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What is the last piece of classical music you listened to?


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5 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Which recording?

 

Don't you remember?  After the Marriner recording, human society agreed to destroy all other existing recordings and never record the piece again.  Why mess with perfection!

 

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Just now, Disco Stu said:

 

Don't you remember?  After the Marriner recording, human society agreed to destroy all other existing recordings and never record the piece again.  Why mess with perfection!

 

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Can't disagree about that.

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Mozart's Requiem The Muzak Way... not sure about that.  Not that I dislike Neville Marriner's recordings, but... modern instruments, lush sound... it fits some works better than others.

 

I prefer Christopher Hoogwood's version with Emma Kirkby.

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It looks like a boy, it sounds like a boy, so it's a b... Emma Kirkby!

 

1 minute ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

I don't know who this guy is, though.

 

My autocorrect neither it seems.

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3 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

R.I.P. Bernard Haitink 

:(

 

 

RIP indeed, but a fine age to live to and a great legacy. His recording of Shostakovich 5 was the first one I bought and remains my favourite to this day (he doesn't labour the finale as much as others) and the double Philips album featuring his recordings of Debussy complete (or nearly) orchestral works was my introduction to Debussy and remains a favourite. Listening to his superb Shostakovich 10 (coupled with the 2nd, which I still don't like much, good though this performance is) in tribute.

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1 minute ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

He conducted my favourite version of Britten's PETER GRIMES: The R.O.H. Orchestra and Chorus with Johnson, Lott, and Allen.

 

I just can't listen to a Grimes without Peter Pears singing the lead.  Feels wrong!

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Nah, I've heard the 8th several times by different conductors and just think it's a really boring piece of music. I have no idea why Beethoven thought the 7th was worse than the 8th. 7 is a masterpiece.

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Today is United Nations Day, so I listened to Copland's stirring Preamble for a Solemn Occasion.  Written in 1949 for an NBC commission, in its original form it features a narrator performing a reading of the Preamble to the United Nations Charter, although the version with narrator is seldom recorded.  I consider the piece to be like a little sequel to the famous Lincoln Portrait.

 

Here is one with the narrator (narration starts at 3:23).

 

 

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Beethoven 9, Karajan, 1960s. That was interesting. First movement sickeningly slow and ponderous, I'll stick to Benjamin Zander. Second movement amazing except for the repetitions. Third movement great too. Fourth movement really intense and good until choir came in. Am I the only one who understands that if 50 people sing with vibrato they will ultimately all sound off-key? It just became too sloppy and overwhelming. I'm sticking with Rattle and Berlin for that one.

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7 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Second movement amazing except for the repetitions

 

Whereas I'm the kind of person who gets really annoyed by Haydn recordings that ignore the repeats.  But as I remember we had an epic thread about your aversion to repeats several years ago.

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1 minute ago, bollemanneke said:

I'm sorry if it left you traumatised. But yes, I hate repetitions.

 

I found the thread and I stand by my assessment from then lol

 

On 25/07/2016 at 12:38 PM, Disco Stu said:

It's not wrong.  Just weird.

 

Good lord it was more than 5 years ago, not sure why that thread stayed in my memory this long.

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16 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Beethoven 9, Karajan, 1960s. That was interesting. First movement sickeningly slow and ponderous, I'll stick to Benjamin Zander. Second movement amazing except for the repetitions. Third movement great too. Fourth movement really intense and good until choir came in. Am I the only one who understands that if 50 people sing with vibrato they will ultimately all sound off-key? It just became too sloppy and overwhelming. I'm sticking with Rattle and Berlin for that one.

 

You should check out Szell's recording - perfection!

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On 22/10/2021 at 6:03 PM, bollemanneke said:

Beethoven's 8, Karajan, 1960s. The symphony is already bad as it is, but he ruined the 3th movement too.

 

I love both symphonies, and I've always been happy with Karajan's 60s recordings of both.

 

7 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

You should check out Szell's recording - perfection!

 

Yes. The 9th (despite Janowitz, although to be fair the soloists hardly make an impact except in a few places) is the one where I'm not too fond of Karajan's version. The Szell is usually my pick.

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6 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

The rite of spring.

Positives: JW composed superior Star Wars cues inspired by this crap.

Negatives: everything else.

Questions: What drugs did they give this guy?

 

I completely disagree with you as I love the early ballets, but also you should try something like the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto or the Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments before writing off Stravinsky for good (those are my two personal favorites of his neoclassical period).

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23 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

More weird and wonderful shit, on BBC Radio 3 :lol:.

This time, it's courtesy of one Reena Esmail (anyone heard of her?).

It suits the rather shapeless day that I'm having; not bad, but just... unfocused.

 

 

She was my co-judge one year for composition contests.  Very nice person and wonderful music.

10 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

The rite of spring.

Positives: JW composed superior Star Wars cues inspired by this crap.

Negatives: everything else.

Questions: What drugs did they give this guy?

Let's not be stupid, now.

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58 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

The rite of spring.

Positives: JW composed superior Star Wars cues inspired by this crap.

Negatives: everything else.

Questions: What drugs did they give this guy?

I like you, dude, I really do, but you have just dissed thee most influential piece of music written, in the twentieth century. That's the kind of assonine comment that would get someone thrown out of music school.

I'm not a composer, I'm not a musician, and I'm not a musicologist, but even a cloth-eared eejit like me knows that THE RITE OF SPRING is so, so important to the history of music.

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