Classical Corner Classical Music Corner

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by George P, May 29, 2015.

  1. Octave

    Octave Shake Appeal

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    Shostakovich: SYMPHONIES etc.
    (Kirill Kondrashin - Melodiya, 11cd, rec. 1965-1975)

    Limited/variable but, so far, very clear sound. Blazing intensity! Will work my way through this over the next week or two.
     
    George P, crispi and ubertrout like this.
  2. Octave

    Octave Shake Appeal

    Chapeau, Åke

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    Stravinsky: MONUMENTUM, MASS, SYMPHONY OF PSALMS, BACH CHORAL VARIATIONS (Royal Flemish, Philippe Herreweghe - Pentatone, 2010)
     
    Åke Bergvall likes this.
  3. mrwolk

    mrwolk One and a half ears...no waiting!

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Currently listening to Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra on Idagio streaming service (lossless stream)..Hungarian Natl. Orch. with Zoltan Kocsis conducting. (didn’t know he had taken up the baton..what’s with all the piano players conducting?)...Fantastic, at least to my ears, recording and reading of the work.
     
    crispi and Rose River Bear like this.
  4. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    I like all of Kocsis recordings of Bartok as pianist and conductor. IIRC, the Concerto CD you heard is OOP and sells for over $100 used. Kocsis died young. A loss to the classical music world.
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2018
    crispi likes this.
  5. J.A.W.

    J.A.W. Music Addict

    Zoltán Kocsis was co-founder of the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer, and appeared as a conductor from 1987. He was musical director of the Hungarian National Orchestra from 1997 until his death. He died in 2016 at the age of 64.

    I like his Bartók Piano Concertos with Iván Fischer/Budapest Festival Orchestra and his Bartók Solo Piano recordings.
     
  6. Octave

    Octave Shake Appeal

    Revisiting some Finzi, and whetting my appetite for my first big listening project of the new year: Britten.

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    Britten & Finzi: SERENADE, NOCTURNE & DIES NATALIS (Mark Padmore, Stephen Bell, Britten Sinfonia - Harmonia Mundi, 2012)
     
    Åke Bergvall likes this.
  7. Åke Bergvall

    Åke Bergvall Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mariestad, Sweden
    Perhaps I should join you in a Britten year. I've had the big Decca Britten box on my shelves for too long with only sample tastes, and also most of his operas on DVD and/or Blu-ray. Thanks for the nudge!
     
  8. Octave

    Octave Shake Appeal

    These are great, and it's a pity that they seem to remain out of print. It seems like Decca/Univ could have easily enough appended them to that budget reissue box of Kocsis' Bartok piano music. Kocsis was a lion!

    I am going to start with that same big Decca set, which has been on the shelf untouched for over five years now. :/ Pathological. After that, a bit later in the year, I think I will be seeking out some additional recordings, a documentary or three, and above all some video discs of operas. I will probably be seeking some suggestions here in a couple months.
    My last big dose of Britten was working through (mainly) that EMI ~complete works set, and it was incredibly rewarding.....can't wait!

    Two more jaunts back into Stravinsky, with Ilan Volkov:

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    Stravinsky: ballets (BBC Scottish, Ilan Volkov - Hyperion, two discs)
     
  9. bruce2

    bruce2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Connecticut, USA
    I just acquired my first Britten recording, the 1963 Decca recording of War Requiem. Will have to give it a second listen later today.
     
    Octave likes this.
  10. Octave

    Octave Shake Appeal

    That sounds like a marvelous entree. I did not love it when I first heard it, but now I cannot ever imagine feeling that way. From an old blog post by Alex Ross:
    And as a gateway drug, a greatest hit but also a timestopper (but make sure to hear Pears sing it):



    Now the Great Bear and Pleiades where earth moves
    Are drawing up the clouds of human grief
    Breathing solemnity in the deep night
    Who can decipher
    In storm or starlight
    The written character
    Of a friendly fate
    As the sky turns, the world for us to change?
    But if the horoscope' s bewildering
    Like a flashing turmoil of a shoal of herring
    Who can turn skies back and begin again?
     
    bruce2 likes this.
  11. Octave

    Octave Shake Appeal

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    Finzi: EARTH AND AIR AND RAIN - SONG CYCLES TO HARDY (Martyn Hill & Thomas Varcoe w/Clifford Benson - Hyperion, 2cd)
     
  12. Åke Bergvall

    Åke Bergvall Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mariestad, Sweden
    Same here! That is a great box, and great value too! You said you'd come back in a few months for the Britten operas, but here's some early appetizers: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B014JD2LLO. I snagged a copy for €30 a year ago, but I've only looked at Peter Grimes so far. The same box is also available from jpc for €50: Benjamin Britten: A Britten Collection - 5 Opern auf Blu-Ray (5 Blu-ray Discs) – jpc , or €40 on DVD: Benjamin Britten: A Britten Collection - 5 Opern auf DVD (6 DVDs) – jpc , and they also have another, slightly older but excellent 8 opera collection on DVD for €40: Benjamin Britten: A Tribute to Benjamin Britten - 8 Opern auf DVD (8 DVDs) – jpc .
     
    Octave and cdgenarian like this.
  13. Daedalus

    Daedalus I haven't heard it all.....

    Is this a new issue box set? If so online seller ?
     
  14. J.A.W.

    J.A.W. Music Addict

    As far as I know this Melodiya set came out a few years ago and is no longer available, or at least hard to find.
     
