Great recordings of classical music

[computer-audiophile]

Apologies for the very late reply, but this looks like a wonderful event!. What a great idea to combine contemporary music and breakfast!

Thank you for the kind comment. Soon it will be that time again. I am a little hesitant to continue to report in detail about such experiences, because some of my posts with pictures and stories I have shared were interpreted as bragging or so.

Composers to breakfast - hellerau

www.hellerau.org

 

[Albertine]

Thank you for the kind comment. Soon it will be that time again. I am a little hesitant to continue to report in detail about such experiences, because some of my posts with pictures and stories I have shared were interpreted as bragging or so.

Composers to breakfast - hellerau

www.hellerau.org

I'd be interested to hear more about these events. I like to see classical music, and especially contemporary music, presented in an imaginative way. Also, breakfast is my favourite meal

 

[computer-audiophile]

I'd be interested to hear more about these events. I like to see classical music, and especially contemporary music, presented in an imaginative way. Also, breakfast is my favourite meal

It's nice that we have this in common. Breakfast usually takes longer than dinner for us, since we no longer have to work. I always try to buy a wide variety of delicious ingredients, starting with different kinds of bread, ham, sausage, fish, cheese, fruit....

All the while, we read the newspaper, discuss the day's events and listen to France Musique's excellently curated classical music programme streaming in the background. Our favourite presenter is Denisa Kerschova, who speaks a nice kind of French with an accent. I can only recommend France Musique for classical music lovers.

 

[Albertine]

It's nice that we have this in common. Breakfast usually takes longer than dinner for us, since we no longer have to work. I always try to buy a wide variety of delicious ingredients, starting with different kinds of bread, ham, sausage, fish, cheese, fruit....

All the while, we read the newspaper, discuss the day's events and listen to France Musique's excellently curated classical music programme streaming in the background. Our favourite presenter is Denisa Kerschova, who speaks a nice kind of French with an accent. I can only recommend France Musique for classical music lovers.View attachment 318703View attachment 318703

Ah, the mention of France Musique reminds me of my teenage years, listening into the early hours, when I really should have been sleeping. In those days, BBC Radio 3 used to close down around midnight. I shall tune into hear Ms Kerschova.

Our Internet radio listening is split between P2 (Sweden) and BruZane. The latter, for those who don't know them, also produce beautifully packaged recordings, mainly of 19th century French opera. The CDs are presented in a gorgeous hardback book with a full libretto in French and English, essays and photos . I have a few of these in my collection, an example below. The BruZane foundation is based in Venice. It is also possible to go on a guided tour if you're visiting the city.

 

[computer-audiophile]

Ah, the mention of France Musique reminds me of my teenage years, listening into the early hours, when I really should have been sleeping. In those days, BBC Radio 3 used to close down around midnight. I shall tune into hear Ms Kerschova.

Our Internet radio listening is split between P2 (Sweden) and BruZane. The latter, for those who don't know them, also produce beautifully packaged recordings, mainly of 19th century French opera. The CDs are presented in a gorgeous hardback book with a full libretto in French and English, essays and photos . I have a few of these in my collection, an example below. The BruZane foundation is based in Venice. It is also possible to go on a guided tour if you're visiting the city.

Interesting internet radio tips, thank you! I have bookmarked the links.

Italian and French language are ok for me, besides German and English of course. Swedish I unfortunately don't understand, it sounds foreign and I think it's a shame when I have no clue of what the moderator says.

I'm no longer drawn to Venice today. I had written something about it here in the context 'overtourism'. Decades ago, on the other hand, I was there more often and also attended classical concerts in this inspiring ambiance.

Post pictures of anything, with comment...couple words.

Autumn light. Outside the Muesum.

www.audiosciencereview.com

I found a picture of the BruZane foundation Palazzetto you mentioned - amazing.

 

[Albertine]

Interesting internet radio tips, thank you! I have bookmarked the links.

Italian and French language are ok for me, besides German and English of course. Swedish I unfortunately don't understand, it sounds foreign and I think it's a shame when I have no clue of what the moderator says.

I'm no longer drawn to Venice today. I had written something about it here in the context 'overtourism'. Decades ago, on the other hand, I was there more often and also attended classical concerts in this inspiring ambiance.

Post pictures of anything, with comment...couple words.

Autumn light. Outside the Muesum.

www.audiosciencereview.com

I found a picture of the BruZane foundation Palazzetto you mentioned - amazing.

The palazzo does look inviting, but yes unfortunately I have to agree about Venice being overcrowded these days. By the way the BruZane radio is talk-free except for an occasional Ident.

 

[EdW]

A favourite of mine is Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. A performance in Trinity College Cambridge by the college choir and the Orchestra of the age of Enlightenment is superb and excerpts are on youtube

As a side note I have used the full recording when auditioning new loudspeakers. One dealer decided that his favourite,very expensive, low feedback amp should be used to drive top end speakers from KEF and B&W for the demo.The intermod (0.5% typ) from this amp was starkly apparent on choral music - even to my cloth ears! I persuaded him to swap it for slightly less ambitious but orders of magnitude lower distortion amp. Problem solved.

