What are you listening to?

[Gary]

Backhaus

Chopin Etudes, Op. 10 and 25
Recorded in 1927

[Sergeant Rock]

Celebrated Schubert's birthday by listening to all the symphonies:

Sarge

Good stuff! I really need to look into Schubert's music. I familiar with some of his Lieder, and a few of his late piano sonatas (which, btw, are delicious), and of course two of his symphonies... I bet you can guess which ones.

Yes, I can guess

If you enjoy late Haydn and early Beethoven, you'll love Schubert's first six. Really delightful music. Certain conductors, Harnoncourt for instance, bring out the darkside of the music too.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

So that's what those noises were! I didn't know if it was breathing, harrumphing, or someone passing gas. A nuisance? Yes, especially on the pianissimos, but nothing more. It's not all-pervasive and not as bad as hearing the likes of Barbirolli and Barenboim groaning or Colin Davis humming along with the music, which is even more distracting, in my opinion.

I've never minded the unmusical noises emanating from performers. It reminds me an actual human being is making music, a human being who's obviously into the music too. The first instance I can recall, when I was a teen, is Toscanini singing along during the first duet in Bohème. It made the moment even more poignant, knowing the old man was so moved by the music he had to join in. Glenn Gould's creaky chair and "singing" are simply part of the Gould experience I'd miss if they invented a technique to eliminate it.

Sometimes the extramusical sounds coming from an artist actually provide an erotic experience! Hélène Grimaud's Beethoven, for example:

"It is a measure of Grimaud's force of personality that the sonatas do not sound small-scale after the concerto: if anything they sound bigger. Two sequences in particular stay in the mind: the exultant end of Op 110, a coronary-defying race to the summit, and the theme and variations, Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung, in Op 109, which Grimaud realises with terrific intensity, the playing accompanied by a good deal of audible breathing and gentle moaning, like some slow-drawn act of sexual congress." --Richard Osborne, Gramophone

Great performances of those two late sonatas but you do feel the need to light a cigarette after hearing Op.109

Sarge

[moldyoldie]

I've never minded the unmusical noises emanating from performers. It reminds me an actual human being is making music, a human being who's obviously into the music too.

Oh, I've never minded it all that much either. Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett unleashing an orgasmic groan every so often was a highlight of his very fine early ECM solo concert recordings. I just don't like hearing "tonal humming" over a quiet passage; I want to be "into the music" as well. All other noises I can tolerate unless they become all-pervasive; i.e., as if they were part of the score.

Speaking of humming along, currently listening to...

[Sergeant Rock]

Speaking of humming along, currently listening to...

Ah, yes, Sibelius Symphonies for Hummer and Orchestra as realized by Sir Colin

Sarge

[Stonebraker]

Yes, I can guess

If you enjoy late Haydn and early Beethoven, you'll love Schubert's first six. Really delightful music. Certain conductors, Harnoncourt for instance, bring out the darkside of the music too.

Sarge

Cool, thanks for the recommendation... Harnoncourt is one of my favorites thats around today, so I'll be sure to check his stuff out.

Right now, I'm listening to Sheherazade, Rimsky-Korsakov. What a terrific piece of music.

[Wallingford]

Backhaus

Chopin Etudes, Op. 10 and 25
Recorded in 1927

The most underrated Chopin Etudes performance, IMO.

[Wallingford]

Meanwhile, a couple evenings ago, while rummaging thru the Tacoma Half-Price Books chain, I located some neat rarities on cassette, for only a quarter apiece. One was a true find: the young PHILIPPE ENTREMONT's first recordings of Rachmaninov's Second Concerto & the Franck Symphonic Variations. It was a FRENCH IMPORT tape, on the Festival label, of the TRUE STEREO versions of these performances, never issued here in the States in anything but mono or fake-stereo.

