Zero Distortion: Tango Time

marty

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Perhaps this has been covered previously, but I'd love to know what some of you (General, Tao, Tang, Ked, Bill, others?) would recommend as the finest performances of these great violin works. Recording quality is SECONDARY. Musical performance is PRIMARY.

Which performances of these, format irrelevant, would you take to a desert island?

Bach - Partita No. 2, Chaconne in D minor

Beethoven Violin Concerto, Op. 61

Brahms Violin Concerto, Op. 77

Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 26

Dvorak - Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op.53

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Op. 64

Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3, K. 216

Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 1 In D Major, Op. 6

Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1 in D

Sibelius Violin Concerto, Op. 47

Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Op. 35

( I know I've left off some greats such as Bartok, Berg, Shostakovich, Saint Saëns and many others but I'm mainly interested in the above pieces so please just respond to this list).
Marty
 
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bonzo75

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Marty, I don't like bell and vengerov much including live. Sergei Khachatryan, Leonid Kavakos, and Nicola Benedetti are much better. Also sergej Krylev

The general probably has the biggest Michael Rabin collection in the world.
 
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dcc

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Bach: Milstein, Grumiaux and Kuijken
Mozart: Grumiaux and Suk
Beethoven: Grumiaux

I am afraid that all the other composers won’t be on my desert island short list with the exception of Prokofiev but I will take his piano concertos.
 
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bonzo75

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Marty, you can do a search in this article on chaconne. You will see I haven't mentioned the actual LP because then price will cross 2000. There must be only two or so good condition copies left. I have one.


http://zero-distortion.org/pnoe-horns-with-aer-bd4-5-drivers-vygerthomas-mayer/

But harmonia mundi has some good Bach, and Philips Grumiaux is a great option at lower prices

For the Mendelssohn, the Decca sxl 2026 that tang put up, with Campoli. Yours for 1500ish going up every time someone buys A NM

Tchaikovsky already discussed up in the post after tang put his tape.

I think you missed lalo symphonie espagnole in your violin concertos.

Mozart - maybe the Christian Ferras test press the general has.

For bruch violin concerto the Joan field on telefunken. For Scottish fantasia, I prefer the Oistrakh the most, though Bill and G here would choose Rabin. I specifically don't like the Rabin here because of the lack of teamwork with the orchestra, at least the way it's been recorded.

Brahms. The Kogan test press heard at General's, followed by the original, and Oistrakh (i have the Oistrakh)

Beethoven. Haven't heard all, I am partial to heifetz especially because the digital also sounds good. Heifetz I also like digital on Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky.

There are many others worth listening to and owning if one has the money. These days my main sstress is how am I going to get the general to clean up the LPs of performances I want to listen to - they clean around 200 LPs a day so I have no idea why they can't allocate one day for me. On a holiday, for example.
 
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the sound of Tao

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Marty
There are no probs with not liking Heifetz at all, one of the first landscape design projects I give my students is a brief for a landscape design which includes the point ‘the client doesn’t like orange’. There are no rights nor wrongs in preferences really...

So for both the Beethoven and the Mendelssohn I’ll likely go to the island with Heifetz

For Mozart I’d take Grumiaux and Faust just in case (Faust also for the Berg)

For Brahms I’d be packing some more Heifetz, Oistrakh and Kogan... Heifetz’s Brahms is paired with the Tchaikovsky so that’s covered and again double pack (but not overpack) here with Oistrakh.

For Bach’s chaconne I’ll venture in with Grumiaux and maybe Milstein (is there no love for Szeryng here?)

For Sibelius it might come down to Oistrakh but I’d one more listen to Kavakos before leaving tho... and also his Mozart.

As I write this I start to get a touch anxious about everything that I am now leaving behind and decide I’m going to go out and buy a bigger suitcase before I go... truth is writing these kind of reductions always feels a shade too sure and insufficient and undervalues so many other great works that I’ve been able to share in because of the composers and the musicians.

So there are so many names that deserve to go on to even this relatively brief list of concertos, and if I ventured in and wrote this again in a few years not sure all of this will stand. So yes, desert island lists are hard... am not really sure I like desert islands that much. Do they come in any other colours than orange?

Uhmmm just remembered I actually live on a desert island, the biggest one on the planet and it’s centre is red and orange and it’s edges are all green and blue. I have all my recordings already on the island plus an infinite stream of Tidal and Qobuzzzz... problem solved.
 
