The Classical Music Recommendation Thread

[karelm 2,903]

This isn't the best audio but the greatest performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 6 with the most devastating last movement!

 

[publicist 4,643]

 

[Loert 2,510]

Possibly my favourite tonal (post-tonal?) piece by this guy:

 

 

[karelm 2,903]

45 minutes ago, Loert said:

Possibly my favourite tonal (post-tonal?) piece by this guy:

 

 

I have this double CD!  A favorite of mine! 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Listening to this great Bright Sheng album in solidarity with the guy (if you know not what I'm referring to, just google him for recent news, can't discuss politics here).  He's one of our finest!

 

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

15 hours ago, Loert said:

Possibly my favourite tonal (post-tonal?) piece by this guy:

 

 

What is this?

 

17 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Listening to this great Bright Sheng album in solidarity with the guy (if you know not what I'm referring to, just google him for recent news, can't discuss politics here).  He's one of our finest!

 

 

Or this? Video unavailable but I’d like to participate in the discussion… thanks!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

31 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Or this? Video unavailable but I’d like to participate in the discussion… thanks!

 

Darn, that album is great but I can't find non "official" videos for it.  Oh well, this chamber piece is also very nice.  His fusion of Chinese and Western is beautiful

 

 

 

Oh and in case you can find an official streaming version in your country of the orchestral album I recommended this is what the album is: https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.570610

[Loert 2,510]

33 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

What is this?

 

It's the last movement from Lutoslawski's "Concerto for Orchestra", Lutoslawski conducting. The album is this one: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7925308--lutos-awski-symphonic-variations-etc

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

19 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Darn, that album is great but I can't find non "official" videos for it.  Oh well, this chamber piece is also very nice.  His fusion of Chinese and Western is beautiful

 

 

 

Oh and in case you can find an official streaming version in your country of the orchestral album I recommended this is what the album is: https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.570610

Thanks! I actually have the Naxos album of Bright Sheng's music including The Song of Dance and Tears, Colours of Crimson and The Blazing Mirage but appear not to have listened to it but I will have to do so!

 

13 minutes ago, Loert said:

 

It's the last movement from Lutoslawski's "Concerto for Orchestra", Lutoslawski conducting. The album is this one: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7925308--lutos-awski-symphonic-variations-etc

Thanks for the link. I have a couple of albums of Lutoslawski's music but don't seem to have the Concerto for Orchestra but I'll have to check this album out, thank you.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Today marks a very important anniversary.  It is the 75th anniversary of the premiere of Aaron Copland's Third Symphony; first performed on October 18th, 1946, by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony.

 

If you know me at all, then you know that no music ever written is as personally important to me as Copland's 3rd.  It is the most joyful, spirit-lifting, transcendent, humanistic music I have ever heard and I feel lucky to live in a world where I can listen to it.  I'm also lucky that over this last decade the original version as premiered in 1946, before Leonard Bernstein made an ill-advised cut of 12 measures, has become the default version to perform and record for most orchestras.

 

Because I'm nothing if not a giant nerd, I'm one of the maintainers of the Wiki page for the symphony, mostly managing the discography section . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._3_(Copland)

 

I really can't see any recording every dethroning Leonard Slatkin leading the Detroit Symphony for me.   I don't think any recording has ever captured the giant beating heart of this piece as well.  I'm very grateful that I got to see Slatkin perform the symphony in concert with the National Symphony just a couple of months before the Covid hammer came down.

 

 

 

It was a very weird program for the premiere weekend back in 1946

 

 

And here are the program notes from the original 1946 program (the Boston Symphony archives is just the coolest website)

Spoiler

 

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,175]

RIP Edita Gruberova

 

[bollemanneke 3,338]

Could anyone recommend a good and modern recording of Delibes ballet suites? I just discovered Coppelia, but find Karajan's sounds like a Giacchino recording.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Bonynge (Decca) is a reference in this repertoire. This small box of his three ballets is essential.

 

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Ned Rorem turns 98 today!  A very happy birthday to one of my 5 favorite American composers.  He composed amazing, beautiful music across 8 decades but retired from writing 10 or so years ago.

 

Boosey & Hawkes for his birthday uploaded a score video of "Lions" one of his coolest orchestral pieces.  It's a fascinating combination of orchestra with a traditional jazz quartet functioning sort of like a continuo, except the orchestra and the jazz combo often seem to be more in conversation or even competition with each other.

 

Well worth your time.

 

 

[karelm 2,903]

4 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Ned Rorem turns 98 today!  A very happy birthday to one of my 5 favorite American composers.  He composed amazing, beautiful music across 8 decades but retired from writing 10 or so years ago.

 

Boosey & Hawkes for his birthday uploaded a score video of "Lions" one of his coolest orchestral pieces.  It's a fascinating combination of orchestra with a traditional jazz quartet functioning sort of like a continuo, except the orchestra and the jazz combo often seem to be more in conversation or even competition with each other.

 

Well worth your time.

 

 

That was really cool!  I adored the string writing and colors!  Very fine music.  It reminds me a bit of Ives and also film music of that time.

