What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[Robert_Anderson]

I love this performance! The CD is a bit anemic compared to the LP, unfortunately.

[Jerome W]

Glenn Gould : Bach. 3 partitas.

[EfeTe]

London S.O. cond. Dorati - Stravinsky's "Firebird"

I think we should call our factotum (Masterlu) "Prince Ivan"

[bart]

Bach - Sechs Suiten für Violoncello solo
Pierre Fournier



After hearing Sergey Malov playing Cello Suite 1 & 6 on his viola da spalla, time for some comparison.
This is an old reference recording of '61, but very well remastered.
It is certainly played slower than most modern recordings, and it really has a different sound from the smaller viola da spalla.
My wife says she really likes the Malov. I do too.
It's good to have options!

[Toccata]

The mailman brought me two goodies today. Arrau's Brahms displays surprising muscularity and virtuosity, plus it has superior sound to that of Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy's SACD on the Brilliant label, which is interesting since Arrau's is 35 years older! The only downsides to Arrau's are 1) the Paganini Variations have only two tracks, so they can't be individually accessed very easily, and 2) the original LP had the Paganini and Brahms' 2nd Piano Sonata; since the playing time of this disc is only 45 minutes, the Sonata could have easily been included.



and the second volume of Haydn symphonies. Sadly, the series was cancelled due to funding issues. I was so hoping to hear some of the "sturm und drang" symphonies from these forces. Anyway, like the other one, this boasts vigorous performances and wonderful sound--they are live recordings, but the audience is very quiet.

[AudioNut]

IMHO, in the late 1950's and early 1960's, RCA Victor came very, very close to making the best sounding recordings ever made.

Throughout this thread I, and others have been extolling the virtues of the RCA Living Stereo Recordings - and I don't suppose I've ever come across a bad classical Living Stereo.

But, at the same time, RCA was recording and releasing another set of records - by the millions - The Readers Digest Box Sets of Records

Mostly recorded in Europe by the RCA team and by the Kenneth Wilkinson, Decca Recording team for RCA, these Records are Treasures and I can't recommend them highly enough.

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Now, Readers Digest sent these records through the mail to hundreds of thousands of homes in the U.S. and elsewhere - where they sat, virtually unplayed until someone in the family decided that enough is enough and gave the boxes of records to some thrift store - Good Will, Salvation Army, etc where they filled shelves, still virtually unplayed.

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Until some lucky person who happened to know that the records were actually AWESOMELY GOOD, came along and purchased the 40 - 50 year old Readers Digest Classical Box Sets for 50¢ - $1.00 a record. Maybe $7.00 for a TEN OR TWELVE record, box set of incredibly good music.

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I guess I probably have 50 of these box set of Readers Digest RCA records and I love to listen to them.

And, I'm listening to Record No. 1 of the Readers Digest Box Set

FESTIVAL OF LIGHT CLASSICAL MUSIC - Brought to you in Stereo in the Magnificent New Cyclophonic Miracle Sound (Another name for LIVING STEREO.

And this record sounds amazingly good. The sound quality and performances are truly first class.

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

[AudioNut]

Another of the Readers Digest Box sets that is absolutely amazingly well done . . . Just be sure you get these in Stereo - they were probably released more in Monaural than they were in Stereo - You've got to pull out the records to see - it doesn't say on the box.

'

[AudioNut]

Listening to . . . .J. S. Bach Das Kantatenwerk Vol.14, Cantatas Nos. 51 - 56

Leonhardt Consort - Gustav Leonhardt, Conductor
Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Harpsichord
Collegium Vocale - Phillippe Herreweghe, Director (and he's great!!!)

I pulled out one of these box sets - happened to get volume 14. Each set has two lp's and I have 33 of the things (Volumes 1-33) and I stopped buying there - I think there are about 50 volumes in all. These Cantatas were recorded by Leonhardt and Nikolaus Harnoncourt over a period of 19 years from 1971 - 1990.

Perhaps 100 records of Bach Cantatas is a little "over the top" but, thanks to the high quality of the singers, orchestras and the Das Alte Werk - Telefunken and later Teldec very high quality control, these are uniformly good.

No, I've not listened to all of them, but the ones I have heard are excellent.

[schneice]

Always been more a fan of the orchestral version. But really enjoying the "simplicity" of the chamber.

[AudioNut]

Listening to . . . . Pavarotti's Greatest Hits

Amazing voice and range that man had. Greater tenors? Sure, but more crowd pleasing ? Probably not.

I enjoy Pavarotti and can listen to him for hours at a time - and this two disc CD recording is a good way to do so.

Very good!