MAGIC! (Please!)

[dirkronk]

For those who haven't seen my first two posts, I'm returning to classical listening after a 10-year dry spell. I mean, I've been to assorted concerts (chamber music, mainly) pre-pandemic and so on, but I haven't delved into my classical recording collection for a l-o-o-n-g time. And my thought is, maybe I'll be lured more quickly back into this wonderful madness if I try to recreate "magic" moments. That is, those moments when a performance so captivates you that you have to stop whatever you're doing, sit down, and let the music wash over you. Radio stations like to call these "driveway moments." But whatever you call them, I want some.

Naturally, I'm asking you to share YOUR magic moments, not mine. But let me give you a couple of examples from my own experience, long long ago. (In fact, these were LPs, but I'm fine tracking stuff down on CD or YouTube.)

1. Mendelssohn violin concerto...done by David Oistrakh with Ormandy/Philadephia on a very old 6-eye Columbia mono. Now, I don't normally like Ormandy and, at the time, I wasn't a full-blown Oistrakh fan either, but the record had been in a stack of assorted LPs bought as a group, so I thought, "I'll put it on while I clean my office and the bathroom." Fat chance. Within the first couple of minutes, I was drawn back to my office, bath sponge in hand, and sat in glorious stupor until the entire LP side finished. Never mind that the balance between soloist and orchestra wasn't ideal. Never mind the grainy surfaces. Oistrakh was in the zone and he put me right there with him (and still does, more than any of his other performances of the work). This was magic.

2. Bach sonatas for solo violin BWV1001 and 1002 by Szeryng, on a green-label EMI Odeon mono. An "orphan" LP bought for a buck at a used bookstore simply because I wasn't that familiar with Szeryng at the time. This was from his early mono traversal, and again I wasn't prepared for what he had to offer. Back in the day, I was more of a mono Milstein, stereo Grumiaux, or Martzy fan for these works. But this Szeryng knocked me on my butt.

Get the idea? Isolated special moments. Unexpected reactions to performers you didn't even know could sound that good. One-offs, hard-to-find items or easily-accessed...whatever you've got. And no fair saying, "That's everything in my collection"--gimme details about your actual magic experience(s) and I'll seek to reproduce it/them for myself in my effort to reintroduce myself to the classical catalog.

Many thanks in advance.

Dirk

[Rach3]

Many,many, many but here is one I listened to again just today:

Emil von Sauer's Piano Concerto #1 (1900 ) ; the great “Cavatina” mov. starts at about 19:30 in :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjTJYJ36S6Y (Stephen Hough has also recorded for Hyperion )

[Holden Fourth]

What immediately came to mind was Sergei Babayan's Scarlatti recording on the Pro Piano label.

And I've just got Orozco's Chopin Preludes which has finally been released on CD. It's also a 'magic' release.

Finally, Bernsteins Eroica with the NYPO.

[dirkronk]

What immediately came to mind was Sergei Babayan's Scarlatti recording on the Pro Piano label.

No surprise there...a longtime favorite of mine, as well. And luckily, a friend provided me with a copy some years ago -- so it goes on the list for sure.

And I've just got Orozco's Chopin Preludes which has finally been released on CD. It's also a 'magic' release.

Now that one I'll have to check out. Not sure if I have any Orozco in my archive at all, and surely not this new release. Thanks for the hint.

Finally, Bernsteins Eroica with the NYPO.

Ah...one from left field and another one that I'll have to source. Haven't heard that one in years and my LP copy went in the huge university library donation years back...but I'll bet either my local library or YouTube has it.

Thanks for the list, Ric!

Cheers,
Dirk

[Holden Fourth]

The Orozco is on Spotify. It was my first recording of the Preludes and it was only on LP so I'm glad that it's finally been released on CD. It's a two CD set that also includes the Etudes/.

