The Classical Music Guide Forums

rogch

Not very surprising, but very sad. After i heard the news i listened to some of his recordings again. And they still sound so original and fresh. In some ways he obviously had very clear ideas about what he wanted. But it seems like the orchestras often were inspired when they played for him. The fi...

rogch

They have also announced a partnership between the two orchestras. All this happened just a couple of days after Riccardo Chailly surprisingly quit. Very strange. http://slippedisc.com/2015/09/in-the-andris-nelsons-tug-of-war-the-agent-comes-out-tops/ Actually these two orchestras are very different...

rogch

I think the second symphony is underrated. Haitink and the Concertgebouw Orchestra sounds good on Spotify, i have not heard it on CD. It is only available as part of Haitink´s complete set. Other good recordings are Chailly (same orchestra, Decca), Wand with the Cologne RSO and Giulini with the Vien...

rogch

When i grew up in the 80s and learned about music in school the baroque period was defined as a separate period with its own characteristics. Just like the baroque period in painting and architecture. And when people talked about classical music, Bach was always presented as one of the greatest comp...

rogch

The Gergiev recording with the Vienna Philharmonic is spectacular.

rogch

I have not heard the complete Uchida set, but i have heard some of the concertos and would be very surprised if the set was not satisfactory. The Anda set is for the most part very good, but perhaps a little heavy handed at times. Not slow though. Jos Van Immerseel and Anima Eterna on Channel Claass...

rogch

Cherubini was very respected by both Bethoven, Brahms and Schumann. And he wrote more than operas. When i hear some of his choral works or string qartets i wonder why he does not get more attention. There are exeptions though, i read a nice article about him in the BBC Music Magazine. Before that i ...

rogch

This is one of the reasons why i like conductor Philippe Herreweghe. His choice of tempo very often makes sence to me.

rogch

Congratulations Donald! I look forward to more of your excellent posts.

rogch

I would say Claudio Abbado. He has done it all: modern and period instruments, big and small orchestras (he has even created a few), symphonies, concertos, operas and a reportoire ranging from Pergolesi to Kurtag. The standards of his recordings are generally very high, at times they are spectacular.

rogch

There are so many splendid recordings of this work. The conductors, musicians and singers obviously love it. There is also a very good DVD from Münich with George Solti conducting the Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra with soloists Ruth Ziesak, Herbert Lippert, Anton Scharinger and Reinha...

rogch

Some of Biber's music belongs in this category. The Battalia sounds very weird at times.

rogch

I like some of Ligeti's pieces, a few of them very much. But he is not among my absolute favourites. But since he was more or less dismissed in this thread i think some balance was needed. The second string quartet is obviously not meant just to be pleasant and relaxing. The names of the movements s...

rogch

>Shame on you! < Okay I take it back--Sousa is more important and much better than ligetti and Schoenberg too! Regards, Len :) You are kidding, right? I mean, i like Johann Strauss, but better than Schönberg? No way. I have not heard too much Sousa, it is possible that i can like his music too. But...

rogch

A splendid web site paying tribute to many underrated composers! I agree with James Conlon who writes: Many, who perished in concentration camps, and others, whose freedom and productivity were curtailed, were fated to be forgotten after the war. Some of the composers listed are more known than othe...

rogch

..... Pierre Boulez allegedly called it "brothel music". That is going too far, but i can see why Boulez had his reservations. As we've said here before that reflects on the sort of brothel Boulez visited rather than Messiaen's music! It must have been one of those on Le Pigalle. What such a statem...

rogch

I like both old and new recordings. But if someone wants to discuss modern recordings in particular i can't see anything wrong with that. Just like discussions about legendary recordings can be interesting. And they are mentioned a lot in this forum, anren't they?

rogch

Aimard/Harnoncourt and Kempf/Leitner are both very good. Has anybody heard the complete Brautigam/Parrot cycle on BIS? I have only heard nos. 1 and 3, and no. 1 in particular was incredible.

