The Classical Music Recommendation Thread

[Loert 2,510]

 

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

 

[SteveMc 2,674]

 

[SteveMc 2,674]

 

[Oomoog the Ecstatic 314]

So much memorable leitmotif. Not exactly a new 'recommendation'

 

 

[SteveMc 2,674]

 

[publicist 4,643]

[publicist 4,643]

 

Counts as 'classical' in my book: Schnittke's early film music for german fairy tales and Kipling.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

John Adams has a piece in today's NY Times about Pierre Boulez

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/arts/music/pierre-boulez-john-adams.html

[SteveMc 2,674]

American composer Florence Price: Violin Concerto No. 2

 

EDIT: The Violin Concerto No. 1 in D is pretty good , too.

 

[karelm 2,903]

On 11/30/2019 at 1:02 PM, SteveMc said:

American composer Florence Price: Violin Concerto No. 2

 

EDIT: The Violin Concerto No. 1 in D is pretty good , too.

 

Wow, an African American woman composer born 1887, talk about breaking down barriers!  Will have to check this out.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Today marks 29 years since the death of Copland

 

 

The third movement of his Piano Quartet, a work which I will evangelize for endlessly, seems appropriate.  At times mournful, at times bitter, always emotionally tense.

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

@Marian Schedenig, JWFan's opera expert, what's your recommendation for a recording of Wagner's Tannhäuser? I've read that Barenboim's is a good compromise between the different versions of the work. Any thoughts?

[Marian Schedenig 8,172]

Not a Tannhäuser expert myself. Barenboim is the one I have, and as far as I remember it's a good one, but it's been years since I listened to it. Some quality names in the cast in any case. Avoid Sinopoli, because Domingo singing German is quite horrid.

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

I usually avoid Sinopoli because he tends to be excessively slow.

[karelm 2,903]

3 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

@Marian Schedenig, JWFan's opera expert, what's your recommendation for a recording of Wagner's Tannhäuser? I've read that Barenboim's is a good compromise between the different versions of the work. Any thoughts?

Solti, Vienna Philharmonic.  Excellent audio, performance, recording, soloists.

https://www.amazon.com/Wagner-Helga-Dernesch-Wiener-Philharmoniker/dp/B01LXENLAY/ref=tmm_msc_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

 

His is arguably the finest Ring cycle too and I love Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal from him.  A very fine Wagnerian and Straussian (Elektra, Die Frau ohne Schatten), seriously what an opening:

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I’ve returned so frequently to Fauré’s 6th Nocturne this year, this piece has begun to feel as natural as breathing to me.  This deserves to be as famous as the contemporaneous music of people like Satie and Debussy. 
 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

17 hours ago, karelm said:

Solti, Vienna Philharmonic.  Excellent audio, performance, recording, soloists.

https://www.amazon.com/Wagner-Helga-Dernesch-Wiener-Philharmoniker/dp/B01LXENLAY/ref=tmm_msc_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

 

His is arguably the finest Ring cycle too and I love Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal from him.  A very fine Wagnerian and Straussian (Elektra, Die Frau ohne Schatten), seriously what an opening:

 

 

Thanks for the recommendation. I've already got his Ring cycle.

[Marian Schedenig 8,172]

19 hours ago, karelm said:

His is arguably the finest Ring cycle too and I love Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal from him.  A very fine Wagnerian and Straussian (Elektra, Die Frau ohne Schatten), seriously what an opening:

 

As I've repeated before, I'm not a fan of what I've heard of his Ring, but his Strauss rocks. No other recording of Elektra is necessary.

 

I'll have to listen to that Frosch clip later. I still don't have a recording of that - I only heard it live for the first time earlier this year. Online research shows that pretty much all available recordings have their issues (smaller or bigger ones depending to various people), and apparently there isn't really one that's both mostly complete and sports a consistently good cast. Any input on that?

 

(I certainly wouldn't mind a release of Thielemann's version at the Wiener Staatsoper this year. Camilla Nylund, Tomasz Konieczny and Nina Stemme were a deluxe cast, and Thielemann's Strauss is hard to top these days)

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

I like Solti's gutsy conducting. Regarding Tannhäuser, I'll probably get Barenboim's, since Solti's quite expensive everywhere I've looked. And the former also has the hottest cover art.

 

I do regret not getting the 2012 CD box of Solti's complete Wagner operas before it sold out.

[Loert 2,510]

35 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I'll have to listen to that Frosch clip later. I still don't have a recording of that - I only heard it live for the first time earlier this year. Online research shows that pretty much all available recordings have their issues (smaller or bigger ones depending to various people), and apparently there isn't really one that's both mostly complete and sports a consistently good cast. Any input on that?