The stereo quality of these early Entremonts is curious, at best: I have a stereo Urania LP of his first traversal of the Liszt Concertos (that's right--his Columbias of the late 50s are REMAKES), and here the piano is mixed entirely to the left channel, orchestra on the right; it's impossible to imagine soloist & ensemble being this far apart without overdubbing. In the present Rachmaninov & Franck cassette, it's a tad better: piano reverberating thru both channels, orchestra once again on just the right. I may just do a CD burning of this, with the channels reversed: I'm more used to violin melodies on the left.

[Gary]

Backhaus

Chopin Etudes, Op. 10 and 25
Recorded in 1927

The most underrated Chopin Etudes performance, IMO.

I wasn't aware that he had recorded them until recently. The disc is part of a set of ten that includes other dead masters of the piano playing Chopin works. It's on a Japanese label called "Documents." Got the set on the cheap, too--at just over ten bucks!

[James]

over the last week...

an excellent american programme...

Ives - 3 places in new england
Ruggles - Sun-treader
Piston - Sym. 2

and also...

Bach's Mass in B min & the Art of Fugue (brass quintet)
Beethoven's Pathetique & Appassionata
Mozart's Requiem
Schoenberg's 5 Pieces

[Wallingford]

Mozart VC#2 (Grumiaux/Baumgartner)
Dukas' La Peri (Boulez)
Stravinsky's Concerto For 2 Solo Pianos (Brendel/Zelka).....I've now got the Naxos 2-piano music disc scratched off my want-list: I've got the present work now taken care of in my collection, the Eden/Tamir Rite Of Spring has resided therein the last 2 1/2 decades, and all I need to worry about is an album containing the Sonata For 2 Pianos.

ALSO:
An '88 Marco Polo CD of almost-never-heard orchestral stuff from Enescu: Suite no. 3 ‪"‬Village‪"‬ ; Suite châtelaine ; and Voix de la nature. Neat neo-Impressionist stuff that shows this composer capable of LOTS more than the beaten-to-death Roumanian Rhapsodies. Conducted by R. Georgescu.

[karlhenning]

Stravinsky's Concerto For 2 Solo Pianos (Brendel/Zelka).....I've now got the Naxos 2-piano music disc scratched off my want-list

Too bad! It is an excellent account of the Concerto per due pianoforti

Cheers,
~Karl

[bOrbOt]

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No.3, Op.37

Gerard Willems/Antony Walker/Sinfonia Australis

[johnQpublic]

Verdi - Overture to "Luisa Miller" (Muti/Sony)
Liszt - Reminiscences de Don Juan (Hamelin/Hyperion)
Lamond - Symphony in A (Brabbins/Hyperion)

[RebLem]

In the week ending Saturday, Feb 3, 2007, I listened to the following:

1. 10/10 Fine Arts Quartet at WFMT Radio--Unrealeased recordings of broadcast performances 1967-73, Volumes 7 & 8 of 8 Music & Arts CDs. CD7--Beethoven: Quartet in F Major, Op. 18 #1 |Brahms: Trio in E Flat for piano, violin, and French horn, Op. 40 (Leonard Sorkin, FAQ 1st violinist, Naomi Zaslav, piano (wife of Bernard Zaslav, the FAQs sometime violist), Barry Tuckwell, horn |Mozart: Horn Quintet in E Flat, K. 407--FAQ, Barry Tuckwell, horn. CD8--Bartok: String Quartet 3 |Hindemith: String Quartet 3, Op. 22 | Martinon: String Quartet 2, Op. 54.

2. 10/10 Four Trombone Concerti--Warwick Tyrell, trombone, Adelaide [Australia] Sym Orch. Jacob, Gordon (1895-1984): Trombone Concerto (19:46) |Wagenseil (1715-77): Trombone Concerto in E Flat (9:28 )--Nicholas Braithwaite, cond. |Bracanin, Philip (b.1942): Trombone Concerto (17:17) |Currie, Neil (b. 1955): Tumbling Strain (23:26)--Patrick Thomas, cond.--recorded 1990 ABC [Australian Broadcasting Co] Classics CD. The Jacob work is the most interesting and complex piece here.