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bonzo75

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Totally agree with your suitacase part Tao. By Faust did you mean Isabelle Faust? Because I will watch her with Haitink on the 21st - was going to be on 14th but had a clash with Igor Levit (in London you occasionally have to stress over two known performers on the same day
 
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the sound of Tao

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Marty, you can do a search in this article on chaconne. You will see I haven't mentioned the actual LP because then price will cross 2000. There must be only two or so good condition copies left. I have one.


http://zero-distortion.org/pnoe-horns-with-aer-bd4-5-drivers-vygerthomas-mayer/

But harmonia mundi has some good Bach, and Philips Grumiaux is a great option at lower prices

For the Mendelssohn, the Decca sxl 2026 that tang put up, with Campoli. Yours for 1500ish going up every time someone buys A NM

Tchaikovsky already discussed up in the post after tang put his tape.

I think you missed lalo symphonie espagnole in your violin concertos.

Mozart - maybe the Christian Ferras test press the general has.

For bruch violin concerto the Joan field on telefunken. For Scottish fantasia, I prefer the Oistrakh the most, though Bill and G here would choose Rabin. I specifically don't like the Rabin here because of the lack of teamwork with the orchestra, at least the way it's been recorded.

Brahms. The Kogan test press heard at General's, followed by the original, and Oistrakh (i have the Oistrakh)

Beethoven. Haven't heard all, I am partial to heifetz especially because the digital also sounds good. Heifetz I also like digital on Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky.

There are many others worth listening to and owning if one has the money. These days my main sstress is how am I going to get the general to clean up the LPs of performances I want to listen to - they clean around 200 LPs a day so I have no idea why they can't allocate one day for me. On a holiday, for example.

Ked,
Did you post this while at the opera or did you sneak out at interval... better for the relationship that way.
 

the sound of Tao

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Totally agree with your suitacase part Tao. By Faust did you mean Isabelle Faust? Because I will watch her with Haitink on the 21st - was going to be on 14th but had a clash with Igor Levit (in London you occasionally have to stress over two known performers on the same day

Yes, Isabelle Faust, I almost typed her full name but thought that being a bit pointed as with the dudes I had just went in with their surnames (is that bareback??)
Hmmm I’d almost sell my soul for Faust but then live Levit... tough call indeed, is it Bach. You Londoners and your outrageously rich and varied civilisation. How marvellous.
 
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microstrip

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(...) Which performances of these, format irrelevant, would you take to a desert island? (...)
Marty

Curiously I would not take to the desert island "the approved finest performances" . I would bring fresh performances of younger quality performers that approach music in a way that would keep my mind active while listening - perhaps even the Isabelle Faust Mozart Violin Concertos recently issued by Harmonia Mundi. For the Dvorak surely the Uto Ughi!

And yes, in case I was not rescued after a short time, I would hope that a few shipwrecked audiophiles arriving meanwhile would bring the "approved" recordings with them!
 

bonzo75

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the sound of Tao

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You are a good man Ked, all this talk about musical life and Europe is hard on us poor convicts of the antipodes. Though we do have a pretty good opera house down here and Richard Tognetti does more than alright with the local chamber orchestra.
 

bonzo75

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You are a good man Ked, all this talk about musical life and Europe is hard on us poor convicts of the antipodes. Though we do have a pretty good opera house down here and Richard Tognetti does more than alright with the local chamber orchestra.

You guys had a good cricket team
 
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the sound of Tao

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We’ve had our awkward moments too, hmmm why not deliver a ball underarm and along the ground...it’s only a test.
 
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marty

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Yours for 1500ish going up every time someone buys A NM.

You're funny.

I wouldn't pay $1500 for an LP...ever. Hell, I wouldn't even pay that much money to see Sinatra live if he came back from the dead to play with the Count Basie Orchestra doing Quincy Jones arrangements.

(Although....$1500 to see Mahler conducting one of his own symphonies?... Possibly!!)
 
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spiritofmusic

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Can $1500 be sufficient for the drug trip needed to imagine Mahler or Zep or Coltrane playing live in front of you?
 
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the sound of Tao

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Can $1500 be sufficient for the drug trip needed to imagine Mahler or Zep or Coltrane playing live in front of you?
Or all three simultaneously
 

bonzo75

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You're funny.

I wouldn't pay $1500 for an LP...ever. Hell, I wouldn't even pay that much money to see Sinatra live if he came back from the dead to play with the Count Basie Orchestra doing Quincy Jones arrangements.

(Although....$1500 to see Mahler conducting one of his own symphonies?... Possibly!!)

The Sinatra at the sands with count basie is very good.

You could do what people do with Rolexes. Buy the LP, keep it under glass, and play the imitation.
 

tima

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So here's a line that is guaranteed to get me thrown out of any music appreciation club- Heifetz has never done if for me. Mistake free and flawless he is quite often, but for moving me to joy or tears, he has never lit me up.

Try Horowitz - he's never mistake free or flawless, but he may move you to tears.
 
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the sound of Tao

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Recordings of Horowitz were among my earliest classical piano experiences... his exploration of Scarlatti was a real eye opener and for me a highlight of his work, just love that. In all fairness quite the giant.
 
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