Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #59)

I have the first two you mention plus Karajan's recordings for EMI.

 

Ah yes, they're quite special too, at least the later symphonies - in my opinion.

 

I am done with Sibelius ...

 

Ashkenazy's was the last Sibelius cycle issued on vinyl I believe. I have heard him in concert and his interpretations were fairly close to the recordings. Vahti has an interesting cycle with a great 4 and 6 but like virtually all it has its pluses and minuses. I don't know any cycle that is great for all 7 symphonies. Of course Sibelius had a severe stylistic break between #2 and 3. The EMI late 70s recordings by Karajan were variable but he did do an excellent 4 and 5 for them. His EMI #6 was much poorer IMO than the DG performance. Two other cycles worthy of investigation were done by Maazel on Decca and Rozhdestvensky on Melodiya, both in the 1960s. The Maazel cycle had great sonics on LP but the CD transfer was not very good. The Rozhdestvensky had the usual Russian recording sonics and Russian orchestra idiosyncracies but is very unusual in its intense lyricism. Below is the Symphonies 6 and 7 from that cycle. They were reissued on CD

 

Grand music-making beautifully captured by the Philips engineers back in 1984.

 

Now playing the following CD from my Brahms collection. I have a good number of versions of this work but believe this version is among the best if not best ...

 

I like Le Tombeau de Couperin

 

This was a live performance at some cathedral in Bavaria IIRC. I bought the VHS (those were the days) back in the early 90's, shortly after I bought the CD. I don't believe I have ever seen the DVD for this live performance, which was very impressive ...

 

Now playing...love this CD...

 

Thanks for sharing and reminding me to give mine a spin ...

 

Funny you should mention this, I just borrowed a friend's Ravel Greatest Hits CD last night. He's not into classical music and has two (2) classical CD's in his collection. I usually avoid compilations like this one, but when I saw the names Ormandy and Bernstein and that is was an early CBS CD release (originally released in 1969) I decided to give it a try. I listened to it twice this morning and must say that it's an excellent album throughout, both sonically and performance-wise. I assume it's safe to say it could be a perfect introduction to Ravel's orchestral music. Just checked the Amazon site, it could be had cheaply.

 

Now off to spinning these two CD's from my RCA Living Stereo box:

 

Why take it out on Chopin? It wasn't his fault that he didn't win.

 

Unfortunately, that is the irony in life. The best or the most deserving does not always win in competition ...

 

Now: Beethoven: Symphony 4 - Herbert von Karajan/Philharmonia Orchestra London - 6 CDs, Warner (EMI recordings); disc 3. This is the remastered set with Karajan's 1951-1955 Beethoven cycle with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

 

Are the Europeans generally into these great hits of classical tunes? I have two or three of these from my real early days of venture into the classical music world. Obviously, I have much disdain for these recordings these days ...

I remember an LP titled 25 World Famous Melodies, which cost me a whopping $1.99 in the mid 70's, started me on a quest to get the full and unabridged versions of all those beautiful tunes. The rest, shall I say, is history. This was how someone who grew up listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones get to be a serious classical music listener and collector ...

 

This is no doubt the folks at UniversalMusic are seething with anger whenever they see release of Karajan recordings by WarnerMusic as their onetime dream of uniting all Karajan catalogs under one roof was dashed in the name of ensuring competitions in the market place ...

 

Now: Symphony 5 on the same disc. The remastering doesn't sound bad so far

 

I have found an occasional disc of this series at a used CD store and, so far, been impressed. There's a difference between discs where short excerpts are used to tease me to getting the real thing and these. Some of the tracks are movements, of course, but they are always that at the least, or shorter complete pieces. I have to admit sometimes when I have friends over I prefer a more radio-like music bed in the background with its variety of orchestras, soloists and small combos. They're also great loan-out discs for someone who's shown an interest in a composer and looking for a non-overwhelming overview.

 

Most of these samplers on LP last no more than 2 minutes for obvious reason ...

 

I bought the same set a few years ago when it was released by EMI. IIRC, the SQ is not bad ...

 

Then I addend my accolade. I would seek out something with some full pieces, or as I said, full movements at least. Too trailer-like for me. Thank you, coopmv.

This one, featuring Debussy's works, has a number of good selections. La Mer is complete.

 

It's not quite the same set: the new one has 6 discs while the earlier one had 5, the Warner set was newly remastered and has a previously unreleased stereo mix of the 9th.

 

Now: Händel: Concerti grossi, Op.3 - Trevor Pinnock/English Concert - 11 CDs, Handel/Pinnock: Complete Orchestral Recordings, Archiv; disc 3

 

I don't know if this has been posted before, but Sony will be releasing a 40-disc Pierre Monteux Complete RCA Album Collection box in Europe on December 1: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00MAPMAFQ/ref=gno_cart_title_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE