Rolling Classical 2012

Listened to '68 and already, it's not for me. There's enormous amount of open-E on that first page and I like it when the performer integrates its tone instead of having it ring out like baby in the next room.

'86 is so far kind of awesome, holy shit? 82 years old? I like this performance better

Oh my god I'm gonna cry his wrist is so stiffened and still it's so beautiful

http://www.emiclassicsus.com/latest_news/fifty-shades-of-grey-the-classical-album/

*blows head off*

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/15/feldman-crippled-symmetry-review

http://i.imgur.com/d3Q7j.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXshbVJL2gc

holy shit

NYer profile of Christian Tetzlaff piqued my interest and I've been working through some of his recordings on Spotify. His Bach Sonatas & Partitas are pretty much revelatory, which is classical-douchebag-speak for awesome.

Also liked his Brahms violin concerto very much

He really has his own sound, as advertised.

hes good in the bartok unaccompanied violin sonata

^yes, I v much recommend his Bartok disc with Leif Ove Andsnes. Been meaning to get his Hanssler rerecording of the Bach cycle for years. Also recommended: recent Szymanowski disc with him and Boulez.

NYer article was nice.

the other day i blagged a ticket to this excellent concert

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/26/prom-56-bbcso-knussen/print

and after the end of 'le martyre', plummy voiced woman in the next box exclaimed 'thank GOD, that was almost as bad as mahler'

so many layers of idiocy

Mehler.

smdh

So what are your favorite piano quintets? Recommend some, plz.

‘With Moses und Aron, I have tried to destroy Stravinsky’s quote
saying that music was powerless to express the most abstract, the
most ordinary, the most concrete things.’ (Jean-Marie Straub)

(Note: Schoenberg's title may have omitted an "A" in Aaron's name because the composer was severely superstitious triskaidekaphobe.[3] "Moses und Aaron" would have caused the title to have a total of 13 letters.)

been meaning to see those straub/huillet filmed operas -- they did one of vom heute auf morgen that looks good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5hztoVTHac

send me into space with this forever in my ears please

I love that guy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jCkdWTyDbY

on a renaissance kick atm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVeaAhYluOc

sigh

prokofiev's romeo and juliet — omg so good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljOMXgfflRI

Been listening to some Hindemith chamber music, and lots of Couperin lately.

Found this fun footage of the man himself conducting in 1963:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp84Ar3eyP8

tend to like hindemith pre-wwii the most — the kammermusik pieces especially.

listening to this, which i suspect i will not tire of anytime soon:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41tn6NY-GcL._SS500_.jpg

The Bach transcriptions on that Kurtag disc are completely breathtaking. Wish they had recorded more of them on that disc. (K has done more than those few).

I've got tickets to Arvo Pärt's Passio next thursday with Ars Nova and Theatre of Voices in Copenhagen. Looking forward to it.

http://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/productions/exaudi-james-weeks-director-30413

shd be good if you like that sort of thing..

Check the last paragraph: http://spectrumculture.com/2012/10/morton-feldman-crippled-symmetry-at-june-in-buffalo.html/

god bruckner's choral music is so great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6fAT3iGRWc

Spent the weekend working through EMI's "Great Cathedral Organs" 13-CD set with my dad. It was amazing!

Great: Mendelssohn organ sonatas! Holy crap, I had no idea! None of the performances from this CD set are on Youtube (Philip Marshall plays #5 which was my favourite). Here's somebody else instead, this is nice enough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdy17WD-2Zk

Good: Dad loves Cesar Franck and there are several pieces of his on the collection. Franck's harmonic sensibilities rarely work for me. There was a good Elgar sonata played by a guy named Sumsion ("Well, he ~knew~ Elgar, don't you know," says dad.)

I was less impressed by Ives and Reger. The Bach stuff I've heard a million times and it was good. A great collection, it was all recorded in the 70s and they sound hairy and brilliant and bright.

Organ repertoire is a huge, inglorious hole in my otherwise fairly wide-ranging classical knowledge. The specific INSTRUMENT matters so much... it's hard to process!

Oof Nicolas Kynaston on Westminster is a great recital. Two good Franck pieces, an awesome piece by Vierne and Messaien "Combat de la Mort et de la Vie" which ruuuules, I'm gonna do something about this and DM you about that

My father informs me that both the Franck pieces (Choral in a minor, Pastorale in E) are "really, the best things Franck ever wrote" and that the Vierne piece (Carillon de Westminster) is fairly overplayed in his opinion but, yes, beautiful.

Google informs me of an interesting account of Vierne's, ah, show-stopping death: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-houlihan/louis-vierne-concert-organist-tribute_b_1559222.html

have you heard jehan alain? his father studied with vierne, and he himself studied with dupré and dukas. his music sounds like proto-messiaen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQiS_iA6UuE

o yeah, his sister is marie-claire alain (still alive!)

clouds, Jon, DM sent

Thank you v much Mr. flamgoontincl!

yes!

(anybody else is welcome if you message me; it is a delicious organ recital)

one problem with organ music, which usually isn't an issue with other genres of cm is how it seems that so many ppl can never get over the "spooky haunted house" or, more understandably, the "churchy" connotation it has, instead of just hearing it as pure, varied (in a circumscribed way, ofc) music. even ppl who normally have good taste can't seem to get over it. bugs me to no end.

like how can you hear something as sublimely beautiful as bach's "ich ruf zu dir, herr jesu christ" and feel nothing more than "this sounds like a funeral." chalk it up to ignorance i suppose.

That's just an extension of ppls inability to listen to stravinsky/bartok without thinking ~horror movie~ or lieder without thinking 'nooo opera stay away'

can anyone recommend the go-to recordings of the prokofiev symphonies?

1 - Too many choices
2 - The one on Chandos or the Gergiev
3 - Abbado on London/Decca or Gergiev
4 - Kuchar on Naxos
5 - I like Ormandy/Sony for this one but many many choices
6 - Mravinsky on Praga (probably reiss on other labels)
7 - Smetacek on Praga

there is no wholly awesome one-stop box set.

incidentally listening to kuchar's 3 and 7 while typing that post

Love #3 sooooo much, 2 and 3 both hella underrated aggro-modernism.

The Leinsdorf recordings are supposed to be v good as well, but I don't have those.

can anyone recommend a recording of bartok's 'bluebeard's castle'? i'd quite like one that includes the libretto....