Recent Purchases

[mcq]

you know Fergus, I just don't seam to understand what all the hype is about the Faure Requiem.. seriously, I've listened to several versions in the vain hope that it might be my way into French choral music (hey, French CM full stop!) but I've always been quite underwhelmed... :-//

I have to agree with Fergus here, Jared. The contributions of the French to the world of music is one of the greatest glories we have. From the 14th century Guillaume de Machaut through the miracles of the French Baroque to the revolutionary (and still quite startling) achievements of Debussy and Ravel to a 20th century master like Messaien, France has given us so much to be grateful for. Here are some of my favourite works (and some recommended recordings as well).

Guillaume Machaut: Messe de Notre Dame (as performed by The Hilliard Ensemble and conducted by Paul Hillier and available on Hyperion)
Guillaume Dufay: Motets (as performed by Cantica Symphonia and conducted by Giuseppe Maletto and available on Glossa)
Jean-Baptiste Lully: Atys (as performed by Les Arts Florissants and conducted by William Christie and available on Harmonia Mundi)
Francois Couperin: Lecons de Tenebres (as performed by Les Arts Florissants and conducted by William Christie and available on Harmonia Mundi)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Te Deum (as performed by Les Arts Florissants and conducted by William Christie and available on Harmonia Mundi)
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Caster et Pollux (as performed by Les Arts Florissants and conducted by William Christie and available on Harmonia Mundi)
Hector Berlioz: Les Nuits de'ete (as performed by Regine Crespin and LOrchestre de la Suisse Romande and conducted by Ernest Ansermet and available on Decca)
Gabriel Faure: Requiem (both the 1893 and the 1901 versions as conducted by Philippe Herreweghe and available on Harmonia Mundi)
Claude Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande (as performed by the VPO and conducted by Claudio Abbado and available on DG)
Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe (as performed by the BSO and conducted by Charles Munch and available on RCA)
Francois Poulenc: Gloria (as performed by Polyphony and the Britten Symphonia and conducted by Stephen Layton and available on Hyperion)
Henri Dutilleux: Cello Concerto (as performed by Mstislav Rostropovich with the Orchestre de Paris and available on EMI)
Olivier Messaien: Turangalila-Symphonie (as performed by the Orchestre de l'Opera Bastille and conducted by Myung-Whun Chung and available on DG)

[mcq]

You would be in good company here as a few of us have a similiar penchant. Get the ball rolling and mention a few favourites....

now, there's a challenge!

1) almost anything by Sibelius, with a special mention for Symphs 1,2,5 & his Violin Concerto
2) Nielsen Symphs 1-5 (still having difficulty with 6) & Violin Concerto
3) nearly everything by Tchaikovsky in small doses.. I tend to like it all, but too much at one sitting can get a little saccharine (like eating a large meringue)
4) liberal helpings of Borodin (esp his marvellous String Qt No 2) and Rimsky K (Antar, and Russian Easter Festival Overture in particular)
5) too much by Dvorak to mention ( esp 7,8 Requiem, Mass in D, Slavonic Dances)
6) Smetana: Ma Vlast round
7) Janacek: Sinfonietta/ Glasgolitic Mass
8) Liszt: Piano Concertos & some tone poems (not heard them al, yet)
9) Grieg when he's good.. love ghis PC and Norwegian Dances...

gosh, I think that will have to do for starters.. I'm exhausted!

Nice selection there, Jared. If you like these composers, try the following:

Nielson's and Janacek's piano music: There's a very inexpensive double CD set of Leif Ove Andsnes' performances of this great music on Virgin.

Janacek's operas: Charles Mackerras is the master of these wonderful creations. Try Jenufa with the VPO on Decca for starters.

Liszt's solo piano music: I love Jorge Bolet's collected performances of these classics of the reportoire on Decca.

Sibelius's songs: The most neglected part of the man's work. There is a magnificent 4-CD set available on Decca sung by Elisabeth Soderstrom and Tom Krause and alternately accompanied by Vladimir Ashkenazy and Irwin Gage.

If you love Dvorak, I'm sure you've heard his opera Rusalka. My favourite version is conducted by Charles Mackerras with the Czech Philharmonic and is available on Decca.

Grieg's songs: I've always loved Anne Sofie von Otter's performances of the man's songs accompanied by Bengt Forsberg (DG), which is one of her finest achievements. Of particular note is the beautiful song cycle Haugtessa.

[fergus]

You would be in good company here as a few of us have a similiar penchant. Get the ball rolling and mention a few favourites....

now, there's a challenge!

1) almost anything by Sibelius, with a special mention for Symphs 1,2,5 & his Violin Concerto
2) Nielsen Symphs 1-5 (still having difficulty with 6) & Violin Concerto
3) nearly everything by Tchaikovsky in small doses.. I tend to like it all, but too much at one sitting can get a little saccharine (like eating a large meringue)
4) liberal helpings of Borodin (esp his marvellous String Qt No 2) and Rimsky K (Antar, and Russian Easter Festival Overture in particular)
5) too much by Dvorak to mention ( esp 7,8 Requiem, Mass in D, Slavonic Dances)
6) Smetana: Ma Vlast round
7) Janacek: Sinfonietta/ Glasgolitic Mass
8) Liszt: Piano Concertos & some tone poems (not heard them al, yet)
9) Grieg when he's good.. love ghis PC and Norwegian Dances...

gosh, I think that will have to do for starters.. I'm exhausted!

