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

So it is becoming more and more indisputable that my ears cannot handle high fidelity stereo recordings of solo piano anymore. I.e. the repertoire which has been my listening bread and butter ever since classical music became a huge thing for me in 1995.

I should note that almost all of my listening opportunities are at my job and while walking/taking the subway, so I am a creature of headphones by necessity.

And I have had garden variety constant ringing of the ears for ages and ages, but in the last year or two it's become clear that solo piano recordings make my ringing a lot worse. To avoid it I have to lower the volume to the point where I can't hear hardly any of the tone color which makes it pointless to listen in the first place.

This may be a subconscious reason why my listening has veered so strongly toward orchestral music and chamber music in recent years. It's funny, I can handle a cello + piano chamber recording or a lieder recording.

You know what also works? Mono-era piano solo piano recordings. And to some extent, modern hi-fi recordings of historical instruments (fortepianos etc). I threw Yves Nat's, Wilhelm Kempff's and Schnabel's mono Beethoven cycles on my ipod and one could ask for much worse a situation than to get one's Beethoven from these fuckers.

Sorry to hear about your ringing-ears trouble, Jon. Solo-piano music is central to my own music listening, and giving up some or all of it would not be easy.

If you've still got chamber music and orchestra music, and modern recordings of historical keyboards, and historical recordings of modern pianos, then the good news is that you've got a world of stuff you can listen to without aggravating the ringing.

I don't see how the mono/stereo distinction itself would matter for ear-ringing, so I wonder if the advantage you're getting with mono-era recordings is a rolled-off frequency response. Have you tried messing with the EQ settings built into older iPods (http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26537), or with an equalizer app for newer iPods (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/equalizer-pro/id505170168?mt=8 -- NB I've never used this)?

Also, have you talked with your doctor about the whole ringing problem? I'm just thinking it could be worth learning about ways to ensure it doesn't get worse…

I think the difference is in the attack of piano notes - it's not mono v stereo per se obv, but that recordings of the 50s and before don't capture as much of that massive brick of high frequency information when the hammer strikes the string. It's definitely the note attack that gives me problems.

So that with a hi fi recording of a fortepiano, the instrument itself does not produce as much high frequency attack as a steinway. I almost wonder if I would also do well listening to recordings of modern Bosendorfer pianos which iirc have more of a 'ping' attack and less of a 'klang' attack.

Problem with using EQ is that the wonderful colors in the decay/long tail of the piano note seem to suffer too much.

I have had ringing forever and I don't usually notice it, and am almost never stressed out by it, so I hesitate to look into it as a health issue because 1) the ringing itself is notoriously untreatable and 2) so much of the ravages of tinnitus seems to come from the psychological stress of it, and I seem to naturally not focus on the ring; I would hate to learn to foreground it more in the course of paying attn to it as a health problem and then be unable to defocus on it, if that makes sense.

It does make sense and is probably a healthy way of thinking about the whole issue, as long as you're using common sense about things like loud headphone listening that could do you harm. Anyway not really meaning to lecture you about this.

That's...interesting. I was listening to a piano recording a few days ago, felt something, maybe I'm a bit paranoid about my listening at times.

Anyway, onto Rabelais

Just the cover I'm digging (the real soundtrack is Boulez/Cleveland La mer from DG's Debussy Edition).

http://http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/richmedia/images/cover.gif

http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/richmedia/images/cover.gif

Bah check it out yourselves: http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/richmedia/images/cover.gif

Triple fail so this better work: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X3sdwEv7L._SL500_AA280_.jpg

^ worth a click

Sorry about that horrorshow but yes, I believe it is.

Curretly working through my medieval obsessions w/ars subtilis from Italy. Its a captivating yet aimless desert, you usually find an oasis if you walk around long enough.

The stuff from France isn't as long or "ambient" sounding as this from what I can tell.

Whereas The Island of St. Hylarion CD its a lot more song like and gorgeous.

this is a really good disc for music from that era:

http://www.amazon.com/Homage-To-Johannes-Ciconia-1370-1412/dp/B000000R38

Yeah, was just looking at that.

Hitting Ensemble PAN p/hard at the moment.

this is really good too:

http://www.amazon.com/Codex-Chantilly/dp/B0011BAV06

incredibly strange and fascinating music

Yeah I first heard about it from a bunch of modernist composition friendly folk at another board I used to frequent.

Smokin'

think jon recommended this uphthread or elsewhere.

what else sounds like the first couple of minutes of zadok the priest?

sorry to hear about your hearing troubles jl. it's interesting to me - when the ringing started for me, and I lost my mind and felt for quite some time that I would never be able to function again, it was piano music that saved me - specifically playing it. hope you do not have further stress about this!

I am on a Franck kick right now when I'm not listening to opera. Tonight I listened to the first disc of this while making dinner. I <3 Anna Netrebko I know some people don't but I do.

big fan of, big crush on netrebko

yeah I'm crushed out too I can't lie. there's a recital disc with Barenboim that's just awesome as is this shot of the set being presented live

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

You may not know......but Luigi Nono is one of the best kept musical secrets of the 1900's! He was not only one of the most innovative and creative Italian composers, but unlike most of his colleagues or peers, he enjoyed a personal and artistic relationship with Claudio Abbado and Maurizio Pollini, two authentic musical giants. This recording is conducted by Abbado, in splendid form, and played by, arguably, the best orchestra in the world (Berliner Philharmoniker). The set also includes a Kindertotenleider of rare beauty, here in the soprano version. The booklet explains that this recording is devoted to victims of absurd and avoidable wars, which perfectly matches the text of Nono's "Il canto sospeso". If you like something bit more challenging than Gorecki, and also like atonal beauty, this disc is for you! The Nono foundation in Venice has a very pleasant web site where you can learn about his music. For those who were around at the time the Nono piece was writtenm(50's), this is a serious trip to perhaps more complex yet happy times. Highly recommended.

i just asked this on facebook, i'll ask it here too:

every once in a while - VERY rarely though - customers who buy rock or jazz or r&b at my store will buy a classical record and its almost always a record by the same composer. can you guess who it is?

mahler? or nono, probably mahler

stravinsky

i'll let you know if you hit it. definitely the number one *what do people who don't buy classical buy when they buy classical* in my store over the last 4 years. and to make it easier its not glass or riley cuz like i said on facebook i almost consider them pop cuz they are as easy to sell as kate bush and tom waits records.

Wagner?

Vivaldi's Four Seasons

górecki

last guess - Debussy

stockhausen

i should also say that number two on the list of classical that people who don't buy classical buy would be anything by glenn gould.

Rhapsody in Blue

Carmina Burana?

John Adams?

Gilbert and Sullivan?

Bach

haha! oh man if i could unload some gilbert & sullivan box-sets i would be a happy guy.

i wish it were bach too. i got so much great bach.

i assumed Sideshow Bob was representative

it's andré boucourechliev isn't it?

What's Lang Lang's latest? Are the Three Tenors still selling well?

scott said composer tho

Cage

Sousa

Got confused when he said second place was Glenn Gould.

John Williams

I mean, someone has to guess Beethoven or Mozart, right?

i can't work out if the answer is gonna be surprisingly kitsch or surprisingly modernist

it's satie

That would've been one of my guesses after flipping through my book of wedding piano music.