[maestrob]

dirkronk:

Magic moments happen for me in so many ways, it's incredibly difficult to pull a short list out of the ether. Many of them happen with great singing, but others with sublime orchestral playing as well. To begin my contributions to this thread then, I'll start with the contents of a CD I created from favorite moments from my library about 20 years ago. I called it "Moments of Reflection" and it's often in my computer or CD player:

1) Franz Schmidt: Intermezzo from "Notre Dame" Herbert von Karajan/Berlin

2) Beethoven String Quartet #135, arr. for string orchestra, Lento: Bernstein/Vienna

3) Elgar String Quartet Op. 84: Adagio: Maggini Quartet w/Peter Donohue

4) Novak: Slavak Suite Op. 32, Mvt. 1 (V Kostele (In the Castle): Jiri Starek cond. Rundfunk Orchester Sudewstfunks (Southwest German Radio Orchestra)

5) Suk: Serenade Mvt. 3 (Adagio): Pesek/Czech Philharmonic

6) Miaskovsky: Cello Concerto Op. 66, Mvt. I (Lento): Rostropovich/Sargent

7) Pfitzner: Palestrina, Act I Prelude: Thielemann/Berlin Opera Orchestra

8: Magnard: Chant funebre: Plasson/Toulouse

[dirkronk]

2) Beethoven String Quartet #135, arr. for string orchestra, Lento: Bernstein/Vienna

5) Suk: Serenade Mvt. 3 (Adagio): Pesek/Czech Philharmonic

I actually remember owning the Bernstein/Beethoven...though on LP, so it was part of the big university library donation from many years ago. Have Talich doing the Suk...I'll see if he offers magic in that piece. For the rest, I'll do a YouTube deep dive.
Thanks!
Dirk

[maestrob]

2) Beethoven String Quartet #135, arr. for string orchestra, Lento: Bernstein/Vienna

5) Suk: Serenade Mvt. 3 (Adagio): Pesek/Czech Philharmonic

I actually remember owning the Bernstein/Beethoven...though on LP, so it was part of the big university library donation from many years ago. Have Talich doing the Suk...I'll see if he offers magic in that piece. For the rest, I'll do a YouTube deep dive.
Thanks!
Dirk

There is something really special in the Pesek version of the Suk String Serenade if you can find it, not least of which is the ability of digital recording to capture the warm, woody overtones of the Czech Philharmonic's strings.

Here's the cover:



Enjoy!

[dirkronk]

There is something really special in the Pesek version of the Suk String Serenade if you can find it, not least of which is the ability of digital recording to capture the warm, woody overtones of the Czech Philharmonic's strings.

Gotcha.
Note to self: don't ask for MAGIC! and then suppose you can get it from another performance.
Duh!

Thanks again.

Dirk

[stickles]

Back in the days when I was very young, I had listened to Karajan’s digital recording of the Egmont Overture with the BPO many times. I was so familiar with it that I could almost hum the whole thing. Then I happened upon an recording by the Cleveland Orchestra under Szell. I was shocked by the timpani entrance, and from there on that performance gave me a rush I never experience before. That was the first time I learned the differences of interpretations of the same music.

Viktoria Mullova is one of my favorite violinists. Her rendition of the Four Seasons with European Chamber Orchestra is sublime. Winter almost has a visual effect of a chisel rapidly chipping away a block of ice to create a sculpture with sparkling facets. Her first recording of the three Bach Partitas remains golden standard for me. That was the only rendition of the Chaconne that had me crying at the end.

Brahms first piano concerto has a special place in my heart. However, there was always this one passage in the second movement that bothered me, a seemingly disjointing music figure that broke up the melancholic melodies that preceded it. To me It sounded out of place and out of time. This movement is supposed to be a portrait of Clara Schumann, and I always wondered about the significance of this passage. On the other hand, I don’t find myself able to focus long enough to enjoy Robert Schumann’s mammoth Fantasie in C. One time Andras Schiff played the only third movement of the Fantasie as an encore after a recital, and I was riveted. There for the first time I heard the ghost of that mysterious passage I know from the Brahms. Instantly, I thought Brahms must have recalled the times when Clara played Robert’s music in the house alone when he was in the asylum. Two weeks later, Kissin played the Brahms concerto, and this time the emotional complexity listening to this music was almost unbearable.

Verdi’s Requiem is a blockbuster hit wherever it is performed. I even sang in the Chorus during my college days. I never understood it to be very different from the other requiem masses until I heard it live performed by the Chicago Symphony with Riccardo Muti. Olga Borodina’s pleading for mercy in the Agnus Dei was so gentle in her humility that made me wonder why God never replied in these proceedings. The shout in the Libra Me section only showed humanity’s desperation at the end of time. Are we not deemed worthy of salvation because of the all the injustice and injuries we are suffering are self-inflicted through either action or acquiescence? Muti later said in an interview that the Verdi Requiem is very Italian in the sense that they demand salvation rather than asking. I wonder if Verdi the atheist intended his Requiem as critique on the modern affairs.


