The Classical Music Guide Forums

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HB!![/i][/b]

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LvB is great and that Sonata is a fine piece, but the Franck violin Sonata (for example) is vastly superior...

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My main piece is a VPI TNT turntable. I also like headphones, especially the AKG K1000 which are "earspeakers".

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BWV 1080 wrote:Moravec deserves top ranking, as does Zimerman

I second Moravec.

After that, Michelangeli.

Horowitz is distiguished by his amazing tonal colors. This is certainly unlike what Chopin himself would have done, but very beautiful!

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great thread; thanks everyone! The youtube search is good, but it somehow hadn't occurred to me to use it this way.

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The DVD is good news, though I'd prefer more music and less yakking.

I enjoyed his chamber recital on the OVATION cable TV channel--Dvorak and Faure-mmmmm!. Did anyone else catch it?

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Despite the efforts of some critics, I don't think Brahms gets a lot of points for originality or influence. But for sheer beauty, Brahms is #1 with me! 8) (I got some early exposure because he was my mother's favorite as well). In every genre in which he worked I love his works best, except perhaps...

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There is a fabulous 5 cd set on Brilliant Classics. Pretty fine playing I think (Brahms, Schumann, Ravel) except for the Rach 2nd Sonata, which struck me as a bit lifeless.

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HehHeh, in the old days one would have thought it necessary to warm up for Mahler and Bruckner with Wagner!

I love the Furty ring too. If you need better sound, then Solti!

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I think my favorite for the p. quintet is the Budapest/Serkin. The Cleveland/Ax is very nicely recorded. The Richter/Borodin has some fine moments, though the recorded sound is less satisfying overall. Just wait'll you hear the Clarinet Quintet! There is a lot of discussion of this piece in the arch...

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I love both, but put Scriabin first. I find his early Chopin-esque stuff amazingly good: the Op. 11 preludes, for example. And the later music, while perhaps lacking some in variety has almost unmatched attention to piano sound. For me, their orchestral music is about equal, but I have to admit that...

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Did Brahms leave behind any unfinished work or sketches that could be constructed into "new" music? There is a piano trio in A that has been recorded more than once as a Brahms composition. The Ashkenazy-Perlman-Harrell is pretty nice; I can believe that it is Brahms. Does anyone here have any good...

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Wow! Is there going to be more of this stuff coming out?

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Erotic: 1. Scriabin, "Poem of Ecstasy" (this is cleverly paired with the Tchai. R&J on a BSO/Abbado disc on DGG. 2. Franck Piano Quintet, 1st movement 3. The aforementioned Tristan stuff, plus the "love duet" Romantic: Here I'll go along with the Chopin Nocturnes other Nocturne-like pieces) and the ...

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If you can find it, her set of Brilliant Classics CDs is a great bargain. Her Brahms and Schumann are excellent! I thought her Rach 2nd Sonata was less good, but that piece has a special kind of competition...mainly Horowitz.

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I find a list like this hard because of the tradeoffs between quantity (e.g. lot of undistinguished Mozart against his great works), diversity (e.g. Chopin's piano music and dearth of other stuff, or Wagner's opera) and favorite pieces. OK here goes (I suppose this tracks time spent listening and sc...

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Nice signature, Mr. Inverness!

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Just checked in after a while away from the forum; it was great to see your post, Ralph!

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I have enjoyed the Richter recording on LP of the Saint-Saens Piano Concerto # 5 with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kirl Kondrashin. The recording also includes the Impromptus A Flat-E Flat. How would you assess this recording? Like just about everything Richter performed or recorded ...

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I found the vinyls to be readily available on ebay. The sound is not so great (as usual for Richter vinyl), so CD reissues might be the way to go.

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Ormandy's kind of consistency is difficult to achieve but sounds easy and effortless. It's probably easier to write about the dramatism of a Bernstein or the so-called tyrannical natures of Reiner or Szell, but he exhibited consistently excellent musicianship over a wide variety of music, much like...

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Get well, Ralph! I hope you have a good portable player and headphones in the hospital.

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The Levine/Met Ring is a nice way to spend a few hours--well, quite a few.

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I've got CDs of French EMI Chopin from the 60's; Preludes and Nocturnes. The sound is disappointing==more like 50's sound, but the performances are very interesting and individual. I also have an old Angel vinyl of the Liszt Concerti--these are less individualistic.

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I can't remember my first CD. But my first vinyl was as a high schooler in about 1972: Brahms' 4th Walter/columbia on a cheapo "Odyssey" reissue.

