Classical Corner Classical Music Corner

Spinning this fine performance.

 

Now enjoying a gorgeously recorded and played 2CD set.

 

I don't think I have any of his recordings.

 

His Chopin Mazurkas and Nocturnes are wonderful.

 

Now playing on the TT:

 

Some more recordings I have not heard. I am sure they are great performances with Inbal at the podium.

 

Spinning-

 

Spinning......have not listened to this in a long time.

 

MOZART: Requiem - Academy of St. Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner (1991 recording, US Phillips CD)

 

Great recording!

 

Well, to be honest I picked it up because of Marriner's previous work with Mozart (Amadeus)

 

Found this at a Goodwill recently - spinning now:


Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 'Pathétique'. New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein. DG

 

One of my faves!!

 

It's a well-regarded version of the Requiem.

They have the Amadeus 2 CD soundtrack at the local charity shop for $5 and I was about to buy, unfortunately it has a deep scratch across most of the first CD.

 

I picked mine up after research on the best available performances of the work. Great sound too!

 

Curious what you think of the tempo. The performance is around 15 minutes longer than most other performances.
I think in this case the ultra slow tempo works..... at times.

 

The finale on that recording is devastating.

 

It works for me, but I'm already a big Bernstein fan and I know this recording's reputation for its tempo. I'll have to give it a second listen sometime. I'm surprised it's 15 minutes longer than average, that's huge! This one is slower but it doesn't feel that slow.

 

Peter Serkin
CPE Bach
Sonatas, Rondos and Fantasias fur Kenner und Liebhaber
Vivace, 2020
6 CDs
There are 37 works here on a modern piano, recorded March 2018.

 

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5; Scenes adapted from ...Pilgrim's Progress
Martyn Brabbins
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Hyperion, 2020
There seems to be a fine performance of the Symphony No. 5 here if you can get past the recorded sound. The balance is not good, the double basses sound tubby, while the upper strings are strident, the mids are recessed. My guess is the acoustics of Watford Colosseum. Overall the basic sound is recessed and distant.

Didn't they put Stokowski in Watford for some of his last recordings on Columbia with a pickup orchestra called the National Philharmonic? I thought it sounded terrible.

 

Solti is well-recommended. I would take a look at the Karl Böhm Ring cycle as well. It was recorded live, and while the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra can't compete technically with the VPO, Böhm always had a firm handle on the big works and this massive cycle is no exception. He has great soloists too, and sometimes that live energy adds something the studio runthroughs are missing.

 

Have fun leaping. I started with the complete Karajan ring on CD, not as popular nowadays but I enjoyed it.

I don't have a video to recommend sorry, but have enjoyed instrumental highlights discs by Klemperer and Stokowski. They are in boxed sets with other CDs so not sure if they are available separately.

Hmm - seems I'm not much help

 

That should be a treat. I heard him in recital a couple of times, and I found him to be a wonderful Bach pianist. Granted C.P.E. isn't the same as J.S. by any stretch, but I'd still expect good things.

 

I think your instinct to get the visuals is spot on; in fact, it's the only way I'd go were I starting from scratch. I never cared for Wagner at all until I saw the Live From The Met broadcasts back in--oh, I guess it was the early '90s or so. I'd always found his music overblown and excessive, and to some extent I still do (he was an awful human being, simply awful, and I think that comes through clearly in his music), but once coupled to the stage action what had been "too much of a bad thing" was revealed as highly effective theater. Wagner wrote opera as a seamless whole, music and stage action fused into a single entity, and divorcing the former from the latter inevitably is deleterious.

I think this is the one I saw: https://www.amazon.com/Wagner-Nibel...words=levine+wagner+dvd&qid=1610508380&sr=8-1

There may be better out there, but it worked for me.

[edit] I would also advise avoiding any of those annoying director's vanity productions that try to "update" the setting by dropping into the Washington Metro or dressing the characters in a mix of Victorian and Beatnik garb or whatnot. One thing I liked about the Met production was that it was old-fashioned traditional to a T.