Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #15)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Gary, Aug 23, 2010.

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  1. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Right, but you really have to get the Smetana Quartet set of the Late Beethoven Quartets first. :angel:
     
  2. RiRiIII

    RiRiIII Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, Greece
    Thanks for the recommendation. I cannot resist to Haydn. Recently bought and enjoy the Minkowski set of the London symphonies.
     

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  3. RiRiIII

    RiRiIII Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, Greece
    Chailly's 2002 Rite of Spring with the Concertgebouw Orchestra is on DVD in the large box the orchestra released at the end of his tenure there. Highly recommended.
     
  4. RiRiIII

    RiRiIII Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, Greece
    Recommended, only if you do like the very promionent harpsichord.
     
  5. Baron Von Talbot

    Baron Von Talbot Well-Known Member

    Talking of harpsichord - This early BACH works by A. Staier on harpsichord are excellent. On Harmonia Mundi

    But what I find really charming ( listening to atm. ) is that crossover of Wynton Marsalis playing on an ancient type of horn with Katleen Battle's grogeous vocals in medieval heaven. BAROQUE DOETS .
    Worth it's weight in gold - definitely !
    Superb and highly recommended
     

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  6. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Music for the Brain

    What I find really charming is Dennis Brain playing Leopold Mozart on a length of garden hose:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgEjAvF3oPc
     
  7. George P

    George P Way Down Now

    Location:
    NYC
    I have them playing Op. 127, 131, 132 and 133. My first impression wasn't particularly favorable. Which ones are in your set?

    Now playing:

    Beethoven
    Op. 132
    Smetana QT
    Supraphon
     
  8. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC

    That's from one of the Hoffnung Festival recordings. I used to own it on LP.
     
  9. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    If you've got the later 14 bit digital:hurl: recordings, I don't doubt that you find the results lackluster.

    The set I'm referring to is a recent re-issue of their older analog recordings from the sixties and seventies with far superior sound and the most refined playing I have heard in this repertory. And the boxed set also folds in a contemporaneous recording of the op. 95 quartet with the Late Quartets and Grosse Fuge.
     
  10. George P

    George P Way Down Now

    Location:
    NYC
    No, I have the 60s recordings. Yes, the refined part is one of the reasons I don't like them.
     
  11. RiRiIII

    RiRiIII Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, Greece
    Any comment on the complete Scriabin piano sonatas with Zhukov for the label Telos?

    I see also that a new recording of these works by Anatol Ugorski has just been released.

    Of course Sofronitzky rules here but I would like to have a recent recording as well.
     
  12. WHitese

    WHitese Senior Member

    Location:
    North Bergen, NJ
    I got flimflammed...I saw Lautenwerk and I thought it ment a Lute....lol, but its the bloody Harpshichord...which after a few minutes makes me wanna jump out of the window!!

    [​IMG]
     
  13. WHitese

    WHitese Senior Member

    Location:
    North Bergen, NJ
    so now I am listening to this one...
    [​IMG]
     
  14. zen

    zen Senior Member

    Surprisingly, this set (above) left me flat for whatever reason.
     
  15. George P

    George P Way Down Now

    Location:
    NYC
    Me too. :agree:

    I know it has it's fans, though.
     
  16. Baron Von Talbot

    Baron Von Talbot Well-Known Member

    I love her voice and the way she sings Mozart. his was the first female opera / singer album in my collection. Still one of the best imo.
     

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  17. ron p

    ron p Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I've purchased several of the Brilliant Classics boxes. I have seen the Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms big boxes described and reviewed in great detail. My favorite Brilliant Box is the Shostakovich Edition. I haven't run across much talk of it so I thought I'd mention it. I haven't heard much Shostakovich that I don't like. This box is so much more than just Symphonies and String Quartets. Those are great but I've had just as much fun picking a cd at random and enjoying it. If you like Shostakovich I can't imagine not enjoying this set.

    Twenty Seven cd's with Barshai, Rubio Quartet, Kuchar and Oistrakh. Pick up the Tatiana Nikolayeva 3-cd Preludes set with it and you have a lifetime of quality Shostakovich.
     
  18. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    What is your favorite set of the late quartets?
     
  19. George P

    George P Way Down Now

    Location:
    NYC
    My favorite sets in general are the stereo Vegh and the Italiano.
     
  20. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    I've got half of the Quartetto Italiano set, love their disc with the 12th and 16th quartets, also have their set of the middle quartets. Never really warmed up to the Vegh Quartet. Also [always] have a copy of the Busch Quartet set of the Late Quartets, this time on a Pearl box with decent transfers. Managed to find the complete Beethoven quartets a performed by the Lindsay String Quartet, a Musical Heritage Society set taken from their group's first set for ASV. Not my favorite, but not bad either. I've also got the LPs of the Budapest Quartet's stereo sets of early and late quartets, a bit of a mess frankly, with patches of bad intonation. I know that their earlier recordings have greater technical security but other than their early recordings from the thirties, really don't care for their approach or sound.

    I'm surprised that there's little love for the Smetana Quartet's set of the late quartets, the quality of their playing is spot on. Maybe some folks are put off by the sheen of their playing, but the combination of expression and sheer finesse of execution has made it my favorite version for decades. What I've heard from the Takacs Quartet sounds similarly exciting, the Emerson Quartet set sounds overly mechanical to me, as does the Berg. The Guarneri Quartet turns me off with poor ensemble and a tendency to perform Beethoven as a late romantic composer. I've also got the Seraphim vinyl of the New Hungarian Quartet's Late Quartets [meh] and the La Salle Quartet's set on DGG [double meh].

    The Yale String Quartet set of the Late Quartets on Vanguard is a real sleeper.
     
  21. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Since we're on the Beethoven qtts., anybody have any thoughts on the cycles by the Pascal Quartet (on Concert Hall Society) or Fine Arts Quartet (originally on Everest, I think, and reissued on a wide assortment of second-rank labels)?
     
  22. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    The Pascal Quartet set is [as I recall] agreeably rough, much like the Vegh Quartet can be. the Fine Arts quartet set is [again, it's been years since I heard the set] tepid both in conception and execution.
     
  23. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Thanks--I have bits and pieces of the Pascals and all of the Fine Arts (in one of those Murray Hill cheapie reissue boxes), but I've never gotten around to exploring either. From what you say, sounds as if the former would be the better place to start, although I expect that the next time I get a quartet bug--something that doesn't happen all that often, I'll confess with blushing face--I'll probably go yet farther back and turn to the two qtts. that I have by the Flonzaleys or the handful that I have by the Leners...
     
  24. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Considering that you're the possessor of our local "wayback machine", I urge you to hunt down the Capet Quartet's recordings from the 1920's. My understanding is that the only recording present and played in Marcel Proust's cork-lined chamber were the 78's of the Capet Quartet performing either the Ravel or Debussy quartets. Their recordings of Beethoven's Quartets #'s 14 & 15 feature brisk tempos, very clear articulation and almost no vibrato—one could easily imagine the Capet Quartet as early HIPPsters [ahem.]
     
  25. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Thanks for the tip--I'll keep my eyes peeled. Can't say that I have anything by the Capets. Most of what I have from the 78 era is by the Budapests and Busches, with a leavening of the aforementioned Flonzaleys (including a number of single mvts. predating electric recording) and Leners, a couple of entries by the Roths and the Coolidges, and one each by the Paganinis and somebody called the Strub Quartet (on Electrola)--curiously, both those singles are the 3d Rasoumovsky. The Roths and Paganinis, of course, are on the late side.
     
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