 

The Sawallisch studio recording is still my favourite and still the one to beat, IMO. It is one of the best-mixed opera albums out there. My only issue with it is that the four tam-tams in the penultimate scene aren't brought out as well as in some other recordings (especially the Bohm).

 

As for Tannhauser...my favourite is Sawallisch, again. 1962 live recording. Though I can't say I've listened to all the recordings out there and done an exact comparison!

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

My favourite Schumann symphony cycle is that of Sawallisch on EMI (Warner).

[karelm 2,903]

5 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

As I've repeated before, I'm not a fan of what I've heard of his Ring, but his Strauss rocks. No other recording of Elektra is necessary.

 

I'll have to listen to that Frosch clip later. I still don't have a recording of that - I only heard it live for the first time earlier this year. Online research shows that pretty much all available recordings have their issues (smaller or bigger ones depending to various people), and apparently there isn't really one that's both mostly complete and sports a consistently good cast. Any input on that?

 

(I certainly wouldn't mind a release of Thielemann's version at the Wiener Staatsoper this year. Camilla Nylund, Tomasz Konieczny and Nina Stemme were a deluxe cast, and Thielemann's Strauss is hard to top these days)

I also love Levine's MET recording.  What do you think of that?  I think it tops Thielmann in overall grandeur. 

[SteveMc 2,674]

Very nice first movement especially.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I'm in love with the Theme and Variations movement of Irving Fine's Music for Piano.

 

It's just exquisite.

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

A fun suite of solo piano pieces by the interesting, forgotten American composer Louis Gruenberg.

 

"Jazzberries" from 1925

 

 

[Dixon Hill 4,232]

@Boom Tss

[publicist 4,643]

Very Twilight Zone:

 

 

 

[Fabulin 3,510]

.

 

[karelm 2,903]

 

A fantastic contemporary orchestral song cycle by the Danish composer, Hans Abrahamsen.

 

This review said there was a stunned silence for a minute after the world premiere followed by a standing ovation and I can understand why. 

https://www.npr.org/2016/08/22/490927206/stunned-silence-then-a-standing-ovation-for-let-me-tell-you

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I'm only slightly familiar with who Gail Kubik was and have heard a couple of pieces of his, but I was recently re-reading Howard Pollack's book "Harvard Composers: Walter Piston and His Students, from Elliott Carter to Frederic Rzewski," which includes a sizable chunk on Kubik and his career.

 

There is one piece described in the book that naturally intrigues me, Kubik's "Divertimento II".  Here's the passage:

Quote

Kubik's three big symphonies were less successful: they offered unrestrained scope for the composer's tendency to ramble.  And their orchestrations, while expert and bright, seemed lusterless compared to his two divertimenti: Divertimento I for thirteen players, dedicated to Ingolf Dahl; and Divertimento II for eight players, dedicated to Aaron Copland.  Here again, in his attempts to revive the wit and poignance of Copland's Music for the Theatre, Kubik was at his most delightful and most inimitable.  The Divertimento II, which demonstrated the advantages of having the composer's melodic bits overlap with one another rather than being separated by rests, was especially appealing.

 

Unfortunately, the only evidence of a recording of the piece I can find is from a 1964 LP that hasn't been digitized anywhere and is going for $25-60.

 

https://www.discogs.com/Gail-Kubik-Divertimenti-I-II-Sonatina-For-Piano-Sonatina-For-Clarinet-Piano/release/4005984

 

Just for giggles, I transcribed into Musescore the opening 8 measures from a sample page, found here https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/divertimento-no-2-ensemble-mixed-8-or-more-sheet-music/20748891

 

Shitty as the Musescore software instruments sound, I'm definitely intrigued to hear more!

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Robert Middleton is a completely forgotten mid-century American composer.  Like quite a few others, he studied under Boulanger and Piston in the '40s and then toiled in academic obscurity until retirement (in Middleton's case he spent his career as a professor at Vassar).

 

But I think his first String Quartet from 1950 is just completely alive and wonderfully expressive.  Very much in that Bostonian neoclassicist style I love so much that was practiced by Piston and his students.

 

I highly recommend it.

 

https://archive.org/download/cd_chamber-music-of-robert-middleton_robert-middleton/disc1/03. Robert Middleton - String Quartet %231.mp3

[Disco Stu 15,495]

In my opinion, Jack Gibbons' 4-disc The Authentic George Gershwin collection is an essential part of any Gershwin fan's collection (although it's sadly out of print and not available digitally).  I feel that solo piano is almost how Gershwin's music was *meant* to be heard, and this is a more than 4.5 hour survey of his career through that lens.  And these are not interpretive "re-arrangements" of Gershwin pieces, these are as close as possible to not just how Gershwin wrote them, but in many cases how he performed them.  Meaning it's a lot of performances of his piano rolls, transcriptions of recorded performances, and original piano score versions of pieces before they were orchestrated.

