The Classical Music Guide Forums

Ted Quanrud

A little disappointing so far. Three releases, all with the same soloist, all on modern instruments. Much I admire Howard Shelley, I hope Hyperion will look for new talent, especially younger artists who have grown up with period instruments. The cover artwork could also be improved. Hyperion has a ...

Ted Quanrud

Thanks, Lenny, for posting this. Perhaps not as funny as the 2009 Proms when Sarah Connolly appeared dressed as Lord Nelson, but it made my day.

Ted Quanrud

This admittedly impressive collection (agree completely with John F's rejection of the term "edition" for this set) contains a number of items I want to hear and possibly own, but the cost of admission, now somewhere between $330 and $480, is too steep, especially now that I am on fixed income. I am...

Ted Quanrud

Richter recorded the second concerto, not the first. As far as I know, he never played it, though he would never explain such choices, or would give a non-explanation such as that other pianists played it very well. (He didn't play Beethoven's 4th and 5th concertos or Rachmaninoff 3.) Thanks, John,...

Ted Quanrud

George Szell seemed to own the Brahms 1st Concerto, recording it with Schnabel, Curzon, Fleisher and Rudolf Serkin. I have all four, and am pleased with all, except the Schnabel, whose technique is just not up to the demands of this work. The Curzon has long been regarded as a classic, and from the ...

Ted Quanrud

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81cm5actmyL._SX522_.jpg This disc represents some of the finest piano playing I've ever heard. The duo Tal & Groethuysen have unearthed four-hand arrangements of some of Wagner's most famous music, including the Flying Dutchman overture arranged by D...

Ted Quanrud

Happy Birthday, Lance, with best wishes for many, many more!

Ted Quanrud

By MICHAEL COOPER, NEW YORK TIMES For the first time in four decades, the Metropolitan Opera has a new music director. The company announced on Thursday that it was passing the baton long held by James Levine to Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra known for his vit...

Ted Quanrud

Several of Luigi Cherubini’s masses and his two requiem settings, as championed by Riccardo Muti, are well worth hearing. Composed the same year that he took minor orders, Franz Liszt’s Missa Choralis is a remarkable work. Even more so is his Via Crucis, a musical setting of the Stations of the Cros...

Ted Quanrud

The important thing is to keep listening. My own musical tastes are very conservative, but by stretching myself beyond by my comfort level, I have occasionally discovered something that makes me say "wow, why haven't I heard of this before."

Ted Quanrud

My apologies if I came across as "snarky;" I certainly had no intention to do so or to be dismissive or critical of Mr. Threadgill or the other nominees. I was simply admitting my own ignorance, a rather frequent admission of mine. As I get older, it is increasingly apparent that the more I know, th...

Ted Quanrud

The 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Music has been awarded to Henry Threadgill for “In for a Penny, In for a Pound” Mr. Threadgill, described as "the pathbreaking 72-year-old saxophonist, flutist and composer who has expanded the horizons of jazz," won for this 2015 recording featuring his quintet, Zooid, w...

Ted Quanrud

I hope your 75th birthday is a truly happy one, John Francis, and that you will have many more to come.

Ted Quanrud

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/arts/ ... ottom-well

Ted Quanrud

Sorry, Lance, I cannot agree. This is still old-school Bach. The next generation - Harnoncourt, Leonhardt and more recently, Gardiner and Suzuki - have brought us closer to I what believe Bach expected and actually heard.

Ted Quanrud

Great job, Garrett!!

Ted Quanrud

Age, finances and a lack of shelf space have conspired to curb my collecting, but there is still some life in the old guy yet. Acquisitions for 2016 will likely include: Completing Ronald Brautigam's superb Beethoven pianoforte works on BIS. Keeping up with the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto serie...

Ted Quanrud

The New York Times reports that James Levine's neurologist believes a change in Parkinson's medication may allow the conductor to extend his career at the Met. One can only hope for the very best for the Maestro. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/arts/music/adjusting-medication-may-prolong-levines-t...

Ted Quanrud

Happy Birthday, Chalkie, and sincere best wishes for many more!

Ted Quanrud

The Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden has been tapped to replace Alan Gilbert as music director of the New York Philharmonic: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/arts/music/new-york-philharmonic-taps-jaap-van-zweden-as-its-next-maestro.html?hpw&rref=arts&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&r...

Ted Quanrud

Thank you, John, for posting this. I would not have otherwise known about him or his accomplishments. I hope someone picks up and finishes the Flagstad biography.

Ted Quanrud

Happy Birthday, Donald, and best wishes for many more!

Ted Quanrud

I do not like and certainly do not understand his music, but I deeply admire him as a conductor and a champion of new music. His conducting often gave music a crystalline clarity, a quality much appreciated with the Impressionists, less so -- perhaps -- with Wagner. I heard him in concert only once ...

Ted Quanrud

I'll second the recommendation. It is one of several Liszt compendiums I have acquired (mostly from the bicentennial year), and it is one of the best. I'm sorry the price had gone up -- I paid $24 for it in 2011 -- but consider it worthwhile even at the present cost.

Ted Quanrud

Reluctantly, I will pass on this. Thanks to the recent Decca-DGG-Philips, EMI and Sony box sets, as well as various other holdings, I have a fair amount of Richter already. More importantly and as predicted, retirement has meant less discretionary income, and I had best be a little more careful with...

