Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #49)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by George P, Aug 7, 2013.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    Continued from here.

    Welcome! :wave:

    This thread (and the 48 that have preceded it) is for all things that relate to Classical Music. Feel free to post what you're listening to, recordings you recommend, recent classical purchases, classical concerts, discuss classical works, classical composers or classical performers.

    Beginners are especially welcome. Feel free to post any questions that you may have about classical music and/or classical recordings. This includes requests for recommendations for recordings of particular works/composers, etc. We have lots of friendly, respectful and knowledgeable members who will be glad to help you out.

    And as always, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all of the regulars (you know who you are) that continue to make this thread an enjoyable, civilized and informative experience! You guys are still the best!

    :wave:
     
  2. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I get to be the first respondent (although I have nothing more to say). :D
     
  3. sgb

    sgb Senior Member

    Location:
    Baton Rouge
    I just clicked on watch the thread; I rarely have anything to say.

    I have been thinking about that Jansons Sibelius Second, and wondering what others who have it say about how it compares.

    [​IMG]
     
  4. Uncle Meat

    Uncle Meat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, Tx, US
    I found this in good shape at goodwill the other day for two bucks. It is a rerelease (I think), a two record set, and I always liked the cover.
    There is a two piano version of the Rite of Spring that sounds pretty cool (it is not on this album though).
    I am trying to work my way through some of Stravinsky's other works.
     

    Attached Files:

    goldwax likes this.
  5. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I will pose a question to participants in this thread. I was thinking about Paul Jacobs' Debussy recently, and I was disappointed to see all but one of the discs are OOP. But they are available on Spotify and MOG.

    Has anyone on this thread made the leap and come to accept streaming at 320 KBPS as a substitute for "owning" a recording (physical copy or download). Under specific circumstances? I, for instance, would say that there are works that I might be interested in hearing once or twice, but would not want to purchase. Streaming works perfectly for me there. But, even though I can listen to Jacobs' Debussy at acceptable fidelity (for me at least) whenever I want via MOG - and even download it onto my iPad - I still would prefer to "own" it. I don't know if this would remain the case if streaming were at redbook SQ.

    By the way, with popular music, especially recent recordings, I am generally far more satisfied with streaming as I do not assume redbook will provide any significant sonic improvement.

    I am postin on this thread because I am particularly interest with opinions as they relate to classical music.

    Thoughts of others.
     
  6. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I had that set on LP. I remember the cover. I recently purchased the same recordings as part of a 7 disc CD box of Stravinsky conducts Stravinsky ballet music.
     
  7. John S

    John S Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, OH
    [​IMG]

    Just another great old Columbia LP cover.
     
  8. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    I stream quite a bit, but usually just to check out if I want to buy. I have streamed some albums 3 or 4 times without buying it. I'm getting to the point that I'd actually rather not have physical media since I always listen on my computer or iPod. I've always bought lossless files except in two cases where the album was only available in lossy mp3 (no lossless and no CD).

    I prefer listening on shuffle by album because I like the contrasts and surprises I get. So far today, I've listened to the following

    Bobby Hutcherson
    King Crimson
    Ella Fitzgerald
    Roussel conducted by Deneve
    Bartok played by the Hungarian String Quartet

    Because I like listening in this way, streaming as a substitute for owning won't really work.

    I also don't like the way MOG handles multiple disc sets. It treats them as one album and a lot of times I don't want to listen to 10 CDs of the same music at one sitting. I don't know how Spotify does it. I only use Spotify occasionally because I hate both the phone and desktop apps.
     
  9. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    [​IMG]

    Just found a like new copy of this and decided to grab it!

     
  10. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    I'm imprinted on Jacobs' Debussy. The Image/Estampes album is one of the albums that opened me up to classical music. I bought it for the album cover and fell in love with the music. It was the first, non top 40, classical music I owned. I think I bought it right after seeing Fantasia and Allegro non Troppo in the theater in 82. It's still one of my favorite albums. It's a shame they're out of print and not available for lossless download.
     
    ANgel Tarpov likes this.
  11. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    What a great Second in fabulous sound.
     
  12. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    Is this the UPC of your copy? 075597136524
     
  13. Mark B.

    Mark B. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Concord, NC
    I'm not huge into classical music, but I love this album. I became interested in Stravinsky after I heard the "Firebird" excerpt on Yessongs. If it was good enough for Yes, it was good enough for me!
     
  14. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    I'd have to look for it, but according to allmusic.com and discogs, there was only one CD release.
     
  15. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
  16. Stone Turntable

    Stone Turntable Independent Head

    Location:
    New Mexico USA
    I'm guessing it would be hard to find a quorum here of people who think streaming 320 kbps classical is a viable, across-the-board substitute for reference listening with CD, hi-rez formats, and vinyl.

