What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[Ian Thumwood]

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.

[Barbirollians]

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

[smittims]

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.

[Petrushka]

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.

[teamsaint]

Mahler 6.
Currentzis/ Music Aeterna

I think Jane Lee Wilson may have been a big fan of this. And perhaps rightly so.

[smittims]

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.

[Petrushka]

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.

[AuntDaisy]

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

[smittims]

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.

[Stanfordian]

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

[Barbirollians]

Schubert 9 -COE/Harnoncourt .

[Ian Thumwood]

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.

[pastoralguy]

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.

[cloughie]

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.

[Jonathan]

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.