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Marc

I'm not opting for real contralto's in this one, like (IMHO) Kathleen Ferrier, Aafje Heynis and Nathalie Stutzmann. It's difficult enough to pick 5 favourite mezzo's : Christa Ludwig Teresa Berganza Frederica von Stade Anne Sofie von Otter Bernarda Fink Of these five, I 'dare' to say that Ludwig and...

Marc

Tastes differ. :o :wink: I think that Die Kunst der Fuge is one of those eternal masterpieces. I have been listening a couple of times lately to complete KdF's, played on harpsichord (Sebastien Guillot, Naxos) and organ (Lionel Rogg, EMI). Never a dull moment, really. On the contrary: Supercalifrag...

Marc

Tastes differ. :o :wink: I think that Die Kunst der Fuge is one of those eternal masterpieces. I have been listening a couple of times lately to complete KdF's, played on harpsichord (Sebastien Guillot, Naxos) and organ (Lionel Rogg, EMI). Never a dull moment, really. On the contrary: Supercalifragi...

Marc

I find his counterpoint to be absolutely exhausting. I mean, it's magnificent, but hot damn, one can only take so much! What's the prob? There is more music to choose from. Who's with me? :mrgreen: :? Not me. If there weren't more music to choose from, I'd still be a very happy man. Bach is my dail...

Marc

Thanks for posting!

Rachmaninoff.
The Second Piano Concerto.
lt isn't fair.
Every time I hear it, I go to pieces. It shakes me, it quakes me. It makes me feel goose-pimply all over. I don't know where I am or who I am or what I'm doing.
Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't ever stop!

Marc

Just four this time (dead or alive), and I won't be using an order of preference. Lucia Popp : singing music by my favourite opera composer Mozart, AND Schubert/Schumann/Mahler/Strauss/Prokofiev songs, AND Dvorak's Song to the Moon (Russalka), operette by Joh. Strauss, Léhar et al AND also et ceter...

Marc

I can't choose favorites in general, whether in music or whatever. I don't have a favorite color because I could never see any reason to like onecolor above others. I like all colors,even gray! Alas, my friend, then we would have to part when trying to cross The Bridge of Death .... WHAT is your fa...

Marc

Isn't it a bit drastic to 'condemn' a conductor to just a Kapellmeister (though there's nothing wrong in being a Kapellmeister IMO), because of this one experience? How do you know I was speaking from just "this one experience"? That isn't actually so, but as this was the most ambitious work I hear...

Marc

AFAIK, Suitner 'did' the Bayreuth Ring in 1967, being a last time replacement for Böhm, who went ill. Isn't it a bit drastic to 'condemn' a conductor to just a Kapellmeister (though there's nothing wrong in being a Kapellmeister IMO), because of this one experience? My guess is that Suitner has perf...

Marc

Yes, I know it's silly, but I'm still doing it. Please note your five favorite composers in order of preference; this has nothing to do with "greatest". I'll keep a tally and provide the results on 25 January. :lol: Hitparade time again! My Hot Five in order of preference: 1. J.S. Bach 2. W.A. Moza...

Marc

Can somebody explain to me what HIP stand for? I keep reading this all over CMG but I still don't understand what it means. Historically informed performance. Used to be (in the earlier days): 'authentic performance'. Then, 'suddenly', Nikolaus Harnoncourt (adored by many HIP purists) said in inter...

Marc

My main problem with opera is the recitativo . I find it unmusical. I have heard the Magic Flute, and I'll admit there are some absolutely incredible moments...I'm afraid it's just not my overall cup of tea. Then stay away from his Figaro... :mrgreen: Figaro: really great secco recitatives! And acc...

Marc

Tiger, might you experience a desperate need to relax, you can counterbalance Koopman with Harald Vogel, who's more severe.

Marc

Lance wrote:Thank you for illustrating the Reubke. I will add this one to my list. CPO has discovered some truly great material. Musicianship is always top-drawer, too.

You're welcome.

Especially the Allegro con fuoco of this one is very Wuchtig.

Marc

One of my recent purchases:

Julius Reubke: The works for Piano & Organ (Paolo Marzocchi & Luca Scandali).

I'm not really a 19th century guy, but some parts of the 94th Psalm for organ gave me the shivers! Partly caused by a bloke named .... Scandali?

