I listened to Gardner's Beethoven Missa Solemnis and then to Zinman's Missa Solemnis. I could go with either, but I like the sound of Zinman's version.
I have the Gardiner's version but have yet to decide if I really like the performance. I still have my misgivings when it comes to period instruments for classical period works ...
I found a couple of classical discs I am pleased with at a thrift store today for $2 each. Ravel "Bolero-Pieces for 2 Pianos". Ruth Laredo and Jacques Rouvier, Steinway pianos. Denon CD, made in Japan, 1986. Beethoven Piano Concertos 1 and 2, Emanuel Ax, piano. Andre Previn and the Royal Philharmonic. RCA CD, 1986.
Interesting! I've never heard Bolero as a piano duo. Is it Ravel's work, or did somebody else make a transcription? How well does it work compared to the familiar orchestral score?
I don't have the disc on me now but if I remember correctly from reading the liner notes earlier the piano duo version was done by Ravel himself. I will double check when I get home and listen to the disc again. I listened once and found I did enjoy the 2 piano version, and the disc as a whole was quite enjoyable and with excellent playing and sound quality.
If it's Ravel's doing, a surprise, but not the first such I've had. Holst's The Planets and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring started off that way. In each of those cases, it was a matter of sketching out the work's "bones" first before hanging orchestral flesh on them. I was actually fortunate enough to hear the latter in that guise in concert once, years and years ago; the Holst I know only from a record.
Wow I can't imagine The Rite done on pianos! I actually saw the Boston Symphony perform Rite of Spring live last week and it was quite powerful! My first time seeing a real top-notch Orchestra live in concert, it was in Massachusetts at Tanglewood.
I love these two sonatas! The version I have is on an old Mobile Fidelity silver CD, violin played by Arturo Delmoni and it is excellent.
I love the Franck and Faure violin sonatas too. For the Faure, I really like this version; Susan Tomes, piano Krysia Osostowicz, violin Faure: Violin Sonatas Helios [or Hyperion], 1999
Susan Tomes was the pianist of the Florestan Trio (1995-2012), whose Beethoven piano trios I like very much. Violinist Krysia Osostowicz was a member of the Domus Piano Quartet, who made excellent recordings of the Fauré Piano Quartets, also on Hyperion. Osostowicz and Tomes also recorded Brahms' Violin Sonatas for Hyperion.
Heard something interesting on the radio tonight: apparently Claude Debussy spent a couple of years working for Nadezhda von Meck, the same lady who was Tchaikowsky's mysterious patron. On the radio station's bill of fare was a suite of pieces for piano, four hands, that Debussy had written for her. To be honest, while it was attractive, I didn't hear many hints of what I think of as "Debussy" in it. Pretty conventional.
Very well done and very entertaining! Peter Guth Odense Symphony Orchestra Hans Christian Lumbye (1810-1874) Waltzes and Polkas Regis, 1989 [licensed from Unicorn-Kanchana Records]
Lumbye wrote some delightful music, and I'm not sure why it isn't better known. (Personally, I'd be more inclined to say Strauss was the Lumbye of Vienna, but that's just me.) I believe a piece called "Dream Pictures" is something of Lumbye's "greatest hit," but that's hardly a concert hall staple.
For the most part I liked these interpretations -- interesting and vital. Michael Gielen SWR Symphony Orchestra Brahms SWR, 2016 5 CDs