 

I think Gibbons really captures the restless energy and rhythm that Gershwin brought even when he performed ballads.

 

 

For example, here's a fantastic performance of Second Rhapsody, one of my favorite Gershwin pieces.

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

Great of you to highlight this fantastic set, Stu. Actually, I purchased a brand new copy of it merely a few weeks ago! Now I'm working on expanding my collection of Nonesuch's Gershwin recordings (musicals + piano roll recordings).

[Disco Stu 15,495]

3 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Great of you to highlight this fantastic set, Stu. Actually, I purchased a brand new copy of it merely a few weeks ago! Now I'm working on expanding my collection of Nonesuch's Gershwin recordings (musicals + piano roll recordings).

 

The 5 Elektra/Nonesuch recordings of complete Gershwin musicals are 100% essential.  Add to those the 1987 Michael Tilson Thomas recordings of Of Thee I Sing and Let 'Em Eat Cake, also essential if you're interested in Gershwin's Broadway music as he originally composed/intended it.

 

There's also these 1998 (released 2001) paired recordings of Tip-Toes and Tell Me More that I have not purchased yet, so I can't speak to their quality.

 

http://www.newworldrecords.org/album.cgi?rm=view&album_id=80598

 

I just wish the recordings hadn't stopped!  Still waiting on recordings of musicals like Funny Face and Rosalie.

 

The world is also still waiting on the new critical editions of Gershwin works to start coming out of The Gershwin Initiative at the University of Michigan.  The musicals are on the list to be published, but probably farther down the priorities relative to the concert works.

 

https://smtd.umich.edu/ami/gershwin/

 

Here it says "Series 5" is the stage shows https://smtd.umich.edu/ami/gershwin/?page_id=59

[publicist 4,643]

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

5 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

The 5 Elektra/Nonesuch recordings of complete Gershwin musicals are 100% essential.  Add to those the 1987 Michael Tilson Thomas recordings of Of Thee I Sing and Let 'Em Eat Cake, also essential if you're interested in Gershwin's Broadway music as he originally composed/intended it.

 

There's also these 1998 (released 2001) paired recordings of Tip-Toes and Tell Me More that I have not purchased yet, so I can't speak to their quality.

 

http://www.newworldrecords.org/album.cgi?rm=view&album_id=80598

 

I just wish the recordings hadn't stopped!  Still waiting on recordings of musicals like Funny Face and Rosalie.

 

The world is also still waiting on the new critical editions of Gershwin works to start coming out of The Gershwin Initiative at the University of Michigan.  The musicals are on the list to be published, but probably farther down the priorities relative to the concert works.

 

https://smtd.umich.edu/ami/gershwin/

 

Here it says "Series 5" is the stage shows https://smtd.umich.edu/ami/gershwin/?page_id=59

 

Thanks for the recommendations. I see there's a budget line Gershwin / Tilson Thomas box on Sony, that contains Of Thee I Sing and Let 'Em Eat Cake. Too bad it's without liner notes.

 

I guess 20s / 30s musicals are a bit out of fashion with the consumers, except for weirdoes/connoiseurs like us.

 

Regarding recommended recordings, I'd like to add Ålborg / Marshall, Rattle's Porgy & Bess, and Gershwin by Grofé / Richman.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

3 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Regarding recommended recordings, I'd like to add Ålborg / Marshall, Rattle's Porgy & Bess, and Gershwin by Grofé / Richman.

 

I've heard so many recordings of Porgy & Bess, but I generally default to John Mauceri's from 2006 for Decca.

 

It's interesting that that Gershwin by Grofe release doesn't include the rare Grofe orchestration of Second Rhapsody when Richman himself had recorded it a few years before for Bridge Records https://bridgerecords.com/products/9212

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

I'm guessing he and/or the label wanted to record stuff they hadn't recorded earlier, which makes sense. But I'll check out the recording on Bridge Records!

[publicist 4,643]

John Pickard's Symphony no. 5, a commission from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, it sounds like  modernist update of RVW, Elgar and other british luminaries, a very thrilling piece. In the words of the composer: ‘it alternates fast music and slow music throughout and, to begin with, the fast sections gradually get shorter and the slow ones gradually get longer. Towards the centre, the longest span of slow music is reached, after which the slow sections begin to get shorter and the fast sections get longer. Eventually, the music returns to the speed and the material of the opening section.This basic outline conceals and number of subtleties and complexities. For one thing, the alternating speeds vary; in other words, there are several fast speeds and several slow speeds, though all are metrically related in some way. Furthermore, the relationship between the speeds is often deliberately made ambiguous by blurring the relationship between them. Consequently, fast and slow music sometimes appear to be combined so that it is not always clear whether the music is actually at a fast or a slow tempo.’

