Schubert String quartet 14 in D minor Death and the Maiden Now enjoying this great work. The performance is expressive, dynamic and the sound is superb!
Just as a general matter, it's hard to go wrong with anything performed by the group Musica Antiqua Koln, one of the pillars of the DG Archiv label some years back. You might start with some of the group's recordings of Telemann; they more or less rescued that composer from relegation to bland, dutiful run-throughs that were the status quo norm and showed him to be the colorful master he was (he and J.S. Bach were sufficiently close that Bach named Telemann godfather for one of his children). MAK's recording of Heinichen's so-called "Dresden Concerti" is another stimulating set, well worth knowing. Well, OK, let me qualify: in my opinion it's hard to go wrong with MAK. The group was not entirely uncontroversial. Some, like Richard Taruskin, hailed them as innovative musicians who were bringing this old music back to life for modern audiences; others, particularly the Penguin People, were put off by the generally fast tempos. As always, you can reach your own conclusions after assessing their work for yourself.
David's suggestion is a good one (as always). I might add that performances of Baroque music by Trevor Pinnock & The English Concert for the Archiv label are also quite good--beautifully recorded and well-regarded for authenticity and spirit of playing. A couple of albums I particularly enjoy: --Bach keyboard concertos (or sometimes called Harpsichord Concertos) -- album covers vary from what I'm showing below. ... and Handel's Concerti Grossi, Op. 6. (This is Vol.1... there are two more volumes if you find it to your liking.) I believe you already own Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, but I highly recommend the set by Pinnock... it's my absolute favorite among many.
Hi David. Again wonderful information. Thank you so much. I will certainly investigate your recommendations. Im currently listening to a playlist of JS Bach’s cello suites by Yo-Yo Ma. And yet again I’ve found something new to me that I love! Enjoying the journey immensely
Hi Wes. Now those look very interesting indeed. I do own The Brandenburg Concertos and am a big fan. I’ve not heard that recording though, but I will soon. Handel is another composer who, given the little of his works I’ve played, I definitely like and want to hear more. So many thanks for the recommendation
I enjoyed the excellent playing of these works which are new to me. 3 of the 5 works would be new to most people, since they are first recordings. Sigismond Thalberg Apotheose & Fantasies on French Operas Mark Viner, piano Piano Classics, 2019
Thanks for the tip o' the hat, Wes. Good suggestions, which I'll amplify just slightly: Trevor Pinnock and Christopher Hogwood (with his group The Academy of Ancient Music) in their day more or less competed for title of principal "mainstream" practitioners of historically informed performance practice (aka "HIP") on period instruments. MAK was more radical. As I noted, some liked that approach, some didn't. I do. If you prefer modern instruments, the "middle of the road" champs were Sir Neville Marriner with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, aka "ASMF." I don't mean "middle of the road" as an insult but rather purely as a description; I heard the group once, shortly after Marriner left it, and the ensemble and sense of give-and-take were uncanny. Just don't look for any "out of the box" interpretive approaches, at least not as a rule; an exception would be the earlier ASMF traversal of the Brandenburg Cti., which drew on a then-cutting edge edition of the scores by Thurston Dart. Eventually, the HIPsters pretty much swept the field, pushing Marriner to abandon Baroque literature for later repertory. As to the Bach hpd. cti., in a number of cases Bach wrote those by transcribing cti. for other instruments (primarily violin) by himself or other composers, particularly Vivaldi; the concerto for 4 harpsichords is one example of a Vivaldi-derived work. As an example of Bach transcribing his own work, the E Major violin cto. was the source of the harpsichord cto. in D, BWV 1054. (Both are favorites of mine, by the by.) If you like the Bach takes, you might want to check out the Vivaldi originals, too. Occasionally, someone tries to "reconstruct" a missing presumed source concerto from a surviving harpsichord concerto; these efforts I tend to find a bit less convincing. One exception, which I love despite its being something of a monstrosity from the perspective of "authenticity," is a cello concerto transcribed by one Keleman from Bach's organ concerto usually included with those "after Vivaldi" but actually from a violin cto. by Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar. Perhaps much of my fondness has to do with the big-hearted, committed performance it received from Antonio Janigro in this recording (with his group I Solisti di Zagreb, another fine "middle of the road" modern instruments ensemble that, notwithstanding the provenance of this particular record, recorded primarily--and copiously--for Vanguard; image from Amazon):
Just listened to parts of MAK's Brandenburg Concerto 1, BWV 1046, again and it's not half as fast as I remembered. Others are only a bit slower, while, for instance, Siegfried Rampe with his group Stravaganza take the first movement at breakneck speed, which, in my opinion, makes it almost unlistenable. The MAK recording, which dates from 1986, sounds remarkably fresh and tight. An underrated group, at least by some.
