What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

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  • Ian Thumwood
    Full Member
    • Dec 2010
    • 4693

    More Naxos Scarlatti for me today.

    I just think that you can never get fed up with this composer. The Naxos series appeals due to the fact that the recordings are all on piano but each disc is by a different pianist. This is quite appealing to me.

    Comment

    • Barbirollians
      Full Member
      • Nov 2010
      • 12559

      Dvorak Cello Concerto - Fournier/BPO/Szell - an old friend of a record . Good to remind oneself just how good it is.

      Comment

      • smittims
        Full Member
        • Aug 2022
        • 5944

        Thanks, Pulcinella, so it must be quite early if it was mono only, as Decca were recording Ansermet in stereo from mid-1954.

        That 'Mono Years' box presumably contains both of his early Petrushkas, the wonderful 78rpm. Ravel Scheherzade with Suzanne Danco (better,I think,than their LP remake) and the famous Boutique Fantasque with the LSO. It was at this last session,I suspect, that Ansermet is said to have made his notorious remark , attempting to show off his knowledge of colloquial english:

        'You English, you think I know f-ck nothing , but I tell you, I know f-ck ALL!'

        It was several minutes before the recording could continue.

        Its only fair to point out that, like some 'Beecham stories' , I have heard this one attributed to another conductor.



        Comment

        • Petrushka
          Full Member
          • Nov 2010
          • 13016

          Originally posted by smittims View Post
          Thanks, Pulcinella, so it must be quite early if it was mono only, as Decca were recording Ansermet in stereo from mid-1954.

          That 'Mono Years' box presumably contains both of his early Petrushkas, the wonderful 78rpm. Ravel Scheherzade with Suzanne Danco (better,I think,than their LP remake) and the famous Boutique Fantasque with the LSO. It was at this last session,I suspect, that Ansermet is said to have made his notorious remark , attempting to show off his knowledge of colloquial english:

          'You English, you think I know f-ck nothing , but I tell you, I know f-ck ALL!'

          It was several minutes before the recording could continue.

          Its only fair to point out that, like some 'Beecham stories' , I have heard this one attributed to another conductor.


          I heard it was attributed to Knappertsbusch.
          "The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard Haitink

          Comment

          • teamsaint
            Full Member
            • Nov 2010
            • 25489

            Mahler 6.
            Currentzis/ Music Aeterna

            I think Jane Lee Wilson may have been a big fan of this. And perhaps rightly so.
            I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

            I am not a number, I am a free man.

            Comment

            • smittims
              Full Member
              • Aug 2022
              • 5944

              Sibelius: Symphony no.1 and Karelia Suite. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Lorin Maazel.

              The Sibelius series for the Sixties was Decca's line at the time, perhaps suggesting that it was a stereo successor to their famous mono set with Anthony Collins the previous decade.

              I was never a Maazel fan so I haven't followed his career, though I know he did some fine work with this orchestra later, including a Bruckner 5 and , unusually for them, The Rite of Spring. Listening agan to the Sibelius I was impressed by the recording , outstanding for 1964, and by the quality of the playing. I don't know if Maazel ever returned to Sibelius or if he did much in concert. I've even wondered if he was 'standing in' for someone else. Decca may have hoped Karajan would do a series , had he stayed with them into the '60s.

              However,there is much to enjoy here, not least the splendid colour photos if Finnish lakes and forests on the sleeves.




              Comment

              • Petrushka
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 13016

                Originally posted by smittims View Post
                Sibelius: Symphony no.1 and Karelia Suite. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Lorin Maazel.

                The Sibelius series for the Sixties was Decca's line at the time, perhaps suggesting that it was a stereo successor to their famous mono set with Anthony Collins the previous decade.

                I was never a Maazel fan so I haven't followed his career, though I know he did some fine work with this orchestra later, including a Bruckner 5 and , unusually for them, The Rite of Spring. Listening agan to the Sibelius I was impressed by the recording , outstanding for 1964, and by the quality of the playing. I don't know if Maazel ever returned to Sibelius or if he did much in concert. I've even wondered if he was 'standing in' for someone else. Decca may have hoped Karajan would do a series , had he stayed with them into the '60s.

                However,there is much to enjoy here, not least the splendid colour photos if Finnish lakes and forests on the sleeves.



                That Sibelius LP was my introduction to Sibelius when I bought the disc in 1975.