Marc

Well, if I were going to pretend that I could improvise (and then if I could memorize) I might toss off something by Bux, but those works--which I do take to be written-out improvisations--would not be considered sufficiently sophisticated for a modern recital organist. His chorale-based works are ...

Marc

[.....] on the other hand Marc just pointed me at a Set of the Neumeister Chorales that I have never heard, so i'm most grateful he resurrected this Thread... Please accept the fact that Johannsen isn't playing BWV 1096, because it's one of those notorious spurious works (by Pachelbel?). But, if yo...

Marc

You know, Marc, I'm both grateful and frustrated that you re-opened this thread. Grateful that I have some time this afternoon to go back and finish downloading all the selections I want (which is a lot), and frustrated that this is no longer a straightforward matter. On my old computer, they just ...

Marc

My favourite of Bach's Organ Works are the Neumeister Chorales, I could play them every day for the rest of my life and would never tire of them... Please, please tell me that is not what you meant to say. Sorry, John, it's perfect chill out material, I love starting the day with them...I have tons...

Marc

My main problem with opera is the recitativo . I find it unmusical. I have heard the Magic Flute, and I'll admit there are some absolutely incredible moments...I'm afraid it's just not my overall cup of tea. Then stay away from his Figaro... :mrgreen: Figaro: really great secco recitatives! And acc...

Marc

For sculpted no-nonsense readings you might try this. It could be a good (and not so expensive) introduction: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?PID=7605591&style=music&frm=frooglemusic I have 3 & 4 on disc (bought them for about a handful euros long time ago), but apparently my Music Cassett...

Marc

.....Maybe less spectacular sound than Bilson/Gardiner, but more intense playing IMHO. I love it, Marc! I know that this wasn't a main point of yours, and that really it wasn't a point at all -- but when something like Bilson/Gardiner is said to have "spectacular sound," we know the early-instrumen...

Marc

Bach's Chaconne in D Minor. Yes! This one, and that organ one in C minor: BWV 582, the sublime Passacaglia ! (See also the 'adjective' thread :wink:.) I wish that I had written ....... Eleanor Rigby . Excellent choice....I remember being stunned when I first heard it as a youngster :D Here's anothe...

Marc

Sublime: of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.

J.S. Bach (1685-1750): Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582.

Marc

You don't like his Mozart Opera Recordings, i'm surprised... The only one I remember owning is the Figaro, and that because it was one of Lucia Popp's last recordings. Would you be so kind to tell something more about this one? Like conductor et cetera. I didn't know she did another Figaro in the n...

Marc

Therefore I feel that all churches with good historic organs should at least have the complete Bach at hand! :) If only I made that piano to organ switch when I was 15. I wanted to play the organ, but a good instrument was too expensive .... so I went to piano lessons, wasn't very good and became a ...

Marc

People are often well-read, but not well listened (see it a lot with the Mozart & others). Sure, like the genius that he was he reached further back, but this no doubt is one of the reasons why the stuff is so deep, and deeply inventive & groundbreaking - hardly old-fashioned. The music of the clas...

Marc

This is speculation, but I take the piece to be a written-down improvisation, possibly enhanced. As such, it is a wonder. As great as his reputation as an improviser was, it is not to be expected that improvised Bach would be at the same level as carefully composed Bach, as a comparison of the two ...

Marc

BWV 565: Johann Sebastian Bach? Johann Heinrich Buttstett? Johann Peter Kellner? Some parts of the Fugue seem to be inspired by a theme of the Fantasia in a minor P 125, of Johann Pachelbel. J.S. Bach was scholed by his eldest brother Johann Christoph Bach, who was a pupil of Pachelbel and probably ...

Marc

Davis' Requiem - Philips Yes, especially his first recording. Not the one with the Bavarians. Alan Civil ? Is it the same Alan Civil that played the horn on the song "For no one" on the album Rubber Soul of the Beatles ? How interesting. "For no one"! Now there's a beautiful song that Mozart would ...

Marc

Fireworks all around da house!

(Händel)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

Marc

Yeah, why don't we all become publishing music scholars? Was Bastien und Bastienne already published in 1803/1804? Guess not. How did Beethoven know that theme? Well: the young Beethoven worked at the Bonn Court Chapel, where Andrea Luchesi was Kapellmeister. And, as we all know as a fact, Luchesi c...