The thing to bear in mind is that the MAK Brandenburgs were much, much faster than what was "normal" at the time of the recordings. I think they set something of a new standard for tempos; thereafter, I have the impression things picked up noticeably from the earlier average. Compare the MAK set with, say, the then much-admired Benjamin Britten set, for example, or with the Aston Magna Festival orchestra on Smithsonian (which, if memory serves, claimed to be the first period instruments traversal of the scores) or, going back to an earlier generation, with the initial "free the Baroque from the Romantic" efforts of Cortot (Ecole Normale Chamber Or.) or Adolf Busch (Busch Chamber Players). None comes close to as fast as MAK. As so often happens, what started out as "radical" has ended up as something like "standard." The Horowitz-style approach to piano tone and tempo or the Toscanini-style approach to symphonic interpretation are other examples. Unfortunately, in the latter two cases what we got was a lot of people trying to imitate the inimitable with boring results. (Oddly enough, though, if you listen to Toscanini's broadcast recording of the Brandenburg #2, as far as I know his sole foray into that literature, at least on records, it isn't all that different in outline from what would eventually become the "historically informed" approach--Toscanini achieving by musical instinct something akin to what later musicians would develop through scholarship.)
Re: Speed-metal Brandenburgs, I started listening to them a lot differently after I became familiar with Bach's Cantatas. I used to think the fast renditions were that much more exciting, but after hearing the cantatas, I started to hear the Brandenburgs as inhabiting that same sound world (some of the movements actually originated in cantatas too). Now I feel if you couldn't imagine an SATB chorus on top of an allegro, or as a sinfonia to a cantata, maybe it's just a little too fast. Harnoncourt with the Concentus Musicus is good example of that for me, and I love the Britten recording.
This morning early as usual. Rozhdestvensky conducting Stravinsky. Suite from “The Firebird” and music from”Apollon Musagete”. USSR Radio and TV Large Symphony Orchestra. Yedang Classics CD. From the box set entitled “Legendary Soviet Recordings”. These are live recordings and feature a large roster of some of the greats. The sound quality is extremely good. This box is getting very hard to find.
Another CD from the box set mentioned above-Bruckner’s Symphony 1 and Hindemith’s “Pittsburgh Symphony”. Rozhdestvensky conducting Grand Symphony Orchestra of Radio and Television. ( 1983 and 1965 recordings, respectively)
Presently playing this CD of a delightful performance of a favorite piece of music. From my Monteux box set.
The recent Reinhard Goebel discussion led me to try to find some videos of him in action and found this one of him holding, of all things, a Beethoven masterclass! Even if you don't understand German, you can still see that he is a very sprightly and spirited individual. It's a very recent video, as you can see by the fact that everyone is wearing masks.
George, just in case you haven't seen this and to add to @drh's "amazon" post, more detailed information is on the Eloquence site (click on Tracklisting/Recording information, etc) The Legacy of Charles Munch – Eloquence Classics It's a very well done release.
Ian, don't think the Cafe Zimmermann have been mentioned yet and if you don't already have it, run out now and grab this box immediately! https://www.amazon.com/Cafe-Zimmermann/dp/B07HSRY4TN That's a complete 16 CD set but there's also an earlier 6 CD Bach Brandenburg release. The discs have also been released individually, may even be a cheaper option. Your disc (Frisch) above is included in the box. The 6 cds of the Brandenburg Concertos are superb! I'd also add the CPE Bach, then Vivaldi. These may be on Spotify, etc to sample? For reference only this is the earlier JS Bach (only) 6cd box (I have this one) https://www.amazon.co.uk/J-S-Bach-C...eywords=Cafe+Zimmermann&qid=1593564244&sr=8-1 The recent release is cheaper and has an additional 10 CDs.
Hi Marzz. Thanks very much indeed. I really enjoyed the Céline Frisch cd. First harpsichord album that I’ve listened to. I’ll definitely look these up. Very interesting. Might see if on Spotify to sample first