3. 10/10 Bach, J.S.: Organ Works (preludes, partitas, & fugues) influenced by Bohm & Buxtehude (1'15:35)--Wolfgang Zerer, organist--1 hanssler CD, Vol 88 of CBE.

4. 10/10 Annie Fischer Beethoven, Vol. 8 & 9 of 9.--Sonatas 4, 5, 11, 19, 21 "Waldstein," 22, 25, 26.--Hungaroton.

5. 10/10 Mahler: Syms 5, 6, 7--Kubelik, Bavarian RSO--3 CDs of 10 CD DG set. The 5 & 6 are wonderful. Especially the 6th, which includes the most transcendent, achingly beautiful, perfectly phrased 3rd movement I have every heard. The 7th is a bit of a disappointment. It is certainly well recorded, and all the notes are here, clear as a bell. But somehow, the performance seems not to get to the essence of the work. I have yet to listen to the 8th or 9th from this set, but so far, this 7th is the weakest performance in the Kubelik traversal of the Mahler symphonies.

6. 10/10 Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade |Sadko |Song of India--Loris Tjeknavorian, cond. Armenian Phil Orch--recorded 1991, lic from ASV--Brilliamt CD--part of a 4 CD collection of R-K's orchestral works. http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/alb ... m_id=88178
Excellent, detailed performances, perhaps a bit too closely miked, ala the old London Phase 4 recordings.

7. 10/10 Prokofiev: Complete Symphonies, CD 3 & 4 of 4--Sym 4 (orig. vers), and 5, 6, & 7--Valery Gergiev, LSO--Philips. Excellent performances, recorded live at the Barbican Centre, but not, as anticipated, the be all and end all of Prokofiev symphony performances. Frankly, I prefer Ozawa in the last 3, and above all, in the 5th, I prefer Levine's CSO recording, coupled with the 1st. The Malko 7th is also preferable to either performance.

[johnQpublic]

Paisiello - Overture to "L'osteria di Marachiaro" (Mazzola/Dynamic)
CPE Bach - Keyboard Sonata in G (Pletnev/DG)
Nebra [Blasco] - Aria: "Adios, prenda de mi amor" from "Amor aumenta el valor"
Viotti - Violin Concerto #22 (Wallfish/Helios)

[Wallingford]

Have had some LONDON SYMPHONY ORCH. anthologies playing in the old Walkman these days:

Sibelius' Pohjohla's Daughter (Kajanus)
Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Weingartner)
Vaughan Williams' Tuba Concerto (Fletcher/Previn)
Gershwin's An American In Paris (Stanley Black).........why is it a well-established ensemble like the LSO's unable to acquire taxi horns that are the more-or-less right pitches? Great performance, otherwise (despite the English-hornist muffing his solo in the first subdued section, after the first few minutes' hurly-burly; and the flautist cracking his glissando, about a minute before the "blues" section).

[CharmNewton]

An afternoon with LPs:

Brahms: Ballades, Rhapsodies and Intermezzi (selections)
Wilhelm Backhaus, piano (from the early 1930s) IGI-296

These are powerful, direct readings and at times passionate.

Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Arthur Grumiaux, violin
Gyorgy Sebok, piano (Philips 9500161)

This too is a direct reading, recorded somewhat close-up. Grumiaux's intonation in double-stops isn't always spot on, but his tione is beautiful if not ravishing.

Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100
Eduard Grach, violin
Alla Maloletkova, piano (Melodiya C10-15131-2)

Again direct but not overpowering. Both artists are fine musicians and not well known in the West. The recording dates from 1980. The Brahms Sonatas are interpreted more introspectively today.

Beethoven: Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 "Pathetique"
Artur Rubinstein, piano (RCA LM-1908)

Rubinstein's 1954 recording is clean and refreshing. Technically, he is in very good form here and the performance works for me.

Beethoven: Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
Elly Ney, piano (Electrola 1C 047-29 148ML)

Recorded in May, 1936 this is an individual reading. Dynamics are highly contrasted and tempi are shifted freely. Often the playing is captivating, but at times in the Arietta it loses focus and seems to meander. There is also a jarring side join that makes it seem the rest of the sonata was recorded an a different piano. Transfer is OK, but not great.

