What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[LMcD]

I imagine pastoralguy was referring to the ARCHIV produktion collectors edition 463 731 - 2 Haydn: The Sturm und Drang Symphonies. The full set contains 19 symphonies and the CD length varies form 50'30" to 71'09". To find it stillsealed for £1 is a bargain indeed.

I suspect some charity shops don't know how many discs are in a set and give them all the same price. And if they're having a clearance sale ('Everything for a pound') there may even be some rarities the value of which they are unaware . I've once or twice advised them to increase the price of something I think is worth a lot more than they're asking.

Of course, a lot of this requires expertise beyond what one can expect from a volunteer. I, for example , would be quite unable to distinguish a real pearl or diamond necklace, worth many thousands of pounds, from a cheap imitation.

An oversight of which I have been known to take advantage on occasions, but I sometimes offer them. say, a fiver for something priced at a pound and ask them to treat the change as a donation. One thing I learned while a volunteer in a charity shop was that any price-related query is more likely than not to be unwelcome, and in the case of national charities pricing policy is generally dictated from HQ. The manager of a local charity shop will have little say in the matter.

[pastoralguy]

I imagine pastoralguy was referring to the ARCHIV produktion collectors edition 463 731 - 2 Haydn: The Sturm und Drang Symphonies. The full set contains 19 symphonies and the CD length varies form 50'30" to 71'09". To find it stillsealed for £1 is a bargain indeed.

I suspect some charity shops don't know how many discs are in a set and give them all the same price. And if they're having a clearance sale ('Everything for a pound') there may even be some rarities the value of which they are unaware . I've once or twice advised them to increase the price of something I think is worth a lot more than they're asking.

Of course, a lot of this requires expertise beyond what one can expect from a volunteer. I, for example , would be quite unable to distinguish a real pearl or diamond necklace, worth many thousands of pounds, from a cheap imitation.

[gurnemanz]

A wonderful disc. I’ve had it for more than 30 years. (Which I guess means I should check whether it still plays.)

I originally acquired the recording as an Eterna LP in Leipzig, DDR, in the 70s. It still lurks in the garage.

[smittims]

Brahms : Symphony no.1. The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult.

'Arguably the best version at present available' said the Penguin Guide fifty years ago. Sir Adrian makes the exposition repeat in the first movement ,Later in the decade James Loughran and the Halle did this in their bargain version.

Jimmy was one for repeats. He made more repeats in Beethoven's fifth than anyone else I've heard. Quite a treat.

[oliver sudden]

Brahms : Symphony no.1. The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult.

'Arguably the best version at present available' said the Penguin Guide fifty years ago. Sir Adrian makes the exposition repeat in the first movement ,Later in the decade James Loughran and the Halle did this in their bargain version.

Jimmy was one for repeats. He made more repeats in Beethoven's fifth than anyone else I've heard. Quite a treat.

He even did the much bigger repeat in Brahms 2! Off for which I take my hat.

Personally I don’t think Beethoven 5 has a single repeat too many. Indeed if the Scherzo is done just as ABA’ (instead of the ABABA’ that one often hears, but which apparently is no longer the favoured scholarly option after a few years of so being) it somehow feels to me like a repeat too few.

[Petrushka]

Personally I don’t think Beethoven 5 has a single repeat too many. Indeed if the Scherzo is done just as ABA’ (instead of the ABABA’ that one often hears, but which apparently is no longer the favoured scholarly option after a few years of so being) it somehow feels to me like a repeat too few.

Agree with this. Of LvB 5ths on my shelves I think that only Norrington, Harnoncourt and Abbado in his second BPO cycle recorded in Rome do the Scherzo repeat. I always feel short-changed when all I get is the 'normal' version

[pastoralguy]

Joseph Haydn.

Symphony No. 59 in A Major. ‘Fire’.

The English Concert directed by Trevor Pinnock.

[smittims]

Haydn here too. Symphonies Hoboken I : 1 to 4. The Philharmonia Hungarica , Antal Dorati.

