an attempt at a general "What are you currently digging re. classical music" thread

His performance of Liszt's Scherzo und Marsch (Sony) is... well, if it doesn't sell you on Liszt's 'demonic' side, nothing ever will.

i bought so many classical records this week. i don't know what i'm thinking...i don't sell that many classical records. can't resist i guess.

if you need selling on liszt then fuck you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEq_ixDC7fY&NR

To be clear, I am a Liszt partisan from way back. But vh's scherzo really shows you the demon in the demon.

Whose st Francis is that, nilmar?

hamelin

i think i have seen him play that

ive been using up my wh4+.cd tokens on old liszt cds, i think i have all of hamelin's recordings

also something called 'the composer pianists' in which our quebecois hero plays loads of silly music by people called sorabji, which i don't think i will listen to again

i was disappointed in sorabji

i read a biographical article about him years ago which was more interesting than any of his music i have heard

better read than heard from, agreed

I have a broadcast of Hamelin playing his own set of 12 etudes, I need to bust that out again. Was not in the mood on first audition.

yeah i think that could be quietly shelved

I wish Hamelin would record Liszt's penultimate version of the Transcendental Etudes. There's yet to be a credible rendition of those (Leslie Howard did them, Janice Weber did them, Ogdon did one or two, that's all there's been).

ha i was just thinking i should listen to those again

they aren't among my favourite liszt

the guardian reviewer speculated that hamelin hasn't recorded all that much because hyperion have the whole howard collection

jon what is your favourite alkan and how do you rate him in the grand victorian scheme of things?

http://ak.buy.com/PI/0/500/60097986.jpg

im increasingly convinced the 80s was the apogee of classical album cover design

The English pianist Ian Pace describes Sorabji's music as that of "a massive ego thoroughly unaware of its crushing banality."[190] The music critic Andrew Clements calls Sorabji "just another 20th-century English eccentric ... whose talent never matched [his] musical ambition."[191] The music journalist Max Harrison, in his review of Rapoport's book Sorabji: A Critical Celebration, heavily criticised Sorabji's compositions, piano playing, criticism and personal conduct and implied that "nobody cared except a few close friends".[192]

Alkan: I have only scratched the surface but he is definitely brilliant. I know the solo Concerto (in Hamelin's earlier recording) and I have the Hyperion discs of the Sonata and the Symphony waiting to be attended to.

That quote by Ian comes from this classic thread on Sorabji (first time I heard his name when I posted there).

R3 shut it down, before the cuts - no reason given that I know of at the time - but it could be er difficult to manage at times.

I have to say I always wanted to hear Opus Clavicembalisticum alongside Finnissy's History of Photography in Sound for an experiment.

that clements quote is quite apposite generallky i think -- 'eccentricity' as a curse of english culture, the repressively tolerated selfconscious 'weirdness' of prog or whatever vs disaffection for the sincerely strange and uncompromising

Clemets says this is "modelled on Busoni's Fantasia Contrappuntistica". Since we've been talking about Busoni and Bach I'll give it a go.

This is really good piece on Sorabji by Max Harrison.

Withdrawing your music from performance for 40 years says it all.

For Fantasia Contrappuntistica, you want the two-piano version in the recording by Paul Jacobs and Richard Goode, which was finally issued on CD recently. I never saw the point of the Fantasia till i heard this recording. Like Liszt, Busoni seems to be very much at the mercy of his interpreters.

Will definitely check out the Jacobs/Goode Fantasia Contrappuntistica. The piece hasn't clicked for me the few times I've heard it. (Once? Twice?)

& a belated thanks for the display name props, took me a while to figure out what "dn" meant! (I know, a standard ILX abbreviation…)

We've been listening to the Brandenburg Concertos at work recently. Man, instead of giving the kids drugs for ADHD, they should have them listen to some Bach.

bach is tops. i gave this woman i know a box set of solo bach violin partitas for free today cuz she asked me if i ever had any and she really wanted one. i looked in back and i had three box sets. spread the bach love, that's my motto.

listening to an excellent telefunken box right now of dvorak stuff. vaclav neumann and tschechische philharmonie doing various dances and suites and wood dove stuff. sounds awesome.

actually sold classical records today! to a chinese kid who goes to deerfield academy. he comes in every once in a while. and i sold a couple of other things to the woman i mentioned. they both bought string stuff. the woman plays the viola. i don't know what the kid plays. always encouraging when people buy my classical seeing as how i buy way more than i can ever sell.