Marc

Sorry 'bout this, slightly off-topic: ....they were not world-class, and not even a top American orchestra, despite your protestations. You mention that most of the musicians played for the LAPO...well that ensemble was never considered first-rate until Mehta that is not true - the LAPO was an excel...

Marc

My first reaction was "That's not true." I checked it out. And it is true. But apparently, just sort of: "......loosely borrowed from Bach's Cantata no. 150, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich (I long for you, O Lord) [the cantata is no longer thought to be by Bach]....." Anyway, I imagine that gives y...

Marc

Some names that were not mentioned (so far :wink:), but deserve at least a mention: Paul Badura-Skoda, Alfred Deller and the former Thomas-Cantor Günther Ramin. But the discussions already started in the second half of the 19th century. At least that's my impression after reading a book about the Ma...

Marc

I love this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Britten-Choral-Wo ... B000B86582

The ensemble includes female sopranos & altos, and male altos.
So not entirely female, yet worth a try.

Marc

If I remember well, the King's College Choir of Cambridge once recorded some highlights in English. But that one might be OOP. Ragnar Bohlin did one in Frisco recently, didn't he? Maybe that one was recorded for broadcasting or for other purposes. At this site, people should know: http://www.sfsymph...

Marc

To me, Mozart was an opera man . With a growing interest (maybe) in church music. And he was still developing himself. His last year was a great year, with a.o. the Concertos KV 595 and 622, his string quintet KV 614, his two great operas and the unfinished Requiem. I think, had he gotten more invol...

Marc

A really tragic day in the history of music with the death of Mozart at just 35. What would he have done with twice that much time, with 70 not even considered a very long life by our standards today? Didn't he want to become organist of the Stephansdom? He loved the intrument, but did not compose ...

Marc

Well, I'm glad Bach wrote that one down, so that I can listen to it! :mrgreen: But why is it necessary to play this piece of music in that sucking sentimental, navel-gazing way? Hey, don't ask me, I'm NOT the piano player! But there are loads of Gould lovers around the world. So I guess it's got so...

Marc

James wrote:

Well, I'm glad Bach wrote that one down, so that I can listen to it!

Marc

[....]No, quite a lot of music doesn't "need a listener," other than the actual players.[....] other than , which I think means: performers are listeners, too . Which is a very important notion. No performing means no listening, and no listening means no performing. When a pianist is playing the pi...

Marc

[....]No, quite a lot of music doesn't "need a listener," other than the actual players.[....] other than , which I think means: performers are listeners, too . Which is a very important notion. No performing means no listening, and no listening means no performing. When a pianist is playing the pi...

Marc

Yikes - it's so sad. I remember the days when I treasured the Harnoncourt/VCM first recordings of the Brandenburgs, the orchestral suites, the b minor mass, the Matthew and St John Passions and eagerly awaited the release each new volume of the Bach Cantatas. Then something went wrong, terribly, tr...

Marc

Rest in peace.

Marc

My favourite lyric soprano, no doubt. Although I think that in this case I already have most of the original issues. I'm still hoping her Jugendstil Lieder-CD will be reissued .... some day. Was she really underrated? Almost every review I read is/was very enthousiastic. I think she didn't act like ...

Marc

Yes. I have already listened years ago to FIGARO, DON and MAGIC FLUTE; COSI's plot I find irritatingly inane, while I'm puzzled at the suggestion that the Queen of the Night is Maria Theresia, a lady who is remembered with more affection than her dimwit son, Joseph II. About Così : to me, these peo...

Marc

. . . if it's even worthwhile to investigate the 'mature' so-called masterpieces, f.i. Così and Zauberflöte . "So-called"? So-called? Cheers, ~Karl Yes, for explanation I was trying to quote Dulcinea in different words: ...those regarded as his masterpieces... . My personal answer would be: no ques...

Marc

I guessed: there's a ; in the topic title, so probably there's more to come. So: Dulcinea is done with early Mozart operas, because she finds them boring, and now she wants to know if it's even worthwhile to investigate the 'mature' so-called masterpieces, f.i. Così and Zauberflöte . Could this be a...

Marc

what must I look for in those regarded as his masterpieces? For ex, what am I supposed to see and hear in COSI FAN TUTTE, whose plot is sillier than many sitcoms I could mention, and THE MAGIC FLUTE, whose plot is among the strangest and most confusing in all opera? :? :? :? Strange, confusing: sou...

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