Some Favorite Titles & Recommendations

[DaveyF]

Lee, I totally agree with what you say about the 'old warhorse' Scheherazade recording. It really is a wonderful piece and is superbly recorded. What pressing have you listened to? IMHO, although all pressings are good, the 10s10s pressing and slightly behind it the 1s1s, are superior to the rest.
Another 'old warhorse' that also belongs in every 'philes library is the shaded dog:Gaïte parisienne; Rossini-Respighi: La boutique fantasque with the Boston and Fiedler.

 

[RBFC]

Lee, I totally agree with what you say about the 'old warhorse' Scheherazade recording. It really is a wonderful piece and is superbly recorded. What pressing have you listened to? IMHO, although all pressings are good, the 10s10s pressing and slightly behind it the 1s1s, are superior to the rest.
Another 'old warhorse' that also belongs in every 'philes library is the shaded dog:Gaïte parisienne; Rossini-Respighi: La boutique fantasque with the Boston and Fiedler.

I heard the 1S/1S, but no longer own any vinyl. I also thought that the Chesky remaster was very, very good. It floored some long-time audiophiles at my place years ago.

Lee

 

[RBFC]

One of the great transfers from the Tape Project, and a long-standing Reference Recordings favorite on CD, Malcolm Arnold's Overtures has a lot going for it.

http://www.amazon.com/Arnold-Overtu...=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1298179859&sr=1-5

Colorful and tuneful, this is a disc that those new to classical music (as well as veterans) can all enjoy. Composer of the theme music to The Bridge on the River Kwai, Arnold has a knack for putting tunes into your head that require a lobotomy to remove.

Lee

 

[Old Listener]

Another Reiner

I recently bought a RCA Living Stereo CD of Reiner / Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing Rossini overtures. The music is great and the performances are precise and energetic.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VKW16W

An earlier RCA CD had some congestion and distortion in the peaks. The Living Stereo CD seems to be much less affected.

This CD seems to have come out after the Sony BMG merger since Sony's name is on the package along with RCA.

There is a Decca recording of some Rossini overtures by Gamba that is just as good a performance. I wouldn't want to be without it or the Reiner.

Bill

 

[Vincent Kars]

Schubert - String Quintet in C / Alban Berg Quartet • Schiff
The most beautiful score ever.
If you think different, obvious What is Best is wasted on you
Listen to the adagio.
Period.

Franz Schubert: Piano Music for 4 Hands
Schubert made easy.
Written to be played with a countess (not really a gifted pupil) so easy but typically Schubert.
The melody flows and flows and flows.
If it is finished just start a new one.
Talking composing Schubert is not the best (structure) but certainly the most beautiful.
If you are unfamiliar with his work this is a nice starter.

Schubert: The Song Cycles
Schubert made uneasy.
Das Lied is a very specific genre and Schubert Lieder are probably the best.
The lyrics are very romantic. Poets like Rellstab, etc. As most of you are Americans you probably don’t understand a word (German). Keep it that way.
The piano is pre-romantic
The voice is probably the hardest part, over cultivated.
There is a lot of beauty in it but it is probably hard to discover it.
You like it? Well Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau recorded all the Schubert Lieder (450).

Schubert: Trout Quintet; Arpeggione Sonata; Notturno
I like the performances by L’Archibudelli
It are authentic performances so instruments form the period and played in the style of that period. Strings are played without vibrato and the piano is a forte piano.
You probably need some time to get used to the sound as it is very lean.
But transparency is your reward. You hear all the individual instruments, how they interact, etc.
Great musicians, the music is more important than technical perfection.

Beethoven: The Complete String Quartets
Beethoven’s development as a composer is clearly demonstrated by his string quartets.
In the early ones (opus 18) you hear a lot of his teacher, Haydn.
The middle period (opus 59) is typical Beethoven, lyrical, teasing and tremendous outbursts.
The heavy metal in classical
The late string quartets are not easy.
Beethoven is a minimalist, variations on a small thema. The music becomes ‘sparse’, minimalist like.
Play them ordered by opus number, you are going from easy to exiting to grave.

 

[RBFC]

Schubert - String Quintet in C / Alban Berg Quartet • Schiff
The most beautiful score ever.
If you think different, obvious What is Best is wasted on you
Listen to the adagio.
Period.

One of my earlier classical CDs. Wholeheartedly agree.

Lee

 

[Old Listener]

Lots of fine recommendations, Vincent.

..Schubert - String Quintet in C / Alban Berg Quartet • Schiff
The most beautiful score ever.
If you think different, obvious What is Best is wasted on you
Listen to the adagio.
Period.

Quite assertive for you! It is a beautiful piece of music. I don't have the recording you recommend so it's time to add to my shopping list for that work.

Franz Schubert: Piano Music for 4 Hands
Schubert made easy.

By now, I'm sensing that you really like Schubert.

Trout Quintet; Arpeggione Sonata; Notturno[/URL]
I like the performances by L’Archibudelli
It are authentic performances so instruments form the period and played in the style of that period.

