Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #42)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by George P, Nov 2, 2012.

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  1. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    The 2CD live BBC set of Debussy (and a few other composers, Red cover) is awesome! You get both books of preludes, which is rare for Richter to do a complete set like that.

    Gotta be this one (same vintage as the one in the Master series): (Bochum, 21 October 1991) on Live Classics LCL 402 (CD 2002)

    (info from) Richter Discography - http://www.trovar.com/str/discs/index.html
     
  2. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    Excellent, thank you!

    I will look out for the Debussy as well.
     
  3. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    My pleasure.

    Sadly, the BBC is OOP: http://www.amazon.com/Debussy-Preludes-joyeuse-Ballade-Scherzo/dp/B00001W07K/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1354077186&sr=1-5&keywords=Debussy Richter BBC

    BUT Melodiya has issued a live Debussy CD. I am just not sure about the performances. Pretty cheap, though: http://www.amazon.com/Debussy-Suite-Bergamasque-Preludes-Book/dp/B002K3GOF0/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354077255&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=Richter Deubussy

    EDIT - Repertoire on the Melodiya Debussy CD:

    I. Suite Bergamasque (1-4), June, 5, 1979;
    II. Preludes, Livre I (5-8), 1961-(5, 7-8), October, 10, 1976-(6):
    1. Danseuses de Delphes (Dancers of Delphi): Lent et grave
    3. Le vent dans la plaine (The Wind in the Plain): Animé
    9. La sérénade interrompue (Interrupted Serenade): Modérément animé
    11. La danse de Puck (Puck's Dance): Capricieux et léger
    III. Preludes, Livre II(9-20), May, 26, 1967.
     
  4. goldwax

    goldwax Rega | Cambridge | Denafrips | Luxman | Dynaudio

    Location:
    US of A
    Hey, all! Thought I'd introduce myself, since I've been listening to (and posting about) classical music a fair bit the past couple of weeks.

    I've got an extensive collection of rock, soul, jazz, blues, country, gospel, reggae, etc., but though I've always liked classical music, I've held off on buying much of it, mostly because I knew if I got into it, I'd probably get WAY into it. (For example, when I first got into jazz in the late '90s, my goal was to get one "five-star" album by 20 or so of the key jazz musicians. Within four years, I had a 1,000-strong jazz CD library.)

    In the late '90s, my classical collection consisted mainly of a Capriccio CD box of the complete Beethoven Symphonies (Kegel/Dresden Philharmonic), Martha Agerich's Legendary 1965 Recording (Chopin, EMI Classics), and five of those Play by Play and Black Dog Music Library CD w/book thingies (various works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Bach) and a few other bits and bobs.

    Earlier this year I came across a stash of 50 mono classical records (mostly shaded dogs) and grabbed them. Then, a week or so ago, I lucked onto the Mercury Living Presence CD box for an insanely low price and have been working my way through it with much delight.

    Since then, I've also bought about a dozen more classical LPs, plus TWO MORE complete sets of Beethoven Symphonies (this time on vinyl: Karajan AND Krips), and the following CDs:

    EMI's 2oth Century Masterpieces box
    Philips Original Jackets Collection box (preorder)


    Davis/BSO - Sibelius Symphonies 5 & 7 (Philips Great 50 Recordings, 2001)

    Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin, Suite. / Kodály: Peacock Variations / Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphoses / Schoenberg: Five Pieces, Op. 16 (Mercury Living Presence)
    Mahler Symphony No. 1 (Judd/Florida Philharmonic, Harmonia Mundi, 2001)

    Going to pick up the Decca and Living Stereo boxes next, and keep an eye out for some of the OOP label boxes out there while I try to absorb what I've got and figure out my next moves.

     
  5. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Thanks for the intro, and formally, welcome! Sounds as if you'll fit right in with this motley crew.
     
  6. goldwax

    goldwax Rega | Cambridge | Denafrips | Luxman | Dynaudio

    Location:
    US of A
    Thanks, drh! Btw, I actually lived in Silver Spring as a kid for about nine years (East Silver Spring Elementary, Oakview Elementary, Highland View Elementary, and Eastern Junior High--would have ended up at Montgomery Blair), and later on graduated from University of Maryland, College Park. My parents have since moved to Laytonsville.
     
  7. John S

    John S Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, OH
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  8. Graphyfotoz

    Graphyfotoz Forum Classaholic

    Location:
    South-Central NY
    How about a real classic for the Holidays? ©1959
    Got this Historic recording last year and it's been a welcome addition to my collection!!
    Another Penguin Guide Top Award Winner and easy to hear why!! :righton:

    [​IMG]
     
  9. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    I would walk to work when I lived in Berkeley. For whatever reason, If I would scan the sheet music while listening at home, the music would be even more firmly embedded in my mind and follow me wherever I went. The one piece that really got "stuck" in my mind was Schubert's Great C Major symphony. I'd be hustling up Durant towards Telegraph, Schubert's "Ninth" echoing in my head. I have a strange audio memory, busy, detailed scores of music manage to be one of those things that play back via memory. Schubert certainly was the Wanderer and a perfect walking pace seems to me to be the perfect Classical/Early Romantic tempo for an opening Allegro. The other piece that got firmly embedded in my memory this was is the 28th sonata of Beethoven.
     
  10. RiRiIII

    RiRiIII Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, Greece
    Gielen maintains a wonderful tempo at the walking theme in his recommended recording of Schubert's 9th (Haennsler, 2002) making some points in the notes regarding Furtwaengler's slow tempi choices in his famous DG recording.

