Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #30)

Excellent! Where did you sit? I have never heard the opera; I did put in an order for this, which is out Nov. 1.

 

Same here. One of my first CD's was a recording of Bartok's "Miraculous Mandarin" - praised to the hilt back in the 80's by the old Stereo Review. They pointed out how it was a demonstration-quality recording, which it was. Only problem was I couldn't stand the music (melodically to me a big zero).

Personally, haven't had much luck with Schoenberg either.

 

Re Bruno Walter

You must be kidding!

 

I have that disc. I'm a big fan of Bach's kids. CPE, especially, WF to a lesser extent, JC 'the London Bach' not too familiar with yet (but Mozart was a big fan). The Gramophone Award-nominated 2010 Harmonia Mundi recording of Andreas Staier playing CPE's harpsichord concertos is well worth the money.

 

This is THE recording of Bruckner's 9th!

 

THe BIG FIVE: this picture must be with us all the time :



http://members.macconnect.com/users/j/jimbob/classical/bigfive.html

 

Thanks for these! In case you do not have it, check the following. One of my favorite CDs ever:

 

Klemp was Big Man On Campus, wasn't he?! Looks like a defensive end/John Wayne stand-in.

 

Got that one, by far the best performance of this piano masterwork I've ever heard. His virtuosity and sense of colour in possibly the most challenging and sonically dazzling work of the 20th century is just spectacular.

Going back to the Brahms debate, I too have somewhat mixed feelings when it comes to liking his music. Some of it is indeed among my favourite music of all time, but at his worst (or should I say least interesting) it does get bogged down somewhat in stuffy academism and pedantry, with this preoccupation with sequential repetition, triplet rhythms and as B.H. Haggin put it, "the inevitable sawing away in cross-rhythms in development sections". I, like many people, tend to prefer the piano pieces and later works and the more lyrical side of Brahms although the clarinet trio and the 4th symphony are among my favourites of his and there isn't a great deal of melody there to speak of. And there are plenty of works from his early to middle periods I love; the Cello Sonata in E minor, Piano Quintet, the German Requiem (one of my top 5 classical pieces of all time in fact), the Violin Concerto, string sextets, the orchestral Serenade no.2, many of the songs, the symphonies for the most part (although the earlier the symphony the less I tend to like it). But as for the rest I've heard (although I admit there's still an awful lot of Brahms I've yet to hear, especially regarding his chamber music) the music isn't consistently interesting or appealing enough to put him among my top 10 composers.

I agree though that not liking Brahms certainly isn't a requirement for liking Mahler as those two composers have next to nothing in common apart from the fact they both wrote symphonies and were influenced by Schubert, but I'd be surprised if someone who was a Mahler fanatic didn't at least like some Wagner, at least in very small doses like myself.

 

Indeed. A Giant.

Have you seen his palm? I had his Beethoven 9th on VHS, and could not believe my eyes

 

Row N in the orchestra. Slightly off to the side.

The music is excellent, especially the second act. Unfortunately, one of the replacement singers was weak.

In NYC, Donizetti's Tudor trilogy (this, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux) are closely associated with Beverly Sills who sang all three for City Opera. Until now, Anna Bolena had never been performed at the Met.

 

I have that on an Odyssey CD. I wonder how much I'm losing out on SQ.

 

I find it odd when people claim Brahms had no gift for melody. Some of Brahms themes are earworms for me.

By the way last night, I was working on the clarinet part in the first movement of the trio. It's interesting to see how often Brahms writes against bar divisions. (This is true in the clarinet sonatas as well.)

 

Re: Bartok - try the Concerto for Orchestra, especially if coupled with the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.

re: Schoenberg - I prefer the work of his disciple, Berg.

 

Brahms composed some of the most memorable melodies, with the Poco Allegretto (3rd mov.) of the 3rd symphony being perhaps the most famous of all. "Aimez-vous Brahms" the 1961 film with Bergman and A Perkins (based on a novel by F Sagan) had this music as its main soundtrack. It si amazing how this single movement can have totally different effect among various interpretations. It can be happy, romantic, sad, nostalgic, gloomy even funeral. This is genius!

 

I would never say that Brahms had no gift for melody, he was definitely up there up with the better of the 19th century melodists, if not quite up to the level of Schubert (but who was?) and to a lesser extent Schumann, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak.

I just feel that apart from the first movement second group of the Clarinet Trio and the main melody of the 4th symphony's opening movement their strength doesn't lie so much on their melodic qualities as their grandeur, nobility, musical wisdom, highly rewarding and satisfying craftmanship, emotional contrasts between dark and light, otherwordly fusion of the distant part and then present, all of which is such a major part of so much of Brahms' best music. There are other works though that better emphasise his melodic gifts, like much of his shorter piano pieces, the orchestral serenades, string sextets, violin sonatas, the late clarinet sonatas, the middle two symphonies, many of the finales especially those in gypsy-style and of course a lot of the songs.

 

I do like this.

 

Not much, if Santa Fe Listener is to be believed: http://www.amazon.com/Bruckner-Symp...=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1319120465&sr=1-1

 

Interesting! I'll have to check out my performances of that one tonight when I get home. I have HvK 60s and Barbirolli and Furt (maybe one or two more.)

 

Let's not forget all those great counter melodies in the lower instruments.

 

George, who is your new avatar? Did one of your dates "take"?

 

No that's Charlyne Yi.

 

Thanks for the Bartok suggestion. Checked out some samples of Bernstein from a disc with the coupling you suggested. Certainly more listenable than "Mandarin." I'll check out some other takes on these pieces also as several discs pair "Concerto" with "Music for Strings ..."

 

The Reiner disc is legendary.

 

Piano?