Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #70)

Thank you for this. I was thinking about purchasing it but wanted to hear some first. Wow:

 

This box is quite nice. As usual, I have yet to have the chance to go for a second listen ...

 

CD or LP? I have the original LP set but have the CD's in a big box ...

 

It matters little to me since my entire classical music collection does not have any new blood conductors anyway.

 

Now playing CD11 - Beethoven Concerto No. 1, Sonata Op. 54 with Munch and the BSO from the following box for a first listen ...

 

More vinyl--an excellent performance and recording. Vinyl helps to tame the early digital harshness.

 

Pretty much the standard "great discussion, friendly, lots of ideas exchanged"...at least that's the official face they put on it. I think he people they want are locked into contracts elsewhere...

 

Now playing CD8 - Bruckner 8th from the following box for a first listen ...

 

I have the LPs but these were the CDs from "The Baroque Era" box.

 

Earlier , say 30 years ago, I subscribed Mahler's (grandiose) idea* that a symphony must include (or somesuch) the whole universe (or somesuch). Today I'm more of a formalist guy. An artwork must have a lucid form and recognizable structure(s). A symphony does not need choirs & solo singers. If a composer can't express his symphonic ideas without them he'd better write Lieds or pinpanalley stuff.

(* An idea he expressed also while visiting Sibelius; I've, so to speak, moved from Mahlerian camp to Sibelian camp - thanks to composers and musical thinkers like Brahms, Debussy and Stravinsky.)

 

Now listening to "Handel - Orlando" performed by The Academy Of Ancient Music conducted by Christopher Hogwood on L'Oiseau-Lyre.

featuring:
(the lovely and talented) Emma Kirkby - soprano
Arleen Auger - soprano
Catherine Robbin - mezzo-soprano
James Bowman - countertenor
David Thomas - bass

From "The Baroque Era" box.

 

Sometimes it's a heady experience to have the whole world in your hands, but sometimes we crave something on a more personal scale.

 

Louie CK has a great bit where he describes packing the kids in the family car for a vacation, loading everything in the trunk and then closing the door for his wife. He then describes the slow walk all around the car, with everyone inside, as his vacation.

 

This theme goes back a long way. Here's a chorus from "My Wife's Gone to the Country," which I have sung by Bob Roberts (big entertainment name in those days) on an Edison cylinder from around 1905 or so:

My wife's gone to the country,
hooray, hooray!
She thought best--
I need the rest--
that's why she went away.
She took the children with her,
HOORAY! HOORAY!
Now I'm with you if you're with me,
my wife's gone, away!

Now, if that were sung in German, we'd call it "lieder," we'd all think it was something deeply profound (sort of the way the humble "record album" seems ever so much more meaningful when rendered as "schallplattenalbum"), and it would be on-topic fare for the CMC!

 

Indeedy

 

Johann Sebastian Bach – Complete Lute Suites: BWV 995, 996, 997, 1006a — Sharon Isbin, guitar (Virgin Classics)

 

George,

In an earlier instalment of this topic you said you liked Horowitz in Schumann:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/classical-music-corner-thread-60.380909/page-39#post-11158359

Can you recommend a particular CD? I'm especially interested in his 1969 Columbia recording of Kreisleriana. I'm not a Horowitz fan, on the contrary, but his Schumann seems to be good.

 

I have this CD, which does have the performance you want. I just spot tested the sound, as I hadn't hear it in awhile, and at first, I thought that performance sounded noise reduced, as there was no hiss and it sounded a bit muffled, but the other tracks on the CD, recorded around the same time as the Kreisleriana, clearly have ample tape hiss and don't sound muffled.

 

Thanks, much appreciated. Do you still like it?

I was thinking of getting this CD, which seems to have the 1962 studio version of Arabeske (your CD has the 1968 live version) but is missing Kreisleriana:

 

I am too tired now to listen to it all, sorry. But I know that Kreisleriana is one of those classic recordings.

I was thinking of getting this CD, which seems to have the 1962 studio version of Arabeske (your CD has the 1968 live version) but is missing Kreisleriana:

 

OK, thanks.

 

Spectacular playing and sound.

 

I have the LP set as well and my CD version is in the following box ...

 

I have this CD in my collection as well. It must be the only version of classical music on guitar for me ...

 

Now playing CD12 - Beethoven Appassionata and Funeral March from the following box for a first listen ...