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Wow. No Ring fans here. Corlyss, I'm surprised at you! :cry: I have to be in the mood for the Ring. I haven't been in the mood since 1978. I listened to my Furtwangler mono Ring quite a bit and then I didn't want to hear the Ring any more. We'll talk when you move on to the Christian mystery dramas...

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Gerhardt Stoltze OWNS Loge/Mime. After you hear him, nothing else works!

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I've got the vinyl of that one--my favorite recording (well...perhaps after the Gerald Moore one....)

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His set of Chopin's preludes on DG vinyls was one of the first I acquired. It still sounds great.

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Backhaus is good when you're in the mood for a brisk performance of Brahms.

I have a "Brilliant Classics" Chopin collection that includes an oooold, complete performance of the Etudes. Very impressive. I find his later London recordings of Chopin too staid.

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THere is a cool video of Toscanini and the NBC doing it that is often played on "Classical Arts Showcase" on TV.

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I've got only one: the Teldec vinyl of the Chopin Ballades and Scherzi. Very nice piano tone. I also particularly like his interpretations of the 2nd and 4th Scherzi.

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I think the most expressive #2 is the Bernstein/NYP -- especially those strings in the first movement! Very nice slow movement, too. For #1 I like the Stokowski, but the sound on the Kertesz is much better.... Serenades: No. 1 in D Major, No. 2 in A Major. London Symphony Orchestra / István Kertész....

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I agree about the Sennheiser 600/650.

Many think that top of the line STAX headphones are the gold standard for classical music--but these might be outside the bounds of financial reason--close to two grand with the proprietary amplifier.

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Oh, right. Goodenuf, Badenov... in re: the pun in the original post.

But the recording IS impressive!

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Moose and Squirrel add two votes for Bolshoi/London

Corlyss_D wrote:Forget all of those also-rans. Go immediately and get the 1964 Bolshoi recording with George London.

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I need this one! I have an old Russian CD of E.K. as a youngun playing Scriabin etudes and preludes VERY well. I'm really curious to see what he is doing with it now.

Medtner is still underrecorded. The Hyperion disc by Demikenko is near the top, I think.

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AND FURTHERMORE, thou shalt not interminably lean forward in thy seat chin perched on hands and elbows on knees, thus ruining the sightlines for about five rows back... I tellya, some people need to get out more often... I don't get this one! If someone leans forward don't they improve the sight li...

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I thought cassettes were tutto finito as well, but I bought a new car last year and, in addition to the ubiquitous CD-changer, lo and behold! it also has a cassette slot. So, I guess the "beast" lives. I don't have any tapes, however. Just yesterday my son got a new Hyundai with a cassette player a...

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On my local cable service there are a few nice music channels.

Everytime something played by Artur Rubinstein is on, they put up a graphic:

Rubinstein was considered a great composer in the 19th century.

Haha, they mix up their A. Rubinsteins.

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I always get those two guys mixed up! :? But it's a good story anyway! :wink: Just once I'd like to see Reger's name come up here without someone feeling compelled to repeat that tiresome anecdote, - let alone bring it through the backdoor of a Bruch thread as well. HehHeh! OK. Like Bruch, Reger wr...

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Just slightly slow--not too bad, on my cable modem.

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#1 Richter, Rachmaninov
#2 Weissenberg, Richter
#3 Berman, Horowitz (from the 30's)
#4 Richter, Rachmaninov

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Are there any biographies of Sofronitsky that might someday be translated into English?

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Good idea! Here's one:

In Arrau's Columbia traversal of Chopin's Preludes, he takes the E-flat minor in largo instead of the usual allegro (presumably because some MS seems to have that notation). Very effective!

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I've been listening to the piano Etudes recently--quite worthwhile!

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I agree with Lance's points. Piano rolls aren't accurate representations of significant artists. And there isn't much point in listening to rolls when the same pieces from the same period in a pianist's career are available on 78s. But when all we have of a great artist's work is piano rolls, it see...

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I agree with Lance's points. Piano rolls aren't accurate representations of significant artists. And there isn't much point in listening to rolls when the same pieces from the same period in a pianist's career are available on 78s. But when all we have of a great artist's work is piano rolls, it see...

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Good luck!

The Grieg #3 that made it to Naxos (with the Franck) is quite nice.

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OK, so these are not hi-fi despite the good sound quality. But it is still thrilling to hear something whose existence was caused by Scriabin or Grieg, or ....

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