That is quite a list there Jared of quite a range of different styles of music. I listen to quite a lot of it myself and enjoy it also. Thanks for the comprehensive reply and I note your comment on Nielsen 6....you are certainly not alone there mate!

[fergus]

I have to agree with Fergus here, Jared. The contributions of the French to the world of music is one of the greatest glories we have. From the 14th century Guillaume de Machaut through the miracles of the French Baroque to the revolutionary (and still quite startling) achievements of Debussy and Ravel to a 20th century master like Messaien, France has given us so much to be grateful for. Here are some of my favourite works (and some recommended recordings as well).

Listen to my learned colleague here who has impeccable taste Jared and open up your heart and soul to the glory that is French music down through the ages!!!

[Jared]

Listen to my learned colleague here who has impeccable taste Jared and open up your heart and soul to the glory that is French music down through the ages!!!

Fergus... here's my 'to do' list...

1) Learn to appreciate French Classical Music Post Berlioz (I'm fine with everything before him!)
2) Learn to appreciate Opera (that might be a toughie)
3) Learn to appreciate any 20th Century music which isn't tonal (even tougher)
4) Learn to appreciate Organ Music
5) Learn to appreciate Shostokovich

and then, I'll be there!! LOL

[Seán]

Listen to my learned colleague here who has impeccable taste Jared and open up your heart and soul to the glory that is French music down through the ages!!!

Fergus... here's my 'to do' list...

1) Learn to appreciate French Classical Music Post Berlioz (I'm fine with everything before him!)
2) Learn to appreciate Opera (that might be a toughie)
3) Learn to appreciate any 20th Century music which isn't tonal (even tougher)
4) Learn to appreciate Organ Music
5) Learn to appreciate Shostokovich

and then, I'll be there!! LOL

and ensure that you have at least one copy of all of the Mahler Symphonies too.

[fergus]

Fergus... here's my 'to do' list...

1) Learn to appreciate French Classical Music Post Berlioz (I'm fine with everything before him!)
2) Learn to appreciate Opera (that might be a toughie)
3) Learn to appreciate any 20th Century music which isn't tonal (even tougher)
4) Learn to appreciate Organ Music
5) Learn to appreciate Shostokovich

and then, I'll be there!! LOL

You set the bar high for yourself there my friend.

No. 1 is easy [LOL!]
Good luck with No.s 2 & 3 and any tips there from what you learn would be greatfully appreciated in this quarter anyway!
No. 4 is not so tough....I recently bought and enjoyed JSB's Orgelbuchlein and found it very accessable. The lads here have posted a few interesting suggestions as well which I will follow up in due course!
No. 5 is the easiest of the lot....simply buy Kondrashin's Shostakovich symphonic cycle....it is amazing and it should be in every collection!!!

There you are....job done LOL!!

[Jared]

Nice selection there, Jared. If you like these composers, try the following:

Nielson's and Janacek's piano music: There's a very inexpensive double CD set of Leif Ove Andsnes' performances of this great music on Virgin.

Janacek's operas: Charles Mackerras is the master of these wonderful creations. Try Jenufa with the VPO on Decca for starters.

Liszt's solo piano music: I love Jorge Bolet's collected performances of these classics of the reportoire on Decca.

Sibelius's songs: The most neglected part of the man's work. There is a magnificent 4-CD set available on Decca sung by Elisabeth Soderstrom and Tom Krause and alternately accompanied by Vladimir Ashkenazy and Irwin Gage.

If you love Dvorak, I'm sure you've heard his opera Rusalka. My favourite version is conducted by Charles Mackerras with the Czech Philharmonic and is available on Decca.

Grieg's songs: I've always loved Anne Sofie von Otter's performances of the man's songs accompanied by Bengt Forsberg (DG), which is one of her finest achievements. Of particular note is the beautiful song cycle Haugtessa.

thanks, mcq; I really appreciate your help and input.. :-))

there's quite a bit you have mentioned, which interests me, and I will get around to much of it, over the next few years, no doubt..

in a nutshell, I used to listen to quite a lot of Prog Rock (still like it tbh, though have sold a lot of material now) and have listened almost exclusively to Classical for the past 2 years. my collection has been widening and growing fairly rapidly since that time, and has been helped no end by my purchase of a complete set of BBC Music Mag CDs from Vol 1-18, which now contains very respectible performances of an immense amount of repertoire, which I have been wading my way through. My CD collection now probably contains about 300 releases (of which about 50 are box sets) and are fairly evenly distributed between Orchestral, Chamber & Choral, and from early music through to early 20th Century, however still has a very strong Germanic/ English/ Russian bias.

my shopping list is understandably huge, with my current 'project' the Mozart Piano Concertos. Next up, will be a quick revision of a variety of well known Piano & Violin concertos, with the help of a number of seminal recordings of each, I have purchased recently from Amazon. After that, I have 3 box sets of Mahler symphonies & lieder looking at me, before I move on in the autumn, to the Beethoven String Quartets (among other things). As Fergus & Sean will tell you, my listening calendar is actually pretty chocced up for the next year!!

I hope you haven't found this too self indulgent, but that's a little about me, anyway... :-))

[Seán]

Fergus... here's my 'to do' list...

5) Learn to appreciate Shostokovich

No. 5 is the easiest of the lot....simply buy Kondrashin's Shostakovich symphonic cycle....it is amazing and it should be in every collection!!!

I have the Barshai set on Brilliant Classics which is splendid and is cheap, I also have the Kitajenko set (and that's well worth getting too), you can get on jpc.de at a very good price. The Kondrashin Shostakovish set is on my wish list.

[fergus]

More Cluytens....