    For me, it's not an either/or conflict, it's a beautiful synergy to be able to check out and audition and investigate lots of stuff on MOG, and at the same time do in-depth, critical listening to the music I own on Red Book disc and better. The stuff I hear on MOG that absolutely knocks me out usually becomes a purchased item.

    There's a wonderful essay on Late Brahms that closes the most recent book (Listen to This) by The New Yorker's Alex Ross, with a list of recommended recordings in the appendix. Using MOG I've been able to follow the bread crumbs and stream all kinds of related music, including piano rhapsodies and pieces played by Radu Lupu, the 1943 Furtwangler Brahms 4th, some Klemperer Brahms, and the great (earlier) Op. 25 piano quartet with Martha Argerich. In other words, a whole lot of exploration with maximum flow and minimum expense, in extremely decent and creditable sound. I ended up buying a Bruno Walter 4th and the fantastic Carlos Kleiber/Vienna 4th, and wouldn't want to give up the order-of-magnitude improvement in depth and detail I get from owning this masterpiece in uncompressed physical media . Synergy.

    If I had a very tight student's budget or needed to dramatically cut my expenses I would probably keep the MOG subscription and stop buying CDs and LPs, but I'd really miss the dive into the full tangible deep-end beauty that gets slightly veiled in 320 streaming files.
     
  17. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
  18. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    Neither discogs, allmusic nor amazon.com has the Apex album listed. They all just list the Nonesuch with the read cover and the Japanese goldfish print that supposedly inspired Poissons d'or.
     
  19. Tangledupinblue

    Tangledupinblue Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Now more Hindemith, with another great new discovery I've been playing this evening and I'd like to share with this video:

    [​IMG]



    And once again, here's the vocal score for anyone who can read music and is prepared to spend an hour of their time listening to this work (and to those who like any kind of modern 20th century music, it really is worth it):

    http://imslp.org/wiki/Das_Nusch-Nuschi,_Op.20_(Hindemith,_Paul)#Vocal_Scores

    The CD (recorded 1988, according to my scanty source material) sadly appears to be out of print (thank god in this modern age for YouTube!), and is another Hindemith rarity that's seldom been recorded let alone staged. But it deserves to be heard at least once as a concert performance, because it's another fascinating, exciting and highly imaginative and ingenious work. While it belongs to the early 1920s expressionist trilogy of one-act operas I mentioned in post #992 of CMC thread #48, and shares some of Sancta Susanna's harmonic language, it's otherwise quite different in mood and tone, more colourful and capricious in manner, and remarkably diverse in style. It's a work that, intriguingly while it often looks back (again Strauss, Mahler and even Wagner are clear influences, along with the French school - both the impressionist and more modernist but playful bi- and polytonal aspects of it - and this time a fair bit of Diaghilev Stravinsky for good measure), it also looks forward more to Hindemith's mature neoclassical style and trademark harmonic idiom of the later 1920s and 1930s, respectively with its use of clearly defined but freely clashing and independently conceived counterpoint, characteristic use of fourths, sevenths and pilings up of thirds and titillatingly distinct and often strident orchestration with its concentration on and delight in exploring the unique timbres of the individual instruments (particularly the winds). There's also a fair amount of exotic and oriental influences absent from the other opera, contributing to its lighter textures and overall mood. But the work is enormously wide ranging in emotion, from sweetly mellifluous and mainly diatonic passages that could have almost been written the previous century through tuneful and earthy folk-like dances to the positively savage and radical dissonances that dominate the final scene, containing some of Hindemith's most uncompromisingly modern music to date. It's certainly a work that in the end must have greatly perplexed if not scared the living daylights out of much of the Stuttgart audience during its 1921 premiere, especially after the relatively accessible and often deceptively cheerful opening scene. Now to try to track down a good recording/performance of this, assuming I can't find a copy of the above...
     
  20. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
  21. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    That is a great album.
     
    Mark B. likes this.
  22. Scott Wheeler

    Scott Wheeler Forum Resident

    Location:
    ---------------
    Love Stravinsky. If you want to check something out that is way cool check out The Rite of Spring. The premiere of this ballet caused riots in the audience. A very powerful piece of music. Pretty close to everything in one work.
     
  23. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    George, I am very impressed with your third listen of the Krips Mozart Symphonies set. I have never managed to go beyond the first listen of any of my box sets ... :hide:
     
  24. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Just ordered the following CD's at Presto this evening ...

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
    [​IMG] [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  25. RiRiIII

    RiRiIII Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, Greece
    One of the most fervent champions of Hindemith's music is Herbert Blomstedt who made fabulous recordings in the laste 80s, early 90s of his core symphonic/orchestral output with the San Francisco SO and Gewandhaus Leipzig O. All these are gathered in a cheap 3-cd set for Decca:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hindemith-O...375946608&sr=8-1&keywords=blomstedt+hindemith

    Highly recommended! I cannot imagine a better Hindemith set combining performance and audio excellency.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine