Indispensible Performances?

Fredrik

I can't think of any recordings I could not do without, but my favorite piece of music is Chopin's Piano Concerto in F minor.

BTW, I was astonished to note when looking over you record library thread that there was no Chopin ??? An Enigma !!


BB

PS. Just bought Jochum's Haydn London Symphonies on DG inspired by yours' and Tam's Haydn discourse, very good indeed.

Dear BB,

The lack of Chopin is amazing, as it is something that disappeared with my LPs in the early 90s, and simply never came back on CD. Much to my annoyance actually! I went to play some Waltzes the other day only to find I do not have them!

Really I suspect that the turn back was already happening, and as I can afford to I shall put this gap right!

ATB from Fredrik

The Brazilian pianist Noveas has recorded a lot of Chopin, not all of it is essential but there is a record of the F minor Concerto with Klemperer that I would dearly like to find on LP. Then there is Cortot, of course, not to mention Rachmaninoff's recording of the Second Sonata. Also there is Arrau's Preludes, recorded in the 70's, which are unbelievable, IMHO.


BB


PS. Fredrik, no doubt you have your own favorites in this repertoire.

Dear BB,

No! The amazing thing is this has always has been a real blind spot! Bit of Rubinstein, and a bit of Dinu Lipati, and Polini in the Concerto! That was it, so you references are splendid as a starting point! Thanks!

My goodness this is lovely as a completlely beautiful derailment of my own Thread! Anyone interested to kick it back on the tracks is most welcome to do so! But thanks BB! I am truly grateful for this gentle exchange!

Kindest regards to you all from Fredrik

Personally I would bring out the old chesnut of Keith Jarrett- Koln Concert. I used to be able to sell that to AC/DC, Jazz, Allman Brothers fans in fact right across the music spectrum. I still sit there when listening to it get totally absorbed and moved by the music.

However in saying that when I play his La Scala concert track 2 between 16.00 minutes to 22 minutes in I never fail to have a wee tear in my eye.

There're too many to list, but I wouldn't want to be without Karajan's Missa Solemnis, Parsifal, Bruckner 8, Meistersinger, Brahms 1 and Ein Deutsches Requiem (Schwarzkopf/Hotter) plus the Bach partitas (Mullova), Bartok and Beethoven String Quartets (Takacs), and a Matthew Passion (probably the Harnoncourt, I'm really warming to him).

Oh and the late Beethoven sonatas by Brendel.

Fredrik,

Just from my classical collection, I wouldn't want to be without:-

Beecham's Bizet Suites & Mozart Clarinet Concerto
Walter's Brahms Symphonies, Overtures and Haydn Variations.
Barbirolli's Mahler 9
Maazel's Mahler 4
Kubelik's Dvorak Symphonies 8 & 9
Paita's Dvorak 7
Janson's Tchaikovsky Symphonies with the Oslo Philharmonic.
Munch's Berlioz Overtures.
The Bishop-K/C Davis Beethoven Piano Concertos.
C. Kleiber's Beethoven 5
Klemperer's Brahms 1 and Beethoven 3.
Ashkenazy's Rachmaninov Symphony no 1.
Heifetz/Munch Beethoven Violin Concerto.
Heifetz/Reiner Brahms Violin Concerto.
Karajan's Sibelius Suites.

Given that I have double the amount of favourites from other music - I'd really rather not be forced on to that desert island.

I don't think you get to keep Kirsty Young with you either, so being stuck without all your music is even less of an attractive prospect.

Regards,

Steve.

Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, The Acadamy of St Martin in the Fields, Neville Marriner.

Purcell: Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, The Geraint Jones singers.

Schubert: String Quartet No.15, The Juilliard Quartet.

Debussy - Ravel: String Quartets, Quartetto Italiano.

Schoenberg: Transfigured Night, Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Gidon Kremer, Riccardo Muti, Philharmonia Orchestra.

Panufnik: Concerto for Violin and Strings, Yehudi Menuhin, Andrej Panufnik.

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4, Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeny Mravinsky.

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis, Sir John Barbirolli, Sinfonia of London with the Allegri Quartet.

I think I forgot about this. Sorry!

Some lovely things are cropping up, to which I will add over the weekend, if you will forgive that!

Fredrik [Early Onset Awzheimers Smiley]!

Right off!

Old JS Bach:

Brandenberg Concertos.