Equally though provoking is the Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony which is often maligned by critics, and is even mocked by Bartok. Recently I heard a radio cast of this masterpiece performed by the San Francisco Symphony under Karina Canellakis that completely changed my mind. Her steady tempi and ever so persistence in the micro crescendo in the invasion section cumulates in a most terrifying ending. I was barely able to breathe under that mounting pressure. Evil often starts with a whisper, and it is its insidiousness that grants its power over us. This is more of an invasion of the mind rather than body, and I wonder if Shostakovich intended it to be a critique on the soviet regime as well. The rest of the performance is equally impressive. There was absolute beauty in the return of the flue theme in the adagio, and there were sound effects aplenty in the fourth movement. I only wish I was present at that concert.

[dirkronk]

Beautiful examples, stickles! Thanks so much for sharing those memories.

Dirk

[barney]

Yes, thanks Stickles.
I love the Leningrad. I once had the good fortune to hear it twice in a couple of weeks. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra played it, a fine, sardonic and rich account. Then, as part of the annual festival, Gergiev and the Mariinsky played it. The difference was immense, all that Russian emotion, the detail. Unforgettable.

[dirkronk]

Equally though provoking is the Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony which is often maligned by critics, and is even mocked by Bartok.

I fear that I too maligned it...for a while. Here's a post I wrote back in 2007, in a thread about "depressing music":

dirkronk wrote:For years, I looked on the Shostakovich sym. 7--in particular, the first movement--to be about as oppressive as I cared to ever hear. My first exposure to it was live in concert, and it seemed to go on forever. Thus, I immediately began referring to it as the "death march bolero." In fact, my companion that evening and I discussed whether a noose-and-rusty-razor-blade concession in the lobby might not do a booming business.Long afterward (we're talking years here, folks), I allowed myself to revisit the work...and eventually began to have a less gloomy attitude about it. Today, in fact, I can rather enjoy it. But the memory of that first impression was a strong one.Dirk

What changed my mind? I explained that in a follow-up post, a few days later:

If my first hearing of this piece had been led by Mravinsky...or possibly Bernstein (as in his Chicago DGG recording)...I might have heard more of the grandeur and strength to mitigate the gloom. I don't recall who conducted, and besides, I hesitate to throw blame on the performers--they MAY have been great, but I really think I just wasn't ready for this symphony. As it was, I didn't know what to expect and that first movement weighed rather heavy on me. And at the time, my only previous experience with Shostakovich symphonies had been the 1st, 5th, 9th and 15th--all much different and I think more easily approachable pieces than the 7th. Certainly all those have quirky, occasionally even humorous themes to lighten the listening. But as I say, I finally did grow into the 7th and now find it enjoyable.

So it was, in fact, Mravinsky and Bernstein who gave me "magic moments" and helped me appreciate the power of the Leningrad.

Cheers,

Dirk

[Lance]

Completely concur on the 7th, particularly (for me), the Mravinsky 1953 recording (recently sonically so-called "improved" on the Vanguard label.) Not sure if there was ever another Mravinsky recording of the "Leningrad" Symphony.

[... ...]
So it was, in fact, Mravinsky and Bernstein who gave me "magic moments" and helped me appreciate the power of the Leningrad.
Cheers,

Dirk

[Holden Fourth]

While I've got a box set of the Shostakovich symphonies (Barshai) I've only listened to a few of them. My fave is the 8th and it's hard to beat Previn's first version with the LSO. I also really like the 11th. So this has prompted me to sit down and tackle the 7th for the first time.

Stickles mentioned the Verdi Requiem and my intro to the work was the Fricsay recording with Stader, et al from 1960. However, I longed for a recording that had good sound, excellent soloists, and was well conducted. I really liked the Toscanini approach but the sound was a draw back. After listening to Reiner, Giulini, Muti and others someone pointed me in an unexpected direction - a DVD. This was a film made by Henri Clouzot of HvK conducting the orchestra and chorus of La Scala Milan. I've never been a big von Karajan fan but I had a lot of respect for the opinion of the person who recommended it so I took the plunge and bought the DVD. I'm so glad I did because I think this has to close to the definitive version. With soloists like Price, Cossotto, Ghiaurov and a young Pavarotti (who apparently stepped in at the last minute for an ill Guiseppe di Stefano?) the vocal work is absolutely gorgeous. The film was made to mark the 10th anniversary of Toscanini's death and being a film they've done the sound a little bit differently from a normal studio/hall recording and it really works. You can view this on Youtube but there are some sonic issues in places that are not apparent on the DVD. I managed to make a digital audio recording in PCM stereo.

