Classical threads worth reading

Posted by: Tam on 10 May 2006

I've been putting this post together for a little while for two reasons: first, I was getting bored with listing, every time someone asked for classical recommendations, all the good threads we've had on that and, secondly, because a few threads have been pointed out to newcomers who didn't see them, thus it occurred to me we might point people towards some of the good discussions there have been here. A sort of musical FAQ, almost.

I should stress this list is by no means exhaustive (and many of the threads are mine, simply because I remembered starting them, or Fredrik's because I contributed heavily to them). If there were good threads that I've missed off, perhaps others can find them and add the link.

So, here goes....

For those new to the forum who like classical music, or even those who don't, there are a number of threads worth reading.

An excellent thread on getting started in classical music may be found here.

Also see Fredrik's excellent 'first' threads:

Piano

Concertos

Symphonies

Choral

Opera


You can also view Fredrik's library though the full thing only appears on page two. Most of my library is also listed. Actually, you could do a lot worse than just search the forum and read all Fredrik's posts.


Along more in depth lines is Todd's wonderful post on Beethoven's Emperor concerto.

Indeed, any of Todd's posts make good reading (if you like your Beethoven sonatas, search out "plays Beethoven" to find a cornucopia of knowledge.

My Mozart thread may be of interest as well as this one on concertos.

And Wagnerians may like to look here.

And those who like their Mahler here (I am currently working on a thread rounding up my entire collection of Mahler symphonies, but I suspect it will be some time in the works yet).

Beethoven symphonies here

Bruckner here.

Brahms:

Piano concertos

Symphonies

Bach:

Goldberg Variations

Walcha Plays Bach

Bach not on the piano forte


Also possibly of interest:

Tuning in Baroque Times

Tempi and Repeats

Verdi - Don Carlos

The Edinburgh Festival 2006 and 2005. The 2005 has lots of my reviews, the 2006 will at some stage in the future.

regards, Tam
Posted on: 10 May 2006 by Gianluigi Mazzorana
Gosh Tam!
Hard work i see.
Thanks for the job you have done here.
Fredrik and you are making good service for the people here.
Thanks!
Gianluigi
Posted on: 10 May 2006 by Guido Fawkes
Thanks Tam - excellent idea and very useful indeed.
Posted on: 10 May 2006 by erik scothron
Tam,

Bravo. Grazie.

Erik
Posted on: 11 May 2006 by Geoff P
WOW you have done it for me!

I am poised to leap into classical waters and read youre's and Fredrik's posts avidly with the constant intent to do just what you have done here but never quite getting there.

thanks & regards
Geoff
Posted on: 11 May 2006 by Tam
Glad to be of assistance (it actually didn't take very long, and I'm sure it's incomplete).

At risk of sounded overly egotistical (which isn't my intention at all), I wonder if there isn't a merit to one of the moderators making this one of those threads that sticks at the top, so that newcomers can be pointed towards these.

regards, Tam
Posted on: 24 May 2006 by Sloop John B
quote:
Originally posted by Tam:


I wonder if there isn't a merit to one of the moderators making this one of those threads that sticks at the top, so that newcomers can be pointed towards these.

regards, Tam


I'll take the lead and do it manually.



SJB
Posted on: 24 May 2006 by Tam
Thanks for bumping this up Sloop. I have actually been revising/updating/(with any luck improving) my intial post, so stay tuned.

regards, Tam
Posted on: 25 May 2006 by Steve S1
Tam,

I'll do my bit to keep it in view.

When you have finished your design I do think it would be worth asking the Mods to approve it's use as a "sticky". These questions do crop up quite regularly, well done.

Regards,

Steve
Posted on: 29 May 2006 by northpole
And a very pink fish kinda bump to you all.

Peter
Posted on: 29 May 2006 by uem
Dear Tam - and all the other notable contributors

Thanks for this excellent Classical Reference Thread

Just to repeat this popular request:
Could the Moderators please mark it as a "Sticky" or otherwise asure it stays on top ?

Best regards

Urs
Posted on: 30 May 2006 by stephenjohn
Fantastic resource, well done
I think there were some good ones on chamber music too. I particularly remember one I found very helpful and enjoyable on string quartets. I am sorry I don't have the IT skills to add it as a link though
SJ
Posted on: 30 May 2006 by Tam
Dear Stephen,

I remember that one too - I'll hunt down the link for my revised list.

regards, Tam
Posted on: 30 May 2006 by Tam
Now revised and updated.