                I've often wondered whether some of the Decca projects of the 1960s (Schmidt-Isserstedt Beethoven, Solti Ring, Maazel Tchaikovsky and Sibelius cycles) were originally pencilled in for Karajan.
                "The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard Haitink

                Comment

                • AuntDaisy
                  Host
                  • Jun 2018
                  • 2254

                  Marin Marais - Alcione - Jordi Savall, Le Concert des Nations.
                  New to me. With two hefty booklets to read (& admire the pictures).

                  Comment

                  • smittims
                    Full Member
                    • Aug 2022
                    • 5944

                    Thanks, Petrushka. You may be right except for the Solti Ring which I think came about only because John Culshaw campaigned vigorously for Solti; in Ring Resounding he almost gives the impression that he made Solti's career as a conductor! Decca already had a perfectly good stereo Ring , recorded at Bayreuth in 1955 (Keilberth) so I think it was Culshaw's promotion of Solti that persuaded them to go to the immense expense of a Vienna Ring.

                    My own introduction to Sibelius' symphonies was Malcolm Sargent on Music for Pleasure! I'm just listening now to Maazel's seventh on YouTube , which the Penguin Guide called 'the greatest since Koussevitzky' , praise indeed.

                    Comment

                    • Stanfordian
                      Full Member
                      • Dec 2010
                      • 9523

                      Mozart
                      Piano Concerto No. 17, K453
                      Piano Concerto No. 25, K503
                      The Cleveland Orchestra / Mitsuko Uchida (piano)
                      Recorded Live 2016 Severance Hall, Cleveland, Ohio
                      Decca, CD

                      Vesselina Kasarova – ‘Love Entranced’
                      French Opera Arias by Meyerbeer, Berlioz, Thomas, Gounod, Lalo, Saint-Saëns, Massenet
                      Vesselina Kasarova (mezzo-soprano)
                      Münchner Rundfunkorchester / Frédéric Chaslin
                      Recorded 2001, Studio 1, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich
                      RCA Red Seal, CD

                      Comment

                      • Barbirollians
                        Full Member
                        • Nov 2010
                        • 12559

                        Schubert 9 -COE/Harnoncourt .

                        Comment

                        • Ian Thumwood
                          Full Member
                          • Dec 2010
                          • 4693

                          Reading the excellent Sisan Tomes book about the piano, she mentioned the Polish composer Maria Syzmanowska . I had never heard of her before but she was allegedly an influence on Chopin . She seems under recorded too.

                          I really recommend this book. She is generally positive about a wide range of music. Enough in there to agree and disagree with.

                          Comment

                          • pastoralguy
                            Full Member
                            • Nov 2010
                            • 8277

                            Having listened to a lot of Schumann, courtesy of the Brendel Big Box, I’ve invested in the complete piano music of the composer who Elgar described as ‘My ideal’ played by Florian Uhlig. I’m really looking forward to hearing all the music contained herein.

                            I’ve always loved the late piano music of Brahms and I hear it pre-ordained in some of Schumann’s music.

                            Comment

                            • cloughie
                              Full Member
                              • Dec 2011
                              • 22587

                              Originally posted by smittims View Post
                              Sibelius: Symphony no.1 and Karelia Suite. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Lorin Maazel.

                              The Sibelius series for the Sixties was Decca's line at the time, perhaps suggesting that it was a stereo successor to their famous mono set with Anthony Collins the previous decade.

                              I was never a Maazel fan so I haven't followed his career, though I know he did some fine work with this orchestra later, including a Bruckner 5 and , unusually for them, The Rite of Spring. Listening agan to the Sibelius I was impressed by the recording , outstanding for 1964, and by the quality of the playing. I don't know if Maazel ever returned to Sibelius or if he did much in concert. I've even wondered if he was 'standing in' for someone else. Decca may have hoped Karajan would do a series , had he stayed with them into the '60s.

                              However,there is much to enjoy here, not least the splendid colour photos if Finnish lakes and forests on the sleeves.



                              The 60s’ Sibelius cycle with Karelia Suite and Tapiola was indeed superb. He did in fact revisit Sibelius with the Symphonies for Sony but they lack the energy that made the Decca set special.

                              Comment

                              • Jonathan
                                Full Member
                                • Mar 2007
                                • 1037

                                Yesterday at just after midday, we we're stood in the square in Messina, Sicily listening to Schubert's 'Ave Maria' over the PA following the striking of the clock. There are a series of mechanical figures who proceed while the clock strikes.
                                Best regards,
                                Jonathan

                                Comment

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