John

[moldyoldie]

While waiting for Super Bowl kickoff...


Johan Svendsen: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 2; Two Swedish Folk Tunes for String Orchestra
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, cond.
BIS
I like this one mainly for background music as I find it soothing, yet somewhat nondescript. I would describe the symphonies as Brahmsian in flavor.


Wilhelm Stenhammar: Symphony No. 1
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, cond.
BIS
This one I've always liked; it's got meat on its bones. For years, I've thought of picking up Symphony No. 2 and Excelsior!, but simply haven't yet.

[piston]

Roussel's four symphonies.

Ligeti:
Continuum for harpsichord;
Ten pieces for wind quintet;
Art mutation, electronic;
Harmonica, organ;
Glissandi, electronica;
Coulée, organ;
Volumina, organ.

[Wallingford]

Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique (van Otterloo 2)
Albeniz' Iberia excerpts, orchestrated by Arbos (de Carvallho)
Bach's Violin Concerto #1 (Burgin/BSO......live perf.)

[GK]

Haydn Quartets:

Op.77, 1&2; Op.103--Takacs Qt.
Op.1 Nr.1; Op.64 Nr.5; Op.76 Nr.3--The pseudonymous Caspar da Salo Qt.

The surprise is the wonderful Op.1 Nr.1

[CharmNewton]

Haydn Quartets:

Op.77, 1&2; Op.103--Takacs Qt.
Op.1 Nr.1; Op.64 Nr.5; Op.76 Nr.3--The pseudonymous Caspar da Salo Qt.

The surprise is the wonderful Op.1 Nr.1

Are they pseudonymous? I just thought they were a fine group of musicians.

John

[walboi]

[quote="moldyoldie"]While waiting for Super Bowl kickoff...


Johan Svendsen: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 2; Two Swedish Folk Tunes for String Orchestra
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, cond.
BIS
I like this one mainly for background music as I find it soothing, yet somewhat nondescript. I would describe the symphonies as Brahmsian in flavor.

You puzzle me by such a description. Your super bowl or whatever must have stopped your ears from registering the music.
What a infantile remark this is! Brahmsian in flavour, dear God, your senses are also attack by this viscious sport.

[piston]

I have been listening to two versions of B. Martinu's three sonatas for 'cello and piano, on Supraphon, with Josef Chuchro and Josef Hala, and on Naxos, with Sebastian and Christian Benda. Also took a moment to hear Ravel's String Quartet in F and one of his most dissonant works, the sonata for violin and 'cello, with the Schoenfeld sisters.

[GK]

Haydn Quartets:

Op.77, 1&2; Op.103--Takacs Qt.
Op.1 Nr.1; Op.64 Nr.5; Op.76 Nr.3--The pseudonymous Caspar da Salo Qt.

The surprise is the wonderful Op.1 Nr.1

Are they pseudonymous? I just thought they were a fine group of musicians.

John

You may be right. The conventional wisdom is that Pilz took performances of an existing quartet and put them out with a false name but to the best of my knowledge nobody has identified such a quartet. But it may simply mean that some good string players, perhaps from an Eastern European orchestra, made a few recordings and some money.

[moldyoldie]

While waiting for Super Bowl kickoff...

Johan Svendsen: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 2; Two Swedish Folk Tunes for String Orchestra
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, cond.
BIS
I like this one mainly for background music as I find it soothing, yet somewhat nondescript. I would describe the symphonies as Brahmsian in flavor.

You puzzle me by such a description. Your super bowl or whatever must have stopped your ears from registering the music.
What a infantile remark this is! Brahmsian in flavour, dear God, your senses are also attack by this viscious sport.

My waiting for the Super Bowl and the Svendsen symphonies have absolutely nothing to do with each other; the former was merely a by-the-bye comment. American football is only "vicious" for those playing it, not watching it...usually. At least it doesn't regularly trigger stadium riots. I won't apologize for my being a fan; the Super Bowl is probably the most watched (and over-analyzed and over-celebrated) sporting event of the year in America.

