Hi

[johndoe21ro]

Hi, everyone. I'm Radu, I live in Romania and I'm a 29 years old physician. Nice forum you've got here. I'm a long time classical music listener and an ardent audiophile. Also like opera (Grigolo, Kaufmann, Gheorghiu, Florez, DiDonato, Villazon, Bartoli, Jaroussky and many others are just amazing). Mahler, Bruckner, Enescu, Bruch, Dvorak, Brahms, Debussy, Bloch, Grieg, Gershwin, Sibelius, Korngold, Mozart, Rachmaninov, Puccini, Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Wagner are some of my favorites composers. I'm reading the forum's posts for some time and have decided to jump in.

[North Star]

Welcome, Radu!
Nice list of favourite composers.

[Henk]

Welcome, Radu, good to have a new member. You can also join the Facebook group, if you are using Facebook.

Henk

[TheGSMoeller]

Greetings, and welcome, Radu. 

[mc ukrneal]

Welcome and Enjoy! We can use all the opera fans we can get!

[bhodges]

Welcome, Radu! I like your wide-ranging lists of singers and composers - enjoy yourself here.

--Bruce

[madaboutmahler]

Welcome, Radu! Hope you enjoy GMG!

Glad to see you have Mahler right at the top of your list of favourite composers! And very glad that you have instantly joined the Blind Comparison for his 1st symphony, we'll be starting that later this week.

Daniel

[Ataraxia]

Welcome!!

[johndoe21ro]

Thank you all for your welcoming posts. Already feel at home. Well, Mahler is my favorite but the list was made up in a haste. I tried to make it as accurate as possible. Classical music is amazing yet infinite.

[Lisztianwagner]

Welcome to the forum, I hope you'll have a nice time here!
So glad to see you like Wagner, he's my absolute favourite composer!

Ilaria

[johndoe21ro]

Welcome to the forum, I hope you'll have a nice time here!
So glad to see you like Wagner, he's my absolute favourite composer!

Ilaria

Thanks. I sure will. I like Wagner, yeah, but to be wiser and more cautious I should say that I'm a newb to Wagner. Trying to gulp as much as I can, though. Watch out for the Solti's new remastered Ring cycle in september.

[Hollywood]

Hi there Radu. Greetings from Vienna, Austria. Welcome to the forum. 

[david johnson]

hi!    glad you're here with us

[Lisztianwagner]

Thanks. I sure will. I like Wagner, yeah, but to be wiser and more cautious I should say that I'm a newb to Wagner. Trying to gulp as much as I can, though. Watch out for the Solti's new remastered Ring cycle in september.

That's ok; I'm pleased to hear that. Good choice, Solti's Ring Cycle is certainly beautiful and impressive, although Karajan's recording is my favourite. I also strongly recommend you Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal to start.

[johndoe21ro]

That's ok; I'm pleased to hear that. Good choice, Solti's Ring Cycle is certainly beautiful and impressive, although Karajan's recording is my favourite. I also strongly recommend you Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal to start.

I think Solti's Ring is 'the one ring that rules the others' and his performers were, from my point of view, the best. Wotan, Siegfried, Brunnhilde, Gunther, Hagen, Alberich, Fricka, Fafner, Hundig are all amazing under Solti.
On the other hand, Karajan is a genius... that's undeniable. But Karajan is also too karajanic. From where I stand, he involves a little too much into the composers operas. Usually it's ok because his way of understanding and the composers wishes regarding a piece of music are often the same. Sometimes it's not like that. I guess all conductors are better with one composer and worse with others. There are no all reference interpretation/reference recording conductors, that's for sure. But Karajan is too confident at times and 'his hands fall too unflinching' in 'an almost oppressive stance'. I guess everybody knows that he was special in many ways. He was not just an (amazing) conductor but also an excellent director.
I love his 9th Symphony (From the New World) interpretation of Dvorak's masterpiece. It's so involving, so powerful, so fast but I feel and I know it's far from being the right reading. I guess that's why I sometimes avoid him. Hope my personal apprehension doesn't bother you. I really think he is a genius... not always the right one, though.
I am familliar as a novice can be with both the Parsifal and Tristan and Isolde operas. Thanks for the reminder. Wagner is simply almighty.

[Florestan]

Salut, Radu, si bun venit din partea unui compatriot din Bucuresti, deasemenea mare amator de opera! Astept cu mare interes contributiile tale pe acest forum.

Toate cele bune,
Andrei

[johndoe21ro]

Salut, Radu, si bun venit din partea unui compatriot din Bucuresti, deasemenea mare amator de opera! Astept cu mare interes contributiile tale pe acest forum.

Toate cele bune,
Andrei

Salutare si tie, Andrei. Sper sa fiu la inaltime.

P.S. De curiozitate, esti si audiofil? Sau doar meloman?

[Florestan]

Salutare si tie, Andrei. Sper sa fiu la inaltime.

P.S. De curiozitate, esti si audiofil? Sau doar meloman?

Doar un modest dar pasionat meloman. Calitatea sunetului este un factor important, dar nu decisiv pentru mine. De exemplu, cea ma buna interpretare a Concertului pentru vioara si orchestra op. 61 de Beethoven este din punctul meu de vedere cea a lui Bronislaw Hubermann impreuna cu George Szell si Filarmonica vieneza, al carei sunet din anul 1930 este departe de a fi ideal.  Dealtfel pe langa interes imi lipsesc si mijloacele financiare pentru a fi audiofil. 

(I suggest we continue our exchange in English lest our friends here object to turning this thread into a purely Romanian affair...  )

[petrarch]

(I suggest we continue our exchange in English lest our friends here object to turning this thread into a purely Romanian affair...  )

Interestingly, I can almost follow your conversation despite not speaking a word of Romanian--I do speak Portuguese and French, and their similarities with Romanian are striking. I knew there were a lot of parallels between Latin and Romanian, but I had never experienced them like this .

And BTW, welcome Radu!

[Florestan]

Interestingly, I can almost follow your conversation despite not speaking a word of Romanian--I do speak Portuguese and French, and their similarities with Romanian are striking. I knew there were a lot of parallels between Latin and Romanian, but I had never experienced them like this .

Very nice!