What classical music are you listening to?

[admin_exported]

Only putting this thread up because, judging by the "What are you listening to" thread, not many people listen to classical any more and I'm sure they do. At least I hope so anyway.

Last for me was Shostakovich's Cello Concerto/Heinrich Schiff.

 

[Anonymous]

blu ray experience opera and ballet highlights a very good disc to start your blu ray collection and cheap as well ,,also the cd dutoit montreal so holst planets

 

[Sliced Bread]

Beethoven's 3rd Symphony
Vivaldi summer 2nd movement
Sibelius: Symphony No 4

 

[survivor]

There are a few classical listeners on the forum. Last week I listened to some Wagner but just didn`t get around to putting it on the `what are you listening to` thread. I`d sometimes put some classical on when the father-in-law came over as he was very keen on classical music. Every now and then I listen to classical on the headphones whilst I`m reading. So anyway, the recording was -

Wagner - The Ring(Orchestral Highlights) by the CSR Symphony Orchestra(Bratislava) (cd)

Incidentally this recording includes `Siegfried`s Death & Funeral March` which is my all time favourite piece of classical music. Very dark and very powerful.

 

[ElectroMan]

Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Stravinsky. I also think I need to listen to Shostakovich!

I have the Boulez/Chereau Ring cycle on DVD - pity it's not HD. Not sure what it will look like upscaled - I'll have to see when I have the stamina!

 

[Anonymous]

Ludovico Einaudi, Arvo Part, Rachmaninov, Philip Glass, Erik Satie, Max Richter, Samuel Barbar, Pedal and Tchaikovsky have all been played within the last month according to iTunes.

 

[Anonymous]

I can't bear Wagner - it's so overdramatic and romantic that it makes me feel sick...

 

[Andrew Everard]

Good Lord! Another area of expertise! Does Sir Jonathan Miller know about you?

 

[Anonymous]

4 seasons, love Bach barock, Pavarotti and Eric Clapton!

 

[Anonymous]

Octopo:Arvo Part
Spiegel im Spiegel, stunning.

 

[Anonymous]

igglebert:Octopo:Arvo PartSpiegel im Spiegel, stunning.

In my top ten of listened to tracks. Great to work to, long, slow and touching. Perfect.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Love Wagner (which I got switched on to when at university), Britten, Mozart operas, Bach and Handel sacred music and oratorios, notable the Matthew Passion and Messiah, soft spot for Elgar esp Elgar 1 and the Du Pre reading of the Cello Concerto, Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances, Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, just about anything RVW, medieval plainsong and renaissance dance music, and lots and lots of C19 and early C20 English music.

Not too hot on lieder, though the dead kid songs always get to me, love the pomp of the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, and by contrast the Britten Simple Symphony.

Also have a thing for Japanese traditional drumming - even Kodo, which isn't terribly trad -, Copland's First, the Firebird, oh and Philip Glass music that goes round and round and round and round and then it changes and then it changes and then it changes and then it goes round and goes round and goes round and goes round and - then stops.

Glass's Akhnaten is beautiful, esp the Window of Appearences, as is The Making of the Representative..., oh and I have a real liking for some of the grimmer Sondheim pieces, Assassins being a particular favourite since I saw it at the Donmar years ago, and of course The Demon Barber which I saw on its first night in London long ago and far away.

And I also like Cabaret, both the Liza with a Z version and an off-Broadway production I saw starring Jane 'Daphne' Leeves in New York five or six years back, which was so-o-o dark.

Enough for you...?

EDIT - oops, forgot Beethoven 7. And Richard Rodgers' Carousel overture.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, Mr.E!

Must say that I like the sound of that Japanese traditional drumming, sounds quite interesting. However, I don't think I can pop down HMV and pick up a CD with it on!

I kinda like the more modern classical stuff - twentieth century is my favourite. I'm a big fan of Gershwin (Promenade, Rapsody in blue, and an American in Paris) and it's a terrible shame he died of cancer so young. I also love Saint-Saens (always play Danse Macabre at halloween!) even if it is a bit older.

Rogers' Carousel Overture?

 

[Anonymous]

I've been collecting the Gardiner Bach Cantatas over the last couple of years. If you like Baroque and liturgical music then the Monteverdi Productions recordings come highly recommended. They are superb recordings and can have you transfixed.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a really, really, really old recording of Purcell's Sound the Trumpets on 78rpm, but I've no idea what I can play it on...

