Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #10)

It truly scares me - how many of Fifths, Sixths, Seconds and Eights I must have to get all I need from all those freaky interpreters of this freaky composer. And here you come with the Seventh...

 

The CW is that the 7th is Mahler's least popular symphony. I have always loved it, placing it above all but the 2nd and the 6th, and some M3s. It always surprised me that anyone else wouldn't just go nuts over it.

 

Coincidentally those are the three cycles I own today.

 

I felt the same way at one point. Keep listening to Mahler's Second and it will eventually grab you.

I saw the 2nd performed in Phila by the Concertubow. I have to admit, when the singers stood up to sing the final verses in the last movement, the power and beauty was overwhelming. It was one of the most incredible moving moments in music that I have experienced.

 

Oh yes absolutely!!
Keep an open mind....some aspects of Classical just takes a while to grow on ya.
I was the same as you but Choral Music has slowly fitted into my palette.
Opera....well that's a different story.....but I remain open minded to it.

 

Things Ain't What They Uuuused To Be

There was a time I was taken by opera, but I grew out of that phase

Choral music, that's an orchestra of voices. "You Vill Get Uuuused To It", as Otto Klemperer used to say.

 

The 7th is a masterpiece. The depiction of "dusk to dawn" is incredible. The tonal shifts are masterful.

 

Uh, oh....


Anyway... now playing:



BARTOK: Concerto for Orchestra, Dance Suite - Solti & Chicago Symphony Orch., CD (London 400 052-2)

This was my "imprint" version of the Concerto, and despite an annoyingly noticeable edit in one spot, it remains my favorite. I've heard about four or five others over the years, but none quite matched up for me.

 

Not even:

?

 

No, that's not one of the ones I've heard.

Mainly, I just wanted a version without that glaring edit, but each one I heard (can't remember specifics anymore) had something or another which irked me even more. Either a tempo or two that didn't work for me, or the sound of the percussion, or an occasional intonation problem, etc.

These various comparisons made me realize just how much I enjoyed Solti's version. And so I gave up the search and now happily live with the bad edit. Well, not HAPPILY, but let's say that I forgive it.

 

If you want a really smokin BB Concerto for Orch get this. Awesome sound too.

 

Never knew Richard Strauss was such a giant of a composer, this readings rock mos def ! Top notch sound quality as well !

 

I bought this SACD a few years ago but it really did not do anything for me. Bartok's music is an impossible nut for me to crack ...

 

Now playing CD3 from this set ...

 

Purchased this set late last night from an Amazon US MP vendor at an excellent price. Plan is to add another 20 titles of early music to my collection by end of the year ...

 

Just ordered these 6 volumes of Handel Italian Cantatas this evening ...

 

The Mercury Living Presence SR 90378 is another one I kind of like. Do you know that one, Dorati & the LSO. It's considered one of prime Mercs.

 

Wow, neat design, and you know I like a good design right.

Yes, Richard Strauss can be some real first class stuff. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben w/ Mehta, & the NY Philharmonic is one of my first classical purchases ever. From the Masterworks CBS label Columbia Record club 1982, or was it 83?

Anyway, they offered it a special club selection and I thought why not. It came in that deluxe package like the rock Mastersound stuff came in, and sound was pretty fine I thought at the time. I should revist that LP.

 

Well, give the Reiner SACD a try—it's a SACD you can still find for less than stupid money and nobody's more idiomatic in Bartok than Reiner.

 

I am a major sucker for any chamber wind music and this cd is an absolute gem. It is OOP , but still can be had on the secondary market.

 

Same here, orchestral or his string quartets.

 

Hi Jay,

Who have you heard in the SQs?

Also, have you heard the Piano Concertos? Anda/Fricsay on DG are great!

 

I've heard the Julliard and Emerson versions and the quarter has yet to drop. The Piano Concerti also leave me cold. Any slam-dunks in this repertoire?

Perhaps it's because I heard the pieces early in my musical education, but Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste always worked for me particularly Reiner's recording. The Wilhelm Furtwängler/Yehudi Menuhin recording of the Second Violin Concerto strikes me as the most unusual coupling of Modern musical language to Late Romantic musical gestures. And Bluebeard's Castle is so direct and so dramatic, one would have to be deaf not to react to it. But those quartets are some kind of work.

FWIW, love the Kronos Quartet recording of T. S. Monk mainly because it reminds me so much of Bartok.

 

Patricia Kopatchinskaja

I am in love with this. Few more CDs on Naive are on the way.....

 

The Emersons on DG. I bought them because they won Gramophone's chamber music award one year. I listened to them a fair amount, decided I didn't like them, sold them, rebought them years later, listened to them once, then said to myself, "You know, it really is okay not to like something. The world as you know it will not end." And I sold them a second time.

I don't think I have heard those, George. Maybe I should give them a try. But I'll get them from the library.