The Classical Music Guide Forums

maestrob

Also, it shows that the President couldn't care less about the arts, which is not surprising. His staying away might be interpreted by some as a thoughtful gesture. I'm not one of them.

maestrob

Lovely, Mark. Thanks for sharing!

maestrob

Thanks, John. I'll give this a look and listen very soon!

maestrob

lennygoran wrote: ↑
Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:07 am
Wonder how he'd be in tomorrow night's The Thieving Magpie! Regards, Len

That was painful!

maestrob

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61MrnlGLdCL._SX522_.jpg Well now, back to Prokofiev. These early recordings by Jean Martinon for Decca (1959/60) with the Orchestre de la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire show off Decca's sound world at the time, but I suspect that this CD was n...

maestrob

Agree, prefer the Prokofiev in the violin version. Yes, I'll go along with that. I also like the Ibert concerto. For the curious, James Galway transcribed the Khachaturian violin concerto into one for flute and orchestra, quite successfully. Here's the CD, still available...... https://images-na.ss...

maestrob

Interesting thread. If I may add my 2 cents as the resident voice teacher........ There are two ways to train any voice, male or female, which have nothing to do with whether the male has been castrated or not. Either the vice is legit (think female opera singers and what we now call "counter-tenors...

maestrob

John F wrote: ↑
Fri Jul 12, 2019 12:26 pm
What a pity that Lorraine Hunt Lieberson wasn't recorded in the title role, which she sang at New York City Opera. A treasurable artist, much missed.

Agreed!

maestrob

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51I3Q8KGukL._SY498_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg Handel's opera, Serse, has had many good recordings since the advent of HIP; this is the finest I've heard. Franco Fagioli is simply a force of nature, equal in talent to the superb Bartoli, and may be her heir...

maestrob

Don't know about shoulder rests, but this passage caught my attention: His first recital came at age 9 and his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was a year later, according to a Curtis biography. His New York Philharmonic debut in 1960 with Leonard Bernstein was as soloist in that orchestra’...

maestrob

I have avoided listening to or acquiring Pavarotti's recording of Otello mainly because I've always thought that the role was beyond his capabilities, as it most embarrassingly was for Carlo Bergonzi when he attempted the role live in Carnegie Hall. Being able to sing a role in a vocal or recording ...

maestrob

Hi, Len!

The only piece I see here is "Empire Garden." I have not heard the Ives and don't know it, but I doubt that Ives's music has anything to do with gardening per se. All in all, this doesn't seem to have much to do with Mozart, either!

maestrob

Hi, Danny!

Dame Kiri Te Kanewa recorded a complete set of the Chants d'Auvergne for Decca about three decades ago: the 2 CD set is available now on amazon for $3.98 and contains the translations of all the songs, I'm sure.

maestrob

I have many of his recordings, including Brahms, Bruch, and a recital disc or two. I see on amazon that there are several DVDs as well. Rosand was a fine artist: why he never caught on has always been puzzling to me. Beautiful tone, fine and clear articulation, my experience of him on disc has alway...

maestrob

Casals recorded the Brandenburg Concertos at the Prades Festival in 1950. Eugene Istomin played the keyboard part in no. 5 on the piano, with John Wummer, flute, and Joseph Szigeti, violin. In no. 2 the trumpet part was played on the soprano saxophone by Marcel Mule, with John Wummer, flute; Marcel...

maestrob

More exciting than Toscanini?! High praise indeed! I will listen to that one with great interest.

Wasn't some of Casals's Bach issued on 78RPM discs by Columbia? I vaguely remember a Brandenburg 5.....

maestrob

Indeed!