Ah. Another taste we share. I like a lot of HIP performances. The Bilson / Gardiner Mozart concerti series sounds so right on period instruments.

The series of Haydn symphony recordings conducted by Derek Solomons sound right for the Haydn Sturm 'n Drang symphonies. Many of those recordings never made it to CDs but 39, 45, 48 and 59 did and they are all my favorites for those works. That performance of 48 has high horns that are really heard and an exhilarating feeling that isn't matched by other performances I've heard. You can often find those Sony CDs on Berkshire Record Outlet at low prices. (http://www.berkshirerecordoutlet.com/)

I have the L’Archibudelli recording of the Trout Quintet and like it. My heart still belongs to the Sony recording by Rudolf Serkin and friends from the Marlboro Music Festival. Lots of great recordings of the Trout Quintet.

The trout Quintet is an easy piece of music to like even if you find chamber music in general to be difficult to learn to love. I find piano trios to be easier than string quartets to appreciate.

Bill

 

[Ronm1]

Paganini for Two Shaham:Sollscher
Sonate per Archi #1-6 Rossini - NBK/Erxleben

I'm also quite pleased with Barenboin's Beethoven Symphony cycle on TELDEC dvda mlp
Any of the Frye Street Quartet's SACD releases

 

[Scott Borduin]

I like a lot of the recommendations thus far. But I must say, ya'll are a pretty unadventurous group, harmonically. Basically nothing from the 20th century at all. You may all be descended from the folks who rioted at the premiere of The Rite of Spring

Anyway, I agree that Schubert may be the closest thing to a universally loved composer. And the String Quintet is exquisite, although I prefer the more overtly warm and romantic Melos/Rostropovich version. But Classical is about more than just lovely melody, and if you're up for more challenge, here is a list of 20th Century work which I've found well worth the investment of getting familiar with. Links are to downloadable lossless files when possible, Amazon CD when not.

- Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde. Beautiful, colorful, poignant. Lots of great recordings; a good starting place is Oue/Minnesota on Reference Recordings.
- Sibelius, Symphonies 2 and 5. Not really challenging at all - mostly very romantic, and engaging in a way many people love. Symphony 2 Barbirolli/RPO. Symphony 5 Rattle/Philharomonia.
- Shostakovich: Symphonies 5 and 10. Not "pleasant" music for the most part, but emotional, ironic, wrenching, spectacular. Many great recordings, I still go back to Neeme Jarvi with Scottish National Orchestra. Symphony 5; Symphony 10.
- Michael Tippet: A Child of our Time. A harmonically modern, pacifist Oratorio that uses American spirituals at climatic points. Very powerful and moving. Hickox on Chandos is great, so is Previn on IMP.
- The American Album. Anne Akiko Myers playing 20th century American works for violin and piano. Great all the way around.
- The American Album. But a different "The American Album"! 20th Century American works for Violin and Orchestra, with Perlman and Ozawa. One of my real favorites, music and sound, ever since I got it.
- Henri Dutilleux: Metaboles, etc. Getting more challenging, now, but still beautiful, eerie, mystical music in great sound.
- Magnus Lindberg: Feria, etc. Heard this live at the Oregon Symphony, and was blown away. Won't make sense if you haven't worked your way up to this level of atonality, though.

 

[Old Listener]

your recommendations are OK, your assumptions are not OK

I like a lot of the recommendations thus far. But I must say, ya'll are a pretty unadventurous group, harmonically. Basically nothing from the 20th century at all. You may all be descended from the folks who rioted at the premiere of The Rite of Spring

... But Classical is about more than just lovely melody, and if you're up for more challenge, here is a list of 20th Century work which I've found well worth the investment of getting familiar with.

...
Won't make sense if you haven't worked your way up to this level of atonality, though.

Perhaps you could present your recommendations without making assumptions about what other posters were familiar with and like. With a bit more effort, you might avoid presenting your recommendations in an insulting way at all.

Bill

 

[RBFC]

I happen to have many titles that come from the modern/atonal school, as well as many "adventurous" titles. I find that the majority of our members have not had the opportunity to delve into the huge classical repertoire, so most of my recommendations are directed toward accessible content that will hopefully stimulate some curiosity about the genre.

Lee

 

[Vincent Kars]

Having attended modern classical concerts in the 70's and 80's somehow for some reason all those exiting works like a concert for two cactuses and a vacuum cleaner didn't appeal to me.
But of course I won't admit here in public that my taste is a horrible conservative one.
So I recommend Canto Ostinato by Simeon ten Holt.
Minimalist but not boring: http://www.canto-ostinato.com/

 

[Scott Borduin]

I'm very sorry, all - I was trying to joke and tease, but it obviously didn't come off well. Forum posting requires more a more conservative approach to that kind of thing.

The Lindberg Feria thing really is a warning - I have to be in a specific mood to listen to it at all.

 

[Vincent Kars]

you may all be descended from the folks who rioted at the premiere of the rite of spring

There is limit of 15 otherwise I would have added a bit more.
Excellent insult