An excellent thread on getting started in classical music may be found here (particularly my post 4th from bottom).

Also see Fredrik's excellent 'first' threads:

Piano

Concertos

Symphonies

Choral

Opera


And Nigel's First Bach


And Milo's Quartets



You can also view Fredrik's library though the full thing only appears on page two. Most of my library is also listed. Actually, you could do a lot worse than just search the forum and read all Fredrik's posts.


Along more in depth lines is Todd's wonderful post on Beethoven's Emperor concerto.

Indeed, any of Todd's posts make good reading (if you like your Beethoven sonatas, search out "plays Beethoven" to find a cornucopia of knowledge (e.g. this one on [http://forums.naim-audio.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/38019385/m/9812931407]Uchida[/url]).



Bach:

Goldberg Variations

Walcha Plays Bach

Bach not on the piano forte

And my sequel to those last two two.

And one final Walcha thread containing some info and discussion about a recent budget reissue of his earlier mono organ cycle.


Beethoven:

Symphonies

Specifically Bohm and Kleiber in 5&7


Brahms:

Piano concertos

Symphonies


Bruckner here and here.

Elgar here

And those who like their Mahler here (I am currently working on a thread rounding up my entire collection of Mahler symphonies, but I suspect it will be some time in the works yet).


My Mozart thread may be of interest as well as this one on concertos.


And Wagnerians may like to look here.



Conductors:

Eugen Jochum



Also possibly of interest:

Tuning in Baroque Times

Technique, Musicians, and Expression Of Emotion In Music

Tempi and Repeats

Verdi - Don Carlos

The Edinburgh Festival 2006 and 2005. The 2005 has lots of my reviews, the 2006 will at some stage in the future.

regards, Tam

p.s. As noted above - if you recall a good thread, even if you don't want to (or can't) track down the link, mention it and I'll try and find and it to the list.
Posted on: 07 June 2006 by u5227470736789439
Walcha Plays Bach at Lubeck and Cappel

Dear Friends,

This is worth twenty minutes of anyone's time.

Rodrigo de Sa's writings were always worth their weight in Gold in my view. I wish we could entice him to post here again.

Fredrik
Posted on: 08 June 2006 by u5227470736789439
Dear Friends,

Here is another lovely Thread. I apologise for the fact that it is one of mine. I hate the idea that anyone would consider this self promotion. It is not. It is my idea of trying to promote and demythologise some great music and one particularly fine perfomance of it.Twelve Grand Concertos, opus Six, of George Frederick Handel

Again, I still think it worth the reading time.

ATB from Fredrik
Posted on: 09 June 2006 by u5227470736789439
Dear Friends,

I read once again the thread, which Rodrigo de Sa founded about Walcha playing Bach, and two years on having managed to get hold of the whole EMI series of harpsichord recordings [thanks pe-zulu for the help in this], to return to this venerable thread has been a huge pleasure!

I posted the link above.

I also find that Walcha has single handedly convinced me of the value of the harpsichord (in preference to the piano) in reviving this music.

The Thread is something to treasure, and I really wish we could 'tice him back here...

Fredrik
Posted on: 10 June 2006 by u5227470736789439
Dear Friends,

At the time when I was introduced to the Organ playing of Walcha, as the result of RdS's advocacy of it, I knew from what he wrote that I was going to be enthralled by the very aspects of it which make is still unique, and honestly not the ususal aim of players, and recording engineers today.

The very dryness or the recordings, done in the very late days of 78s and earliest LPs required a different approach to some extent than would be the aim today, and this is allied to (and compliments) Walcha's plying, which is totally focussed and clear, both as a sonority and as an interlectual approach. There is no sugaring the pill.

I never really replied to RdS at the time, as my response to these readings is still continues to be one of complete amazement. But I have listened to some of the Preludes and Fugues again today having read right through the thread last nigh, and I think it only fair to say that these readings are not as extreme as might be gleaned from what has variously been written about them.

My over-riding impression is of a humain warmth, first and formost, which becomes the more poignant considering the absolute focus of the playing. It bears this forensic style of recording, and then emerges all the more staggeringly expressive!