Elections do have consequences, don't they......

maestrob

I first heard Lupu when he partnered with Murray Perahia in Schubert and other composers in the 1980's in Carnegie Hall. It remains one of the very best concerts I have ever attended, and the resulting recording received many awards when it was issued (We were lucky enough to have stage seats for th...

maestrob

A sad day for audiophiles. I've admired Telarc records since its inception, and own many, including the ones mentioned in the article by Frederick Fennell and a piano recording which were issued in 1983 and still play perfectly on my stereo. The recordings made with Robert Shaw (Berlioz, Brahms) are...

maestrob

As an opera buff, I've always admired Previn for writing "Streetcar," and I must admit that it's more successful than Bernstein's "A Quiet Place." That said, Bernstein's"West Side Story" remains one of the most successful musicals of all time. Previn never equaled that. Bernstein's work for Violin a...

maestrob

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/613eN3l7RuL._SX522_.jpg Boris Giltburg is fast becoming my favorite pianist of the new generation. His solo recordings have been consistently excellent in repertoire ranging from Bach and Beethoven to Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, now with Liszt's magn...

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Somehow, I've never been able to connect to this opera, although I've loved Threepenny Opera since childhood. My feeling is that this work is an over-reach by the composer, so it just doesn't work for me. My fault, I'm sure. Several years ago, there was a televised production starring Audra McDonald...

maestrob

Weird! I think I'll stay away also!

maestrob

I have a DVD of Heifetz performing Bruch's Scottish Fantasy (IIRC) without a conductor, and it almost works, but not perfectly. There are times when Heifetz is playing and the tempo shifts when the orchestra sounds a bit tentative: not bad, but it would have been better with a baton-wielder at the h...

maestrob

Roman Polanski was also welcomed in Europe in spite of his scandals here.

maestrob

There exists also a four-hand transcription (Liszt also) of Beethoven IX that deserves notice from, say, the dream team of Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire.

maestrob

I first became aware of Liszt's transcriptions of the Beethoven symphonies while studying orchestral works at Juilliard. They are fabulous works, especially the four-hand transcription of IX, and I would welcome a recording by a major pianist. Cyprien Katsaris has recorded them, and they are quite e...

maestrob

Many Western singers have sung in Russian operas - "Boris Godunov," "Evgeny Onegin," and so on - since they started being performed in Russian rather than English or Italian at the Met, Covent Garden, etc. But vocal recitals have become pretty scarce in recent years, and enterprising explorers of t...

maestrob

Shostakovich Quartet VIII has also been transcribed for piano by Boris Giltburg (interesting, but IMHO unsuccessfully), and for string orchestra by Rudolf Barshai on DGG, now sadly OOP with just one copy available on amazon as of this writing: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61EoHBm...

maestrob

Agree about the Richter recording of Brahms Sonatas I & II. They are decidedly not Brahms at his best, but there are moments in each that are worth hearing. III, OTOH, is a gem from start to finish: it's in a class by itself, far above the other two, and is often played and recorded. Murray Perahia ...

maestrob

I would hazard two guesses why they are not often performed: 1)The politics of the XXth Century precluded interest in Russian songs in general among Western students, and 2) The Russian language is perceived as quite different from Romance languages and even German, intimidating students who simply ...

maestrob

Rach3--Thanks for that! I'm very interested in performances of Rachmaninoff songs (called Romances in Russian), and find them extremely satisfying. I had a lovely Ukranian soprano in my competition who specialized in Rachmaninoff, and as a bonus to her I invited her to perform her best repertoire in...

maestrob

Thanks for this article. $83K is certainly not excessive. Does the Governor think most of the orchestra members are Democrats ? Sadly, without support from donors, orchestras have become too expensive to maintain. Perhaps Baltimore has degenerated to the point where they no longer deserve to have a...

maestrob

Hi, Len!

You've probably guessed that my favorite shot of the ones you posted was the CD store!