Ted Quanrud

Unfortunately, I heard him in concert only once. It was three years ago, when he returned to the NYP to lead it in Brahms' 3rd and 4th symphonies. The lethargic performances, coupled with the physical uncomfortableness of Avery Fisher Hall, did not make for a memorable evening. I had no idea he had ...

Ted Quanrud

Okay, Lance, you talked me into it. I already have a fair amount of Moszkowski -- three CDs of solo piano (Seta Tanyel); the violin concerto (Tasmin Little), and the piano concerto (Piers Lane in Volume 1 of the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto series that is now on Volume 66). By no means a great c...

Ted Quanrud

Since retiring in January, I have had to ease back on my collecting. This Gilels set, however, is on my list.

Ted Quanrud

Forty years after their debut, the Tallis Scholars seem to go from strength to strength. This latest recording IMO is one of their very finest.

Ted Quanrud

Mackerras for the symphonies. Fleisher/Szell for the concertos, although I have a special fondness for the Barenboim?Klemperer in the Fourth Concerto (the real "Emperor") and the Choral Fantasia.

Ted Quanrud

Why did the cows return to the marijuana field?

It was a case of the pot calling the cattle back.

Ted Quanrud

Robert Craft's obituary appeared Saturday in the New York Times:http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/arts/ ... -well&_r=0

Ted Quanrud

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61QD6Km6%2BbL._SS280.jpg I have loved this work since first hearing the surprising historically-informed 1970 Archiv recording with Tatiana Trojans, Hermann Prey, et. al., conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. This more up-date performance casts some n...

Ted Quanrud

HappyBirthday, Karl!!!

Ted Quanrud

Okay, some people are really stupid -- I'm one of them. This is my 12th Ring recording. Why I waited so long is beyond me. Hotter in his prime is unbelievable; the young Windgassen is superb; Varnay equals any Brunnhilde, save perhaps Flagstad, and Krauss delivers an impassioned, driven performance....

Ted Quanrud

Kalkbrenner's four piano concertos comprise Volumes 41 and 56 of the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto series. Pianist Howard Shelley turns in fine performances.

Thanks to Lance's enthusiasm, I have ordered the CPO disc.

Ted Quanrud

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91ENiqjjqqL._SL1500_.jpg I rather wish I had not bought this. The symphony performances are fine but no better than those on Harnoncourt's earlier set on Warner (at one-fourth the price); the two masses are fine, but do not displace Sawallisch or Gardiner, and ...

Ted Quanrud

John Scott, the organist and music director of St. Thomas Church in New York since 2004 and previously for more than two decades at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, died Wednesday, in New York. He was only 59. Here's Norman Lebrecht's summary. A full obituary is also on the Telegraph website.

Ted Quanrud

The Stradivarius violin stolen from Roamn Totenberg has been recovered. I'm sorry that Mr. Totenberg did not live to get his fiddle back and that the perpetrator never faced justice. Here's the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/07/arts/music/roman-totenbergs-stolen-stradivarius-is-found-af...

Ted Quanrud

R.I.P., indeed.

Alan Curtis' superb series of Handel opera recordings helps ensure Handel occupies more shelf space in my house than any other composer.

Ted Quanrud

March 1,1969-The Met-A day to remember. Check out this cast. Wow!.....and I was there! Wagner-Die Walkure Conductor Herbert von Karajan Brünnhilde Birgit Nilsson Sieglinde Régine Crespin Fricka Josephine Veasey Siegmund Jon Vickers Wotan Theo Adam Hunding Martti Talvela Regards, Mel 8) "Wow" is rig...

Ted Quanrud

Decca has reissued Christopher Hogwood's Haydn symphonies box. Amazon is asking $140 for it, but you can get it from a US-based Amazon-Canada reseller for a little more than half that (go figure). The repackaging does not include James Webster's superb liner notes, but they are available as a PDF el...

Ted Quanrud

lennygoran wrote:Happy Birthday-how come no one mentioned the 70's? Regards, Len

Not quite there, Len, but getting close. Hope to make it.

Ted Quanrud

Happy Birthday! Enjoy your 50s and don't worry about your 60s -- they're pretty good too.

Ted Quanrud

This from the Daily Mail: Seagull attack cancels concert: Classical pianist drops out after spraining his finger falling over when bird swooped on him A leading pianist had to drop out of two concerts after being attacked by a seagull. Paul Lewis, 43, had been due to play works by Mozart and Schuman...

Ted Quanrud

An otherwise fine performance marred by what appears to be a conductor's whim.

Ted Quanrud

Hi Gerd --

This is farfetched and undoubtedly wrong, but I think the melody sounds remarkably like that of the hymn "When I survey the Wondrous Cross," by 18th century English hymnwriter, theologian and logician, Isaac Watts, often considered the "Father of English Hymnody."

Ted Quanrud

The English composer and poet Ivor Gurney can be considered a casualty of the Great War. Here is the edited and much reduced Wikipedia entry. Born in 1890, Gurney showed musical ability early and was a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral from 1900 to 1906, where he met fellow composer Herbert Howells ...

Ted Quanrud

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/914tngKuQhL._SX522_.jpg This from an NPR review: Twenty years ago, pianist András Schiff did not hide his disdain for the fortepiano — the smaller, quieter precursor to the modern grand piano. In the liner notes of five separate Schubert albums Schiff released ...

Ted Quanrud

This from The Gramophone: Three composers and a great conductor among those honoured The Queen’s Birthday Honours have made amends for the recent lack of classical musicians in such lists by recognising a trio of composers among those honoured. James MacMillan and Karl Jenkins (‘for services to Comp...

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