What are you listening to now?

[Kontrapunctus]

Coincidently I listened to the 8th (Taneyev Leningrad Quartet) yesterday. Impressed, so much so intending to explore his chamber music further.

Be sure to check out his Piano Quintet and Trio, particularly on this recording:

[Roasted Swan]

Slowly over time I've been acquiring the old CBS/Sony Essential Classics CD's mainly featuring Szell/Ormandy and some Bernstein.  These can often be picked up dirt cheap.  The sonics in these 'basic' versions might be a bit harsh but they're a huge improvement on the flimsy LP's I first collected back in the 70's.  To the point where some performances leap out of the speakers as brilliantly as the day they were made.  This is one such:

[asin]B000025SZV[/asin]

Oh my goodness me!  A good Concerto for orchestra is followed by a sensational Miraculous Mandarin Suite.  Music that is at once beautiful, blistering and brutal.  This is exactly how I want this work to sound; seductive and passionate but with a murderous heart.  Simply stunning playing by the Fabulous Philadelphians with a recording that lets you right into the vicious detail of the score.  Topped off with the 2 Orchestral pictures.  A disc for those who dismiss Ormandy as "just" a competent conductor - oh that there was more competence at that level today!

[Karl Henning]

Shostakovich
Symphony #1 in f minor, Op.10
Czech Phil
Ancerl

[kyjo]

If it's the one which is consistently dark in mood and slow in tempi, then I might have actually made to it. 

"Consistently dark in mood and slow in tempi" hardly describes the Braga Santos 4th! Maybe you're thinking of the significantly darker and more dissonant 5th? All of Braga Santos' first four symphonies are classic examples of the "boringly reactionary" music we both love!

[Florestan]

"Consistently dark in mood and slow in tempi" hardly describes the Braga Santos 4th! Maybe you're thinking of the significantly darker and more dissonant 5th? All of Braga Santos' first four symphonies are classic examples of the "boringly reactionary" music we both love!

Honestly, I don't remember any more. 

[Karl Henning]

Shostakovich
Symphony #5 in d minor, Op.47
Czech Phil
Ancerl

[Irons]

Shostakovich
Symphony #5 in d minor, Op.47
Czech Phil
Ancerl

Did you enjoy the performance/recording?

[Irons]

Be sure to check out his Piano Quintet and Trio, particularly on this recording:

I do not have the Quintet but do the Trio and also 2nd SQ, both Melodiya recordings.

[listener]

LECUONA:  Rapsodia Cubana
Danzas Afro-Cubanas, Siete Danzas Cubanas tipicas Valses fantasticos and 6 short pieces
Thomas Tirino, piano     Rapsodia with the Polish National Radio S.O.
BACH:  Concertos after Vivaldi  BWV 593, 594, 596    Pr&F in d BWV 539
Bernard Foccroulle,  Organ at Wilhadi Kirche in Stade

[Karl Henning]

Did you enjoy the performance/recording?

Very much


I must have some 10+ of the Ancerl Gold discs, and they are all wonderful

[Karl Henning]

Now:
Fauré
Piano music
Stott

[André]

Slowly over time I've been acquiring the old CBS/Sony Essential Classics CD's mainly featuring Szell/Ormandy and some Bernstein.  These can often be picked up dirt cheap.  The sonics in these 'basic' versions might be a bit harsh but they're a huge improvement on the flimsy LP's I first collected back in the 70's.  To the point where some performances leap out of the speakers as brilliantly as the day they were made.  This is one such:

[asin]B000025SZV[/asin]

Oh my goodness me!  A good Concerto for orchestra is followed by a sensational Miraculous Mandarin Suite.  Music that is at once beautiful, blistering and brutal.  This is exactly how I want this work to sound; seductive and passionate but with a murderous heart.  Simply stunning playing by the Fabulous Philadelphians with a recording that lets you right into the vicious detail of the score.  Topped off with the 2 Orchestral pictures.  A disc for those who dismiss Ormandy as "just" a competent conductor - oh that there was more competence at that level today!

+ 1. Ormandy is my hero. More so than Szell, Bernstein or Reiner.