rogch

I don't live in a country with plenty of world class orchestras and famous artists. But i have been to a couple of concerts in Berlin and Pierre Boulez conducting the Berlin Philharmonic is definitely the best concert i have been to. The works were Boulez' own Explosante-fixe and Stravinsky's The Ni...

rogch

To my ears it isn't a very subtle work. I loved it when i first heard it, but hardly listens to it anymore. The first time i heard it it was sensational. But after a few times it was less sensational and i really did not discover anything in new. It sounded very much like the first time. And that is...

rogch

I agree. It was much better the last time Janssons conducted. The two concerts with Pretre have not impressed me either. Welser-Möst and Barenboim were much better.

rogch

The concert last year was very good so it is no surprise that they want him to conduct next year as well. He also works with the orchestra on other occasions. He is even music director at the Vienna State Opera. There is a "symbiotic relationship" between the orchestra and the opera according to the...

rogch

I have downloaded an Archipel album to my ipod, it is available on CD too. It is called "The complete new year's concerts 1952-1954" and it is conducted by Clemens Krauss. I am very fond of it, many of the pieces sound very different from modern performances. They often sound more serious and less l...

rogch

I agree about Berwald. I believe many people agree when he is talked about, but he is not mentioned as often as many others.

Other names from the top of my head: Georg Muffat, Leopold Kozeluch, Joseph Lanner, Fartein Valen, Ernst Krenek

rogch

I wouldn't say Händel is one of the top 10 composers ever. He is definitely a great composer, but i wouldn't put him in my top 10. Haydn could end up in my top 10 list. These lists will always be disputed of course. I don't think they are hopeless or meaningless to make, but it is difficult.

rogch

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone from Norway! Actually we celebrate christmas eve here so today is a very quiet day except for some depressing stormy weather. Even in northern Europe we can't rely on a white christmas!

I look forward to a new year with discussions and exchange of ideas.

rogch

It is usually a pleasure and hardly ever a duty. But i can't expect to like everything after a few minutes of listening so sometimes i have to put some effort into the listening. It took me more that 5 minutes to appreciate Brucker's symphonies, but now i enjoy them without much effort. That is the ...

rogch

I am by no means an expert in this work, but i think The Dunedin Consort on Linn is satisfying. Actually i didn't care too much about Messiah before i heard this recording. I have not heard Harnoncourt in this work. It seems to be a controversial recoring, but i tend to like Harnoncourt's controvers...

rogch

I think Solti's Parsifal is very underrated. This was the record that opened my ears for Wagner and i still think it is one of the best. Haitink on DVD is very impressive, they should release it on CD too although the stage performance is quite good. How about Tristan and Isolde? The Furtwängler rec...

rogch

I love The Four Sesons! Often when people hear more of Vivaldi's music they get less interested in The Four Seasons. For me it's the other way around. I have liked other Vivaldi pieces, but usually i don't remember them for very long. There are so many brilliant baroque composers available now and m...

rogch

I have the Huggett/OAE set on disc and i am quite satisfied with it. Perhaps they play a little safe, that would be my only complaint. But i am glad to have these recordings in my collection. Unfortunately i have no other period instrument performances to compare them with. I have planned to by one ...

rogch

I would definitely check out Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. It has very few of Harnoncourt's famous mannerisms. I often like those, but there aren't too many of them here. The big exception is symphony no. 40 which is played VERY fast. Bot in other sy.mphonies there are ...

rogch

I have a Double Decca with some of the last concertos, i assume these are the same recordings as in the complete set. I was a little disappointed in these recordings, i feel they lack character. But i have not listened to them very often so i can not guarantee that this will be my final verdict. Mit...

rogch

The Rattle set has both its ups and downs. The third though, is the best recording in the set. The orchestral sound is a bit more polished than in some other symphonies. Not too polished though, and that probably is intentional. It's full of energy and the orchestral sound is very transparent. The w...

