Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #30)

So two nights of concerts in a row for me with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Last night I heard Richard Goode in a piano recital: Mozart's C minor Fantasy, K. 475; E-flat Major Sonata, K. 281; Beethoven's E-flat Major Sonata, op. 31/3; and, after intermission, several pieces by Chopin: a Nocturne, op. 55/2, Scherzo No. 3, 3 Waltzes, and Ballade No. 3. I wasn't overwhelmed by the Mozart but in the Beethoven Goode had an extraordinary ability to define phrases and vary the force of his playing. This may have been even more pronounced in the Chopin, particularly the Scherzo, which, a few missed or smudged notes notwithstanding, was phenomenally virtuosic. I hadn't thought of him in that way, but this really had my eyes and mouth open. Unfortunately he hasn't recorded the piece. I wish he would.

Tonight I saw the Takacs Quartet in an invigorating program of twentieth-century pieces, Janacek's first quartet, inspired by Tolstoy's "Kruetzer Sonata," and then Britten and Ravel. Edward Dusinberre gave spoken introductions to each piece, and of the Janacek they played short excerpts to show us the signposts. I really appreciated that and had the chance to thank him afterwards backstage after I'd bought their new Haydn discs and was looking for autographs. Anyhow these dudes are the top tier genuine article, so passionate. Geraldine Walther, the violist, told me she'd been the principal in San Francisco for 30 years. Thirty years! Suave Don Giovanni that I am, I asked how she could have started there at age 12.

 

What Britten quartet did they play BTW? He wrote five, the first two in his teens, with the next three being the numbered ones. I think I've heard all of them (own 2 and 3 on CD), and TBH like a lot of Britten's non-vocal music they left me somewhat cold, with the exception of the last, which has a really nice finale. Haven't heard the first (ie No.1) for a long time though...

 

I haven't heard it since the original broadcast. I'd love to hear it again. Seriously one of the best hours of radio a classical music fan could ever hear.

dan c

 

to a Southerner (like me) & probably to someone from Michigan, West-Coast
natives tend to have a sort of non-accent.

 

Svedja has his own distinct accent. It is almost Marin county like. souds very snobbish, propper and pretentious. It cracks me up

 

Oh, how we miss Marin here in Colorado. The CSO is still struggling to fill the void created by her departure (not blaming her at all). Canceled concerts, shuffled programs, and apologetic emails have been the norm this season.

I do, however, get to see Alsop once or twice a year in Baltimore (my mother-in-law sings in the BSO chorus).

 

CBS SBRG 72001,from 1959.this is the English pressing,released here on
Columbia MS 6075.for some reason a different cover drawing was used.
No.3 recorded 11/28/58;No.4 recorded 11/28/58 & 12/8/58.produced by
Thomas Z. Shepard & Howard Scott.engineer(s) unknown.
MS 6075 photo from the internet.

 

Yeah, it's definitely not your typical Metro Detroit accent. One would never in a million years guess he's from Michigan.

He opens his program every night with the first 60 seconds of the familiar melody from the beginning of the third movement of the first Piano Quartet by Bohuslav Martinů. When the strings come in he says with utmost seriousness: 'Good evening...this is Jim Svejda'. At the end of the broadcast, same music with 'This is Jim Svejda...good evening.' I love it, it's like waiting around to watch Gary Coleman say 'Watchoo talkin' bout, Willis!'

 

CBS Masterworks 36686,from 1981.producer:Roy Emerson.recorded in Abbey
Road Studio No.1,4/24/80.engineer unknown.this is billed as a "Mastersound
Audiophile Pressing" & appears to have been half-speed mastered at CBS in
New York using the " DisComputer System".sound is pretty good,but not outstanding.

 

Columbia Masterworks ML 5007.these are available from Naxos outside the
US.they give the date as 1955.good close-up mono sound.

 

We have KVPR. I find the sound quality too low to bother with Valley Public Radio. Besides which, we have a fantastic Jazz FM station with great sound—KFSR, so that's my default when listening to FM. If I want to hear classical music, I have lots of CDs and LPs to play with.

 

Yeah - I have BFO/Fischer on SACD, and they're a lot of fun.

For some lighter calorie Dvorak comfort food, try the string and wind serenades (often paired, as on my Orpheus recording). I remember hearing the wind serenade for the first time played by a student orchestra on my first and only visit to Tanglewood. I bought the music the day I got back.

 

I've seen Goode a few times, most recently last winter on the evening of a blizzard. He was playing music for two pianos with Jonathan Biss, and the concert included some thorny stuff, four hand arrangements of Beethoven's Grosse Fugue and Stravinsky's Agon. I'm not sure if the regular page turner couldn't get to the hall or what, but whoever was turning pages kept messing up. Goode would have to turn them back. I've never seen that before.

 

There's a Stokowski/RPO recording of The Dvorak Serenade coupled with the Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia, nearly his final studio recording. It is spellbinding:

 

Both recorded on 3 March 1958 and issued both as mono ML 5285 and as stereo MS 6007 (Mitropoulos had recorded this one also with the Minneapolis SO on 2 March 1945; 78 Columbia 12873/74, ML 4196).

This NYPO Tallis was reissued in an all Vaughan Williams CD in UK, coupled with Mitropoulos groundbreaking recording of Sym 4 (rec 9 Jan 56) and Stokowski's rec of the 6th:



http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vaughan-Wil...=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1321103480&sr=1-2


The complete Mitropoulos LP you got was reissued Japan in 1996 as SRCR 1702:

 

The D Major, op. 25, from 1941. I don't remember if I'd heard it before, I don't think I had. It was probably my least favorite of the three pieces they played. They were committed to it though and it was at least interesting to hear texture of the first movement, an unsettling sound.

 

That is unusual! Jonathan Biss is very good, no? I've not seen him yet even though he's been featured a couple times here.

 

I listen to the radio only when I'm in in the car. (CD player went on the fritz a year or so ago.) To my knowledge there's no good option for classical music in Philly, and I don't think classical music can be heard well while driving anyway, certainly not in my old truck. Around NYC I listen to Columbia University radio, WKCR, which is a great blend of jazz, classical, and other odd stuff, though sometimes with DJ's who sound like undergrads and are totally clueless. On the other hand they sometimes have some great announcers. Also in NYC there is the NYTimes classical radio, which is now around 105 or 106 FM, I can't remember where exactly. It used to be 96.3 I think. That said when I'm driving at night across the GW Bridge I usually go for the dance pop. Keeps me awake.

Occasionally I'll listen to the Met radio broadcasts. I don't take the snobbish sounding announcers very seriously; I find them kind of silly. A put-on English accent and deliberate diction to tell me about Tosca knifing Scarpia? Ridiculous. This stuff is life, man! Verismo!

 

How long has Marin Alsap been with the CSO (Colorado Symphony Orchestra)? Wasn't she with some British orchestra before she came to CO?

 

This is very good...

 

I have been re-watching the Scrubs series on DVD and there's a very funny moment when Zack Braff says something like that to his co-star (the original Willis.)

 

Looks like we are almost at 1000 posts....I have thread number 31 ready to go here.

 

two different actors.

 

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