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Reed

Just a quick note to cast a vote for the Herreweghe. Very fine playing and conducting, and an interesting array of pieces. I admit I had not paid much attention to the Bach arrangement, even though it's in the big old Stravinsky conducts box. But this time around I have played it several times and e...

Reed

Indeed, was never all that nuts for Slatkin, EXCEPT for his American composer recordings. There's a great EMI with all three of Barber's Essays for Orchestra, a good Schuman with the 10th Symphony, some good Copland, etc. I hope Naxos can get him to do more of the classic American composers. There a...

Reed

Buy anywhere from 3-4 a month to 10 or so. Many SACDs, which are still coming out fairly often (or in some cases I'm just catching up with things that have been out for awhile--want to get them before they disappear) and some standard CDs. Recent purchases include the new Rimsky orch. suites selecti...

Reed

A few weeks ago, I saw a fine performance of this wonderful work with David Robertson and the BSO at Tanglewood, on an all-American program consisting also of Bernstein sym. 2 and song cycles of Thomson and Barber sung by Thomas Hampson. A very good concert, and let's hope some of the riches of Amer...

Reed

Munch recorded it with the BSO for RCA. There's an even better Munch/BSO version, live, from the big box set of live BSO recordings put out several years ago by the orchestra.

A fun and exciting piece, yes?

Reed

I was in the late, lamented Tower Records a few years ago, and heard something really interesting, which turned out to be a Boccherini CD by Jordi Savall containing a Sinfonie, a Fandango, and La Musica Norrurna di Madrid. Get the SACD if you have the playback equipment--but in any format, it's a fi...

Reed

This is slightly off the mark, as it doesn't express my personality or my musical taste all that much, but if I could be any composition, it would be an Wagner opera, 'cause then I would last forever!

Reed

" . . . orderly, routine."

That's it exactly!

Yes, give me musicians who take chances--I'd even rather be upset with an interpretation than bored by the lack of same.

Reed

Just to muddy the issue further, I was focusing on his recordings, but I have also seen Haitink many, many times conducting the BSO. He was able to get them playing pretty well even during the last, sad days of the Ozawa regime, and even during the interegnum, but, as my wife says, "There are no sup...

Reed

I moved from North Carolina to Massachusetts ostensibly to study art history, but actually because I was madly in love with a woman I thought was my soul mate. The relationship lasted three weeks ("Reed, I guess I should've told you before you moved up, but there is another guy . . "), but school la...

Reed

Jack C said what I was thinking better than I said it myself.

Reed

Just the opinion of an old fart, but music shouldn't hurt.

Reed

Not my fave instrument by any stretch, but sometimes I don't think there are any bad instruments, just bad players/composers. Don't like most rock guitar, that high screechy sound, the aural equivalent of a toothache, and can't imagine anyone finding that sound attractive, but good jazz guitar is so...

Reed

I wanted to heard Bruckner's mighty 8th Symphony, one of my favorite pieces, and I wanted it to be played by one of the world's greatest orchestras. The Concertgebouw would certainly qualify. Lastly, I wanted it to be in good sound, so I could hear every part clearly. So I reached up to the shelf an...

Reed

One of the great things about living in the Boston area is the presence of Ben Zander. His Boston Philharmonic is made up of amateurs, professionals, and students, and play far beyond the level one would expect, especially in recent seasons. He encourages each player to give him/herself totally to t...

Reed

Saint-Saens, Helene and Persian Night, a brief opera on Helen of Troy, and a briefer cantata on some 19th century orientalizing poetry. Performances, recording and notes with texts and translations are all first rate. It's a hybrid SACD on the Australian Melba label and is a must for fans of 19th ce...

Reed

Reed is acutally my middle name, but Edward was already taken as an online name when I signed up. I used to play classical guitar, but that was a LOONNG time ago. I have been listening to classical music since the 70's (just turned 56), and have several thousand CDs, and several hundred SACDs. Got r...

Reed

I didn't get a Christmas card from Dame Sutherland, but I did get Christmas fudge from Teddie Kennedy and his wife, Miss Vickie, for some constituent work I did for them last year in my job as Ombudsman for a government agency.

