Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #59)

Playing the one-disc highlights from this set, the Colin Davis led recording of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro:

 

Now trying to enjoy of the opera...

 

Had that on LP (complete opera - four discs IIRC). Now have it on CD.

 

These recordings have been repackaged too many times for me to remember. Most of them have remained to be the gold standard for Handel orchestral works IMO ...

 

So far Amazon U.K. is the only Amazon site where the upcoming Monteux Complete RCA Album Collection can be pre-ordered:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pierre-Mont...09946286&sr=8-1&keywords=monteux+complete+rca

 

Your post reminded me of a favorite fantasy: The ability to travel back in time, armed with the best and smallest audio recorder available. I suppose my first stop might be....

Vienna, April 1803, Theater an der Wein. Beethoven conducted and played a concert of his works, including his first two symphonies, the premiere of both the oratorio "Christ on the Mount of Olives," and the Third Piano Concerto. His friend, Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried, who turned pages for the composer for the piano concerto wrote: "Heaven help me, turning the pages was easier said than done. I saw almost nothing but empty leaves; at the most on one page or the other a few Egyptian hieroglyphics wholly unintelligible to me scribbled down to serve as clues for him; for he played nearly all the solo part from memory. He gave me a secret glance whenever he was at the end of one of the invisible passages and my scarcely concealed anxiety not to miss the decisive moment amused him greatly and he laughed heartily at the jovial supper which we ate afterwards."

What do you think a decent recording of that marathon might be worth?

 

Looks nice but the price is a little high for me ...

 

Now playing CD1 from the following twofer, which arrived two days ago for a first listen ...

 

After reading a rather bad review of this in the new issue of Gramophone after I ordered it, I was afraid I had made a mistake: I hadn't! Maybe he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve as much as some would like, he's no MIDI file, either! I hear plenty of emotion along with intellectual rigor. Outstanding sound.

 

What a delight! I don't think I've ever heard such virtuoso lute playing before. These are arrangements of 16th century madrigals and canzones by Giovanni Antonio Terzi in 1599, who apparently added a lot of flourishes and counterpoint. Life-like sound, too. (In multi-channel, the lutenists sound a bit larger than life; I prefer the stereo SACD layer.)

 

Now that orchestral musicians are chosen in "blind" auditions, the proportion of women has risen greatly. Nielsen is not easy to perform IMO. Unfortunately many of the best performances are in squirrely mono sound from the 30s to early 50s. Bernstein did a great Sym 3 & 5 (with a poor 2 & 4 sadly) and I would recommend people start there with Nielsen.

 

Listening to a box set I bought a number of years ago containing Haydn's named symphonies - 29 in total. Most are conducted by Neville Marriner, with a few conducted by Raymond Leppard. Unfortunately, I don't know who conducted what because I lost the booklet.

 

This has been a growing trend in the recent years - every renown pianist has to record the WTC. I already have many versions of WTC, probably close to twenty between the piano version and the harpsichord version. If there is another version I would buy, it would have to be by the great Martha ...

 

Does she record solo works these days? I know she no longer does solo recitals.

Interestingly, while Perahia has focused on Bach over he last few years, he hasn't recorded the WTC.

 

No clue. To the best of my knowledge, she has never recorded the WTC in the studio.

Incidentally, Helene Grimaud probably will not try since her last Bach recording was not well received. Somehow, she does not appear to have the chop for Bach music ...

 

Feinberg's WTC came up recently on another board, so I plan to revisit it very soon.

 

Heard part of it on Spotify and was very impressed. I will revisit as well.

 

I enjoyed Feinberg's WTC more than I did Richter's ...

 

His WTC is gorgeous!

 

I have to say - hearing Schiff perform each book in its entirety (from memory) in two concerts within a week was an awesome experience.

 

I like her approach--it's very powerful and intense. I'll take that any day over tip-toeing through the music!

 

Tremble, British Museum! The significance of that would be on a par with corresponding (preferably video) recordings with Chrysippus (a Stoic philosopher from 3rd century BCE; the man of the Stoic System; wrote dozens of works none of which have survived) or Nagarjuna (around 200 CE; the founder of the Buddhist Madhyamaka school).

 

Thank you for the hint!

 

(CD EMI Japan TOCE-91091 HQCD)