  15. Daedalus

    Daedalus I haven't heard it all.....

    Thanks.
     
  16. fdsfd

    fdsfd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Istanbul
    This new "Limited Art Edition Box Set" looks phenomenal, and it's up on sale at my local record shop with an equally phenomenal price tag right now (half of my ffffreaking rent). Seems a tad bit logical when you consider that only 1,200 copies have been released.

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    Karajan/Berliner Philharmoniker sets are always delightful, nothing unusual with that ...but I just have one, small question. Whose bright idea was it to put a GRANITE BLOCK in a box with 8 LPs???
     
    ToniFromMars, Robert C and bruce2 like this.
  17. WaterLemon

    WaterLemon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts
    I wonder if any of you fine people have experience with a Rostropovich box set I’m considering. The one that caught my eye is “The Complete Recordings on DG.” It seems like there are other, similar but different, career spanning box sets available, so if anyone has an opinion or advice, I’d be very grateful for your thoughts. Thanks in advance!

    To be clear, this is the product: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...4df-15aac5223b10&pf_rd_r=FA3NRA1TBA2XNCEVDNMV
     
  18. Octave

    Octave Shake Appeal

    Thanks much for those recommendations. I am also looking at that COMPOSER-CONDUCTOR-PIANIST - HISTORIC BBC FILMS dvd set. Actually, I am also interested in the BRITTEN THE PERFORMER cd set (BB playing or conducting other people's music). I think his Schubert with Richter is just great, but I wasn't sure how much I needed, say, his Brandenburg Concertos recordings....but I have heard they were a pre-HIP classic benchmark, so maybe worth having.

    OT digression on classical/opera Blu-Ray discs:
    I doubt anyone here would have two copies of the BRITTEN COLLECTION video set to compare, but I wonder if the Blu-Ray edition is much of an upgrade? I ask because I once purchased a Blu-Ray of Christie/Sellars' Handel's THEODORA, and I cannot imagine there was any improvement in sound or image whatsoever...it was just LPCM which afaik is what the dvd had. (I didn't research it because I got a deal, but it still gives me pause for future purchases. I'd read some similar complaints about the sound/image non-upgrade in a Barenboim Wagner RING, iirc.)
    Online images seem to indicate as much for the Britten set. I wonder why they issue them in two formats if there is little to no advantage? But maybe this isn't the case.

    Another byway today:

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    Alan Rawsthorne: SYMPHONIES (Bournemouth, David Lloyd-Jones - Naxos, 2005)

    Plus another Naxos disc of Rawsthorne string quartets/duo (Maggini), and yet another of Cello Concerto etc.

    I wonder if the Maggini Quartet can do any wrong? Whatever the relative merits of the music they play, all of the recordings I've heard by them seems like fully committed performances. I also recently heard a disc of Alwyn's first few quartets by the Magginis that was really good, though I don't know those pieces in any other recordings.
     
  19. Åke Bergvall

    Åke Bergvall Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mariestad, Sweden
    I can recommend that box. Besides the Richter piano duets, there's the classic Rostropovich recordings and of course the various song cycles, both British and German, with Pears, with Schubert's Winterreise a personal favorite. I also really like Britten's take on Mozart, both symphonies and the celebrated piano concerto recordings with Curzon (whom I was fortunate enough to hear in Stockholm in the 1970s playing concerto no. 27, but not with Britten of course) . I must admit that the Bach recordings is for me an aquired taste, if not more so than with other pre-HIP recordings, and the St John's Passion is in English, which might have a certain novelty value.
     
    Octave likes this.
  20. Octave

    Octave Shake Appeal

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    Rawsthorne: PIANO CONCERTOS etc (Geoffrey Tozer, Tamara-Anna Cislowska, LPO, Matthias Bamert - Chandos, ~1993)

    Really enjoyed this disc quite a bit. I could see it not being considered top-shelf masterpiece stuff---sometimes sounds a bit like film music---but a lot of energetic, glittering joy throughout. I think Ogdon recorded one if not both of these concertos, which I should hasten to find. There is a newer Chandos reissue with completely different cover from above.

    Also another Naxos disc of his violin concertos played by Rebecca Hirsch, also enjoyable.

    I think I will be listening through a bunch of Bach cantatas to end the year, starting this weekend. A mini-project but also a good way to see an ugly year out and stoke a little fire against the night. I think I am going to use Kuijken's Accent recordings, since I've not heard them yet.
     
  21. Octave

    Octave Shake Appeal

    Also through this week:

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    Messiaen: THE WORKS FOR ORCHESTRA
    (dir. Sylvain Cambreling - Hanssler/SWR-Musik, 8cd, 2008/2018)
     
  22. ubertrout

    ubertrout Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    You mean this version? It's OOP but Amazon has copies for $30:
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  23. ubertrout

    ubertrout Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    It's been implied that Fischer and Kocsis parted ways over politics, with Kocsis taking the reins of the Hungarian National Philharmonic and being willing to associate himself with Fidesz, while Fischer has been a vocal opponent of the government/movement. Fischer issued a nice statement when Kocsis died, but it was also impicit that he hadn't been close to him in some time. I suspect that might be why there hasn't been a reissue.
     
  24. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

  25. J.A.W.

    J.A.W. Music Addict

    I've heard that story too. Iván Fischer has distanced himself from autocratic regimes more than once. He currently lives in Amsterdam and is fluent in Dutch. Rumour has it that he's a candidate to become the next principal conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, but there seems to be some resistance.
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2018

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