Yesterday evening, I paid a visit to one of those little, jewel-like but infrequently heard works that make classical music such a joy: Dvorak's Rondo in B Minor for cello and orchestra. I recommend it as a tonic for those of us who are recovering from the effects of the bomb cyclone that skirted up the US East Coast yesterday. (Happily, here the effects are limited to just enough snow to be a nuisance plus bitter cold temperatures.) Also tried to play a couple of cylinders--first Alessandro Bonci in a coupling of "La Donna e Mobile" and "Questa o Quella" on a single 4-minute record, then an old German hymn sung by a long-forgotten German opera singer from the turn of the 20th c. on a two-minute wax--only to find that the recent repairs to my player were not a success. Sigh....
Is this the same Rondo that I have as G minor? I first heard the Rondo in G minor from a LP I picked up in the seventies. Maurice Gendron, cello Bernard Haitink London Philharmonic 1968
Listened to the second piano concerto from the above set today. As with the first concerto on CD 1, the performance was beautifully nuanced, with incredible dynamics and sonics. For those who don't know, Zimerman chose and trained the entire orchestra himself and felt so strongly about this release that the pianist demanded his first recording of these works with Giulini be withdrawn by DG. I can't see why anyone would argue with this, as Zimerman wrings every bit of beauty from the fairly lackluster orchestral writing for these works. A truly special set.
This morning I'm playing this Pathé Marconi EMI (French) LP issue of Beethoven Trio No.7 ("Archduke") and Trio No.8. Artists: Pinchas Zukerman, violin Jacqueline Du Pré, cello Daniel Barnboim, piano Performance is lovely, though it lacks some of the "bite" that I generally prefer for Beethoven. This is a handsome tri-fold album containing many pictures. Unfortunately (for me) all the text is French. Some pictures showing the recording session:
Yup--somehow mentally conflated the key of the concerto with the title of the rondo. I have that same recording (in a CD issue), although the one I played the other night was Tortellier/LSO-Previn, from the big complete Tortellier EMI box.
An interesting Eloquence set that was reviewed favourably by Jed Distler. Never heard of Australian pianist Eileen Joyce before. Eileen Joyce - Wikipedia
Quite a fine pianist; I have some of her 78s, including the first recording of the Shostakovich 1st pno. cto. (but good as it is, I like the one by her countryman Noel Mewton-Wood even better).
James Ehnes, violin Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Andrew Manze Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Romances 1 & 2 Schubert: Rondo D438 Onyx, 2017
I finally ordered this Chopin 2-CD set yesterday. Hope it arrives by Saturday so I can enjoy it this weekend!
Wonderful sound & performance on this. I haven't listened to the CD layer yet, just the stereo SACD. Hannu Lintu Finnish Radio Symphony Anne Sofie Von Otter Sibelius: Tapiola; En Saga; 8 Songs Ondine, 2017
I just got this yesterday and listened to both discs. I am no expert but the second movement of the First Concerto featured some of the finest and most emotionally moving piano playing I have heard.
Gautier Capucon Mahler Chamber Orchestra Daniel Harding Virgin Classics, 2003 Very good interpretations of the Haydn cello concertos. It also includes cello concerto #4, which is now considered to have an unknown composer.
This is considered by many audiophiles THE definitive 1812 Overture recording there is: Mercury Living Presence 1812 Overture-Dorati
British Music Sir Charles Groves Warner box set, 24 CDs 2015 Disc 1 Elgar: Severn Suite Nursery Suite Grania and Diarmid The Light of Life Caractacus- Woodland Interlude The Crown of India Suite This box set includes some of the best sound ever recorded by EMI.
Finally got around to replacing the rear speakers in my cobbled-together 5-channel setup for SACDs (sold the old, much too large ones a while back), only to discover that in the interim my Sony SACD player has fallen victim to the dread "doesn't recognize SACD layers any more" disease. So instead I played a bunch of acoustic 78s that I hadn't gotten around to sampling yet. Among them was something interesting: Grieg's first Peer Gynt suite performed by Columbia's house ensemble, "Prince's Orchestra." The director being one Charles Prince. The group's sound is suspiciously like the "Prince's Band" that sometimes played march music and such for the same label. Be that as it may, a bit bloopy/windy thought it may be, the recording was strikingly clear and clean, and the performance really quite effective in a somewhat old fashioned sort of way. I got a chuckle when my 13-yr-old daughter wandered in and asked why that recording sounded kinda odd--the look on her face when I told her it was recorded about 100 years ago was priceless, as was her remark, "And I thought anything recorded in 2015 was old!" I wonder: could this be the first complete recording of that perennial favorite?
And speaking of SACDs, in case any of you out there are Yevgeny Sudbin fans and are not on the ArkivMusic mailing list, this just in from said vendor: "Scheduled for wide release on February 2nd, we at ArkivMusic are delighted to be able to offer our customers early exclusive access to Yevgeny Sudbin and the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s new recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 at a special low price. Conducted by Sakari Oramo, this set of recordings represents the conclusion of a piano concerto cycle 10 years in the making." It's a hybrid SACD. The "special price" is $15. FYI. [The editor in me feels compelled to note that, literally, the first sentence indicates we at ArkivMusic are scheduled for wide release on February 2d, but I'll let that pass.]
For those of you who don't want to wait and don't mind a download, the same recordings are already available from eClassical in hi-res stereo and surround for $18.04 (for the first few days it was available for $11.27, but that is past). For a recent review, see HRAudio.net - Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos 2 & 3 - Sudbin / Oramo .
Interesting article from Gramophone about lesser known symphonies from the 1700s. What I learned: • there were over 16,000 symphonies composed that century • of the items on that list, I’ve heard zero symphonies