Reed

For fans of this opera, of which I am one, I would recommend his early orchestral work, Evocations. It's from the same period, and what is being evoked is India, so it's a good "chaser" or "warm-up act" to the opera. It was (is?) available on EMI in a performance by Plasson. Very haunting and, uh, e...

Reed

I think Gennadi behaved like a spoiled child. "My name wasn't big enough on the poster and I wasn't listed under "great conducters" in the season's promotional brochure, so I'm gonna cancel." Mrs. Reed and I went to the BSO concert Sat. night and Keurti (with one rehearsal) did a fine job. The BSO p...

Reed

A very interesting article. Didn't know any of this, and I doubt many did, including old codgers like me who lived through the period. Even more remarkable, for a child of the south, was his concern for blacks having equal rights. He said his actions would lose the south for democrats for a generati...

Reed

Thank you so much for this wonderful article.

Thank you, Peter Illych, for this wonderful symphony.

I'm going home right now and listen to Tilson Thomas and the BSO in my favorite performance of this work. It's on a DG Originals CD, beautifully re-mastered.

Reed

Their Bartok series on Phillips was wonderful. And Dvorak 8 and 9.

I also enjoy their Mahler 2--a dramatic performance in sound quality (at least on SACD) as good an any I've heard.

I have their Beet. 7, but haven't listened to it yet. I have a feeling, I'm in for a treat.

Reed

The first thing that came to mind when I saw this topic was, the incidental music to Pelleas and Melisande by Faure.

The second thing that came to mind were several of the Piano Concertos of Mozart.

The third thing--virtually anything by Ravel.

Reed

Phillip Glass . . . Phillip Glass . . . Phillip Glass . . . Steve Reich . . . Steve Reich . . . Steve Reich Or any of the minimalists, or as Virgin Thompson called them, "The repetition boys." Never understood the concept of endless repetition in music, or literature, or theatre, etc. Was in an arts...

Reed

I think many youth orchestras are fine, disregarding their age and lack of professional credentials. The Boston area boasts the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and the New England Conservatory Youth Symphony Orchestra, Ben Zander's group. I have been to several concerts by each of these ense...

Reed

Great article, but I do have to wonder, how do we know word for word what was said between the Emperor and Ditters? Reminds me of those bios where we read verbatim accounts of what somone said to Lincoln in the White House in 1863. That was just a bit before they put the taping system in, I believe ...

Reed

The ones I most often return to, in no particular order:

Dvorak

Faure

Mozart

Schubert

Always something new to discover, even in pieces I thought I knew well. So I guess that would be a good working definition of "rewarding."

Great topic!

Reed

Wikipedia has an entry for EPs, under Extended Play, which is what it stands for. But then they refer to them as Early Pressings, which makes no sense. Anyway, for fans of trivia related to various formats of recorded music. And there were classical EPs. Usually a waltz or overture on each side. DG ...

Reed

Too much trivia, perhaps, and not classically related, but Magical Mystery Tour was not in the lp box because, in England, it was never an lp. It was released as an EP with only the songs from the tv show. EPs never caught on in America. They're like mini-lps, 10 inches, with 2 or 3 songs per side. ...

Reed

Previn has recorded the Korngold Violin Concerto twice, once with Gil Shahan and once with his then-wife Anne-Sophie Mutter; both are fine performances. Sursum Corda is given a good recording on Chandos. And I can't resist adding this: Korngold arranged various pieces of Mendelssohn's for the film o...

Reed

Don't know Morricone's concert music. Enjoy Korngold, though, especially his symphony and violin concerto. His tone poem Sursum Corda is also a stirring orchestral piece. People feel his concert music sounds like movie music. It's more accurate to say that film music of classic hollywood sounds like...

Reed

I've gotta check these concertos out! I love the 3rd symphony in all it's over-wrought glory! The version on Telarc SACD really tests out the sound system! Heard some duos for violin and cello by Gliere recently in a chamber concert. Was the first time I've heard any Gliere live, in all the hundreds...