[vandermolen]

Slowly over time I've been acquiring the old CBS/Sony Essential Classics CD's mainly featuring Szell/Ormandy and some Bernstein.  These can often be picked up dirt cheap.  The sonics in these 'basic' versions might be a bit harsh but they're a huge improvement on the flimsy LP's I first collected back in the 70's.  To the point where some performances leap out of the speakers as brilliantly as the day they were made.  This is one such:

[asin]B000025SZV[/asin]

Oh my goodness me!  A good Concerto for orchestra is followed by a sensational Miraculous Mandarin Suite.  Music that is at once beautiful, blistering and brutal.  This is exactly how I want this work to sound; seductive and passionate but with a murderous heart.  Simply stunning playing by the Fabulous Philadelphians with a recording that lets you right into the vicious detail of the score.  Topped off with the 2 Orchestral pictures.  A disc for those who dismiss Ormandy as "just" a competent conductor - oh that there was more competence at that level today!

I've also liked that series very much. It contains some terrific discs, including Shostakovich symphonies 4 and 10 (Ormandy), my first encounter with both works, VW symphonies 4 and 6 (Mirtopolous, Stokowski), Ives's Three Places in New England (Ormandy), Copland 'Lincoln Portrait' (Ormandy/Adlai Stevenson - my favourite version) plus a fine Sibelius/Szell CD etcetera.

[Roasted Swan]

I've also liked that series very much. It contains some terrific discs, including Shostakovich symphonies 4 and 10 (Ormandy), my first encounter with both works, VW symphonies 4 and 6 (Mirtopolous, Stokowski), Ives's Three Places in New England (Ormandy), Copland 'Lincoln Portrait' (Ormandy/Adlai Stevenson - my favourite version) plus a fine Sibelius/Szell CD etcetera.

Yup - got all those! - and don't forget the exceptional Szell & Ormandy Strauss performances....

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

+ 1. Ormandy is my hero. More so than Szell, Bernstein or Reiner.

Ormandy was collateral damage to my contempt for terrible vinyl that Columbia Records USA was selling when I started collecting. I don't think I have a single Ormandy recording in my collection. I wonder if Sony is preparing an Ormandy Edition anytime soon....

[Roasted Swan]

Ormandy was collateral damage to my contempt for terrible vinyl that Columbia Records USA was selling when I started collecting. I don't think I have a single Ormandy recording in my collection. I wonder if Sony is preparing an Ormandy Edition anytime soon....

I cannot praise some of these performances too highly.  Also when you look at who was producing/engineering these discs - the likes of Paul Mayer etc - you realise that all these efforts were undone by the awful quality of the vinyl and the pressings.  I seem to remember reading once that the 70's oil crisis led to some record companies using less and lower grade vinyl hence all the warped and distorting LP's - is that true?  I had quite a few of them as LP's and thought they were OK, ditched them all when I was introduced to what I perceived (then) as the superior sound and more exciting performances on Decca.  On in recent times have I come full circle and begun to appreciate the quality of these recordings....  Case in point is the set of Bernstein's remastered Mahler on Sony/CBS - they have come up sounding technically excellent.

Sony have already released a lot of Ormandy/single composer sets and a 20th Century Classics set - if they were to bundle it all together it would be huge......

[SymphonicAddict]

Piano quartet No. 3

One of his many masterpieces. The conveyed passion here is tremendous.

[vandermolen]

Yup - got all those! - and don't forget the exceptional Szell & Ormandy Strauss performances....

Szell's Bruckner's Third Symphony was another highlight for me.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I cannot praise some of these performances too highly.  Also when you look at who was producing/engineering these discs - the likes of Paul Mayer etc - you realise that all these efforts were undone by the awful quality of the vinyl and the pressings.  I seem to remember reading once that the 70's oil crisis led to some record companies using less and lower grade vinyl hence all the warped and distorting LP's - is that true?  I had quite a few of them as LP's and thought they were OK, ditched them all when I was introduced to what I perceived (then) as the superior sound and more exciting performances on Decca.  On in recent times have I come full circle and begun to appreciate the quality of these recordings....  Case in point is the set of Bernstein's remastered Mahler on Sony/CBS - they have come up sounding technically excellent.

The remastered Bernstein changed my opinion about the basic quality of those recordings.  I ended up getting the Szell set. Am open to exploring Ormandy.

Price of vinyl in the 70's was an issue. It wasn't just skimping on the quantity. Supposedly the recycled unsold LPs, labels and all, so that the vinyl they were using wasn't clean, resulting in surface noise.

[Kontrapunctus]

While he doesn't hammer out the Sonata with the same intensity as Horowitz (with whom he worked on the piece), Demidenko, or Kissin, it's still quite good.