 

Here is more American music, Howard Hanson's Lament for Beowulf:

 

 

[Holko 9,499]

I now decided this thread is for asking for recommendations too; if there's a better thread for that, this post can be moved there.

 

So in my deep dive into the Karajan DG discography, I particularly latched onto the period between the romantic and modern, and I'd like to ask if there are any particular good core "best of/essential" starter sets people would recommend for Sibelius, Debussy and Saint-Saëns, good recordings ideally also with good liner notes giving context so I wouldn't have to go wikisurfing separately for each piece. These look alright for the first two based on a quick amazon search:

However, the best S-S one seems to be this, and I certainly wouldn't call a set without Carnival of the Animals a definitive starter set:

 

Also, what are the thoughts on the Previn Tchaikovsky ballet recordings? I'd like to discover further than the Nutcracker Suite and the one well known Swan Lake piece and this seems like a nice set.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

All of Berglund's three Sibelius cycles are worth getting.

 

Regarding Saint-Saëns' symphonies, the 3rd is a masterpiece, but the others are quite disappointing.

 

Previn's Tchaikovsky ballets are very good. My favourite is the suites recorded by Karajan/VPO on Decca.

[Marian Schedenig 8,175]

1 hour ago, Holko said:

 

I've got this one:

 

I love it, because it also includes a lot of the tone poems (even though the Karelia Suite is still missing the middle movement, like on your set). Adding Karajan's incomplete set for a highly different perspective can't hurt either:

 

 

Although I wouldn't give up Rosbaud's gorgeous mono recordings for the world (but they're only a single disc of various tone poems):

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Previn's Tchaikovsky ballets are very good.

 

That's almost all the Tchaikovsky I have, and I'm very happy with them.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

2 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

That's almost all the Tchaikovsky I have, and I'm very happy with them.

 

What do you think of the Karajan/VPO suites?

 

Regarding the Karelia suite, I'm still looking for the perfect recording, but I like Oramo's a lot.

 

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,175]

44 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

What do you think of the Karajan/VPO suites?

 

As I said, the Previn ballets are almost everything I have. I even mostly don't know the symphonies, for some reason I never wanted to bother with them.

47 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Regarding the Karelia suite, I'm still looking for the perfect recording, but I like Oramo's a lot.

 

If I had to pick one, it'd probably still be Rosbaud's:

 

 

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

1 minute ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

As I said, the Previn ballets are almost everything I have. I even mostly don't know the symphonies, for some reason I never wanted to bother with them.

 

Then I recommend these recordings:

 

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

5 hours ago, Holko said:

However, the best S-S one seems to be this, and I certainly wouldn't call a set without Carnival of the Animals a definitive starter set:

IMO Saint-Saens’ symphonic poems are more essential to his legacy than his symphonies.  It’s not a big box set but I love this album

 

[Bespin 8,480]

I would love to hear how you pronounce Camille Saint-Saëns!

 

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Why do the French bother to use consonants when they are NEVER pronounced?

 

Right Mr. Dayplah?

😎

[Disco Stu 15,495]

9 hours ago, Bespin said:

I would love to hear how you pronounce Camille Saint-Saëns!

Correctly!  ….because I googled how to many years ago  

[Bespin 8,480]

7 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

Why do the French bother to use consonants when they are NEVER pronounced?

 

Right Mr. Dayplah?

😎

 

In this case, it's Dess-PLAH, because of the special origin of the patronym.

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

People love to complain that English has more exceptions to rules than it has words that follow rules, but I find this to be true of pretty much every language.  It's human nature!

[Bespin 8,480]

French is one of the most illogical language I know!

[GerateWohl 4,343]

It helps to make yourself aware that language is nothing somebody invented based on a ruleset like grammar. Grammar is an auxiliary construct that people created to describe language as it is and if grammar construct is good it has a 70% match on the actual language. Same for spelling rules etc.

[Marian Schedenig 8,175]

9 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

Why do the French bother to use consonants when they are NEVER pronounced?

 

Right Mr. Dayplah?

😎

 

You put an unpronounced consonant there in your English transliteration… and an unpronounced vowel as well.

[Holko 9,499]

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

English = you (silent o, could just be written as “u”) know (silent k, redundant “w”, could be written as “no”) nothing (“o” = “u”) John (silent “h”) snow (redundant “w”).

 

English is fucking mental. On the flip side, no genders for regular nouns. I mean, why should a boat or a chair or chips or pylons or carbon or a hovercraft be masculine or feminine (or if you’re German, it could be neuter, so may as well just be that and do away with Der and Die).

 

On topic: listening to Minea by Kalevi Aho. Excellent as ever from Aho.

 

😜

[bruce marshall 1,315]

7 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Correctly!  ….because I googled how to many years ago  

Ka-meal*say- san

 

Or kamee*

4 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

You put an unpronounced consonant there in your English transliteration… and an unpronounced vowel as well.

It's a guide to pronounciation

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Fyi

The common way to prounounce foreign language names, for Americans at least, is to Anglicize them.

San Francisco is not pronounced SAHN - FRAHN- SEESE- KO.

