Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #10)

great picture - where is that ?

 

Academy of Music in Philly. The picture is kinda weird looking though. Looks like a million watts of lights were lit when they took the photo.

PS- I plan on visiting Germany soon. My grandfather was born in Germany but I cannot remember the city. My last name is Reim.

 

Is this Planets available on CD?

 

You bet. Cheap too. It is at Amazon. Good sound.

 

Nice Scandinavian-made CD player ...

 

It must have been recently re-issued. A few years back, any DG recordings by Steinberg on CD were hard to find.

 

Now playing CD2 from this set ...

 

not really finding anything decentto play it took Wilhelm Furtwängler to get my attention and appreciation back. His reading of Schubert's 9th is awesome..so very different from any other version I heard (and I heard a few good ones recently). Very calm and collected the Wiener Philharmoniker ( VPO ) were in fine form in Stockholm on May 12th 1943..
Following is a Roasamunde with the BPO from 1929. That is a record - my oldest Live concert... CD 3 from a 5 Cd set HALL OF FAME (Beethoven/Wagner/Bruckner/Brahms & Schubert).

 

MUSSORGSKY - Pictures at an Exhibition, etc. / Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (RCA Victor / Living Stereo 09026-61958-2)

One of a few new purchases, I just finished listening to this. I found this performance of Pictures pleasant enough, but for all the acclaim it's gotten, I thought it was kind of unremarkable compared to a couple of others which I have; Slatkin & St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on MMG/Vox, for example. Or the one by Eduardo Mata and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which I think is a pretty interesting and unusual interpretation. Maybe further spins will reveal its attributes more.

BUT, this performance of Bald Mountain is STUNNING! Compared to three other versions I have, this one's just ferocious! I mean, it simply SMOKES!! Wow.

I enjoyed the other pieces on this CD, but have no other versions of any of them to compare.

Just what I need.

 

I won't tell you how nice this one is.
Cuz you don't have that much space so I won't contribute to your crowdage.

 

Please don't!

 

Now playing this old favorite from my collection ...

 

"Hit it, Zubie Baby!"

So I will

Not my favorite Resurrection but you'll need one eventually. Lenny's first two recordings work just fine for me but YMMV.

 

I like his NYPO recording on CBS, especially the new remaster in the box set. And I like the DG recording, too. The LSO recording at the Ely Cathedral is a sonic mess, the worst-sounding CD I bought until the original US Stones CDs came out.

 

Actually, I'm not really a fan of vocals in Classical music, so I'm not likely to try any of the symphonies which include a chorus. But I'm sure I'll probably try one or two of the others.

 

I know what you mean about the Ely Cathedral recording, but somehow the hazy blur works fine for me. Must have something to do with having listened to that recording on LP for the most part. My ultimate Mahler Resurrection is hearing Michael Tilson Thomas direct the San Francisco Symphony in a front row seat back in 1998. The SACD he made later doesn't compare. I know I've gone through a lot of recordings of the piece and will probably get the recent Bernstein NYPO remasters. Wonderful opening movement on that recording, full of menace and fury.

 

Hey: just play the instrumental movements.

Seriously, the Second Symphony may be Mahler's best.

 

Now listening to this Mahler 7, which arrived today (got it sealed off American eBay for $11 incl. shipping to Europe). 3 symphonies still left to complete my first crème de la crème cycle...

 

And MTT's SACD ain't Half Bad either

Howizit? I'm still partial to Lenny on Sony.

 

I like the Tilson-Thomas SACD, but most times, I'll play the DG Bernstein.

 

I love this version. I italicize because it was such a surprise: I never liked anything before by Barenboim, and then he goes and records what became one of my favorite 7ths. This is an odd symphony for me. The imprint concept fails to work here the way it does with most of Mahler, and I am able to listen to all kinds of different interpretations of the 7th.

 

I remember Solti's LPs decoded via SQ turned out to be pretty good Quad—the music appreciation class at College of the Sequoias had a surround system with four AR 3a's and a Dual turntable. Pretty nice for 1973. Solti's performance is another unexpectedly fine performance. Guess I'll have to hunt down the Barenboim recording, I do love the piece.

 

Well, I'm listening to this CD for the second time in a row, and, quite predictably for Mahler (and this is, after all, one of his strangest offerings), I'm discovering colors, shades and whole music pieces which hadn't jumped at me during the first listen. And what a pacing!

Just wish me to unplug my lovely IEMs slightly before I'm deaf, since it's one of those good 'ol full-range redbooks which should be listened to loud. Its bass alone can put to shame many undercooked hi-rez discs.

 

Ah, Haydn -

I stated at some point in the past that as much as appreciate Mozart for his ability to capture and express human emotion through his music, I enjoy Haydn for his ability to simply revel in the music itself. That skill is - arguably - most clearly demonstrated in the string quartets. Hearing the instruments play off one another, his inventiveness within the comparatively fixed set of rules that defined the classical era, the frequent surprises (by no means limited to the symphony that bears the nickname) for me exemplifies the joy of music.

 

And I will have to get Solti's.

Back when I started listening to Mahler, it was mostly a choice among Bernstein, Solti, and Tennstedt. I chose Bernstein and Tennstedt, and really didn't listen to Solti, about whom the Penguinettes used phrases like "hard driving." Then later, when I started to buy records, I found I liked a lot of his Mahler, 5 in particular.

I started buying all of his Mahler on LP. Unfortunately, a mint-looking M3 sounded like absolute rice krispies, so that ended our relationship. (You know how I am about surface noise.)

He does a really interesting M2 in Decca's The Originals series. I fell in love with it at first hear about two years ago.