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Classical Music for Aficionados

I would like to start a thread, similar to Orpheus’ jazz site, for lovers of classical music.
I will list some of my favorite recordings, CDs as well as LP’s. While good sound is not a prime requisite, it will be a consideration.
  Classical music lovers please feel free to add to my lists.
Discussion of musical and recording issues will be welcome.

I’ll start with a list of CDs.  Records to follow in a later post.

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique.  Chesky  — Royal Phil. Orch.  Freccia, conductor.
Mahler:  Des Knaben Wunderhorn.  Vanguard Classics — Vienna Festival Orch. Prohaska, conductor.
Prokofiev:  Scythian Suite et. al.  DG  — Chicago Symphony  Abbado, conductor.
Brahms: Symphony #1.  Chesky — London Symph. Orch.  Horenstein, conductor.
Stravinsky: L’Histoire du Soldat. HDTT — Ars Nova.  Mandell, conductor.
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances. Analogue Productions. — Dallas Symph Orch. Johanos, cond.
Respighi: Roman Festivals et. al. Chesky — Royal Phil. Orch. Freccia, conductor.

All of the above happen to be great sounding recordings, but, as I said, sonics is not a prerequisite.


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Showing 14 responses by geoffkait

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geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana, you know, the one with Tebaldi and Bjorling. 
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geoffkait
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The Reiner Chicago Ein Heldenleben is not exactly chopped liver. In fact it was the first stereo RCA Living Stereo recording, 1954.
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geoffkait
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Bjorling is the best. Want proof? Cavelleria Rusticana with Tebaldi on RCA. Whoa!
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geoffkait
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schubert
gdnrbob, those who don’t read German have no idea just how evil he was. Wrote more anti-semetic tirades then he did music .
German Historians who I studied with drew a straight line from Wagner to Hitler.

Gosh, those must have been the same historians who drew a straight line from Marilyn Manson to Columbine? Did they also draw a straight line from Furtwangler to Hitler? A straight line from Ozzy Osborne to the fall of the Civilized World?
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
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It took them long enough.
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geoffkait
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Wagner’s Lohengrin, Kempe and Vienna Philharmonic, from 1964. Super duper.
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geoffkait
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You betcha! EMI label. Printed in Germany. 3 CD box set.
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geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Another great, great Wagner CD is the Solti Das Rheingold on Decca Heritage Masters label. Thus performance is from 1958, in extremely good Stereo sound, at Vienna, with London and Flagstad, and predates the more famous Solti Ring extravaganza just a bit.
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geoffkait
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gdnrbob
Recorded music will never be equal to 'live' performance. Unless they can make a microphone that duplicates our individual ears, it seem we will have to accept that it comes pretty darn close.
'Suspending disbelief' is an interesting premise and one that I think has merit.

Apparently you’re not familiar with the monaural binaural recordings of yore that employed a dummy head microphone arrangement that simulated a human head and ears.  
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geoffkait
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I don’t think there’s anything you can do about differences in hearing. Not only is frequency response different among everyone but that frequency response keeps changing with age for all of us. So it does not matter how slightly different our heads might be physically. And we all have different listening skills. And the sound changes with the weather and time of day and many other reasons, anyway. All anyone can do is improve his playback system and try to get the best sound he can.
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geoffkait
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Wagner as performed by Berliner and Vienna during the Golden Age had the best horns AND the best cello solo (Die Walkure). 
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geoffkait
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The only one who ever associated Wagner with Nazis was Hitler. Hel-loo!
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geoffkait
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Sex and drugs and rock and roll
Is all my brain and body need
Sex and drugs and rock and roll
Are very good indeed 🤪
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geoffkait
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Somebody’s looking in the ...mirror 👀
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