Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #5)

Richter's Op. 7 and 26 are my very favorite recordings of those works. His live Pathetique on Melodiya is second only to Moravec's stunning performance. His Tempest, Appassionata (live Melodiya) and his Opus 54 second only to Annie Fischer. His 49/1 is great too, only Gulda does it better. I enjoy his late sonatas as well, but in each case I have at least three favorites ahead of him.

 

I am listening to 32 now and yes he is incredible

Have you heard the new Andras Schiff set on ECM? It's kind of idiomatic but it 's becoming one of my favorites.

 

It's been a great night. I'm havin a ball.

You'll have your work cut out for you finding great sounding recordings, as most of his stuff is not in great sound. The Schubert issue of Richter the Master series is a nice place to start if you like Schubert and the sound is very good.

 

I am essentially into baroque and early music but do have a good sized collection of piano works. I am starting to boost my collection of Richter's recordings ...

 

Do you enjoy the early Casals works?

 

Now playing

 

Yeah I've noticed the SQ issue, which you mention at times. Still, I really want to hear some of his work, even if the sound isn't that great.

Apparently, we don't do much opera here Here's one of my favourites - the opening Sinfonia always reminds me of Bugs Bunny cartoons This was one of the DG "Originals" I replaced with an old WG CD too. Now playing (recorded 1971):

 

If you like violin, I would suggest to get the Brahms Violin Sonatas Nos. 2 & 3 with Oistrakh/Richter. I have it on a Melodiya 5-cd set called David Oistrakh Edition and they are great.



They might be also available separately.

 

I am a huge opera fan and this is a great performance.

Teresa Berganza is a great mezzo, I like most of her recordings especially her Gluck.

 

I had to look up who that was I'm not that au fait with the masters from earlier in the 20th century, as I basically "don't do" historical recordings. Trust me, I consider it a failing in myself - I'm just too much of an audiophile. Thanks for the heads up though - an interesting read on Wikipedia. He was even awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom!

 

I posted this a couple weeks ago I think.
http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/page/0,,1943867,00.html

It is Schiff giving pretty extensive lectures on all 32 sonatas, and playing parts along the way. My thoughts on his playing varied a lot from piece to piece. Sometimes I thought it was different but cool, other times lets just say I had to end the lecture early. But he does seem to know what he's talking about. I think Schiff is either dead on or waaaay off. But who's really to say which it is...we've basically got a bunch of academics trying to translate scribblings (cough), uh manuscripts from 2 centuries ago. The pianos were different too.

 

Sweet, thanks. I'm not familiar with Oistrakh, but I do love Brahms. My favourite violinist is Heifetz, although I suspect his appearance on a large number of those lovely Living Stereo SACD's might have something to do with that

 

I agree, this is truly a magnificent performance. Have you heard Abbado's Magic Flute from a couple of years ago? Superb!

 

There's a Beethoven CD on Melodiya that has live performances of the Pathetique and the Appassionata that I can recommend ahead of every CD he has put out and many others that are simply incredible. His Rach 2 wth Wislocki is almost universally held in very high regard. This is the one CD that I have in Originals and first pressing form. I don't hear much difference myself. I can give you links if you want them.

 

Vladimir Horowitz was awarded the Medal of Freedom as well ...

 

If we keep up with this rate of posting, we will be at thread #6 come next weekend ...

 

The Hoffman Classical Corner almost warrants its own sub-forum!

 

Thanks George, I have those works on other recordings. I'll probably look at some Schubert first, since all I have by him is the String Quintet.

 

You know I didn't realize until today that the forum this thread is under is called Music Corner. The link at the top just says music. When I named this thread when we converted from a purely listening thread, I had a heck of a time choosing a name, eventually choosing Classical Music Corner, again unaware that the forum it's in is called Music Corner.

 

Richter's Schubert is like Hoffman's mastering - superb, special and unmatched!

IMO, of course.

 

I'm sure's there some kind of mathematical set theory at work there George. You could probably draw a Venn Diagram of it

 

I actually like that we have it all on one thread. Easier to keep track of. I have another forum and a news group I frequent to discuss classical and when I am there I miss the simplicity of our setup here.

 

That's true, it is working well.

I just made a post in another thread. I feel like a traitor

 

There's other threads?

 

I'm playing follow the leader on this one, now spinning the final great Sonata, #32.