As to the Svendsen symphonies, by "nondescript" I meant not interesting enough to "member up my ears and sink into my soul". That could change over time, as it has for me with other composers both prominent and lesser-known. His symphonies are, however, melodious and often soothing; perhaps it's merely the interpretation and spacious recording.

I'll stand by my description of Brahmsian, especially in the long melodic lines of the slow movements (Brahms and Svendsen were contemporaries, but I've read nothing to suggest they were ever personally associated), and also add Tchaikovskian and even a tad Schumannesque; i.e., seemingly rooted in mid to late-19th Century musical Romanticism. I'm neither a musician nor musicologist, but have listened intently to the symphonies of all of them.

Hopefully, my amended description is considered less "infantile" in your estimation. Have a nice day.

With a nod to another thread, currently listening to...

Bruckner: Symphony No. 5
The Cleveland Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, cond.
London

[karlhenning]

Tchaikovsky
String Sextet in D Minor, Opus 70, Souvenir de Florence
Rostropovich (vc)
Talalyan (va)
Borodin Quartet

[Wallingford]

Ibert's Flute Concerto (Antony-Dwier) & the same composer's Sax Concertino (Mule).......both with Munch & the BSO

ALSO:

In continuing with my little binge for hearing piano performances of Pictures At An Exhibition: I've got 3 CDs borrowed from the library:Pogorelich's, Janda's, and Feltsman's (this last on a fine recent disc also including Tchaikovsky's Album For The Young).

[walboi]

Walter Leigh
Complete Chambermusic.

Dutton Records CDLX 7143.

Really beautiful and highly romantic music from a guy that had a short life, and little output. But what is there, that's good, very good!
Harry

[walboi]

Sigfrid Karg-Elert.

Piano music, Volume I.

Ernst Breidenbach, piano.

CPO 999 683-2

Extra ordinary good music, form a composer nearly forgotten, and wrongly so!

[karlhenning]

Bach
Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
Eugen Jochum, cond.

[piston]

Marc-André Hamelin, Brahms Piano Concerto no. 2 and Four piano pieces, Litton, Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

[Thomas J]

Something I've been seriously lacking in my classical music collection is some serious organ works. I was at Barnes and Noble earlier today and admittingly not knowing much about the music, bought this on a whim. So far, outstanding stuff!

[bricon]

Messiaen’s Quartour pour la Fin du Temps; played by Saschero Gawriloff (violin), Hans Deinzer (clarinet), Siegfried Palm (cello) and Aloys Kontarsky (piano). This is the “filler” on a CD set containing Simon Rattle’s recording of the Turangalía Symphonie (with the CBSO).

[moldyoldie]

About to embark on a first listen to...

Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Karel Ančerl, cond.
Supraphon
...as recommended to me on another thread and elsewhere as a good "alternative" interpretation and as one of the "saddest" Mahler Ninths ever. We'll see.

[Intergamer]

Beethoven: Overtures
Kurt Masur
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

My favourite overture is still the Egmont.

[CharmNewton]

About to embark on a first listen to...

Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Karel Ančerl, cond.
Supraphon
...as recommended to me on another thread and elsewhere as a good "alternative" interpretation and as one of the "saddest" Mahler Ninths ever. We'll see.

I have this recording on Crossroads LPs. I find it to be a moving performance and within the mainstream of the time (mid-late 1960s). Recordings of Barbirolli, Ludwig, Walter, Klemperer, Kubelik, Haitink, Abravanel and Bernstein/N.Y. come to mind. Bernstein's later DG recordings impose a more "psychological" view on the music, perhaps influenced by the msuic that followed Mahler or Bernstein's own make-up. I recall reading Bernstein wanted a slower Adagio to conclude his Columbia (now Sony) recording, but John McClure, his producer talked him out of it.

John

[piston]

A multiple-award winning recording of Paul Dukas' Sonata for piano, by Marc-André Hamelin, Hypérion.

