What are you currently listening to (Classical)?

[the sound of Tao]

The Queyras Tharaud pairing last night later led me to their Brahms Piano and Cello sonatas (is OK) ... then this created for me an easy segue across to some more Brahms tonight after a sunlit and spacious day spent sailing the lake. Brahm’s earthy, vast and magnificent German Requiem is for me something of a sea of calm and an expression of human richness.

After an initial intro to this Brahms via John Elliot Gardiner’s very first recording of it soon it was the Otto Klemperer’s, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf 1961 recording that became the one I best associate with it and has long since been very much a favourite. Brahms is the third B in the triple for me. Happy to go deep and dark into the night with any and all three of the biggy Bs.

Listening to it now. Still awesome.

I will later also look to the infinite stream for both the more recent Nikolaus Harnoncourt reading and even Gardiner’s second go at the big Brahms mighty machine as compares but I expect/believe that my heart may always belong to this marvellous performance from Klemperer.

 

[the sound of Tao]

Back in the late 80’s two of the rock stars of classical music where Arvo Part and John Taverner. I remember how seemingly exciting/challenging it all appeared. Both had these post modernist kind of narratives where they explored religious/medieval themes. No easy task for Part as a composer in eastern block Estonia.

I’ve not listened to either much since the noughties so just now having a bit of a refresh. I have as a result found two exceptional recordings to challenge the Gidon Kremer and Keith Jarrett’s ECM recording of Part’s Tabula Rasa... but still am just listening to the Steven Isserlis premiere of Taverner’s Protecting Veil. Perhaps not really timeless music but still very evocative in part (hmmm apologies) as the post modernists tended to work more to appeal to emotion all the while as they flouted those other conventions.

Talking culture though here are some lovely images of Londinium... with just a snippet of Taverner’s Protecting Veil... it does go on a bit tho. Enjoying the revival of Arvo Part a bit more of the two even if Part is to quote back in the day... a kind of holy minimalism.

 

[the sound of Tao]

Kathleen Ferrier and Bruno Walter...

A session that started out with Bruno Walter and the Brahm’s Symphonies leads ultimately across to Bruno Walter and Mahler and to Das Lied Von Erde and Kindertotenlieder.

Kathleen Ferrier singing in Das Lied Von Erde is utterly powerful and heartbreaking given her awareness of her approaching death at the time of this recording. When she sings Der Abschied (The Farewell) there are few more truly moving moments in classical recording. Kathleen Ferrier had been diagnosed with breast cancer some 12 months before yet she continued to perform and record.

In many ways her bravery defines for me the difference between pain and suffering. Her voice captures her pain and her nobility completely. Mahler’s Songs of the Earth. Beautiful, touching and poignant. Also this... Kindertotenlieder. If any music can heal it should certainly have been this music.

 

[rockitman]

I have the recent re-issue by Quality Records. ED1 original recently won at auction and on the way.

 

[the sound of Tao]

Oistrakh and Richter... the Brahms piano sonata here is great but the Franck sonata is priceless.

 

[Tango]

Lazar Berman. This Russian has fingers and delicacy of a woman with attack of men. At first listen almost boredom but there is a charm to it that keep listening and you will find the other side of Rach3 that is beautiful like no others.

 

[the sound of Tao]

Have done a bit of a check the stream for the cream... this time checking for other performances of Barber’s Violin Concerto.

Performances I’ve listened traditionally to are Joseph Silverstein or Leonid Kogan. Both great performances.

Isaac Stern is good and Hilary Hahn is technically fine but I’ve never jelled with it... it hasn’t got the emotional value there so much.

James Ehnes has been sitting there since 2006 with a great and deeply nuanced reading and really very nice recording of this concerto and I just hadn’t heard it... wow just really nice... and I quite like the pairing with the Korngold and Walton Violin Concertos as well. This is a musically sensitive performance and a very nice building on my understanding of the Barber Violin Concerto. Could live with this as the desert island choice for one of my very favourite violin concertos.

 

[the sound of Tao]

Rachmaninov Piano Music for two hands.

Martha Argerich has recorded this with several pianists and I thought both Rabinowitz and Goerner were great partners for this but just loving Lilya Zilberstein with Agerich.

There is a double live album which is terrific and the playing is compelling. For Rachmaninov fans or for just people who love piano this is definitely worth a look.

 

[NorthStar]

 

[the sound of Tao]

I have been listening to Daniil Trifonov’s The Carnegie Recital and did a search to get an image for the cover art to display... instead I found this interesting perspective on YouTube from the pianist.

He was exploring Chopin’s pivotal role in the development of piano music in the 20th century... also he touches upon a notion that from a compositional standpoint that emotions can gather to create some shift in consciousness that ultimately outputs as music. This is a fascinating idea. That music and consciousness derives from a precursor in the emotional rather than the analytical. He is a bit of a giant... technically as well as conceptually. I do very much love his playing. There is a richness in him well beyond technique.

 

[NorthStar]

In the now ...

It is fully relaxing on a Sunday afternoon by the ocean's breeze and the eagles flying above.
Two-channel stereo.

 

[NorthStar]

Sacrilège! ...Pulse Code Modulation [HDCD] encoded (Linn Records).

The music is pulsating peaceful and glorious. The vocals in the highs require the best tweeters ...

• https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/reader-feedback/900-favorite-tweeter-types-and-materials

 

[NorthStar]

It's been a little while. It sure hits the "spotlight".
Very nice, I should thank Tang for the inspired revival.
It's all about the music, because it matters...like the birds singing and romanticising in the trees.

I'm not a music expert, I just like to hear it, and play it too.
Maybe The General knows the very best version of this music album.
For now I'm enjoying the recording on a beautiful blue first date with Summer.

 

[NorthStar]

Lots of seagulls around the summer's ocean, and eagles too.
They fly like symphonic dances from Rachmaninoff, in sync.
I like it, it rocks my mojo with verve in my all surroundings, in and out.
The power and the quintessence.

 

[andolink]

This is definitely the best engineered recording of the many discs I own from Naive's Vivaldi Edition. Huge soundstage, pinpoint imaging and crystal clarity.

 

[Al M.]

Magnus Lindberg, Corrente:

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Annlies Schmidt de Neveu-Unissued Recordings Vol. 1

 

[the sound of Tao]

Was listening to Leonid Kogan playing Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 and while I was did a search and found this footage of him performing it. Absolutely love it.

 

[bonzo75]

Was listening to Leonid Kogan playing Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 and while I was did a search and found this footage of him performing it. Absolutely love it.

I heard his student viktoria mullova perform this. Nowhere as good as him though.

 

[the sound of Tao]

His passion is extraordinary in this. The passacaglia is wonderful.