    From Musicweb.co.uk:
    "...More coherent and pertinent are Gielen’s own comments on Schubert in general and the ‘Great’ C major symphony in particular, so maybe he should have written his own curriculum vitae for the booklet. He was brought up on Furtwängler’s (slow) interpretation but was taken to task by his teacher Josef Polnauer, a Viennese, who pointed out that the opening theme is a ‘walking theme’ (Andante) and Schubert’s original marking has turned out to be 2/2 rather than 4/4, in other words twice the ‘traditional’ speed (Norrington has recorded it thus). It makes perfect sense, for it also explains why it has always been traditional and necessary for this ‘problematic’ introduction to accelerate into the Allegro. However by taking it from the outset at double the speed we are used to hearing it proves unnecessary to make any change of tempo, the result a wonderfully seamless progression. Gielen, in his own words, points out that the ‘walking theme’ must be seen as ‘relatively young people in Vienna at the time, so keen on marching from wine garden to wine garden, tasting the new vintage wine’, a wonderful image. ..."
    Alex.-
     
  11. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Yes! And I was hearing Furtwängler’s [slow, exaggerated opening, a wind-up accelerando to the 'walking theme'], Walter's [slow, not so exaggerated opening, a slow walk thereafter] and Norrington's [all in the same , animated. walking tempo] when I took these walks. Of all the mistakes in Classical music, Brahms re-writing the tempos for the opening of Schubert's Great Cmajor has to be one of the biggest. It so much more organic and natural played without the 'slow introduction' that really isn't there.


    In my case, I was bouncing along from one of Berkeley's high-octane coffee shops to another. The Musical Offering, where I worked, being one of them. Ah Peet's . . . what have you done to this country?[​IMG]
    Be-Bop Schubert, anyone?
     
  12. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Small world! Montgomery Blair is the school for the district where I live, as a matter of fact. You certainly ended up quite a way from "home," though, didn't you? Well, I'm a transplant from Tennessee by way of Texas and Georgia, so it happens.
     
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  13. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    [​IMG]

    After a not very fiery 3rd (in fact, I gave up on it somewhere in the first movement, luckily I have Muti's white-hot performance for that work), I am now enjoying the 4th symphony.
     
  14. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    You wouldn't think such a long work could be an "ear worm," but I, too, had my Great C Major period--when I was a college freshman, I must have played the thing 3 or 4 times a day for a couple of months. The recording was CSO/Stock, dubbed to cheap cassette by yours truly. Still a beloved account, but it's been WAY too long since I returned to it; better put it toward the front of the queue in my present "dub your favorite recordings to the hard drive" project. Incidentally, Stock did some very nice Schumann symphonies, too, specifically nos. 1 and 4.

    Gee, come to think of it, any films of him conducting would truly be "Stock footage."

    Didn't know about that--what's the story there?
     
  15. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA

    My wife is a Silver Spring native.
     
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  16. RiRiIII

    RiRiIII Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, Greece
    I have just the 5th with Muti on Philips. I ll try the 1&3 disc.

    I first listened to the 3rd from the Chailly/RCO futurist disc coupled with Varese's Arcana and Mosolov's Iron Foundry (if you do not know the latter, do not hesitate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Foundry).

    [​IMG]
     
  17. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    It's in Norrington's notes for his EMI recording of Schubert's Great C major.
     
  18. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    So is that the way it is played in all of the available recordings? I only have the Boehm and I forget how he plays it.
     
  19. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Boehm is really good. One of the best in the "Grand Tradition, along with the aforementioned . Understand that there is a performance tradition associated with Schubert's Great C Major, akin to to the performance tradition for Beethoven's Op. 110, that is not backed up by what the composer wrote. Take away these add-ons and the music becomes more logical and Musical.

    Norrington walks right in. I'll have to check Roy Goodman again, he's got my favorite HIPP version.

    Note that just about everybody plays Schubert's Ninth with the slow intro/fast main body tempo change-up, as if it was written by Beethoven or Haydn. But Schubert wrote it, and Schubert did some interesting and unusual things with sonata form. The C Major Quintet opening movement would be a good example. A mad, raging opening theme is overtaken by the most voluptuously feminine counter-statement. The work is not rushing, al la Beethoven, towards the "Main Theme" overtaking the entire symphony/sonata/quartet in a triumphant blaze of rhetorical glory. The first movement of the Quintet in C wins us over by caressing us.
     
  20. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Schubert's 9th was an earworm for me as well. My first (imprint) version was Toscanini/Philly. For many years my go-to version was Szell, but Munch has a great version on SACD.
     
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  21. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Tell that to Jascha Heifitz :D
     
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  22. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Play the earworm in your head while walking. Try the intro both ways. If you take the traditional version, at one point or another, you have to re-adjust your walk to the internal beat. If you take it all in the same tempo, there's no awkwardness.

    I like Toscanini in the work, but have too many issues with the audio pick-up from Philidelphia. Have Toscanini's final, almost hi-fi recording on LP. It's a toss-up between Mahler's Second and Schubert's Ninth for my affection. Karajan's DGG recording is one of his best, with cutting accents and a lot of on-point playing by the Brass. And of course, Szell is also very on-point. Don't forget Krips for Decca. But my heart belongs to the Bruno Walter Columbia Symphony Orchestra playing the whole thing like a hike up the Austrian Alps. Bruckernized Schubert. Schubert's a big boy, he can Handle it.
     
  23. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
  24. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Do you have Solti with the VPO? One of the first (group of five - three of which were classical) CDs I purchased. I need to listen to it again.
     
  25. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    The mind boggles at the possibilities.

    I think I'll start with the tortuous "Kazoo Concerto" of Vivaldi, Boyd Beaver soloist, then on to Haydn's nortorious "Feeb" quartet followed up by a big serving of "A Survivor From Warsaw."

    Then it's on to bowel burgers and ringworm relish . . .
     
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