Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #30)

A CD with my favourite Schubert sonata (D 894) and favourite impromptu (No.1) - now, if it had my second favourite sonata (the big A minor) I might be sorely tempted...

Or maybe not, as I'd actually be pretty keen to hear D 850, which seems to be rarely performed (I don't have a recording and have almost never heard it on the radio or seen it on concert programmes).

 

I wanted the CD of Janos Starker's version but the guy at B&N told me that "it's out of print" so I bought Maurice Genron's version instead.



Excellent performance, highly recomended.

 

I've been told this one is great (it was reissued in budget form this year)-



http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=593753

 

Heh, I'm from Pittsfield MA originally.

 

Oooh, now that's one with possibly my favourite piano piece of all time.

Have to thank this forum for the "show all posts by..." feature to help me keep track all these recommendations I haven't bothered to note.

 

It is a small world. Joe, You probably know where Jiminy Peak is. My wife's sister and her hubby used to have a ski condo there. They only sold the condo early this year ...

 

The D850 or the Liszt Sonata?

 

The Liszt.

And that's against some pretty tough competition - late Chopin, the Hammerklavier, the Prokofiev war sonatas and plenty of 19th/20th century French stuff.

 

That work has yet to really grab me. I like the more poetic, spiritual side of Liszt more than the showman/pyrotechnic side.

 

My best friend has a hourse on a plot of land in the shadow of Jiminy Peak, and he gives ski lessons there.

 

Now playing:

• Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 - William Steinberg / Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra [EMI Classics 2011, from 20CD 'Icon' boxed set, recorded in mono on April 15-16, 1954, Producer: Richard C. Jones, Balance engineer: Frank Abbey, remastered in 1997]

 

But that work has plenty of both, probably more of the former if anything. And apart from a virtuoso passage in one of the development sections it's not even that technically difficult by Liszt standards - I've managed to more or less play it myself from start to finish.

Have a look at this and the section starting near the bottom of page 18, and especially the passage starting round page 22 which anticipates Debussy by almost half a century - and now tell me all that isn't "poetic and spiritual".

http://erato.uvt.nl/files/imglnks/u...S178_Sonata_in_B_minor__breitkopf_1st_ed_.pdf

I think you should give it another listen.

 

Nonesuch 79041,from 1983.produced & engineered by Max Wilcox.a digital
recording made with 2 Schoeps MK-2 microphones in RCA Studio A in NYC,
3/82.mastered by Michele Stone,Elektra Sound recorders.wonderful music.

 

I lve this one....got it cheap at a local Used CD place.
Pure luck as nobody round here is into Classical Much it seems.
Excellent recording a Penguin Guide Top Rosette Award winner too!!

 

Hummm interesting!
Someone had a brain fart in the Art department one day apparently!

 

listening to the Chopin disc from this set.like the Nonesuch LP shown above,
this was produced & engineered by Max Wilcox at RCA Studio A,NYC,using the
same recording set-up.recorded 4/5-7/82.

 

I have heard many different pianists play it. It's not as if I hate it or anything, it's just not one of those works that makes me eager to return to it. But then, most of Liszt is like that for me.

 

Indeed.

It absolutely deserves a CD release.

 

OK, fair enough. For some reason I thought Liszt was one of your favourite composers because I'm sure I've seen you mention him a fair few times, or maybe I've muddling you with another poster (perhaps not even on this forum!).

 

It must be the latter. There are many composers that I enjoy more than Liszt. I liked him a lot more when I began collecting.

 

je ne sais what?

I'm going to guess that Liszt was a true manic—my favorite Liszt performances have a certain je ne sais psycho. Absolute favorite has to be the Mengleberg/Concertgebouw Les Preludes. It's well out of copyright and the fidelity is very early electric. The performance is very electric. The music itself reminds me a great deal of the B Minor sonata, with its wide swings from quietude to hysteria. Mengleberg's commitment is total.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L2RDSNu44w

Ervin Nyíregyházi, that great train-wreck of a musician, is the other performer that sounds convincing in Liszt, though I recall an old recording of Cortot in the B minor sonata that worked for me. The two legends performed by Nyíregyházi have that same quality of commitment I hear in Mengleberg's conducting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ov0IA1dVek

This may seem far afield, but Kent Nagano's recording of Bruckner's first version, radically different version of Bruckner's Third Symphony belongs in the same category as these performances.

 

I can't say that I took them to immediately, but I love the sound of the cello, so I listened to my disc quite occasionally. I didn't find these pieces easy at all in the beginning (I'm really getting into them just now), but I always found them fascinating because they sound so "modern" to me. A bit like the late string quartets by Beethoven - ahead of its time. A sound I wouldn't usually associate with a baroque or classical composer. But maybe I just don't know enough compositions for solo cello and that's why they sound so unusual to me.

 

I'm with George, and we listen to almost none of the same pianists. I have, or had, it by Brendel, Bolet, Arrau, and Lewis. I tried it in the '80s and in the '00s, and have come to the conclusion after all these years that I just don't like Liszt's Sonata very much. I don't hate it. I just don't play it.

 

Mahler's 1st

I found this LP of Leinsdorf and the BSO performing Mahler's 1st symphony at a library sale recently. It's an early RCA Dynagroove with breathless technical detail on the back. Incidentally, it mentions that they used 4 microphones and tape ran at 30 ips.

It's squashed, dynamically compressed and distorted near the inner grooves but overall has a nice warm sound. I decided to buy the late-90s era remaster on the sadly short lived 'High Performance' series. As a bonus it also includes the Mahler 3.

This is reference sound at its greatest. Awesome and jaw dropping, epic production.

I haven't listened to a Mahler work in a long time. I love the composer but it's somewhat daunting to take it all in. The 1st is so accessible and delightful I can't stop listening. The 1st and 4th movement in particular are on 'hits' rotation on my iPod these days! This sounds most fantastic between the speakers at home though.

dan c

 

Mit Schmaltz

Leinsdorf has a good remake with the RPO on Decca Phase4. Bernstein's remake with the Concertgebouw for DGG is my favorite recording of Mahler's First so far.