Architecture, clarity, selfless playing of what is written, but all tempered with a huge beating heart at the centre. Somehow these old performances give the feel that this heart is as much Bach's as Walcha's!

All the best from Fredrik
Posted on: 22 June 2006 by Tam
Further revised and updated.

An excellent thread on getting started in classical music may be found here (particularly my post 4th from bottom).

Also see Fredrik's excellent 'first' threads:

Piano

Concertos

Symphonies

Choral

Opera


And Nigel's First Bach


And Milo's Quartets



You can also view Fredrik's library though the full thing only appears on page two. Most of my library is also listed. Actually, you could do a lot worse than just search the forum and read all Fredrik's posts.


Along more in depth lines is Todd's wonderful post on Beethoven's Emperor concerto.

Indeed, any of Todd's posts make good reading (if you like your Beethoven sonatas, search out "plays Beethoven" to find a cornucopia of knowledge (e.g. this one on Uchida).



Bach:

Goldberg Variations

Walcha Plays Bach

Bach not on the piano forte

And my sequel to those last two two.

Yet more Walcha, this time playing Bach's organ work.

And one final Walcha thread containing some info and discussion about a recent budget reissue of his earlier mono organ cycle.


Beethoven:

Symphonies

Specifically Bohm and Kleiber in 5&7


Brahms:

Piano concertos

Symphonies


Bruckner here and here.


Elgar here


Handel's 12 Grand Concertos.

And those who like their Mahler here (I am currently working on a thread rounding up my entire collection of Mahler symphonies, but I suspect it will be some time in the works yet).


My Mozart thread may be of interest as well as this one on concertos.


And Wagnerians may like to look here.



Conductors:

Eugen Jochum



Also possibly of interest:

Tuning in Baroque Times

Technique, Musicians, and Expression Of Emotion In Music

Tempi and Repeats

Verdi - Don Carlos

Minimalism

The Edinburgh Festival 2006 and 2005. The 2005 has lots of my reviews, the 2006 will at some stage in the future.

regards, Tam

p.s. As noted above - if you recall a good thread, even if you don't want to (or can't) track down the link, mention it and I'll try and find and it to the list.
Posted on: 23 June 2006 by Tam
Stumbled across this wonderful thread from Todd.

regards, Tam
Posted on: 26 June 2006 by uem
Dear Colleagues,

I had the pleasure of attending this final concert of the Concours Geza Anda.
Wonderful music by three young and "up-coming" musicians, in the Tonhalle in Zürich

http://www.gezaanda.org/index.php?lang=eng&site=

Regards

Urs

...and it moves this thread again to the top....
Posted on: 07 July 2006 by Tam
I have spent the last half-hour trying to add Fredrik's wonderful thread on Schubert's Great C Major symphony (the title being something along those lines), yet it seems entirely to have vanished from the forum Frown I would greatly appreciate if anyone can locate it.

regards, Tam

edit - found it (that shouldn't have taken the hour or so that it did):

http://forums.naim-audio.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/38019385/m/6722936107
Posted on: 07 July 2006 by u5227470736789439
Dear Tam,

That Schubert Great C Major thead was rather nice actually. So many views and contrasts, and a nice comprehensive read. I shall look through it again this weekend!

Thanks from Fredrik

PS: Boult's old recordings of Brahms are rather something, arn't they? They are the sort of reading that you will neither tire of or ever cease to find deeper understanding of the music through... Marvelous in my view. A Benchmark, though not the only great way of course...
Posted on: 07 July 2006 by Tam
I have only listened to the first, but so far so wonderful (see the Brahms thread).

I still can't fathom when I struggled to find it (searching for things like 'Boult' and 'Schubert' steadfastly refused to yield the results - eventually I was forced to browse back through all the old threads at roughly the time I remember it (very boring). Still, now I've found it.

Also came across this in my travels (Todd discussing Mackerras's second reading of Janacek's Kata).

regards, Tam
Posted on: 12 July 2006 by Voltaire
quote:
Originally posted by Voltaire:
As a classical newbie, thank you for the thread!


That should probably read 'a newcomer to classical' as 'classical newbie' is an oxymoron...I think?
Posted on: 06 August 2006 by Tam
Thanks Peter, I have been meaning to update the list, but computer woes (still ongoing [anguished smiley] completed with festival madness mean it may be a little while yet).

regards, Tam