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

Hey @Disco Stu, do you know about any online CD store where Nonesuch's Gershwin albums are still in stock? Those that I've aquired, I purchased used.

 

On 1/14/2020 at 3:25 PM, Disco Stu said:

I just wish the recordings hadn't stopped!  Still waiting on recordings of musicals like Funny Face and Rosalie.

 

Let's hope John Wilson records more Gershwin!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Hey @Disco Stu, do you know about any online CD store where Nonesuch's Gershwin albums are still in stock? Those that I've aquired, I purchased used.

 

As far as I know, they're permanently out of print and only on the secondary market.  They're not even acknowledged on Nonesuch's website: https://www.nonesuch.com/search-v2?title=gershwin&body_value=gershwin&type=albums

 

They're all streaming, though, at least.

 

2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Let's hope John Wilson records more Gershwin!

 

His "Gershwin in Hollywood" album is very interesting!  Especially if you're into the history of Hollywood musicals; all the anonymous arrangers/orchestrators that John Williams speaks of so reverently: Conrad Salinger at MGM, Ray Heindorf at Warner Bros, Herbert Spencer at Fox, et. al.

 

It makes a good pair with Mauceri's "Gershwin in Hollywood" album from his Hollywood Bowl series.  Wilson's is mostly a survey of how Hollywood's music departments adapted Gershwin's Broadway tunes and Mauceri's is a survey of the music that Gershwin wrote originally for films.

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

22 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

They're all streaming, though, at least.

 

Yeah, that's how I've been listening to them, but I wanted to get them on CD before it gets hard to find at a decent price and in a good condition.

 

 

26 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

It makes a good pair with Mauceri's "Gershwin in Hollywood" album from his Hollywood Bowl series.

 

That one didn't click with me, possibly because of the selection, or the singers. I'll have to check it again.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

6 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

That one didn't click with me, possibly because of the selection, or the singers. I'll have to check it again.

 

I agree that the singers are superior on the Wilson release.  The Mauceri is worth it to me for the recording of the early version of Second Rhapsody and also the great recording of Robert Russell Bennett's arrangement, the "Gershwin in Hollywood" overture.

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

7 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

I agree that the singers are superior on the Wilson release.  The Mauceri is worth it to me for the recording of the early version of Second Rhapsody and also the great recording of Robert Russell Bennett's arrangement, the "Gershwin in Hollywood" overture.

 

I've got the latter in a quite good recording on Naxos!

 

 

[Omen II 1,235]

7 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

His "Gershwin in Hollywood" album is very interesting!  Especially if you're into the history of Hollywood musicals; all the anonymous arrangers/orchestrators that John Williams speaks of so reverently: Conrad Salinger at MGM, Ray Heindorf at Warner Bros, Herbert Spencer at Fox, et. al.

 

 

That's a fantastic album and in fact I was lucky enough to have been in the audience at the concert at which it was recorded, at the Royal Albert Hall on 16th November 2015.  John signed my CD booklet for me when I met him after another Gershwin concert the following year.  Here is a nice little video feature on the album in case you have not seen it:

 

 

By the way, the 2-CD compilation album The Best of the John Wilson Orchestra includes two other Gershwin tracks that were performed and recorded at the concert but not included on the Gershwin in Hollywood album, so it is definitely worth checking out if you like your Gershwin.  Firstly is the song I Was Doin' Alright from the film Goldwyn Follies (sung here by Louise Dearman of course), as well as New York Rhapsody from the film Delicious (with Ian Buckle on piano).

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

14 minutes ago, Omen II said:

That's a fantastic album and in fact I was lucky enough to have been in the audience at the concert at which it was recorded, at the Royal Albert Hall on 16th November 2015.  

 

I thought I recognized that coughing!

[Omen II 1,235]

5 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

I thought I recognized that coughing!

 

As probably the youngest person in the audience, I was the only one not coughing!

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

1 minute ago, Omen II said:

 

As probably the youngest person in the audience, I was the only one not coughing!

 

So you're less than 70. Good for you!

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

Speaking of Gershwin, JW has released two albums, one on Sony with Joshua Bell, and an earlier one on Philips. I haven't heard the latter - is it good, compared to the overwhelming competition on this field?

 

 

Tracklist

1	An American In Paris	18:39
2	Suite From Porgy & Bess	17:01
3	Selections From Girl Crazy	5:47
4	Rhapsody In Blue	16:04

 

The second track is the Bennett suite, shortened by Courage, probably to fit the album onto an LP.