Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #61)

Back to CD, now playing the following CD from my Handel collection ...

 

I have the two from Minnesota and a couple of the Lahti recordings and like them. The sound is great which is really true for most of what I've heard from BIS. I haven't really compared any of the Sibelius recordings that I own. I play a symphony or two a month and my musical memory isn't good enough, and I don't know the pieces well enough, to compare when they played that far apart. Something would need to be glaringly wrong for me to be able to judge.

 

Not that I know of. They did record Sibelius 2 with George Szell for Philips. A great performance, as usual for Szell.

 

I have the Choir of Westminster Abbey with Pinnock/English Concert version of the Coronation Anthems, which is great.

 

The oldest recording by the RCO I have has to be the SMP conducted by Mengelberg on Naxos Historical ...

 

I believe I have that version too. It is the usual modern instruments vs. period instruments ...

 

Tchaikovsky's 2nd Concerto is a perfect vehicle for Matsuev's white-hot brand of Golden Age virtuosity and passion. The piano is very forward in the mix, but at least we can clearly hear the thousands of notes he's playing. The sound is a bit flat and sterile in stereo, but it blooms rather nicely in multi-channel.

 

Interesting, I have the same combo of conductor/pianist with the same orchestra on the same label but performing Rachmaninov in my collection ...

 

So do I--it's one of my favorites. I heard that same combo play the Rach 3 in San Francisco a few years ago--it was even more electrifying.

 

Aren't we talking about different eras for the orchestras? Orchestras have their ups & downs.

 

My score at a sale this morning: 40 LPs, 12 CDs & 20 cassette tapes. All for $27.81.

 

Today's "while away the hours as my daughter trains at the gym and ice rinks" project was my favorite set of Chopin's 3d Pno. Sta. in B Minor, op. 58. The pianist was also annotator, and, thinking some might enjoy these rather "different" program notes, I'm sharing them below:

[begin quoted matter]

To my mind, Chopin's B Minor Sonata, op. 58, is the grandest and most perfect of all piano sonatas in that it evinces the most exquisite combination of thematic and melodic invention, emotional inspiration, perfection of classic form and wealth of pianistic resourcefulness. There are other great sonatas that show several of these fine qualities, but none, to my thinking, can boast so satisfying a balance of them all. In particular the combination of formal perfection with exuberant pianisticness is unique.

....

Chopin is always a peculiarly manly composer--in spite of the ignoramuses who have dubbed him "lady-like"--but nowhere more so that [sic.--than] in the first movement of this sonata, which conjures before us the athletic Chopin of his early manhood and is positively Wagnerian in the heroic quality of its themes and its polyphonic harmonic stir.

The iridescent sparkle and sweep of the Scherzo--as spontaneously brilliant as a shooting star--is a fine example of a type of passage-work that was Chopin's special invention.

The Adagio breathes one of the broadest and most soul-satisfying melodies ever conceived by Chopin or any other composer--a guitar-accompanied sweetly impassioned serenade. In this movement we have the romantic Chopin of the Nocturnes alternating with that side of Chopin that had its roots in the slow harmonically-pregnant arpeggios of several Bach preludes; for Bach was, in several respects, the pianistic parent of Chopin--more than any other single composer.

The last movement--a magnificent climax to a monumental work--is a dashing equestrian epic. The vast plains of Russia and Poland have always reared a race of horse-riders and the influence of this factor in the national life manifests itself very obviously in the music of these two countries. One thinks at once of the suggestion of horses' hoofs in the first movement of Tschaikowsky's Fifth Symphony and the dance-rhythms of Balakirew's "Thamar" and "Islamey," and of countless examples in Eastern-European folk-music and art-music. But nowhere in all Slavonic music are the "rhythms of riding" more exhiliratingly apparent than in the finale of this Chopin Sonata, which is a veritable "Mazeppa" in its own way, gradually cumulative in its almost frenetic rhythmic on-sweep and surging foam-flecked and thunderous to a triumphal close.

[end quoted matter]

I'll be honest: the last movement does not remind me in the least of "Thamar"--maybe because I've never heard "Thamar," or even heard of it, for that matter. I have heard Islamey more than once, but I never really noticed horse hoof rhythms in it; perhaps I should revisit the piece with that in mind. (One of life's mysteries: why do people insist on orchestrating Islamey, whose sole musical virtue is its insane technical demands on a solo pianist? Simplifying those demands by spreading them across an orchestra does nothing to enhance the piece's threadbare content as music, at least to my mind/ear.]

 

I looked up the most recent rankings a week ago or so ...

 

Yes, but the BSO cycle was recorded in the 70s and the first LSO RCA cycle was recorded in the 90s.

 

Which was the point I was trying ineptly to make.

 

OK...and the pianist's name is...

 

About a decade ago, I got a set of Zelenka's Trio Sonatas performed by Heinz Holliger et al as an unexpected gift. Perhaps because it was unexpected (and I was unfamiliar with Zelenka) it ended up in the wrong place, and I totally forgot about it. Finally, while retagging my discs, I came across it, ripped it and am now listening to them. They are most enjoyable.

 

I saw a ballet set to that music last spring. Not a great ballet (and not my favor Sibelius)

 

For what it's worth, Gramophone's rankings was done in 2008, which makes it a little dated. Also for the record, the BSO ranks #11 in the top twenty of that same list, which is not exactly chopped liver as the saying goes.

 

It's actually one of seven U.S. orchestras to make the top 20 (and I'll bet Scott would complain about the egregious omission of the L.A. Phil ).
But it really is irrelevant to the discussion of the Sibelius cycles. How many members of the 2008 (or 2014) BSO played on the Davis recordings of 30+ years earlier?

Edit - my bad - the L.A. Phil is on the list.

 

Just heard this recording on Spotify, and it's simply incredible- must be the best Bruckner 8th by Haitink to date. The tempos are relatively broad, especially the adagio, but it all holds together very well, in no small part due to the gorgeous playing by the Staatskapelle Dresden. Very fine live sound, big and open soundstage, with a slight compression and a hint of distortion, only in the loudest passages, but otherwise the sound is very natural and well balanced (and some incredible brass in the finale!).

Highly recommended for anybody who loves Bruckner.

 

This is an incredible CD, it must be the best Tempest on record, nobody comes even close.

 

I am aware of that. For decades, the world top three orchestras have been BPO, RCO and VPO, when was the last time an American orchestra even made it into the top five? Like it or not, CSO has been the top dog among the American orchestras for years. Moreover, money alone cannot put your local orchestra into the world top rank, look no further than the Houston Orchestra with all that big oil money. Unlike most Europeans, average American just does not have classical music as part of the cultural fabric.

 

I may have some recordings of LAPO with Giulini in one of his earlier big boxes, though it is definitely not an orchestra I follow. I have a fair number of recordings by Salonen, but they were all with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a fine orchestra in the European tradition. I do have a few recordings by the SFO by Herbert Blomstedt but do not really care for Michael Tilson Thomas ...