Tír Na HiFi

Duly noted, Fergus, I'll look into those. Thanks for remembering!

You are most welcome Simon!

Sibelius – Symphonies 6 & 7 performed by BPO/von Karajan....



Two more wonderful versions of these symphonies with No. 6 being especially noteworthy.

I am starting off my (hopefully calm) day with LvB's piano concerto no. 3....

Charpentier – Noels & Christmas Motets....



This was the first disc of Charpentier’s music that I ever bought and it still remains my favourite; with gorgeous singing, beautiful instrumental textures and a lovely recording it is easy to see why it remains a perennial favourite.

DaveF wrote:

That's an excellent disc, Dave. His recording of the Beethoven concerto (coupled with a fabulous Kreutzer Sonata with the great Martha Argerich) and his most recent disc of violin sonatas by Janacek, Grieg and Franck with Nikolai Lugansky (one of the best things I've heard all year) are also very impressive.

Over the past week I've been listening intently to Lorin Maazel's recordings of the Mahler and Bruckner cycles. These are very rewarding and consistently impressive recordings. Maazel favours a cool, objective approach which sheds light on a myriad of inner details that many other conductors gloss over. My favourites from the Mahler set are nos. 1, 3, 4, and 10 (just the Adagio and not the Deryck Cooke reconstruction). I must also mention the Eighth which eschews the power that Solti highlights in favour of something rather more moving. The Bruckner set (recorded with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra during 1999 and released on the BRSO's own label, BR Klassik) is a tremendous achievement. These symphonies are among the most difficult to interpret in the repertoire and represent a major step forward from Beethoven's symphonic cycle. Highlights from Maazel's set include a Fifth that rivals Sinopoli's, a Seventh that is comparable to Karajan's last recording and a Ninth that stands on its own and is just one of the greatest versions of this masterpiece I have ever heard. A really great performance should not make you lament the final, unwritten movement, but simply rejoice over what you have just heard, which is what Maazel's recording delivers.

And today, a lovely, leisurely Christmas Eve, I've been engrossed in DVDs of the Alban Berg Quartet performing Beethoven's string quartets and, this afternoon, I watched a very enjoyable Don Giovanni from Glyndebourne with Gerard Finley in the title role.

I'd like to wish a very happy Christmas to everybody on this forum. I hope you all have a wonderful time.

fergus wrote:I am starting off my (hopefully calm) day with LvB's piano concerto no. 3....

Kovacevich's cycle with Colin Davis was the first I ever bought and it's still one of my favourites. He has a brilliant way with Beethoven - his cycle of the piano sonatas is one of the best of the modern era.

I'm also enjoying Francois-Frederic Guy's cycle on Naive with Philippe Jordan conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. The clarity of the textures reveals the genius of Beethoven's orchestral writing like never before and Guy's playing is very satisfying - very understated and restrained, yet direct in its delivery.

mcq wrote:Over the past week I've been listening intently to Lorin Maazel's recordings of the Mahler and Bruckner cycles. These are very rewarding and consistently impressive recordings. Maazel favours a cool, objective approach which sheds light on a myriad of inner details that many other conductors gloss over. My favourites from the Mahler set are nos. 1, 3, 4, and 10 (just the Adagio and not the Deryck Cooke reconstruction). I must also mention the Eighth which eschews the power that Solti highlights in favour of something rather more moving. The Bruckner set (recorded with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra during 1999 and released on the BRSO's own label, BR Klassik) is a tremendous achievement. These symphonies are among the most difficult to interpret in the repertoire and represent a major step forward from Beethoven's symphonic cycle. Highlights from Maazel's set include a Fifth that rivals Sinopoli's, a Seventh that is comparable to Karajan's last recording and a Ninth that stands on its own and is just one of the greatest versions of this masterpiece I have ever heard. A really great performance should not make you lament the final, unwritten movement, but simply rejoice over what you have just heard, which is what Maazel's recording delivers.

You make a very compelling case for both cycles in that post. Alas, too late for Santa but there is always the New Year!