What are you listening to?

[Jared]

Incidentally, I don't know whether or not you have noticed that I have now converted Darren....I think that he is hooked....LOL!

I had noticed this... ;-))

have you invited him on to Tir Na?

[Jared]

Walton:
Symph No 1
Adrian Boult
BBC Symph Orch
1975

:-))

[mcq]

I have to admit that I think Vaughan Williams' symphonic cycle stands alongside Sibelius's cycle as one of the great 20th century achievements. Simply beautiful music. My favourite versions are by Andre Previn with the LSO on RCA, Bernard Haitink with the LPO on EMI and Adrian Boult's first cycle in mono on Decca (with the composer in attendance at the recording sessions). It's a great shame that Richard Hickox never lived to complete his complete traversal of the symphonies. With regards to the first symphony, my preference is with Previn.

mcq... we haven't met, but I feel I like you a great deal already!... ;-))

anyway, at present:

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 2
Capriccio Italien
John Lill/ Walter Weller/ Roberto Minczuk/ BBC NOW

BBC Music disk for June 2010... I just LOVE this magazine!

It's a pleasure to meet you too, Jared. I see as well you're a fellow admirer of Richard Strauss. That version of the Alpine Symphony by Karajan with the BPO is an absolute classic. In his last decade, Karajan did some wonderful things with Mahler, Bruckner and Strauss that reflected a lifetime's experience with this truly great music. His recordings of Metamorphosen and Tod Und Verklarung with the BPO are very special. As much as I love Rudolf Kempe's versions of these masterworks on EMI (recorded with the Staatskapelle Dresden), nobody tapped deeper into their spiritual dimensions than Karajan in these recordings. Time really does stand still. (Karajan achieves a similar effect in his transcendentally beautiful version of Wagner's Parsifal recorded a few years earlier with the BPO and which is probably the only version that comes closest to the glories of Knappertsbusch's timeless 1962 version at Bayreuth.) I also adore his 1956 recording of Der Rosenkavalier with the Philharmonia which is desert island material for me. Perhaps Schwartzkopf's greatest performance and the closing moments never fail to break my heart.

[mcq]

Walton:
Symph No 1
Adrian Boult
BBC Symph Orch
1975

:-))

A beautiful recording but my personal reference for this music is Andre Previn with the LSO on RCA. It's available on a very inexpensive double CD set coupled with excellent versions of the violin concerto (with Jascha Heifitz) and the cello concerto (with Gregor Piatigorsky).

[Jared]

It's a pleasure to meet you too, Jared. I see as well you're a fellow admirer of Richard Strauss. That version of the Alpine Symphony by Karajan with the BPO is an absolute classic. In his last decade, Karajan did some wonderful things with Mahler, Bruckner and Strauss that reflected a lifetime's experience with this truly great music. His recordings of Metamorphosen and Tod Und Verklarung with the BPO are very special. As much as I love Rudolf Kempe's versions of these masterworks on EMI (recorded with the Staatskapelle Dresden), nobody tapped deeper into their spiritual dimensions than Karajan in these recordings. Time really does stand still. (Karajan achieves a similar effect in his transcendentally beautiful version of Wagner's Parsifal recorded a few years earlier with the BPO and which is probably the only version that comes closest to the glories of Knappertsbusch's timeless 1962 version at Bayreuth.) I also adore his 1956 recording of Der Rosenkavalier with the Philharmonia which is desert island material for me. Perhaps Schwartzkopf's greatest performance and the closing moments never fail to break my heart.

I think in this regard, you me & Fergus are kindred spirits... I've never been entirely enamoured with HvK's treatment of the likes of Haydn or Mozart for instance, but when it comes to the late Romantic repertoire to which you refer, then he really does come into his own.. I have most of the Strauss stuff issued on DG, besides his Bruckner boxset (as well as Jochum, who I also love), and also have Bohm & Kempe sets of Strauss, which are also to be admired.

I posted 'Eine Alpensinphonie' as it is probably my favourite work of Strauss', and this is possibly my favourite recording.. ;-))

[Jared]

A beautiful recording but my personal reference for this music is Andre Previn with the LSO on RCA. It's available on a very inexpensive double CD set coupled with excellent versions of the violin concerto (with Jascha Heifitz) and the cello concerto (with Gregor Piatigorsky).

Yes, everyone says the Previn is about the finest, and maybe one day... as it is, I own versions by Boult, Litton & Otaka, so it's not at the top of the list.. even though Symph 1 & his Viola Concerto are about as good as it gets with Walton..

[Seán]

This evening I decided to try and get my listening session off to a rousing start with this:



Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No 7
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
John Eliot Gardiner conducting

and it worked, it's quite superb actually.

[Seán]

Then I opted for some Chopin and perhaps my favourite solo piano piece:



Frédéric Chopin
Polonaise op 26
Murizio Pollini - Piano
this is quite extraordinary music, graced by some truly beautiful playing.


and followed by Ashkenazy's interpretation of the Op 26, which - surprisingly - doesn't move me at all:

[DaveF]

some French baroque to settle down to after a lovely weekend away.

[fergus]

This evening I decided to try and get my listening session off to a rousing start with this:

Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No 7
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
John Eliot Gardiner conducting

and it worked, it's quite superb actually.

I knew that Gardiner's version No. 7 would get you as it really is something special.
Had you not been impressed you were in serious trouble my friend!!!