I must say that I do prefer Hamelin in this work than in the two-cd Albeniz set wherein he seems to lack the "latino" passion of a Alicia de Larocha. Moreover, the Dukas sonata is coupled with the only known work of composer Abel-Marie Decaux, Clairs de lune. In spite of its romantic title, this work in four movements is another example of turn-of-the century music inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, the movements being: Minuit passe; la ruelle; le cimetière, and; la mer. Astonishingly modern for its time period, 1900-07, Roger Nichols appropriately comments: "Whole tone aggregations (as at the beginning of 'La ruelle') and consecutive fifths were nothing so out-of-the-way around 1900, but some of Decaux's chords seem to have been taken from a source such as the songs in Schoenberg's Das Buch der bängenden Gärten: the only problem being that these weren't written until 1909." Decaux moved to the USA in 1923 where he taught the organ at the Eastman School of Music.

[Wallingford]

Obscure Cello Concertos:

AUBER's Rondo for Cello and Orchestra;
MASSENET's Fantaisie for Cello and Orchestra;
POPPER's (1843 - 1913)Cello Concerto in E minor

with cellist Martin Ostertag & Radio Symphonie Orchester Berlin conducted by Roberto Paternostro

[RebLem]

In the week ending Saturday, 10 FEB 2007, I listened to more CDs than ever before in a single week. This is, in fact, a personal record. 22 CDs, standing six inches high on the desk in front of me right now, between the keyboard and the screen. Ok, a bit of it is a booklet, too, for a set of Mahler symphonies I started (the Bertini), but, otoh, all the 7 (yes, 7) Mahler CDs are in their little cardboard cases, not the boxes the sets come in. Anyway, lets get started--

1. 9/9 Violinist Christian Ferras playing the Beethoven and Mendelssohn Violin Concerti, the former with Sargent and the Royal Phil from 12/59, and the latter with Silvestri and the Philharmonia Orch from 6/57. Royal Classics label, lic from EMI. Good, but not great, performances and sound for the period.

2. 10/10 Wilfrid d'Indy: Piano Trio in G Major, Op 15 |Vincent d'Indy: String Quartet 3 in D Flat Major, Op. 96 |Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 81. Ilona Prunyi, piano, New Budapest Quartet. ArkivCD, lic from Marco Polo. The Vincent d'Indy pieces are far more sophisticated and complicated than the trio by his uncle Wilfirid (I am indebted to piston and the inimitably recondite Lance G Hill for information on the relationship), but Uncle Wilfrid seems to have been quite a formidable melodist. Not much in the way of development, which is mostly repetition, in each movement, of the main theme with only slight variations, but the melodies themselves, esp. in the first movement, are quite catchy and affecting; they all seem to have a militaristic march-like cadence, however, which befits the familiy's unreconstructed monarchist sympathies.

3. 10/10 Elgar: String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 83 |Walton: String Quartet. The Britten Quartet--Regis CD, lic from Collins Classics.

4. 10/10 Complete Solo Piano Works of Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern--Elisabeth Klein, piano, Tamas Feher, 2nd piano in Schoenberg's 6 Pieces for four hands. 2 Scandanavian Classics CDs, lic from Classico.

5. 10/10 Berg: Violin Concerto (1935)--Henryk Szerying, violin |Schoenberg: Violin Concerto (1936)--Zvi Zeitlin, violin |Piano Concerto (1942)--Brendel, piano, Kubelik cond, Bavarian RSO. DGG CD

6. 10/10 Kroumata Percussion Ensemble performing works by 4 composers--Cage: Second Construction for 4 players (1940) |Cowell: Pulse for 5 players (1939) |Torbjorn Iwan Lundquist: Sisu for 6 percussions (1976) |Yoshihisa Taira: Hierophonie V for 6 percussionists (1974). MHS CD, lic from BIS.

7. 10/10 Bach, J.S.: Toccatas (for harpsichord), S 910-916--Peter Watchorn, harphichord--hanssler CD, Vol 104 of CBE. Excellent performances and sound, but, as in almost all harpsichord works in the hanssler CBE series, it is closely miked, & recorded at a very high level. You may need to turn down the gain.

