Love Your Classical Music Geek
@loveinner.bsky.social
Classical music obsessive. 🏳️🌈
#NowSpinning the high spot in an otherwise pretty disappointing Rachmaninoff series. Dutoit’s recordings of the three Symphonies were generally dull and half-hearted. But he finds autumnal warmth and dramatic sweep in The Bells. The strings are incredible in first minutes of the second movement.
Good to know this box is coming later on in November! It’s really the only corner of his discography left to cover. Some of the Concertgebouw recordings in here are exceptional, including the Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker. Can’t wait.
#NowSpinning Mozart Piano Concerto No.25 with Alicia de Larrocha and Colin Davis. I’ve really enjoyed these discs so far - 9, 20 and 21 already done - and can only lament that it didn’t turn into a full set with this particular partnership. All of these musicians are fabulous Mozartians.
#NowSpinning a true classic. There are clearly other great Mahler 9s, but this one remains an extraordinary testament to the relationship between conductor and orchestra. As it happens, the live performance took place 44 years ago today. Of course, earlier in the month…
#NowSpinning Karajan’s digital DG Beethoven Fifth. I am much more familiar with the earlier versions Karajan made in Berlin and London, so it’s good to hear this again.
#NowSpinning Jurowski’s Firebird from this live disc of Stravinsky. We were so fortunate to have this marvellous conductor in London and discs like this remind me why. The crisp clarity of articulation is a wonder unto itself, but Jurowski brings an inner life to the music and really makes it dance.
#NowSpinning Sibelius’s Suite from the music he wrote for Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande. Wonderful music, for sure, but I’m not sure this is Karajan’s Sibelius at its best. Immediate comparisons with Petri Sakari on Chandos reveal how much more inner life the music can have.
#NowSpinning a rather lovely disc and of Ravel. The Introduction and Allegro is especially gorgeous. Not quite as misty as the wonderful Decca version with Ellis/Melos, but a cracking recording its own right.
#NowSpinning Berlioz Symohonie Fantastique with Ormandy in Philadelphia. Well the cover certainly makes reference to the drug-induced content of the work. Let’s see if Ormandy found the trippier corners of the score.
#NowSpinning the two Grieg Peer Gynt Suites, in Karajan’s last-of-many recordings in Berlin. One of those moments where all his previous versions seem better. It’s amazing how easy it is to undermine the drama of the Mountain King by playing it too fast from the start!
#NowSpinning Rachmaninoff Symphony No.2. It’s cut - composer-sanctioned excisions - but it’s totally luscious. Some of the phrasing is quite indulgent, but if you’ve got it, flaunt it!
“Whereas most other modern composers are engaged in manufacturing cocktails of every hue and description, I offer the public cold spring water.” Remembering the great Jean Sibelius, who died 69 years ago on 20 September 1957.
#NowSpinning Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, with Ormandy and some very interesting soloists and the Metropolitan Opera Association. I hardly know this work so I’m following with the vocal score, which helpfully has English and German printed together. Clever!
#NowSpinning Bruckner Symphony No.9, live in Hamburg, under Wand in 1993. I do wonder if this might be more dramatically contrasted than the Berlin Philharmonic version he made later.
New acquisition. Bruno Walter Complete Warner Classics Remastered Edition, on 30 discs. I also really need to get going properly on his Columbia box. So many treasures await.
#NowSpinning Solti’s Chicago Tchaikovsky Fifth. I haven’t heard Solti conduct this composer’s music much at all, so it’s time for an open mind. The opening is slow and lugubrious, which I like.
#NowSpinning Strauss’s Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, with Doráti in Minneapolis. Through the mono years box it was obvious that Doráti was shaping this orchestra into something very distinctive. As we emerge into the stereo era, the benefits of that development are clear!
#NowSpinning Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the steely, hard-edged Krystian Zimerman and the voluptuous Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan. First impressions point to a lack of sentimentality in the solo part.
#NowSpinning Sir Thomas Beecham with Sibelius Symphony No.7. It’s good to hear this conductor’s finely-spun magic again. He has a truly winning way with Sibelius.
#NowSpinning Mussorgsky in Ravel’s clothing, with Zubin Mehta in New York. Recorded in November 1979, at this point Mehta had only been at the helm of this orchestra for a year or so, but band and baton seem to have been in lock step.
#NowSpinning Solti’s 1975 Chicago Also Sprach Zarathustra. So far, very impressive. This magnificent band did, of course, record this music incredibly well with Reiner and they have to take at least a good whack of the credit here. The playing is spectacularly virtuosic.
#NowSpinning I’m going to take my time over this, possibly over several listenings of each Waltz. A Chopin Waltzes comparison, between recordings from Dinu Lipatti and Zoltán Kocsis. And I’ll be ignoring the technological differences.
#NowSpinning Crespin’s seductive Ravel with Ansermet. This Shéhérazade is truly gorgeous. Crespin finds nuance in every note and every word. I’m already in my third run-through of the day!
#NowSpinning Solti’s driven and biting Stravinsky Rite. The brass play with amazing power in this performance.
#NowSpinning Solti’s Elgar Enigma from Chicago. I have never heard this recording. I don’t always like Solti’s aggression, so it will be interesting to see what happens here. It’s a work that can take some pretty impetuous conducting, but only in places.
Well I had better learn to play. Somehow this 50th birthday gift was snuck into our Norfolk house and I had no clue until we arrived yesterday. Somewhat overwhelmed! Now, where to find a good piano teacher…
#NowSpinning Holmboe’s Second Symphony. The somewhat embattled first movement is highly characteristic of the composer. It’s enormously engaging stuff. If you are looking for another Nordic symphonies to collect, fill your boots!
