Tír Na HiFi

Seán wrote:Perhaps it's time for you to depart your comfort zone then. wink

You are correct of course....it is interesting that mcq's recommendations are both older recordings and I just might be tempted there....we shall see........

fergus wrote:

Seán wrote:Perhaps it's time for you to depart your comfort zone then. wink

You are correct of course....it is interesting that mcq's recommendations are both older recordings and I just might be tempted there....we shall see........

As a matter of interest are you normally inclined to leave comfort zone?

Seán wrote:As a matter of interest are you normally inclined to leave comfort zone?

I actually have no problem there Seán....the area where I have always had a problem with in the classical music world is Opera in general....other than Baroque/Classical Opera. I never took to Romantic Opera i.e. Puccini, Verdi etc. and certainly never went beyond that era. I have tried to listen to it on the radio but never to any avail. I have often tought that moving into the area of DVD might help me to resolve this issue but but seeing overweight singers singing music that I don't get, coupled with the general appallingly bad acting that can go with Opera has always turned me off this avenue as well?!?!

Tonight, suitably bolstered by a very fine Italian Barolo, I have been basking in the heavenly delights of Richard Strauss's supreme masterpiece, Der Rosenkavalier, as conducted by Herbert van Karajan with the Philharmonia in 1957 (EMI). Simply unalloyed perfection. A career-defining performance for Elisabeth Schwartzkopf and - arguably - Karajan's greatest recorded achievement. Truly a desert island disc for me, beating strong competition from Erich Kleiber's 1954 version (on Decca), Georg Solti's 1969 version (also on Decca), Carlos Kleiber's 1979 version on a DG DVD and Bernard Haitink's 1990 version on EMI. This, to me, is one of the great transcendental recordings of music - right up there with Glenn Gould's 1981 version of Bach's Goldberg Variations and Knappertsbusch's 1962 reading of Wagner's Parsifal (on Philips) to name two examples that come to mind. The closing moments of this recording will leave you utterly transported. If there is one recording that assures Karajan's (and Schwartzkopf's) reputation, it is this one and I can but hope that Richard Strauss met them both at the pearly gates and gave them both a big bear hug. Utterly, utterly beautiful and priceless beyond words.

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 5
Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Claudio Abbado

What a superb recording this is.

Seán wrote:

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 5
Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Claudio Abbado

What a superb recording this is.

I'd like to hear it! Actually, I'd like to hook up the digital output from the DVD to my dCS Scarlatti DAC: that should be nice!

Ciaran wrote:

Seán wrote:

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 5
Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Claudio Abbado

What a superb recording this is.

I'd like to hear it! Actually, I'd like to hook up the digital output from the DVD to my dCS Scarlatti DAC: that should be nice!

I don't often get the chance to take the home cinema system, yesterday I did and I put the time to good use. The Abbado/Lucerne recordings are quite magnificent, they should be made available in a CD box set.

Seán wrote:.... The Abbado/Lucerne recordings are quite magnificent, they should be made available in a CD box set.

There would be such a ready market for it one wonders why it has not happened yet....

JSB – Two Cantatas BWV20 and BWV75 for the First Sunday after Trinity....