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CLASSICAL Music

Ok, I've ordered the box set. Not cheap, but not too bad for an entire cycle of all 9 symphonies on SACD.




So, this means I'll have an extra SACD of the 9th, which I will send for free to the first person who PM's me. Let's see if any of you are actually reading this thread. ;)
 
PaulyT said:
Ok, I've ordered the box set. Not cheap, but not too bad for an entire cycle of all 9 symphonies on SACD.

Click to expand...


I've listened to this whole set, most of them more than once, and I'm extremely pleased with it. The performances really grab me in a way that few symphonic recordings do. These guys really play all-out, the brass and timpani are awesome, and the low end (cellos, basses, etc.) are very full compared to many recordings where the violins are over-dominant. Reading the liner notes, this cycle of 9 symphonies was recorded over about a year (mostly in 1962), unlike modern recording sessions where they'd cram the entire thing into days or at most weeks, leaving no time to prepare each piece individually.

I'm not nearly enough of a pundit to say that these are the best recordings of every one of these symphonies, but they are ALL extremely good, in my opinion. Numbers 5 and 9 stand out especially, IMHO. I've tried to listen to these while I work, but (unusually for me for purely orchestral music) I've found it impossible to do this here, the music draws me in and forces me to pay attention, much more so than many/most of my other classical recordings - even those of the same works! I imagine this is largely a personal thing, again, where Karajan's interpretation and orchestral sound simply "works" for me. But hey, take greatness where and how you can find it! :)

I definitely recommend this set to anyone who wants a complete Beethoven symphony cycle. The fact that it's SACD is a bonus, but the CD layer too sounds great to me on my headphones.
 
The wife called me at work today and told me that we got a CD in the mail today!!!

Thanks Pauly...........now I just need to find the time to listen to it!!
 
Been getting a fair number of "classic" classical recordings, meaning stuff from ~ the 60's. See the Beethoven/Karajan stuff above.

Latest one is this, from 1962:

61Rl6Y8ITIL._AA300_.jpg


Am really loving this one. Elizabeth Schwarzkopf is stunning. (Her Strauss - 4 last waltzes recording is some of the most beautiful classical vocal music I know of.) But this is a great recording overall, not just the one soprano solo movement. The sixth movement is VERY exciting, despite - or maybe because of? - the slower tempo than the other recordings I have (Robert Shaw's being the main one). And the recording quality is very good despite the age; yeah there's some hiss but no biggie.

I'm beginning to think that too many "modern" classical recordings are focusing more on the technical details of the recording, and less on the artistry. Maybe it's partly because it's just getting too expensive to do? Especially when you're talking about a full orchestra and chorus, could be hundreds of people all expecting a paycheck... And classical music recordings don't exactly go platinum as far as sales.

Kinda sad, really. But I'm glad we have these recordings going back half a century (!), and it's very interesting to see how the style of classical interpretation has changed (or sometimes not) between those and recent recordings. I used to be pretty much a "newer is better" snob, but that's changed a lot now.
 
PaulyT said:
Been getting a fair number of "classic" classical recordings, meaning stuff from ~ the 60's. See the Beethoven/Karajan stuff above.

Latest one is this, from 1962:

61Rl6Y8ITIL._AA300_.jpg


Am really loving this one. Elizabeth Schwarzkopf is stunning. (Her Strauss - 4 last waltzes recording is some of the most beautiful classical vocal music I know of.) But this is a great recording overall, not just the one soprano solo movement. The sixth movement is VERY exciting, despite - or maybe because of? - the slower tempo than the other recordings I have (Robert Shaw's being the main one). And the recording quality is very good despite the age; yeah there's some hiss but no biggie.

I'm beginning to think that too many "modern" classical recordings are focusing more on the technical details of the recording, and less on the artistry. Maybe it's partly because it's just getting too expensive to do? Especially when you're talking about a full orchestra and chorus, could be hundreds of people all expecting a paycheck... And classical music recordings don't exactly go platinum as far as sales.

Kinda sad, really. But I'm glad we have these recordings going back half a century (!), and it's very interesting to see how the style of classical interpretation has changed (or sometimes not) between those and recent recordings. I used to be pretty much a "newer is better" snob, but that's changed a lot now.
Click to expand...


Pauly, I have to agree with you that this is an excellent recording. At first, I thought the recording quality of this EMI version was very poor compared to Solti and Shaw when listening in FLAC. But after reading your post, I have spent some time listening directly from my CD on the Oppo, new Lyr, and Senns. Apparently the Oppo makes a big difference for playback of this particular recording (but I don't understand why). My other recordings of this piece sound good in FLAC and directly from the CD. Go figure.

Anyway, thanks for recommending this piece of music on the other forum. And I agree this album is excellent in every respect.
 