- August Wenzinger, who as a member of and in this case director of the Scola Cantorum Basiliensis leads us through these epic pieces in a real attempt at Bach's sound-world [except for modern Horns, Recorders and Bassoon!], but the music making is something to behold. [1950 for number six, and the rest in 1953].

- HM Linde, who was a pupil of Wenzinger: A stylistically similar recreation, avoiding the modern recorder and so forth, in equally humane readings. Sadly both sets are long since deleted.

- Adolf Busch and his Chamber Orchestra, who traverse this misic with a warth, affection, and understading of the imminent and the cosmic, almost beyond belief! [Out on almost an respectable transfer from mid-thirties HMV 78 recordings on Pearl - the side-breaks are badly done, though I have edited these for rhythmic continuity - which are among the most refreshing].

Leonhardt's readings of the Saint Matthew Pasion and B Minor Mass. priceless!

- Klemperer in the Magnificat: Done in Budapest in 1948, and recorded from live concerts on [dreadful in parts] acetates! These efforts make one soon realise that Klemperer was the "most" virile and sensitive of musicians. He must have so "led" these performances, which include a priceless Second Suite [with Flute] and the magesterial Fourth! There is a real conviction here. The EMI studio efforts from 1954 [of the suites] give a hint only, but are still worth persuing on Testament.

Bach will form the basis of a further post tomorrow.

The top post represented the recent listening, rather than a grading. I have missed H Walcha, altogether so far, in this brief Bach conspectus.

Kindest regards from Fredrik

Sibelius: Finlandia - En Saga - Tapiola - The Swan of Tuonela, Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan.

Vaughan Williams: Concerto for Oboe, Concerto for Tuba, The Lark Ascending, Arnold Jacobs (bass tuba) Neil Black (oboe) Pinchas Zukerman (violin), English Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim.

Handel Opus Six Concerti Grossi: Adolf Busch, Earnest Drucker [solo violins], Hermann Busch [cello], and Mieczislaw Horszowki [playing the harpsichord] with the Busch Chamber Players, now only available on Pearl CDs, but in an excelent transfer from very rare original 1946 US Columbia shellac discs. The original release was almost immediately deleted as Columbia switched to LP issues, and the set was never re-released in the new format.

Fredrik

Dear Fredrik,

You will hate this but ..

Bach with Glen Gould

Beethoen with Karajen

Sorry [but its what I like or what I heard first].

James H.

Dear James!

The idea is to let everyone say what their most indispensible performances are!

I wish the Jazzers and Rockers would post a few as well!

Kindest regards from Fredrik

Casals cello, particularly Bach and Beethoven

Kathleen Ferrier sings Bach and Handel arias

Perlman and Ashkenazy - Spring and Kreutzer sonatas

Thelonious Monk - Monk's Music

Duke Ellington band - The Blanton-Webster years

The Clash - first album (UK and US versions so you get one version of White Man in the Hammersmith Palais)

Allman Brothers - Filmore East concerts

Johnny Cash - American recordings III and V

Rimsky Korsakov - Scheherazade, Beecham and RPO

John Coltrane & Johnny Hartmann

Ellington, Roach & Mingus - Money Jungle

Borodin and Fitzwillian quartets - Shostakovich cycles

Takacs quartet - middle and late Beethoven

Led Zeppelin IV

The Band - The Band

Lynyrd Skynyrd - One more from the road

John Hiatt - Bring the family

Townes van Zandt - Live at the old quarter

Tom Waits - Small Change

Just some from the top of my head

Sinatra: Strangers in the Night

Love will tear us apart - Joy Division
Soul Mining (LP) - The The
New Boots and Panties (LP) - Ian Dury and The Blockheads
Psyco Killer - Talking Heads
How Soon is Now - The Smiths

More follow.....

Jono

Dear Fredrik

How about
Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez played by Narciso Yepes.
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And from a Jazzer

The Art Tatum Group masterpieces.
The whole 8 box LP set is superb but the ultimate is record 8 with Ben Webster Red Callender and Bill Douglas.

How Hi the FI Buck Clayton Jam session.
Considered the best recorded jazz session ever.
It's mono but who cares with Fi this Hi.

Russell

I saw a 70's(?) acoustic concert with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke & Lenny White on the Artsworld channel this week. I know I'm almost alone in being a Chick Corea follower, but it's one programme that I'm putting on DVD. It was awesome.