I decided it was time to revisit these famous recordings when I found four boxes of the Lps in a charity shop last week. They are among the cleanest second-hand LPs I've ever seen, silent surfaces after one dry wipe . As always I wonder who owned them and how many times they played them. In this case I guessed i was someone who decided to collect them , played them once, put them on a shelf, died. Son and Daughter-in-law : What's this? Ugh, classical, boring. Charity shop?

Their loss , my gain.

[visualnickmos]

Haydn here too. Symphonies Hoboken I : 1 to 4. The Philharmonia Hungarica , Antal Dorati.

I decided it was time to revisit these famous recordings when I found four boxes of the Lps in a charity shop last week. They are among the cleanest second-hand LPs I've ever seen, silent surfaces after one dry wipe . As always I wonder who owned them and how many times they played them. In this case I guessed i was someone who decided to collect them , played them once, put them on a shelf, died. Son and Daughter-in-law : What's this? Ugh, classical, boring. Charity shop?

Their loss , my gain.

I read your post with Alan Bennett's voice in my head!

[oliver sudden]

Haydn here too. Symphonies Hoboken I : 1 to 4. The Philharmonia Hungarica , Antal Dorati.

I decided it was time to revisit these famous recordings when I found four boxes of the Lps in a charity shop last week. They are among the cleanest second-hand LPs I've ever seen, silent surfaces after one dry wipe . As always I wonder who owned them and how many times they played them. In this case I guessed i was someone who decided to collect them , played them once, put them on a shelf, died. Son and Daughter-in-law : What's this? Ugh, classical, boring. Charity shop?

Their loss , my gain.

The slow movement of 4 is one of my very favourites.

[smittims]

Glinka : A Life for the Tsar. Boris Christoff, Bulgarian opera chorus, Lamoreux Orchestra, Igor Markevitch.

Although it plays for over two-and-a-half hours I suspect this is a cut performance: Act two lasts just over 20 minutes and seems to consist of two dances and a chorus! The part of Antonina, Susanin's daughter, perhaps surprisinlgy a coloratura soprano in a Russian opera, is brilliantly sung by Teresa Stich-Randall, otherwise known to me only for her phenomenally beautiful Sophie in the famous Schwarzkopf/Karajan Rosenkavalier.

[Stanfordian]

Giacomo Meyerbeer
‘Le prophète’ grand opera in five acts (1849)
Ricordi edition of the score (2011)
Jean de Leyde – John Osborn (tenor); Fidès – Elizabeth DeShong (mezzo); Berthe – Mané Galoyan (soprano);
Le Comte Oberthal – Edwin Crossley-Mercer (bass baritone); Zacharie; Anabaptist – James Platt (bass);
Mathisen, Anabaptist – Guilhem Worms (bass baritone); Jonas, Anabaptist – Valerio Contaldo (tenor)
Lyon Opera Chorus, Maîtrise des Bouches-du-Rhône,
London Symphony Orchestra & members of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra /Sir Mark Elder
Recorded live at 2023 Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Grand Théâtre de Provence, Arles, France
LSO Live, 3 SACDs

[richardfinegold]

Glinka : A Life for the Tsar. Boris Christoff, Bulgarian opera chorus, Lamoreux Orchestra, Igor Markevitch.

Although it plays for over two-and-a-half hours I suspect this is a cut performance: Act two lasts just over 20 minutes and seems to consist of two dances and a chorus! The part of Antonina, Susanin's daughter, perhaps surprisinlgy a coloratura soprano in a Russian opera, is brilliantly sung by Teresa Stich-Randall, otherwise known to me only for her phenomenally beautiful Sophie in the famous Schwarzkopf/Karajan Rosenkavalier.

Not being an opera buff, I’ve always wondered how much different this one became when the Soviets rebranded it as Rusland and Ludmila

[smittims]

The 're-imagined ' version was actually Ivan Susannin. I used to have the Soviet-era Melodiya recording but I can't recall how it differed from the original.

Ruslan and Ludmila is a different opera.

[Jonathan]

P.Scharwenka's Piano music vol.2 on Toccata Classics - very good but the standout piece for me is the Rhapsody, Op.85 no.1. it's fantastic!