Definitive Recordings...

[umslopogaas]

#79 cloughie. Bring on Michael Flanders! 'Have some Medea m'dear, you'll find its a dangerous year. I've got a small LP track of it here. And once its been played, you know it will worry, so finish it up, it will stop you from sleep.

But she looked at her dagger and ignored all his wiles, thrust it thus and made for the portal. Free at last! she paused to take breath in the classical allusions ... until the next morning, she woke up in bed, with numb feet and a druidical phalanx led by Medea and it was threatening her auditory apparatus, they stimulated it a bit and said, have a Medea, m'dear.'

The response is not recorded.

Yet.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

#79 cloughie. Bring on Michael Flanders! 'Have some Medea m'dear, you'll find its a dangerous year. I've got a small LP track of it here. And once its been played, you know it will worry, so finish it up, it will stop you from sleep.

But she looked at her dagger and ignored all his wiles, thrust it thus and made for the portal. Free at last! she paused to take breath in the classical allusions ... until the next morning, she woke up in bed, with numb feet and a druidical phalanx led by Medea and it was threatening her auditory apparatus, they stimulated it a bit and said, have a Medea, m'dear.'

The response is not recorded.

Yet.

[Karafan]

Yes, I bought it from the first of these two.

Thanks EA and Makropulos.

K.

[Barbirollians]

#71 gamba: Crespin in Nuits d'Ete. Seconded, definitely. And seconded too a previous poster who mentioned Brendel playing Schubert. I got to know D960 from Brendel's 1970s LP and it haunted me for weeks, I couldnt get the tunes out of my head.

For me, to name but two among many possibilities: Janet Baker singing Elgar's Sea Pictures, coupled with Jacqueline du Pre playing the Cello Concerto, wonderful disc. And a real tour de force, Callas in the last fifteen minutes of Cherubini's Medea. In that brief time Medea murders her children, sets fire to the temple, summons the Furies, shouts "To hell with the lot of you" and rides off with them to Hades. The people flee in terror, and so do I. I've heard other fine voices rising to the challenge - Rita Gorr and Gwyneth Jones, to name but two - but Callas is in a class of her own. She can make me want to cower behind the sofa.

Now I always thought Baker/Barbirolli was the definitive Nuits d Ete record . Crespin doesn't move me in the same way - gorgeous as her singing is .

[Thropplenoggin]

Listening to Richter's 1950s Melodiya accounts of Schubert D.850 and D.845 recently, I found myself thinking "this, this just can't be done better". When I first had it, and took out Uchida and then Kempff, I simply couldn't listen to them for more than a few minutes. Or anyone else. Not a good thing perhaps? Now Paul Lewis has done them, but dare I buy it, or even try it...?

Have any recordings or live performances done this to you - prevented you from enjoying other readings... or even stopped you listening to the piece, perhaps for some time, drained of all response, all passion spent?

Luckily with Richter's Russian Schubert readings I still can return to them, but as for others...

Hi,

I have had the exact same experience with Debussy's Etampes: 'Pagodes' as played by Richter. He really drags it out to over 6 minutes, but I have always found it utterly exquisite and never bettered. The warm analogue sound only adds to the loveliness. When I hear it played at a faster tempo, which I expect are normal or more accurate to the score, it makes for an uncomfortable listen.

It's the same with Richter and Schubert's Sonata No. 18 in G D.894 (Decca) - it just feels so right. I'm now falling under Furtwängler's spell for Beethoven's 9th - a recent discovery for me. I doubt it'll become definite, though - just a necessary alternative view in the collection. I wonder whether this has something to do with discovering a piece or timing - I often find that a specific moments in my life, I have been more receptive to certain composers and their works. Mahler has taken years to grip me as he now does.

[amateur51]

Hi,

I have had the exact same experience with Debussy's Etampes: 'Pagodes' as played by Richter. He really drags it out to over 6 minutes, but I have always found it utterly exquisite and never bettered. The warm analogue sound only adds to the loveliness. When I hear it played at a faster tempo, which I expect are normal or more accurate to the score, it makes for an uncomfortable listen.

It's the same with Richter and Schubert's Sonata No. 18 in G D.894 (Decca) - it just feels so right. I'm now falling under Furtwängler's spell for Beethoven's 9th - a recent discovery for me. I doubt it'll become definite, though - just a necessary alternative view in the collection. I wonder whether this has something to do with discovering a piece or timing - I often find that a specific moments in my life, I have been more receptive to certain composers and their works. Mahler has taken years to grip me as he now does.

This is all excellent news Thropplenoggin - welcome to the Forum!

I was fortunate to attend a concert by Richter at London's Royal Festival Hall in which he played D.894 in a hall lit only only by his desk lamp and it was wonderfully slow and utterly compelling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX4NH7yHFKI

[Caliban]

Congratulations on a fabulous pseudonym too, Thropplenoggin

Might one enquire as to its origin?

Sounds like a real ale one might find in deepest Yorkshire.

Congrats too to ammy on having had that amazing evening with Mr Richter

[amateur51]

Congratulations on a fabulous pseudonym too, Thropplenoggin

Might one enquire as to its origin?

Sounds like a real ale one might find in deepest Yorkshire.

Oooh I was going to arxe too Cali but as you know I'm too shyyyyy

[Richard Tarleton]

[COLOR="#0000FF"]Congratulations on a fabulous pseudonym too, Thropplenoggin

Might one enquire as to its origin?

Likewise - how did I miss your first four posts? Were they buried in Jazz, or World Music?

My offering for this thread is on a smaller scale - Julian Bream playing Britten's Nocturnal after John Dowland. Never want to hear anyone else play it.

[Thropplenoggin]

Thanks for the welcome and curiosity one and all.

Dr. Y. U. Thropplenoggin, self-styled ethnosexographer and boshmonger, is a satirical comedic creation of mine, who has run amok across the interwebs for a few years now. More of his exploits can be found here: Boshmonger

The source of the name remains a mystery even to me. Divine inspiration? Drunken afflatus? I honestly can't recall.