxing vacation was arranging folk songs for chorus. But there is one place where he let his hair down a little. The 2 Serenades.



16/44 FLAC download.

Like everything else Brahms did they are perfectly crafted, but they are fun. Both to listen to and to play.

Hey Geno, my wife and I also listened to a Byron Janis recording this morning.  Dorati conducting Rachmaninoff concertos 2 and 3 1960-1961 Mercury Living Presence.  Nice performances, nice recording.

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That one I know!



24/88 FLAC Download.

Very nice indeed. He is probably my favorite American pianist.

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Yes. I don't remember exactly the circumstances but he mostly slipped out the the public consciousness. Then I saw a few years ago that he was recording again, which is great.

This is the recording that sold me on Byron Janis.



On CD.

It is a stupefying display of virtuosity in typical demonstration quality sound.

There is an old(er) Richter recording of Pictures that is somewhat legendary, and I have it on LP. Richter is usually self recommending, esp. in a work like this, but I've never been convinced by it. It is a live recording, and while mistakes don't usually put me off, there are enough in this, coupled with pretty dismal sound and I've never been able to get into it. Pictures is such an overwhelming piece it needs to be recorded in great sound. YMMV.

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Geno, when you say LPs, do you mean the originals or reissues? Between CDs and downloads I've got about 50 Mercuries. I actually have 3 of the original  stereo LPs, and a few more monos that were the hot ticket back in the 80s when I was deep into used record hoarding collecting. I have the reissue LP of Bach/Starker that I mentioned just above. I don't remember whose reissue it is, but it was a lot of money and while the sound is good (but not great) the pressing isn't anything special. It's just one of many underwhelming experiences I've had with modern LPs that has put me off buying any new vinyl.

 

 The popular version of this seems to be Reiner's, and it is excellent. But I like this one just as much (if not more)

I downloaded a reel to reel recording off of the internet that just sounds fantastic!

I've been meaning to say something about Scheherazade, but Geno sorta beat me to the punch.

My reading of the conventional wisdom is Reiner:



DSD rip from SACD

and Beecham



DSD64 HDTT download.

are 1a and 1b in the Scheherazade standings. But I can't think of a bad one and I have (off the top of my head) Monteux, Dutoit, Mehta (in the LA Phil box) and Fricsay (in mono). I don't know von Karajan's recording, but if it is from the 60s or 70s I bet it is great as well.

Between the Big 2 I guess I give the (very slight) edge to Reiner. I'd call Beecham more exotic, and the solos are a bit more individual, or sound more ad lib. Reiner has his signature blend of precision and discipline, and (I have to say it) sex.  And the sound... sure, Beecham sounds great, but Reiner has been one of my test/demo discs for decades (anyone remember the Chesky reissue LPs in the 80s?). The guy who used to run Absolute Sound sound (I forget his name, don't want to look it up) said he could tell everything he needed to about a stereo system by listening to a couple of minutes of the 4th movement of the Reiner Scheherazade, and he was definitely on to something. I listened to it a lot when I was futzing with my new UFO25s a couple of months ago.

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No doubt. I think Igor Markevitch is another one, more in the Reiner school. For me, Scheherazade is not in heavy rotation. When I reach for it it is usually because I want the audiophile spectacular experience. I want to hear the orchestra and soloists.

Moving on to Martinu. If he is known at all it is for chamber music and concertos for every possible combination of instruments. But once I discovered his symphonies I was hooked. They are modern, but fully tonal, contrapuntal, polyphonic, a bit jazzy, and like nothing else. If you're at all #Martinucurious give the 1st symphony 90 seconds and see if you're hooked as well.



On CD.

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Sold! I need another album of Bach Cello Suites like you need a new amp , but this is pretty cool and it was on sale. I got the 16/44 FLAC download. Good call Lon.

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Now that you mention it neither have I. I'm a big Munch (and BSO) fan but for some reason his Beethoven never really spoke to me. Which is clearly my problem, because everyone else thinks its great. I went with the Dvorak 8th from the Munch box.



On CD.

The great French Orchestra has no problem going Czech, and Dvorak's 8th is such a great piece I can't understand why it isn't played more than The New World.

All set, after two more days cleaning 85 vinyl disks and turntable setup.

Disk 1 side 1 Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21. First performed 4-1800 when Beethoven was 30 years of age. This Deutsche Grammophon recording is conducted by Herbert von Karajan with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at Jesus Christus Kirche in Berlin.