8. 10/10 Bach, J.S.: Sacred Music in Latin, Vol 1--Mass in F Major. S. 233 (23:48 ) |Kyrie eleison, S. 233a (3:39) |Mass in A Major, S. 234 (31:18 )--Rilling, cond. various ensembles--hanssler CD, Vol. 71 of CBE

9. 10/10 Bach, J.S.: Cantatas 43, 44, 45--Rillin, cond. usual suspects. hanssler CD, Vol. 15 of CBE.

10. 10/10 Haydn: Symphonies 94 "Surprise" & 103 "Drum Roll"--Collegium Aureum--Parnass, lic from German harmonia mundi. Superb performances from one of the premiere (in both senses of the word, as to chronology and quality), OIP ensembles in the world.

11. 10/10 Mozart: String Quartets 14-19 (6) "Haydn Quartets"--Hagen Quartet. I have the Quartetto Italiano, the American Quartet, and the Alban Berg Quartet recordings of these works, and I feel this is the best of the bunch. Great performances, modern digital sound, recorded 1995-2000.

12. 10/10 Mahler: Sym 8 & 9--Kubelik, cond. Bavarian RSO, In 8, choral ensembles and soloists Martina Arroyo, Erna Spoorenberg, Edith Mathis, Julia Hamari, Norma Procter, Donald Grobe, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, & Franz Crass. DGG. From 1967 (9th) & 1971 (8th). Superb performance of 8th, excellent one of 9th.

13. 10/10 Mahler: Symphonies 1-5, Bertini, Kolner RSO, CDs 1-5 of 11 CD EMI set which includes Das Lied, and Adagio only from 10th. 1 (54:32) (1991, Tokyo). 2 (82:32) (1991, Koln), Krisztinal Lakl, sop, Florence Quivar, mezzo. 3 (95:26) (1985, Koln) Gwendolyn Killebrew, contralto. 4. (58:55) (1987, Koln) Lucia Popp, sop. 5. (67:49) (1990, Koln) Superb performances of 1-3, excellent ones of 4, 5.

14. 10/10 Siegmeister, Elie (1909-1991): Piano Music, Vol 1--American Sonata (19:44) (18:25) |On This Ground (1971) (14:56) |Theme & Variations #2 (1967) (9:26) |Piano Sonata 4, aka Prelude, Blues, & Toccata (1980) (14:54) |Piano Sonata 5 (1987) (15:53)--Kenneth Boulton. Naxos CD.

[Wallingford]

Boccherini's Sinfonia Concertante in g & his Sextet in E-flat (Haas/London Baroque Ensemble)
Brahms' Piano Quartet #1 (Berkowitz/Posselt/de Pasquale/Mayes)

[GK]

Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez--Moreno/Batiz/LSO
De Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain--Ciccolini/Batiz/RPO
De Falla: El Amor Brujo--De Los Angeles/Giulini/Philharonia

[piston]

Symphonies no. 5 and no. 12 of the complete orchestral works of Nicolai Miaskovsky, Evgeni Svetlanov, State Academic Symphony Orchestra, Russian Disc number 5 of 16. The fifth symphony is a real beauty, I believe the first of Miaskovsky's greatest symphonies. He completed twenty-seven of them.

[AntonioA]

Brahms Concerto No.2 for Piano and Orchestra, op 83

with Backhaus/Schuricht/VPO on Decca LXT 2723

[piston]

Myaskovsky: String quartets no. 7 and 8, Taneyev Quartet, RD.

[jserraglio]

A charming work.

[bOrbOt]

Schubert - Symphony No.9 In C Major 'The Great'

Carlo Maria Giuliani/Chicago Symphony Orchestra/DG

[GK]

Video: Live From The Met Highlights

Excerpts from Bartered Bride (overture), Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Carlo, La Boheme, Tannhauser, and Lucia di Lammermoor.

[D]

Tchaikovsky Sym 5

Mravinsky/Leningrad