Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #39)

Krips has grace. Pity his Beethoven cycle is such a trainwreck. His Schubert's Great C Major with Vienna is also very special.

 

Yes, his Mozart is three dimensional, you hear everything. Not wimpy or too light either.

 

A Viking Raid

Went to Amoeba San Francisco today. If you want to spend several hours looking for musical serendipity, this is the place. Got the Schuricht Bruckner SACDs of Bruckner's 8th and 9th with the VPO on EMI. Sounds more affecting and dynamic than I recall from the old Seraphim LPs. I know George will approve of my picking up Claudio Arrau's recording of the Chopin Nocturnes and Friedrich Gulda playing Beethoven's two "Hammerklavier" sonatas, op 101 and op. 106, from the Amadeo cycle of 1968. George will probably also appreciate my finding HvK's 1962/1964 performances of Brahms' Second and Third symphonies, with Berlin [the remaster sounds great to these ears]. This on a recent issue, in a digipak, remastered to hi-rez [24/96] in 2007. I also found the 2010 remaster of Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra Finlandia, with justly famous performances of Sibelius tone poems. Also found the 'Casals Edition' reissue of Schuberts C Major Quintet, Kent Nagano directing the Orchestra National de France in Messiaen's Réveil des oiseaux and Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine. Finally, found a copy of Hespèrion XX performing Dowland's Lachrimae on Astree for all of $2.99. A good haul. Probably the best place to find Classical CDs in a Brick and Mortar store. Fantastic selection, even more fantastic prices.

 

Indeed he does!

Let me know what you think of Arrau's Nocturnes.

 

Die schönheit und Weisheit Mit ewiger Kron!

I suspect that something must be going on with you, something on a hormonal level.

I remember falling in love with Mozart's music around age 18, his sound and vibe suddenly becoming the soundtrack of my life. Opera, even—there's Cherubino's Aria [Non so piu cosa son] from the Marriage of Figaro, perfectly demonstrating the heady confusion of Standing on the verge of getting it on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlQA2Cgg18Y&feature=related

Mozart's the only really good excuse to get into Opera.

Amazing what a fully dimensional, fully human composer Mozart was—I honestly don't think there is a more perfect Ingmar Bergman movie than his take on Mozart's Magic Flute—there's a whole world in there.

 

Full Fathom Five

I've known and loved them for decades, the man had a left hand like God. You don't listen to Arrau play the Nocturnes, you drown in it. Spent a Lot of time at Amoeba in search of Arrau's Beethoven, only found some dodgy vinyl of the Hammerklavier, not my favorite of his Beethoven performances. But was delighted to find Gulda's op. 101 on a clean CD, remembering it as a special performance of a favorite piece.

 

I listened to some Albinoni today - some string concertos and double oboe concertos performed by Simon Standage and Collegium Musicum 90. Volume 1 from 1996
Chan 0602. Chandos Early Music.

They play it well and I am curious to hear more.

 

I have always loved Mozart's music, from day one. everything is perfectly balanced, graceful and beautiful. I never got too much into the symphonies until the last few days. They are wonderful, you can sit and listen intently or they can serve as the background music for an early morning.

What was that famous quote? When the Angels play for God, they play Bach, when they play for themselves, they play Mozart.

Being a fan of both, it's strange I haven't seen that yet, though I do own it. I must see it this week.

 

Indeed, it's like getting a deep massage.

I am surprised you don't have the full set.

 

Nothing lasts forever, that I'm sure

You mean Arrau? I've owned the LP box twice, was disappointed by the first CD transfer, disliked the digital remake [except for the last Diabelli set, which surprised me], then wandered off in other directions for a while. I know that if I find the Philips LP box for a decent price, I'll get it again. But he is a bit thick in the early sonatas and Annie Fischer is really more to my liking overall. I was tempted to take my seven CDs of Schnabel Playing Beethoven Sonatas to Amoeba for trade today, but thought better of it.

 

I took it out before I even I saw your post, it was just way too huge, however the music is as large sounding as the image I posted. The first and third movements are spellbinding. Been enjoying learning about the the Busch quartet and like this as much as the Death and the Maiden I have by them.

 

Gulda is not versatile enough to cover all aspects of Beethoven's music. He's too cool emotionally, for example, but he's so damn solid and consistent that he can't be ignored. A modern, intellectual Beethoven.

Annie is kind of the other end, full blooded emotion, explosive even at times. Not as solid technically, but plays with so much heart it doesn't matter.

Schnabel is certainly not my favorite, but when I want reckless, off the rails Beethoven (which how I imagine the composer himself played this music), no one delivers like him. Well, Josef Hoffman's live at Casimir Waldstein does (heard that one?), but he only recorded a few Beethoven sonatas.

 

No I meant Gulda.

Arrau is one of my favorite pianists, but I am not fond of his Beethoven. It's too heavy, to grandfatherly for me. Kempff is kind of in the same category, but he wins me over with his beauty and smaller scaled playing.

I think Gilels does a lot of what Arrau does, but sounds younger and therefore more appropriate to me.

 

Good, I am glad you didn't take my post the wrong way.

 

Here it is blind comparison #10

Shubert's Erlkonig transcribed by Liszt.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?p=7957867#post7957867

Hope everyone enjoys the new approach to these blind comparisons. If not let me know. If so let me know.

 

Thanx a million RRB (Frank)

I don't have anything on this label yet...can't wait to check it out!!

 

Off it goes to upstate NY!

 

Enjoying some more Mozart this morning!

 

There was a time (from the 70's, when our family classical, rock, pop and jazz LP collection started, up to the early 90's) when I didn't have almost anything except for LP's and cassettes from this label. Well, to be honest, there were also some pretty rare LP's/cassettes from Eterna, Supraphon, Balkanton and likes. They are still alive.

 

Melodiya uses a lot of no-noise, right? Almost all of my Melodiya discs have it, they even proudly display the fact on the rear art.

 

George, not sure about "a lot" but it's probably there, at least on some CD releases (the vintage LP's are a different story). I think I should check the liners. Overall, I wouldn't call these CD's more offensive than, say, the GROC series from EMI. Also remember - some (if not most) of the older Melodiya recordings have a pretty over-saturated signature sound which adds drastically to the overall "strange" perception.

 

Sorry, I meant that they use No-Noise on a lot of their masterings. Most of mine have rear (tray) artwork that brags about it.

 

Yes, I got you! I'll look at the backs of my Melodiya CD's to check for this "sexy blurb". OTOH, could it be the most recent practice/trend? To be honest, the last Melodiya CD's I bought are from 2008 (I visited Moscow that year and took some advantage of the local Melodiya store chain - which is greatly missed in my country).

 

The Rachmaninov performance I wish I'd heard

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/b...-craig-brown.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=books

 

They call it:

"20 Bit Digital Audio Processing Sonic Solutions Turbo-Bit Mapping. "NoNOISE is a registered trademark of Sonic Solutions. All Rights Reserved."