As a side, the misses came in and said it sounds really good. Can you turn it down a little. She returned 2 more more times asking the same question. Now I remember way the Charoit was created!

Edited

I would not say "totally"! Some critics on that first score were disturbed with the dissonance at the beginning of the symphony. It was not until later that Weber declared the composer "ripe for the madhouse."

I can vision two things:
1)The need to listen over until the writings correlate with the music.
2)Installing a door leading to the family room.

Just thought of one more thing. The vinyl is organized to be played on a stackable turntable. First disk has side 10 on the flip side and all five disks of a signal box of the 17 box set follow suit. etc. Disk 2 has has a flip of 9.

If you were in a high school band you almost certainly have feelings about the Holst Suites for Band. I love them. Some of my friends never want to hear them again, based on "trauma" they suffered playing them too much back in the 70s. If you want to hear them, for me there are only 2 recordings. The Mercury Mono that Fredrick Fennell made with the faculty and students of the Eastman School back in the 50s.



On CD.

Or the early digital he made with ringers from the Cleveland Orchestra on Telarc.



DSD rip from SACD.

The Telarc is supposed to be a great recording, but I've never heard it. It isn't bad, but I'd rather listen to the (almost) 60 year old mono, YMMV. I also enjoy the enthusiasm of the Eastman players vs. the cool, profession perfection of the Clevelanders, but again YMMV. OTOH Bugler's Dream (the Olympic Fanfare), esp. the second part which is played by the French Horns (as originally intended) instead of trumpets (I guess because even professional horn sections can't always play it) makes the Telarc indispensable.

Richard Wagner. Hugely unpleasant human being, but great composer. People like to say he wrote some of the most exciting minutes, and most boring hours, ever set to music. And they have a point. I've been warming up to some of the operas over the years, but the overtures and preludes (FYI/FWIW an overture is played with the curtain down, a prelude with it up) he wrote for those operas are some of the most popular works in the repertoire. And for me, my favorite is Die Meistersinger.



16/44 FLAC download.

Wagner of course was all about breaking away from the "classical" model with his Gesamtkunstwerk "total work of art." But he still had traditional chops, and the way he weaves the different themes from the opera into the magnificent contrapuntal finale of the Meistersinger Overture is a feat of musical carpentry equal to anything in Brahms, or Bach. And Dorati and Mercury do a great job capturing both the detail and the excitement.

Another take on Meistersinger, also on Mercury, is from Paul Paray and the Detroit Symphony.



16/44 FLAC download

Paray was a talented, if obscure composer in his own right and his arrangement of music from the opera is a very different, but equally rewarding way to experience the piece in minutes instead of hours.

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You're very welcome. I'm impressed you made it through the entire video, and pleased it helped you appreciate the work on a deeper level. For me, great music will repay whatever effort I put into studying it (whatever that means) many times over with greater enjoyment.

I think a lot of times the reason it takes a few (or several) listenings for a piece to "click" is the kind of details and inner structure that Atkinson explains in video need to seep into your consciousness. A breakdown like he does can accelerate the process.
 

The Guarneri are a good cycle. Second favorite of mine perhaps tied with the SACD Tokyo Quartet cycle, first being the Vegh stereo cycle--just love that cellist, so rich and dynamic a player.

The misses went shopping. Time to move up to the family room and play Beethoven's Symphony NO.2 in D Major, OP. 36. Clouded by deafness he wrote NO.2 in the summer of 1802. First performed in April 1803 at the Theater an der Wien.

Ricci - Lalo - Symphonie Espagnole

This is a reel to reel recording I downloaded from YouTube. Sounds phenomenal!
I’m a music download pirate from way back.

It took me a long time to get string quartets. Not so with the piano trio, I've been hooked on them forever. The conventional wisdom is they are second to string quartets in the amount of "seriousness" the composer invests in them, whatever that means. Certainly everyone from Haydn (who wrote dozens) up thru Ravel and Rachmaninoff wrote one, and usually more than one. They are widely recorded, but I'm not sure how popular they actually are with listening public. Whatever there current popularity is, it should be higher. YMMV.

I'm not even going to call the Brahms trios one of favorites, because there are too many to pick from, but they pack plenty of Brahms's trademark tunefulness and musical sophistication. The opening theme of the 1st trio is unforgettable, but again YMMV.



DSD128 Download.

This was one of the first "super hirez" recordings I owned, and it is excellent.