Yes, this is an odd recording in some way. I also had some hesitation about it when first listening - was it truly stereo? Was there something odd about the recording technique? The imaging is not, in some places, as precise as I might expect. But ultimately it stopped mattering, because the performance is just so good. In reading a bit more about this, it seems that maybe they changed the orchestration, and the balance between choir and orchestra, from movement to movement. So maybe it's not totally consistent from start to finish. But again, here I eventually concluded that the technical is subordinate to the artistic, and just enjoy it. In fact, after the kinda rough and odd day I've had today (see some of my other posts), I think I may give this one another listen. I really need a spiritual hit right now!
 
Yeah, this hits the spot. Tears to my eyes. Damn.
 
This is a pretty good translation from what I can tell (not that I know German...):

:text-link:

While I've sung this - in English - in church several times, and have been listening to this work for YEARS, this is the first time I've really seriously listened while following the translation. Really, really fascinating! Especially the text of the sixth movement, which is now becoming my favorite. It's mirroring some of the theology I've been pondering in the last few months, very very interesting (to me personally at least).
 
I've had a version of the Requiem, in 5.1 SACD, on order for about five months now from Amazon... :angry-tappingfoot:
 
41cNpcCiRML._SL500_AA300_.jpg


:text-link:

This is an album I got based on one of those free sample tracks Huey posted about in another thread. Thanks, Huey!

This is a great album, for a number of reasons:

  • Dvorak's 9th (New World symphony) is one of my favorite classical works, and definitely in my top 5 favorite symphonic works.
  • The Youth Orchestra of the Americas is, as it sounds, an orchestra composed of young players 18-30 from 20+ countries in N/S America. I was a little skeptical at first, but damn these guys/gals can PLAY.
  • Good conducting and interpretation by Hamelin. Very exciting performance.
  • This is a live recording done in a "sitting in the hall style" with only a single pair of microphones. Not a fancy gazillion-tracked multi-edited recording, but rather one that really gives you a feel for being in the hall. The sound is BIG and resonant, and the depth and detail and 3-dimensionality of the orchestra is very apparent, a technically outstanding recording. (The liner notes even give you the layout of the orchestra so you can see where the different instruments are placed and correlate that to what you're hearing. I thought that was a cool addition.)
  • The other two pieces by Marquez and Estacio are really fun, too. I'd never heard either one before, but enjoyed both very much. Again, great orchestration, especially the brass and timpani. They really go all-out.

I highly recomend this one. It's a great "starter" if you don't have a lot of classical. And I think this will become one of my favorite speaker demo albums as well. I started off listening to it on my headphones while working this morning, but part way through I just HAD to take it into the main HT to listen to there, and it's impressive.
 
Hmm... time for my bi-monthly post in this thread. :laughing:

Here's what I've got on now, a capella Russian choral music. Good music and love those Russian basses! This is up there with Rachmaninov's Vespers for some of my favorite choral work.

61x8T8c%2BnfL._SS500_.jpg


Worth $6 from amazon, definitely! Go ahead, give it a try! :music-listening:

:text-link:
 
PaulyT said:
Good music and love those Russian basses!
Click to expand...

Its usually the drummers who rush.

(obscure musician joke...) :happy-smileygiantred:
 
613RrDQHZBL._SS400_.jpg


:text-link:

Wow, been a long time, seems an update to this thread is due... :text-imsorry:

I've had this album for a while (Custer LaRue's Lullaby Journey), but in listening to it yesterday I was moved more than I had been before. Perhaps something to do with my emotional state at the time... I don't know exactly, but it really spoke to me.

This music is closer to folk songs than what most people would call "classical" music. Things people would sing around the house in the 18th and 19th centuries. The ensemble is just LaRue (soprano), along with a wooden flute and celtic harp. The phrase that came to mind while listening was "pure music." The instrumentation is sparse and so you can hear every single note, and most of the songs are a little bit slower (which you might expect from the title), so there is nothing hidden under a mass of notes and instruments like you would get with a Bach cantata or Beethoven symphony.

The singing and playing on this album are just fantastic. They make the point in the liner notes that they were trying to merge the flute and voice lines in some ways, and there was one part that began as a flute solo, and the soprano slowly joined in, on the same note - but gradually, so that at one point I suddenly realized "wow there's a voice in there too! That's so cool" It was one of those amazing moments that come fairly rarely in music listening. The whole album is good, and there are pieces that emphasize all three instruments at various times - voice, flute, harp. While it's not exceptionally complex music, it has a great depth to it, and some very interesting rhythmic stuff going on at times.

This would make a good demo album, I think, because it would really highlight the "purity" of the sound on a good system.


Anyway, not trying to over-sell this, mainly just sharing some of my reaction to what I was hearing; though it's available for just a few dollars used on amazon (link above). It could sort of be viewed as a historical ancestor to modern pop ballads and singers, like Kelly Sweet or Hayley Westenra. If you like that sort of female vocal work at all (heeman, Dane, I'm looking at you), give this album a try.
 
Ha! Apparently music criticism among artists isn't new... whodda thought?
 
Nor with painting criticism...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_v_ubcYsTI[/youtube]

:happy-smileygiantred:
 
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