Glad you and Sue had a good time there.

maestrob

FWIW: For my competition I auditioned many black sopranos, four of whom became winners (and a fifth who was grabbed by the MET before she could enter the finals), out of 30 total winners, about roughly in proportion to population share. OTOH, I heard very few male singers of color, and none were win...

maestrob

Hi, Len! I have two connections to Princeton. The first is that my voice teacher, Dan Merriman, was invited there to give a series of guest lectures on his vocal technique (He was a pupil of Cornelius Ried.) during the mid-1980's. The second is that one of my pianists in my competition (Regina Yakub...

maestrob

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71myxCajYfL._SX522_.jpg Bach's Orchestral Suites are favorite listening, notably by Trevor Pinnock. This superb disc by the Boston Baroque led by Martin Pearlman has lain unopened on my shelves since its publication in 2004, and I deeply regret my ne...

maestrob

Thanks so much for your kindness and advice. My husband needs a double knee replacement and this will involve months of pain and rehabilitation. We could not consider going before Feb 2020. He wore his knees out working for the family so I naturally put his needs first. My husband is a real hero: s...

maestrob

Hello, montreal, nice to have you aboard. You've piqued my curiosity with your post, and I for one would be interested if you eventually issue a CD of this recital.

Do keep us posted.

maestrob

jserraglio : Thanks for your contribution. :) I'm in a Bach/Handel mood today, but I'll get to Gergiev soon. I understand why you like Martinon though, he's an outstanding and vastly underrated conductor (I have all his Chicago recordings in an RCA box set), and his Prokofiev V & VII have been reis...

maestrob

Lots of Balsam's recordings are available on amazon, thankfully, many available for listening with amazon prime in mp3 format. The only recording I have on my shelves is a scintillating four hand performance of Dvorak's Slavonic Dances with Gena Raps.

maestrob

I've always admired Jansons, thinking him completely free of ego and histrionics!! My son and daughter-in-law have just arrived back from Europe after an aborted visit of just 3 weeks because of the unexpected election win here (the boss wants him back at work!!). We were looking at their pictures ...

maestrob

Valery Gergiev conducted both versions of Prokofiev's 4th, op. 47 and op. 112, in his cycle of the symphonies with the London Symphony Orchestra which was broadcast and then published on CD in 2005. There was a much earlier op. 47 on Urania by the Colonne Concerts Orchestra conducted by Sebastian, ...

maestrob

I would suspect, as time moves on and these sets go out of print - and as younger collectors become as interested in historical artists, these sets may garner top dollar. In the case of most of these artists

Above is the last paragraph that I could read, Lance. FWIW......

maestrob

According to the blurb on New Music USA, "Nebal Maysaud is a queer Lebanese composer based in the Washington D.C. Metro Area. Since buying their first notation software in 2009, Nebal (pronounced [niˈbæ:l]) has grown to become an impactful, socially minded composer." Yeah, right. The strangest thin...

maestrob

I'll be glad to have that Feuerman set, Lance, but the other two are unknown to me, and one has to draw the line somewhere. Always appreciate your level of knowledge. Thanks for the alert!

PS: Your post ran out at the end.........

maestrob

I've always really liked Mariss Jansons and hope he goes well. I do especially remember this, from 2012 - just a very short time after my return from a year-long stay in Vienna. I sat watching this concert, especially at 16:20 , and regretted having to return to Australia!! Now, I'm not a fan of th...

maestrob

Shiraz? I don't actually drink more than the occasional Chardonnay, to be honest. " I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food." W. C. Fields Absolute gold!!! I've watch the Kantorov performances now and I was deeply impressed with the "Firebird" transcription in the semi-finals. What a ...

maestrob

Lance wrote: ↑
Fri Jun 28, 2019 4:13 pm
A joy to see this friendship and interchange between two conductors at the helm of the NYP and the MET.

.......and we're getting great music as well!

maestrob

Not to mention the plethora of older pianists whom you may know well, but many don't. As you say, the line has to be drawn somewhere; I think I drew it at about 1970. :) :lol: True, but a 10CD set for $20 is a compelling argument for a purchase and a place on my new shelves, especially considering ...

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