99% of the people who come in here who buy rock and jazz and folk or whatever would never ever buy a classical record. not even for a dollar. almost zero crossover. unless its like an electronic record or stockhausen or satie. non-classical people will buy satie and occasionally a glenn gould record.

seriously thinking of including a free classical record with every purchase.

seriously thinking of including a free classical record with every purchase.

No doubt generating a mixture of smiles, puzzled looks, and maybe even a few future classical sales. Can't assess from a business angle but I love the idea in principle.

think i might just put a box near me of clean dollar/two dollar stuff and just tell people they can take one for free when they buy something. no pressure.

I have some of those Neumann Czech Phil recordings. Such a great sound and great feel. Scott if you ever notice Czech Phil records conducted by karel sejna, listen to them! I have his Dvorak 5 and Beethoven 6 and they're both magical.

got these yesterday. very excited to own such nice copies.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/408520_10152022300932137_2092527521_n.jpg

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/59527_10152022296217137_2115022435_n.jpg

Marius constant! Dee-doo dee-doo dee-doo dee-doo

(Do you like my rendition of the twilight zone theme ?)

how much of your classical is vinyl scott

classical vinyl collectors are quite a rarity id guess

possibly still some old people who never got out of the habit

i bought three classical records just like a week ago! i am trying to figure out what i like, and that is taking some time, but i would be elated to get a free classical record with my purchase.

update on my situation:

1) i realized that harry partch recordings aren't easy to find (go ahead and laugh, it won't hurt me because i can't hear you)
2) i got HP collection Vol 2 from emusic
3) it was ok but not nearly as interesting as the youtube posted above

not really back at square one, but i guess i'll just keep listening to the things i have until i get sick of them. as it is, i listen to the same song like 3x before i feel like i really get it. i've had this on repeat in my car since i got it:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gGRVVjXfK-U/TDtIe-8KKmI/AAAAAAAAAv0/WtuKOHxIhzU/s1600/Early+Music+Consort+.01.jpg

ALSO
the store i used to work at had a special "classical room", which no other store in the area had, and it was a wonderful haven of peace from the rest of the store and had comfortable chairs. it was clearly a place for people who knew how to live.

omg that is huge i am so sorry
wow

i listen to classical all the time at home now

it's nice

my store is pretty much just used records. one shelf of CDs. i guy i know came in and bought a 3 dollar record and i told him he could pick out a 2 dollar classical album for free and he was very happy to look through the boxes. he took some ravel.

i think it goes without saying that i would enjoy visiting your store but
i would enjoy visiting your store

rather

i sold about 300 dollars worth of records today. 40 dollars of that was classical. i'll take it! most people don't even bother. i like to put out nice stuff for cheap. i would love to expand even more. and have the best vinyl classical section in the state of massachusetts.

that posted accidentally because my mouse was freaking out and i tried to clean it
but fortunately i meant that wholeheartedly

40/300 doesn't sound too bad -- is 300 normal for a saturday?

i spent my entire day listing elvis 45s on ebay and listening to amazing classical records. it's a living.

300 is a good saturday for me. plus i sold odds and ends. books, some comics, some CDs. it was a slow week though.

January is slowsville, says my friend who runs the comics shop down the street. He takes his vacations in January.

i actually do okay right after christmas. kids home from school. people are bored. last january i did really well. its really just this past week that was the pits.

Is Wim Mertens 'Classical'? Recently got his Struggle for Pleasure album and it's very enjoyable. Find myself putting it on again after it finishes and putting it on when I can't think of anything particular to play.

my partner loooooves that album

The only mertens I know is the sdtrk to belly of an architect ...

i love the stuff i have of his on windham hill. whisper me is great. such underheard records. you can buy them on vinyl for nothing. i think of him more in the harold budd type of arena? whatever that is. modern newage ambient classical whatever music.