[barney]

Amazing work, the Verdi Requiem. If you like operatic church music the Rossini Stabat Mater is tremendous.

Re Shostakovich, the symphony in which I first encountered him, which I still love more than most of his symphonies, is 13, set to Yevtushenko poems. A wonderful work.

[dirkronk]

Finally, Bernsteins Eroica with the NYPO.

Ah...one from left field and another one that I'll have to source. Haven't heard that one in years and my LP copy went in the huge university library donation years back...but I'll bet either my local library or YouTube has it.

So Ric...
You mentioning Bernstein's Eroica sent me back into the archives, and here's what I had to say about that performance in 2007 (part of a thread recommending Lenny's recordings):

Beethoven symphony #3 (several of his performances from the LvB cycle are quite good, but the searing first movement of this Eroica has kept it from being culled from my LP collection for several decades now).

So yeah...I think I need to take my own advice (and yours, of course!) and have another listen to this. Can't believe I let that one get away, but you can't keep everything.

Thanks again for the reminder.
Dirk

[maestrob]

Speaking of Shostakovich, I had the privilege of being in the first row for the one live performance of the Leningrad symphony that Bernstein led in Avery Fisher Hall at the time he recorded the work with the Chicago Symphony. That performance remains one of the greatest concerts of my life.

As for VIII, I grew up with Kondrashin's searing performance on Melodiya's wretched sandy blue label lps during the 1960s, and was thrilled when it finally made it to CDs. Another performance I recommend would be a live BBC concert with the Leningrad Symphony in stereo from 1960s led by Mravinsky: his finest IMHO.

We really need a dvd set of Shostakovich Symphonies in modern sound to sit on our shelves next to Abbado's Mahler and Barenboim 's Bruckner.

[slofstra]

My most special memories are in live performance. In my mid-twenties my manager at the time occasionally gave me tickets to our local symphony orchestra, the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony, when he and his wife could not attend.
Some of these were Pops performances and they were okay.
But what hooked me for life was a performance of Brahms first Symphony. This was around 1980. I still remember being surprised at how much elbow grease the violinists were putting into the music as I had thought of classical music being sedate and oh, so refined, and well, a little boring.
Another early performance featured Jon Vickers singing excerpts from Wagner .. sent chills up my spine. I think the next year we became season subscribers, not to the Pops series mind you, and we have continued ever since.
Many performances are forgotten, but many are remembered still. Through the 80s I didn't really purchase any recordings, so common repertoire was often new to me. Marc Andre Hamelin performing the Second Brahms Piano Concerto was divine, and I have a couple of dozen recordings of that piece now.
We have had a surfeit of great Canadian pianists, and many of their performances were an absolute treat: Anton Kuerti, a few times, Angela Hewitt, Janina Fialkowska, Jon Kimura Parker, Andre Laplante who performed both Liszt concertoes back to back, Angela Cheng, not that well known but one of the best performances of all, also Naida Cole, Stewart Goodyear .. and others.
In one hiatus between conductors we had a mix of guest conductors and trial rehearsals of candidates with a live audience. (I hated this format and fortunately, our latest maestro directly succeeded the previous when his term ended.) Anyway one of the "candidates" who conducted was Yannick Nézet-Séguin, then with a small orchestra in Montreal. He raised the performance from the usual level by several notches and I fired off an email to the orchestra board, the only time I've ever done this, indicating my hope that they hire him at once. As it was, he was only doing a guest conducting turn so my hopes were all for nought.
In the early 90s I began to purchase classical music CDs but I'll save that for another post.
And I also won't get into the Perimeter Institute Classical Master series in Waterloo, sponsored by Canada's first tech billionaires, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, which ran for a number of years and spared no expense to bring in the world's best into a recital hall holding perhaps 2-300 people. That was one treat after another.