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The classical what are you listening to now ? thread.

Mahler Symphonies 1-9 LSO box under Valery Gergiev hybrid SACD/CD recorded live at the Barbican 2007 to 2011. CD SQ is dreadful, like a soft toy. Interpretation is the same. Good job I am an OAP with loadsamoney because this going into landfill. 5th with LPO under Tennstedt restored reality.:)

Yup - same as I've found with most LSO Live releases, and with anything by Gergiev.... just how he came to be so highly regarded beats me.
 
Yup - same as I've found with most LSO Live releases, and with anything by Gergiev.... just how he came to be so highly regarded beats me.
And me. The only good recording I have heard from him is the LSO Duke Bluebeard's Castle.

The Colin Davis recordings, however...
 
Received delivery of Albinoni 12 concerti op.7 double cd a few days ago.Heinz Holliger and I Musici on Phillips label.I listen at every opportunity.
Fabulous stuff. . . gorgeous sound and toe tapping happy music.I much prefer listening to modern instruments such as this.
I find a lot(but not all) of recordings with original instruments just too sour for my taste. This is just wonderful.
 
Brahms Symphonies Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Robin Ticciati just released by Linn, recorded in the Usher Hall. I enjoyed them when live and the CD versions are superb. I have a ticket to see them again during the Edinburgh Festival. This has prompted me to go for an 11 CD box of Brahms chamber music, I seem to be on a Schumann/Brahms trip - now have a Brahms beard....:cool:
Ah. I was listening to some samples (all too short) on Linn’s sight alongside Mackerras- quite different interpretations! On the subject of the SCO- I’m going to hear them do CPE Bach’s Cello Concerto a week from today in Glasgow.
 



Extremely fine Ravel playing. Miroirs is supremely well played and has numerous little details pop out in unique fashion. Valses nobles et sentimentales is likewise well done. Kenner offers his own modified take on La Valse, with some crashing fortissimo bass chords potent enough to startle. It may be over the top, or it may not be. It would have been even better if the sound were closer to modern SOTA.
 
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So I’ve finally tired of Albinoni for the time being.
Now I’m listening to a very enjoyable Naxos cd of Franz Ignaz Beck’s symphonies op. 3 and 4.
I suppose he would have talent somewhere between Michael and Joseph
Haydn.i’m familiar with a lot of his symphonies and very nice they are too.
 
It’s been a Vivaldi day.I have a very large collection of his cds . . mostly Naxos and it’s various orchestras but also a no. of Decca with St Martin in the Fields.I have a few with disappointing sound . . . Dresden concertos from Naxos which I’m seeking to replace with recordings of I Musici.
I’m currently listening to L’estro armonico. . . Marriner and St Martin i.t.Fields . . gorgeous sound.Due to his vast output it’s easy to become blasé about Vivaldi but some of his music is simply wonderful.
 
Boccherini. . . Quintets op.11,4-6...Smithsonian Chamber Players...D.H.Mundi cd.
Sounds very clean,precise and satisfying after hours of Vivaldi earlier today.
 
Beethoven op.101 - Igor Levit (2014) vs Alfred Brendel (1970s). I think Brendel just shades it in this one... might give Francois Frederic Guy & Maurizio Pollini a listen later in the same sonata.
 
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I take my hat off to anyone who can play valveless horns. This is a beautiful set- and great to hear Trevor Pinnock back directing the English Concert.



As recommended by Jo Sharp.
 
Listening to Boccherini Guitar Quintets ...Danubius String Quartet on Naxos cd while putting away the wife’s weekly shopping.I had to sit down and give full concentration to the D.Major G.48 one while the “Fandango” was being played.. . very enjoyable.
I wonder is it too late for me to learn how to properly play the castanets? Tapping two spoons together is a poor substitute. . . :D
 
Great choice.This Van Cliburn cd is one of my favourites of the excellent Living Stereo box set.Remarkable sound quality from the late 50s..and the first classical recording to go platinum. . . according to Wiki.
 
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Disc one, the first book of Preludes and the second book of Images. It's unlike any other Debussy I've heard. The closest analog in terms of how different it is would be Jean-Rodolphe Kars, though Haimovsky is not quite so elevated as the priest. That written, from the truncated opening notes in the Danseuses de Delphes, to the unlike any other glissandi in Voiles, to the purposely stuttering rhythm and disjointed rubato in places, to generally soft playing (partly due to the recording technique), which is brought home in The Engulfed Cathedral, to possibly the most puckish La danse de Puck I've heard, Haimovsky has some personal ideas about how things should go in the main attraction. His take on the Images is likewise peppered with numerous personal touches.

Disc two. More idiosyncratic Debussy. Some of the early pieces in the set (eg, La Puerta del Vino) take on a free sound, almost like European jazz, but good. Overall, Haimovsky's style seems even better suited to the second book, making it sound even more forward looking musically. To be sure, his playing in the last two pieces is loose and free to the point of sounding (delightfully) jagged and almost improvised, but it works. His playing might be a bit too much for Children's Corner, but even so, it works nicely for what it is.

The mid-80s sound is below average for the era, but it nonetheless works more than well enough.

Five bucks well spent.
 
Geminiani Concerti Grossi . . . Capella Istropolitana on Naxos cd.. . something mellow to celebrate my gorgeous daffodils and tulips in this (last?)beautiful day of sunshine.
 
Not anymore, but earlier on I was listening to Drumming and Music For 18 Musicians whilst driving and what a subversive pleasure it was!
 


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