 

[computer-audiophile]

A favourite of mine is Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. A performance in Trinity College Cambridge by the college choir and the Orchestra of the age of Enlightenment is superb and excerpts are on youtube

As a side note I have used the full recording when auditioning new loudspeakers. One dealer decided that his favourite,very expensive, low feedback amp should be used to drive top end speakers from KEF and B&W for the demo.The intermod (0.5% typ) from this amp was starkly apparent on choral music - even to my cloth ears! I persuaded him to swap it for slightly less ambitious but orders of magnitude lower distortion amp. Problem solved.

Yes, some speaker and amplifier makes just don't go together as well as other combinations.

Do you have the recording shown on YouTube on CD or on vinyl? We like to listen to the Christmas oratorios at home with vinyl records, it's more festive in the wintertime.

 

[EdW]

Yes, some speaker and amplifier makes just don't go together as well as other combinations.

Do you have the recording shown on YouTube on CD or on vinyl? We like to listen to the Christmas oratorios at home with vinyl records, it's more festive in the wintertime.

Sadly I got my recording as a hires download from Presto Classical:

Bach, J S: Christmas Oratorio, BWV248

Bach, J S: Christmas Oratorio, BWV248. Hyperion: CDA68031-2. Buy 2 CDs or download online. Katherine Watson (soprano), Iestyn Davies (countertenor), James Gilchrist (tenor) & Matthew Brook (bass) Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment & Trinity College Choir Cambridge, Stephen Layton

www.prestomusic.com

. . but I’m very impressed listening to it on my new KEF speakers!

 

[computer-audiophile]

The palazzo does look inviting, but yes unfortunately I have to agree about Venice being overcrowded these days. By the way the BruZane radio is talk-free except for an occasional Ident.

The tip about Bruzane Radio was really good. Just this morning we heard beautiful classical pieces from there. Thanks!

 

[Robin L]

I've been getting CDs at the local library, $1 a pop. This one has one of the best performances of Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite I've encountered, one of Stravinsky's most accessible works, based on tunes by Pergolesi (mostly) but in the composer's "Neoclassical" mode, retaining much of the rhythmic energy and dissonance of his earlier ballets but more tuneful overall. Great clarity of performance and recording.

This boxed set from Music and Arts contains some of the greatest Bruckner performances of all time. The highlight is a wartime performance of the Ninth symphony, Furtwangler's only recording. This performance was recorded on a very early reel to reel tape recorder, so speed variation and overall sound is a little bit better than most recordings from the mid 1940's, but there are many moments of signal overload on all the performances. In a way it gives much of the music a sense of impending doom, though there is also much beauty and lyricism here. The performance of the 4th symphony was plagued with coughing on all earlier releases, the remastering engineer carefully removing each one. For fans of Bruckner, this is an essential release.

 

[drewdawg999]

I love me some Dvorak Slavonic Dances. My favorite is the George Szell SACD, which clearly has better mastering than the CD.

 

[drewdawg999]

Here is my favorite recording of Swan Lake, magnificent version by Fistoulari:

I have the Esoteric SACD version and it's wondrous.
Here's my favorite performer of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Kyung Wha Chung. She's the master of it.

That's an old performance from 1971, I have the CD with Dutoit that's my reference for the piece.

 

[Robin L]

Out of the 34 CDs I bought last Friday at the Library sale, this turned out to be the biggest surprise. This two CD set, from a tiny South African record label, contains Willem Mengelberg's Columbia recordings of 1928 through 1932 featuring the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Works include complete performances of Tchaikovsky's 4th and 5th Symphonies and Brahms' 3rd symphony. This is all very much old-school romantic conducting with plenty of portamento and rubato. But also commitment and blazing temperament. And the sound, believe it or not, is remarkably fine, all things considered. Yes, there is surface noise, but not as much as I'm used to from this era. And the climaxes are not as overloaded as most recordings from the 1920s, with the brass blazing out with full dynamics. This performance of Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony is, if anything, more intense than Yevgeny Mravinsky's famous performances with the Leningrad Philharmonic on DGG. Very highly recommended, but good luck in finding a copy. Of course, you can always listen to this, though it sounds radically over filtered:

 

[MRC01]

I found this on Qobuz, wonder if it has some of these same tracks?

Qobuz

Listen to your music in high quality

play.qobuz.com

The Qobuz metadata is too woefully incomplete to tell.

 

[Robin L]

I found this on Qobuz, wonder if it has some of these same tracks?

Qobuz

Listen to your music in high quality

play.qobuz.com

The Qobuz metadata is too woefully incomplete to tell.

If you're referring to my post, there's no way for me to tell as I do not have access to Qobuz.

 

[ahofer]

If you're referring to my post, there's no way for me to tell as I do not have access to Qobuz.

 

[MRC01]

Yep, that's the one. Idagio has much better metadata and it's fully accessible to everyone with free accounts (you must pay to stream but browsing metadata is free). But Idagio doesn't show either of these albums:

Albums by Willem Mengelberg | Stream on IDAGIO | IDAGIO

Willem Mengelberg: Discography | Stream on IDAGIO

app.idagio.com

 

[Robin L]

View attachment 334313

I'm referring to the 4th and 5th symphonies, recordings from 1928 and 1929.

 

[ahofer]

Beethoven? Probably here: