Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #21)

This SACD remains in the catalogue. It can't be sold at the price.
Wasn't it possibly the same cellist's Bach Suites set?

 

How is it? I love both of those artists. Mark Padmore especially; he has been one of my favorite tenors since I saw him few a years ago sing the tenor part of Schumann's "Paradise & the Peri." They were together in NYC a few months ago, stupid of me not to have gone.

 

No, that was Starker's Cello Suites by Bach.

 

I've been looking at HDTracks.

 

POLYPHONIC DIALOGUES
Multichannel-Hybrid SACD

Shostakovich
From 24 Preludes and Fugues Op.87
Nos. 2,4,5,7,12,15

Rodion Shchedrin (b. 1932)
From Two Polyphonic Pieces (1961)
No. 2: Basso Ostinato

From 24 Preludes and Fugues (1964-1970)
Nos. 1,2,3,7,10,14,19

From 25 Polyphonic Preludes (1972)
(Polyphonic Notebook)
No. 12: Toccatina-Collage

Joachim Kwetzinsky - piano



This is a very interesting release from 2L. Rodion Shchedrin was very close to Shostakovich since Shchedrin was a boy of nine. During those early years his father was Shostakovich’s personal secretary.

The track sequence is notable. In between the Basso Ostinato and the Toccatina-Collage, the composers’ preludes and fugues are alternated in pairs. The stylistic differences are therefore highlighted. Shchedrin’s occasionally atonal, jazz-influenced, and percussive approach is contrasted with Shostakovich’s linear, more melodic feel. On first hearing, I expected the difference to be night and day, but these two have an awful lot in common. Yes, there’s contrasts here, however this record flows very well.

Joachim Kwetzinsky is a young Norwegian who has technique to burn, and a keen musical intelligence. He writes very good album notes, too. You can see him play the piece that opens this album here. The Basso Ostinato is definitely growing on me!

The SQ of this is beyond reproach. Seems to me the piano is miked just right and the acoustics of the Sofienberg Church in Oslo are superior. The multichannel layer is full 5.1. This is gorgeous music wrapped in an equally gorgeous package.


Shchedrin and Shostakovich on summer holiday.

You can hear Shchedrin play his 4 piano 8 hand Omage to Chopin (with Nicolas Economou, Paul Gulda and Chick Corea) here:

http://www.classicaltv.com/v605/rodion-shchedrin-homage-to-chopin

 

Picked this up today. All live performances, mostly from the late sixties.

 

It's a beautiful recording. As a German I'm always very critical when a non native speaker sings this kind of material in German and I get easily turned off by accents but you couldn't tell he's a British tenor, outstanding interpretation and his German is flawless.

 

Good to know! I don't speak German and can't judge pronunciation, but I had the same reaction to his part in the Schumann performance. His voice sounds so natural. No strain, carries well in the hall, just seems to rest right on the notes. It's interesting how his career has seemed to really grow in just the last couple of years, though he's been around for a while I think.

 

Now playing:

• Stravinsky: Firebird + Petrouchka + The Rite of Spring - Igor Stravinsky/Columbia Symphony Orchestra [Columbia Masterworks 196? 3LP boxed set, mid-late 60's reissue of 1960 recordings -- these and the three Composer & Performer sets on Andante are essential, IMO, for the Stravinsky devotee]

 

I had the great good fortune of seeing Mark Padmore perform last year.

I'm not German but I earn my keep by teaching it and I also thought his German pronunciation and enunciation was flawless.

Best Wishes
David

 

I bought this excellent recording just before Christmas ...

 

I will have to make sure to catch him live here in the UK.

 

Highly recommended??

 

Same here, as you said, highly recommended.

 

I think it is OOP.

 

According to a fellow pianophile, yes. I have yet to hear it, though.

 

And that was what I was referring to ...

 

You can't go wrong with recordings by Emil Gilels ...

 

MiilesSmiles referred to Starker's Dvorak Cello Concerto SACD, you replied I sold mine for $199. Not true.

 

Now playing:

Richard Strauss
Macbeth
&
Alpine Symphony

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Marek Janowski

 

Great disc! I also have Haitink's more buttoned-down 2009 Alpine Symphony on LSO Live SACD. Janowski's Brahms cycle was superb, I thought, and he has a new Requiem to round out the set. Haven't heard any of his Bruckner on SACD, have you?

 

Dvorak goes for $399.

 

This disc was a gift. To be honest the Alpine Symphony has, for some reason, fallen through the cracks of my listening experience. Except for snippets on the radio, the music is unfamiliar to me. The music here seems competently played, and the SQ is great. (Macbeth is a pleasant surprise.)

Is the Janowski Brahms with Pittsburgh? Right now all I have is Karajan's 1978 set. I am certainly not predisposed to multiple sets, but I am thinking about another cycle.

I wrote off Bruckner in youthful ignorance many years ago; it is time I do some woodshedding on him. So no, I have heard very little of anybody's Bruckner. I will get around to him as soon as I get close to finishing my Mahler project. At the speed I'm going, that won't happen till late summer.

 

now not playing: the copy I received on mofi vinyl of the Solti/Chicago Beethoven Symphony #9. the copy i got is so noisy it's unenjoyable. i'm afraid to take the chance on another, so have ordered the Speakers Corner reissue. hoping that they did a good job pressing this. Anyone have it?

I also just got the Bohm of the 6th on a new Japanese pressing (of the DGG). that sounds great thankfully. on order is used vinyl of the Cluytens/berlin 9th (been listening to the french cd Cluytens box set and love the performances and find the sound very good). also found and ordered a used box vinyl set of the full Nine Szell/cleveland.

I am going through a major shift back to listening to more analog than cd, and have added a ton of new classical lp's. have to say that when i get back under the headphones just using my laptop playing the Cluytens Beethoven, it sounds really really good. but my vinyl rig smokes my digital, so the improvement in sound is more than the medium diffference.

 

oh, I am also excited to have snagged this Kempff: http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=detail&Title_ID=70897

I'll finally have some of the mono on vinyl (I have DGG of the stereo).