Reed

lismahago (and others), Re Reynaldo Hahn recommendations: I've not heard a lot of the recordings out there, but of the ones I have, I'd particularly recommend: 1) La Belle Epoque, Susan Graham doing a selection of Hahn songs. Some of those very knowing love songs were written when he was 13 and 14 y...

Reed

Given a choice between Sir Borrington's "musicologically correct" (though as many have pointed out, here and elsewhere, even that's debateable) versions of, say Beethoven and Furtwrangler's "historically incorrect" ones, I'll take Furt any day. Of course, it's not that simple, and while I love the F...

Reed

Reynaldo Hahn! Gabriel Pierne!

Yes, a wonderful form, chamber music but with a somtimes almost symphonic force.

The Dvorak is a particular favorite of mine. And of course Brahms.

Reed

Really? What was it like?

Did the fireworks go off with or without vibrato?

Reed

And if Mozart had had central heat, he would've used it! But seriously, folks, can anyone stop Borrington (and his pal, Christopher Hogwash) before they ruin any more music? It was bad enough when they did dessicated versions of the classics, but when they expanded into the romantic literature, yuck!

Reed

With all my thousands of CDs, I must confess that I have no work at all by Leku. I will definitely look for this recording, and other works by him. I have read of him and his tragically short life, and been intrigued, but have not yet explored him. Thanks for the suggestion. So much music, so little...

Reed

Someone who doesn't know his Dittersdorf from his Salieri obviously is not qualified to be president!

Has anyone questioned Obama about his Dittersdorf knowledge? If he is equally ignorant, we may have to write in Ralph's name in the fall!

Reed

I have the Plasson set, and had the Ansermet on an old Decca cassette from the '80s! I have waited in vain for its appearance on CD. Will definitely seek this out. Thanks. Been on something of a kick of listening, or mostly re-listening, to recordings of French music from the late 19th century. Love...

Reed

Corlyss, I was wondering about the Victor Davis Hanson quote at the bottom of your post, regarding Obama, history and "oppression studies." It really doesn't sound like something he'd say, so I did a Google search, and the only references to Obama and oppression studes I could find were other articl...

Reed

I just listen in stereo, as I don't have surround-sound capability, and I can still hear a quite large difference in MOST SACDs I've auditioned, where I either have a hybrid and compare the layers, or where I have had the same disc before in standard CD.

Reed

What I was interested in is your quote. Is there any authentication for the Obama "quote" that says what we need is more oppression studies? Sounds like the same old made-up nonsense about him. If it's real, then I apologize in advance. ADDENDUM: I did a quick Google search, and all I found under "O...

Reed

Yes, I am playing them both on the same system. However, the Denon is rated quite highly, even by The Absolute Sound, as a good all-round player. Also, before I got it, I had a good Rotel CD player and a cheap Phillips SACD system. Again, the SACDs sounded much better played through the cheapie SACD...

Reed

Well, I like the Mozart last four syms. cond. by Mackerris on Lynn. Some have commented on the wiry tone, and not all have liked the performances. I have only listened to 38 and 39, and I like sound and performances just fine. My first Linn SACD, though definitely not my last. I'm very interested in...

Reed

Well, ALL CD sales are way off, so it's no surprise. I wonder how the labels can make any money on some of the reissues. For instance, EMI just brought out a 30-CD Vaughan-Williams box for around sixty bucks. Good for the consumer, but I wonder if it's cost effective for the label, even if is sells ...

Reed

Yeah, perhaps the death of Dido is a bit anticlimactic. It also goes on a loooong time. I have not seen it staged, even on a video, but only heard CDs and these live performances. So, I keep thinking Dido is already dead, then she sings again. Reminds me of one of the King Louis of France, who was o...

Reed

My wife and I saw the spring performances of Troyens. We saw Part I the week is was performed at Symphony Hall, Part II the following week, and then the whole thing in early May, as their last concert of the season--with a two + hour dinner break in the middle! We also saw Part II at Tanglewood Sund...

Reed

Jack,

No, IVAN Fischer recorded the Mahler 2, on Channel Classics. You mean, both brothers do a mean M2? Wow, tres cool.

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