Richard Strauss - Vier Letzte Lieder & 12 Orchesterlieder, sung by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Beyond beautiful!
Vier Letzte Lieder is one of Strauss’ best works, IMHO. Not a huge fan of the composer, but I also think Tod und Verklärung is quite special.
After the hair-raising Xenakis (both mine and that in their bows!), I needed something more soothing.
Had a successful trip to the thrift store today . Starting with this: Debussy: La Mer; Trois Nocturnes. Boston Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis. Philips
Spinning in the CD player: Ludwig van Beethoven, Max Bruch, Kyung-Wha Chung, Klaus Tennstedt – Violin Concertos EMI Classics – TOCE-7730 This is the Japanese release of 1992. Beethoven recorded live in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam 29-30 November and 1 December 1989. Bruch recorded at Abbey Road Studio No. 1 on 8-10 May 1990.
Fountains Of Rome-Pines Of Rome-Respighi, Fritz Reiner conductor, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Living Stereo Series, RCA Red Seal, SA/CD-Sony BMG Music Entertainment, 2006.
Overture to Parsifal -Wagner, Bayreuther Festspiele, cond. Hans Knappertsbusch on cd, Universal Music, 1964/2001.
Listening to Dvořák Symphony No. 7 from this 3-LP box set. Istvan Kertesz / London Symphony Orchestra Recorded in 1964 by Decca / Reissued in this box set by Vox in 1975.
Mono, pressed at Capitol's plant in Scranton, PA. Recorded 6/13-15/60, Studio No. 1, Abbey Road, London. Producer: Peter Andry. Engineer: Christopher Parker. Issued in France on Columbia. The first U.K. issue I can find is on HMV Concert Classics. Of course, it was also issued in stereo.
Four-LP set pressed in Italy & issued in 1974. Recorded 1971-73 in Switzerland & the Netherlands. The booklet lists three LPs with the 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies, but there is a fourth LP with Opera Paraphrases included. Its catalog number follows that of LP 3 in sequence, so apparently it's a bonus rather than an additional LP that wound up in the box.
Sibelius Piano Trio in D major ‘Korpo’, JS 209 Jaakko Kuusisto (violin), Folke Gräsbeck (piano), Marko Ylönen (cello) Sibelius is one of my ‘Top 10’ favorite composers (hell, he may actually be in my ‘Top 5’ now that I think about it), but I have never thought much of his earlier chamber music. Much of it is charming, but there’s a lot for forgettable material here. I’m surprised that he didn’t burn a lot of this music or simply withdrawn it altogether, especially knowing what a perfectionist he was. The later chamber works like the Voces intimae string quartet, for example, is a masterpiece and it’s too bad that not much came later in his compositional career aside from those Pieces for violin and piano. Anyway, I’m thankful to own all his early chamber music as it does offer a glimpse into the composer’s earlier style and affords us the opportunity to hear where he was musically at this particular juncture.
Second listen to recent arrival "Stravinsky - Petrushka, The Firebird / Ravel - Miroirs, La Valse" performed by Beatrice Rana on Warner.
Spinning in the CD player: Shostakovich and Prokofiev - Luba Edlina, Yuli Turovsky – Sonatas For Cello And Piano Chandos – CHAN 8340
Sibelius Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105 New York Phil. Bernstein Majestic, powerfully emotive --- this is Bernstein in Sibelius at his best. I own the earlier issued set of these performances, but I took a chance on buying a CD download via Qobuz of this remastered set and I must admit the sound quality is much better here in this newer remastering. I should’ve bought this set when it was first reissued, but I honestly didn’t think much about it as I thought that it wasn’t going to be much better than what I already owned. Another instance where I need to jump on these things before they go out-of-print!
Ah sorry, took it for granted. The composer is Beethoven and the box set is Beethoven The New Complete Edition by Deutsche Grammophon. This one:
OK, it's not December yet, but I was in the right mood. Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker (complete ballet) - Ashkenazy/RPO (mine is a Decca, though) This version uses a children's choir for the Waltz of the Snowflakes, who I note are directed by Ronald Corp, who also conducted the Hyperion version of Sullivan's The Golden Legend which I picked up a few months back. Small world.
A new arrival in the player for a first listen: Joseph Haydn - Symphonies 41, 48 ("Maria Theresia") and 65 - Pinnock/EC I the cover art in this series, hence my decision to get the original discs rather than the Collectors Box. Not sure exactly what this is supposed to be, but I'm pretty sure I fought a boss in Chrono Trigger that looked a lot like this! Rather annoyingly, I think this might be a UK PDO disc potentially prone to bronzing - it's distinctly rosy of colour on the top rather than silver, and says Made in UK on the silkscreen. The playing surface seems fine though, so I guess I can live with it. All my other old Archiv Pinnock/EC are Silver-to-the-Core German PDOs. The irony is that they all came from UK sellers, while this UK-made disc came from a big German bulk shifter, Momox.
Ive been listening to The Nutcracker at night when reading, full score, but on two cds where I have to get up and change it
I sometimes have bought used PDO Made In UK discs from the River and they were clearly bronzed. This is not only discs from UK, but also elsewhere in Europe. Annoying that the buyers would offer such discs for sale. I always insist on a refund and then track down a Made in Germany or France version. This was a classic culprit..... Took me a while to source a German made one..... from a dealer in Italy ! There is a list of affected discs here Classical Net - CD Buying Guide - Bronzing - Possibly Affected CDs but it is unfortunately not complete. For example, there are quite a few affected DG discs (like this Giulini disc) not included. However, it may be of help to forumites.