 

[matthewpiano]

I'm a pianist so I naturally listen to a great deal of piano music. I particularly love the recordings of Dinu Lipatti, Alfred Brendel, Sviatsolav Richter, Claudio Arrau, and Emil Gilels. One of the greatest moments of my life was seeing Brendel give a recital of Schubert works at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Probably my favourite piano recording is Richter's 1958 Sofia Recital on Philips Classics. His interpretation of Mussorgsky's 'Pictures At An Exhibition' is one of the most immersive and characterful pieces of music making I've ever heard. I also love Richter's wonderful recordings of the Liszt Concertos, and Claudio Arrau's Beethoven and Chopin recordings. Another very special set of recordings to me is the RCA 10 disc set of Rachmaninoff's recordings as a pianist.

In terms of composers I love Chopin, Britten, J.S.Bach, Milhaud, Shostakovich, Bruckner, Mahler, Debussy, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Brahms, Schonberg, Rachmaninoff, Berg, Thomas Ades, Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Dvorak, and Haydn.

Apart from piano music my main passions are orchestral music, opera and song. I love listening to recordings of great singers with particular favourites being Count John McCormack, Carlo Bergonzi, Renata Tebaldi, Renata Scotto, Peter Pears, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Beniamino Gigli, and Enrico Caruso. Count John McCormack was a wonderful Mozart singer but I have special affection for his artistry in Irish songs such as 'Kathleen Mavourneen' and 'I Hear You Calling Me'. Thomas Allen is also a great favourite of mine for his sheer artistry. In terms of song (as opposed to Opera), I am particularly a fan of English songs by the likes of Warlock, Vaughan-Williams, and Quilter. The Naxos English Song Series (built initially on reissues of the earlier Collins Classics series) is an absolute pleasure to collect and listen to.

 

[Anonymous]

matthewpiano:Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Do you live in Manchester Mr. Piano? By any remote chance is Max Richter a relation of Sviatsolav Richter?

 

[matthewpiano]

Octopo:
matthewpiano:Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Do you live in Manchester Mr. Piano? By any remote chance is Max Richter a relation of Sviatsolav Richter?

I live in Chorley, so not too far from Manchester.

Max Richter, as far as I know, is no relation of Sviatoslav Richter. S.Richter, along with Gilels, immerged from behind the Iron Curtain and represents a vast school of great Russian pianism that had been encouraged by some wonderful pedagogy at the Moscow Conservatoire in the early years of the 20th Century. There is a wonderful film on DVD by Bruno Monsaigeon entitled 'Richter, The Enigma' which traces his life and career and gives a real insight into the single minded determination and hardship that made him who he was.

I forgot to mention in my list of pianists, the wonderful Artur Rubinstein, another great favourite of mine. Rubinstein's Chopin, both in his earlier HMV recordings and later RCA ones, really is something to behold. Some of the HMV recordings have been reissued at budget price on Naxos Historical. I should also have mentioned the great British pianist Sir Clifford Curzon, a player who was obsessive about listening to every sound he made and playing with an uncommon gracefulness which brings particular beauty to his interpretations of Mozart and Schubert.

Sorry to drone on, but this is my specialist subject (and piano recordings as evidence of trends in pedagogy and pianistic performance practice were the subject of my undergraduate dissertation) and I am very passionate about it.

 

[Anonymous]

I know who to come to for advice on good piano pieces that have been well produced then

 

[Anonymous]

matthewpiano:I am very passionate about it.

I would never have guessed.ÿ

 

[Andrew Everard]

Hughes123:Must say that I like the sound of that Japanese traditional drumming, sounds quite interesting. However, I don't think I can pop down HMV and pick up a CD with it on!

Amazon has several best ofs - just search for Kodo.

 

[John Duncan]

Hughes123:I have a really, really, really old recording of Purcell's Sound the Trumpets on 78rpm, but I've no idea what I can play it on...

You can get a 78rpm adapter for Pro-jects. Shame you have a Sondek really....

 

[Andrew Everard]

Oh Lord, he's got a Sondek too? And I assume he and Ivor are like this (crosses fingers)

 

[Big Chris]

Andrew Everard:
Hughes123:Must say that I like the sound of that Japanese traditional drumming, sounds quite interesting. However, I don't think I can pop down HMV and pick up a CD with it on!

Amazon has several best ofs - just search for Kodo.

Pah! He's only using one drum. I use seven!

;-)

 

[Andrew Everard]

Big Chris:
Pah! He's only using one drum. I use seven!

;-)

Wakarimashita, but bear in mind he's got a dozen mates out of shot thundering away on other drums while he's girding limb and sinew to lay into his odaiko.