Los Angeles is Loss An- jell- is, not  Lowz- ahn- galese

Mexico is not pronounced Me- he- ko

etc.

 

Hugo Wolff is not pronounced. Ooh- GO VULF.

 

Even Italiani- American names like John CoriGliano enunciate the "g".

 

So Alex- ander Des- plot

is perfectly fine.

Either way.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,504]

18 hours ago, Bespin said:

French is one of the most illogical language I know!

Try Scottish Gaelic, Bes 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Australian is the worst.

 

It's " pee-pull" not PAY- pull, people!

😝

[publicist 4,643]

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

I've got that box!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

This came in the mail today 

 

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Is it a fine piece?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

It's been too long since I've posted about Walter Piston, who remains one of my 5 personal favorite composers.

 

I love this oboe suite, a very small chamber piece from the early 1930s, very early in his career as a composer.  The "Minuetto" movement especially is just achingly wonderful.  I love the ever-so-slightly sour turn the opening melody takes in the 2nd half of the phrase

 

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

Lutosławski - 20 Polish Christmas Carols (https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7940465--lutos-awski-twenty-polish-christmas-carols-etc) - With apologies to whoever recommended this album but it really is wonderful. I can't say I recognise any of the carols, but the arrangements for orchestra, chorus and soloist are expectedly wonderful, quite filmic in places too. The Lacrimosa and 5 Songs that round out the album are slightly more gnarly, closer to typical Lutosławski but still worth the effort.

 

At this time of year I always (OK... often) have to recommend the Naxos album (https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7926856--kelly-b-improvisations-on-christmas-carols-etc) containing Carol Symphonies by Victor Hely-Hutchinson and Patric Standford, as well as Improvisations on Christmas Carols by Bryan Kelly and a couple of shorter works. If you listen to the Christmas at Carnegie Hall track from Home Alone 2 and wish there were a whole album of JW style arrangements of Christmas carols, this is probably as close are you're going to get. Terrific.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

On 10/12/2021 at 2:40 PM, Jurassic Shark said:

Is it a fine piece?

Im willing to bet a small fortune it's " Feinstein'  "Feingold", " Feinman",

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Ground control to major @Tom Guernsey:

 

Regarding our earlier Sibelius discussion - check out this beautiful box from Ondine.

 

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

48 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Ground control to major @Tom Guernsey:

 

Regarding our earlier Sibelius discussion - check out this beautiful box from Ondine.

 

 

Thanks, I have added it to my Presto wish list! I actually already have a similarly titled 3CD set from Naxos (https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/NX 8143) which I shall have to listen to again, although it's more made up of shorter pieces.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

@Marian Schedenig, do you have a favourite CD box set of Korngold's orchestral works?

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

19 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

@Marian Schedenig, do you have a favourite CD box set of Korngold's orchestral works?

Appreciate this wasn't directed at me but I don't actually think there is a boxed set of his orchestral works? However, I do highly recommend the two recent albums on Chandos with his Symphony and Violin Concerto, conducted by John Wilson. They make an excellent companion to the two film music albums on Chandos conducted by Rumon Gamba. I guess that sort of makes a boxed set!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

If I'm remembering correctly, Shark is a big fan of John Wilson generally, so I bet he knows those albums well.

 

I must confess I have never listened to a single note of Korngold's pre-Hollywood music.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Appreciate this wasn't directed at me but I don't actually think there is a boxed set of his orchestral works? However, I do highly recommend the two recent albums on Chandos with his Symphony and Violin Concerto, conducted by John Wilson. They make an excellent companion to the two film music albums on Chandos conducted by Rumon Gamba. I guess that sort of makes a boxed set!

 

There's one box on CPO and one on Capriccio (both four CDs). Then there's four albums on Chandos conducted by Bamert, but I don't know if these have been released as a box.

 

I've got the Wilson take on the symphony, and will probably get his recording of the violin concerto as well.

 

When it comes to Gamba I find his Korngold recordings to be good but not great, but at least his choir in The Sea Hawk doesn't sound Russian...

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

20 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

There's one box on CPO and one on Capriccio (both four CDs). Then there's a series of recordings on Chandos conducted by Bamert, but I don't know if these have been released as a box.

 

I've got the Wilson take on the symphony, and will probably get his recording of the violin concerto as well.

 

When it comes to Gamba I find his Korngold recordings to be good but not great, but at least his choir in The Sea Hawk doesn't sound Russian...

Ah yes, I have a couple of the CPO albums (Orchestral Works 2 and Symphonic Serenade), are the others worth getting? Don't seem to have any of the Capriccio discs, are they worth getting? I have the Sursum Corda and Fairytale Pictures albums on Chandos under Bamert.

 

I rather enjoyed Gamba's Korngold albums, the plush Chandos sound suits the music well I find and thought the performances were pretty great. I like the Stromberg recordings of Robin Hood and The Sea Hawk but, as I said elsewhere, the performances feel a bit more matter of fact and the recording a bit more neutral. Not necessarily bad in any way, but the Chandos discs have a bit more of that Karajan/Richard Straussian glow which works wonders for Korngold.