What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[eljr]

Maurizio Pollini
Beethoven: Sonaten Opp. 27/1, 27/2, 28 "Moonlight"

disciplined and consistant

[eljr]

Carlos Kleiber / Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Beethoven: Symphonien Nos. 5 & 7

"As recommendable an album as anyone could wish, Carlos Kleiber's performances with the Vienna Philharmonic of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, and the Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, are classics that should always be within reach, and this disc should be passed along to friends as the single best pairing of these two pieces."

Blair Sanderson

[bart]

Italiane Baroque



CD 5 Antonio Vivaldi - Concerti per tanti violini obligati l'estro armonico op. 3

Marvelous playing.

[eljr]

György Ligeti / Parker Quartet
Ligeti: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2

I rather like this Quartet.

[bart]

Originally Posted by tima

Perhaps more than any other album this one lifted the music to broad public awareness. Here the ASMF instrumentation includes a theorbo (a large long neck lute), an organ and I swear I can hear something that sounds like a celesta - maybe it's a glock played with softer mallets - go figure.

For as commonplace as it is (used to be?) sonically this is an astonishing recording. The first few bars of Winter still, to use the vernacular of the time when the recording was mad, blow my mind - was Vivaldi hearing the future? Argo at its best: ZRG 654 The original has the oval label. My copy is a first reprint (early '80s) with Argo in a rectangle; no need to avoid the later issuance.

Tim, Julian posted a lot of these Argo LPs.
I bought a couple of them reissued on CD. Even those are good.

I'll play the Four Seasons by these forces:



CD 6: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons & Other Concertos

Amandine Beyer is fabulous here.
This disc includes some world premier recordings.

[ehoove]

A bit of Mono Magic this evening:
Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 4 in A Op.90 (Italian)
Symphony No. 5 in D minor ('Reformation")
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Charles Munch Conductor
RCA Victor Shaded Dog LM-2221 (mono)

A very interesting LP, with wonderful flow and feel. The No.5 is especially moving to me as a Lutheran, with Reformation Sunday next weekend. A very worthy play! I also have the SACD version shown and love both for their individual virtues.

Regards,
Jim

[ehoove]

A bit of lighter Mono Fair:
Waltzes by the Strauss Family
Boston Pops
Arthur Fiedler Conducting
Waltzes by Johann Strauss, Johann Strauss Jr, Eduard Strauss, and Josef Strauss
Wonderful recording with a deep and wide sound stage and great attack and dynamic range. A great easy listen!
RCA Victor LM-2028 Shaded Dog (mono) 1956
Regards,
Jim

[tima]

Originally Posted by bart

Tim, Julian posted a lot of these Argo LPs.
I bought a couple of them reissued on CD. Even those are good.

I'll play the Four Seasons by these forces:



CD 6: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons & Other Concertos

Amandine Beyer is fabulous here.
This disc includes some world premier recordings.

Thanks Bart. How does that Four Seasons compare with the HIP Avison Ensemble from Linn? Wasn't it on the hot list here a while back?

Yes, I daresay my collection overlaps with Julian's in age and labels though his is much (much) larger. We both have classical audiophile LPs from the 80's. And we both have quite a few labels from before the "audiophile record" era, such as the Decca spin-offs Argo, Lyrita, L'ouiseau-Lyre and of course regular Decca/London, RCA, Columbia, Mercury, etc.
I decided to commit more to the LP format and during this listening season I will be digging into my record collection and focus less on other formats. There is a wealth of 'new' LP classical reissues of late if I'm inclined to treat myself. And I also forget some of what I have, so even now (somewhat chagrined to say) my own collection can be a discovery.

Just the other day I was looking at the reissue of Solti's Mahler 8th w/ the Chicago SO with its amazing cast of sopranos. It has been out for a while and stock is starting to thin, so I was quite tempted.


Then, I was looking for something else that led me to my less-than-sorted stacks when I ran across this two record set with its funky 70's era font.



Hand smacking forehead, i saved myself $50 or whatever. Bet Julian has this one too. I miss his morning posts. :-)

[tima]

Here's CS 6044 - a London FFSS Deep Groove Wide Band Blue Back Stereo. circa 1958

Karl Munchinger and his Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra gave us the Four Seasons gold standard for a long time; this and his Brandenburg Concertos were hugely popular in their day. Solid, teutonically straightforward with rigor and vigor. Never off the rails, scant exploratory interpretations. Fine playing, this record brings a certain raw immediacy that puts Werner Krotzinger's solo violin on display. The instrumentation is not as diverse as the up stream Marriner and thus not as harmonically complex. As the music became more and more popular (thanks in part to Munchinger and Marriner) and performed more broadly, and with the onslaught of the HIP people in the 70's, and even further downstream exotica, Munchinger's group fell out of favor. If you collect Four Seasons, you have (or know you should have) this and the Marriner/ASMF a baseline.

[tima]

We yet haven't reached the age of landscape covers, baroque facades in muted colors, or saturated pictures of the red priest. Fifty plus years ago boxes were popular and here we have stripes, always four. But this record has a picture of a canine on it and that tells us its an RCA. LSC-2424, an original shaded dog from 1960.

Societa Corelli doesn't have the four-square rhythmic order of the Stuttgarters but they do have something the Germans don't and that is the occasional flourish. Vibrato was not yet verboten - and along with their Italian style they bring a gorgeous tonality to each of the seasons. Soloist Vittorio Emanuele plays so sweet and seems to be having fun! The conductorless Corellis keep it simple - there's only 13 of them - but the performance is lively, rich, and happy - a different album from an earlier time. Sonics are well balanced, nicer than the sometimes peaky London above. These are tough solid records that hold up well over time.