Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #21)

Indeed, L'Incomparable

Just finished listening to CD 2 - Callas at La Scala - of this bargain 6CD set, my latest classical arrival. The set was released by EMI Music France in late 2010 and represents a stripped-down version of her complete "The Studio Recitals" box set.

Omitting later recitals obviously wasn't a bad idea, so, at last, I can hear the true Crème de la Crème of Callas studio heritage (thanks to this forum for some "agent provocateur" work ).

 

Telemann is still #1 !

Get this instead:



This is really nice and a fine pick if you want to hear something like the Brandenburg concerti but a little different.

 

BTW, there's some bargain classical CD titles I'm offering over at:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=239081

. . . with additions and current prices at the end. Anyone wanting to wheel/deal and bargain please PM.

 

For that purpose Franco Corelli will serve you better - at least, he favored photography.

 

Really delightful works. I have them by I Musici.

 

I rate them as different but equal. And for me they symbolize two types of genius: the one who perfects an art form/style, and the one who creates a new one. I am of course grossly oversimplifying the achievements of both of them.

 

Ya did good youngster.

 

In the tray:

Vaughan Williams
Symphony No. 7 "Sinfonia antartica"
Symphony No. 8

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Kees Bakels

This CD is a sonic wonder. No. 7's (3rd movement -- Lento) organ pedal notes will shake your....woofers! And on a budget label, no less.

The music is sometimes bland and other times shocking. It is difficult to describe. As one music critic said, "one is never quite sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new."

 

Thanks. This is as good a capsule summary as I've read. And let me say Mozart is #2 on my list; after these two, turmoil begins...

 

Now that we're 21, we can have a glass of wine or a good brew with our classical music when we're in the mood...

 

I have Corelli Op. 6 by Pinnock/English Concert on Archiv. Nice 2-CD set indeed.

 

For the record, I didn't consider it a game, but rather an interesting exercise that might result an interesting discussion.

 

Sorry, "game" is a bad choice of words. After all, there are no winners or losers!

 

No problem.

 

McGegan and PBO are certainly much better than that Boston Baroque and Pearlman ...

 

Now playing...



Op. 7 and Op. 10

 

Rachmaninoff

Oh, I enjoy some of his works: Etudes-Tableaux, Preludes, Third Piano Concerto, Isle of the Dead. I have a healthy sampling of Rachmaninoff in my library. He was, by all accounts, a genius of the keyboard, finishing number 1 in a survey of living great pianists last summer by BBC Music Magazine. I have his original recordings on CD. But as a composer I would like some evidence where I can find genius...especially as the 'one' of the 20th century. Schoenberg at least created a totally new style of music, twelve tones that are still resonating. Berg's Violin Concerto is a towering 20th century composition, for example, IMO. Richard Strauss's Salome and Elektra are up there. Mahler 9. I'm a big fan of Szymanowski. That's more my style. Rachmaninoff was the last of the Russian Romantics, building on the shoulders of Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Taneyev. I just don't hear genius in his works, probably because I'm not big on the thick Late Romantic nostalgia that he specialized in. The Grove Dictionary of Music in 1954 called his music 'monotonous in texture ... consist[ing] mainly of artificial and gushing tunes'. The Bells, Vespers, any of the symphonies, orchestral Symphonic Dances (I do like the two-hand piano version), any but the third piano concerto, Variations for Piano...nothing I return to with much frequency.

 

That is a great disc. Enjoy.

 

Recorded by Peter McGrath, this is the very best sounding Corelli CD.

 

Shame on them. Not just because I disagree with them but because they are supposed to be impartial. We used the Grove in college as a reference, a source of facts, much in the same way that English majors use the dictionary.

I did some googling and found this:

Source - http://artsalive.ca/collections/nacmusicbox/en/index.php?pageid=bios/rachmaninoff

 

Perhaps people who were contemporaries of any composer rarely thought highly of the composer?

 

Whether they do or not, it should not have a bearing on what they write in reference books like the Grove. The Grove is supposed to be a compendium of facts about music.

 

But the Grove of 1954 obviously reflected the views and musical tastes of that era.

 

According to the classical music catalog on my computer, this recording is in my baroque collection. But I clearly do not recall the CD cover ...

 

That is precisely what I am saying is wrong. The Grove is a dictionary. Have you ever looked a word up in the dictionary and found a subjective impression of the word? Of course not. A dictionary is not the place for criticism, opinions or subjective impressions, it is a reference book for people to find objective facts.