rogch

yes - soon we will have the mandatory mentions of the Konwitschny, Swarowsky, Leinsdorf, Hollreiser class recordings... :lol: :lol: :roll: :P And Sir Simon Rattle's sumptuously thrilling and truly awesome recording with the (once) World Class Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra... :lol: :lol: :lol: It is...

rogch

I really like the DVD with Thielemann conducting and Flemming, Kaufmann and others in the leading roles. I guess the staging is somewhat "updated", but as far as i can see it does not really change the story. I actually think this production was more focused than Otto Schenk's "traditional" stagings...

rogch

I am sure there is plenty to enjoy in the Naxos box set. I have heard some of Naxos' Haydn concerto recordings and they have been very good. But i still think the Staier recording on Harmonia Mundi is an absolute must for people who like this work even if they have other recordings. An amazing perfo...

rogch

MDT is very good. Very reliable and often good prices too. Usually plenty of special offers. This is important because the big record companies with huge back catalogues often can sell their records much cheaper than smaller labels. On MDT just about every label is part of a special offer once in a ...

rogch

There are two types of people, right? Wagner enthusiasts, and the many people who are (to greater or lesser degree) wrong. Very often that is the case, yes. The difference between Wagner and most other artists is that many people decide that they don't want to like his works beacause they don't lik...

rogch

Since i live in a small town i can't really say i need record stores here. I buy most of my music on the internet, not only classical. It is very unlikely that the kind of record shop i want will come back in this town, the ones that exist are of little interest. I actually buy more films in them th...

rogch

Recently there was an interview with pianist Leif Ove Andsnes in Gramophone where he talked about his new recordings of Rachmaninov's third and fourth piano concertos. And he had some interesting things to say about the fourth. He thought it was much better than its reputation and that it was strang...

rogch

Grace Williams is an interesting composer who is seldom recorded. Her Ballads for orchestra was on a BBC Music Magazine CD, that is how i heard about her. There is a commersial recording of the work too, on Lyrita. I don't know if the magazine cd counts, if it does there are two recordings. But othe...

rogch

None other than Sofia Gubadidulina has actually composed a few works with accordion. Recently deceased Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim also composed works for the accordion. I heard one of them on the radio, spectacular stuff actually.

rogch

The label BIS and concuctor Osmo Vänskä have really searched through the Sibelius catalogue to find hidden gems. They have recorded plenty of works i have never heard about, and they claim some of them are world premiere recordings. Amongst them are some vocal works (i believe) on the album "Sibeliu...

rogch

I am particularly keen to hear from posters who have the very new Aimard/Boulez Ravel disc :!: Then you won't hear from me, I like neither the Pianist or the Conductor... I'm with you, despite the cover story in BBC Magazine calling them the Dream Team .... :mrgreen: I don't always agree with the B...

rogch

For me, the chamber works are often the most interesting works by the romantic composers of the 19th century. I haven't heard very much of Saint-Saens' music, but recently i bought his piano trios 1 and two played by the Trio Wanderer on Harmonia Mundi. I am very glad i did. These trios are very ori...

rogch

Hyperion has a disc with three double bass concertos by Dittersdorf and one by Vanhal. I haven't heard it, but it really caught my interest. Conductor Roy Goodman is usually reliable. For some reason, i find only one disc with Concerto Köln playing Dittersdorf. This ensemble has made less famous com...

rogch

I really like the Aurora quartet on Naxos. On the same disc there is also a recording of the very underrated cello sonata so this disc really gives good value for money. I have not heard the Emersons, but i would be surprised if they were not good considering their generally high standard of playing...

rogch

I did hear a live performance of the concerto at Tanglewood by Yefim Bronfman that left me breathless. How sad that it wasn't recorded because he just owns this work. Bronfman has recorded it with Esa-Pekka Salonen and it has been one of my favourite recordings ever since i firtst heard it. There i...

rogch

What is remarkable about this work is that i have heard many recordings and very few of them have been bad in my opinion. And the interpretations are more simular than in many other major works. With Mozart, Beethoven and Mahler, different recordings can be like night and day. And some of Bartok's w...

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