What are you listening to now?

[Moonfish]

Yes, often the megaboxes are maddeningly megasamplerish.  The LUMIERES box thankfully includes a number of great whole recordings (operas, that jammin' Herreweghe Beethoven 9, etc), but truncates other discs that now I must have, cf. Rene Jacobs Mozart symphs, a great disc of Beethoven piano trios, etc etc etc.

I wish I could be more help to you re: the Handel organ concertos, I only have a Hyperion 2cd of Paul Nicholson w/Roy Goodman (ASIN: B00095L91A) and older recordings by George Malcolm with Marriner; I think I like the Koopman best of these.  Included in that black box I linked above are three really nice discs of harpsichord music, esp. the two discs by Scott Ross.  If you only have one disc of overlap with that set, I think it's a no-brainer.  I imagine Warner will re-re-reissue the whole lot of those Handel boxes just as soon as I finish collecting them....

One nice thing about the short length of most of the Rubinstein "original album" CDs is that you can sneak one into your listening regime with minimal guilt, unless your kids are clamoring for food.  Those early Chopin (and other things) recordings in the first ~14 discs are great...I did not even mind the primitive sound, the transfers were so clean, once you get used to the frisson of crackle up top.

Thanks Octave! Perhaps one should bide one's time until you get all the Warner boxes....   
I love the "crackle" - it makes a connection through time and place somehow... 

[North Star]

Yes, often the megaboxes are maddeningly megasamplerish.  The LUMIERES box thankfully includes a number of great whole recordings (operas, that jammin' Herreweghe Beethoven 9, etc), but truncates other discs that now I must have, cf. Rene Jacobs Mozart symphs, a great disc of Beethoven piano trios, etc etc etc.

I wish I could be more help to you re: the Handel organ concertos, I only have a Hyperion 2cd of Paul Nicholson w/Roy Goodman (ASIN: B00095L91A) and older recordings by George Malcolm with Marriner; I think I like the Koopman best of these.  Included in that black box I linked above are three really nice discs of harpsichord music, esp. the two discs by Scott Ross.  If you only have one disc of overlap with that set, I think it's a no-brainer.  I imagine Warner will re-re-reissue the whole lot of those Handel boxes just as soon as I finish collecting them....

One nice thing about the short length of most of the Rubinstein "original album" CDs is that you can sneak one into your listening regime with minimal guilt, unless your kids are clamoring for food.  Those early Chopin (and other things) recordings in the first ~14 discs are great...I did not even mind the primitive sound, the transfers were so clean, once you get used to the frisson of crackle up top.

So you don't own this, or the individual releases?  Some rocking performances..
[asin]B001CCHPOE[/asin]

Thread duty
Stravinsky
Apollo
Craft
[asin]B0008JEKCW[/asin]

[Octave]

So you don't own this, or the individual releases?  Some rocking performances..

Aow!  Not yet!  Been thinking about them...

[North Star]

Aow!  Not yet!  Been thinking about them...

All those Academy of Ancient Music recordings of Handel with Egarr on HM are wonderful (solo sonatas, trio sonatas, concerti grosso, organ concertos). Together with Piau & Mingardo's duet disc, my favourite Handel (not that I have too much else)

[Mookalafalas]

You hit the jackpot there! Great music, the performance to go for IMO. But...is there just one disc with these concertos?  there should be two....
(That's what I hate about these box sets...)

Good to hear these are good'uns   About only being "half"--it doesn't bother me at all.  If I play this one so much I get tired of it and want more, I will be happy to get the rest.  The "mega-sampler" effect Octave mentions is really a GIANT bonus to me.  I love the broad exposure to so much different stuff. 

  I got Rubinstein's autobiography a couple of weeks ago (planning to dwell on his life further), but (of course) got distracted by life.   Hmm, any specific gems in the first 30 in your opinion?

His auto is fantastic!! It's like a fast-paced novel, but better because you learn so much history and "meet" so many real historical figures in a meaningful context.  I put it in the top five bio/autobiographies I've read, and I read a lot of them.

[TheGSMoeller]

Reich: Tehillim


[asin]B000H3095G[/asin]

[North Star]

Stravinsky
Agon
Craft
[asin]B0008JEKCW[/asin]

Prokofiev
Piano Concerto No. 3
Béroff, Masur & Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
[asin]B0013D8K7S[/asin]

[Harry]

New Acquisition. First listen. Orchestral Works. CD I. See review.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/03/new-acquisition-britten-benjamin-1913.html?spref=tw

[Harry]

New Acquisition. First listen. A new composer to me, in the lighter realms film/classical music. See review.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/03/new-acquisition-de-sica-manuel-b1949.html?spref=tw

[Marc]

Beethoven's modest yet enjoyable piano sonatas opus 49, played by Wilhelm Backhaus.

And after that, I will jump into the spring sunshine!





http://www.amazon.com/Wilhelm-Backhaus-Decca-Beethoven-Sonatas/dp/B000E0LB7C

[North Star]

Stravinsky
Orpheus
Craft
[asin]B0008JEKCW[/asin]

Prokofiev
Piano Concertos Nos. 4 & 5
Béroff, Masur & Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
[asin]B0013D8K7S[/asin]

[Madiel]

Right now I'm doing my blind-listening duty with the 1st movement of Mahler's 2nd symphony. Several times over.

But while doing that, I'm collecting the recordings for my next 'cycle' of my listening projects. This is how I manage my curiosity - the composers I'm working through chronologically, the new purchases I'm going through a piece at a time so I don't get overwhelmed by it all. So I thought I'd be novel, and drag out the process  , by listing the next cycle here.

Let's see...

Bach: Canata no.86, 'Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch' (oh look, I'm all the way to disc... 19 of the Suzuki set!)

Brahms: Clarinet Sonata No.1 (Thea King & Clifford Benson)

Holmboe: I'm up to opus 59b, 'Domine, libera animam meam' in my set of Liber Canticorum

Ravel: just a little one, the Berceuse on the name of Gabriel Faure (Ibragimova & Tiberghien)

Shostakovich: Piano Trio No.2 (Florestan Trio)

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.4 (Perahia & Haitink)

Rachmaninov: by complete coincidence, also Piano Concerto No.4 (Ashkenazy & Previn)

Mozart: Horn Quintet (Gaudier Ensemble)

Simpson: Variations on a Theme by Nielsen (Taylor, City of London Sinfonia)

Faure: Barcarolle No.13 (Kathryn Stott)

Schubert: the Notturno for piano trio (Florestan Trio)

Szymanowski: Metopes (Dennis Lee)

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto (Milstein & Abbado)

Strauss: Don Juan (Haitink, Concertgebouw)

Dvorak: Piano Quartet No.1 (Domus)

Poulenc: just a couple of short piano pieces, I think it will be the Francaise and the Melancolie (Pascal Roge)

Schumann: Piano Quintet (Beaux Arts Trio and their friends)

[Harry]

New acquisition. First listen. A Japanese composer, with a WOW factor.  See review.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/03/new-acquisition-yamada-kazuo-1912-1991.html?spref=tw

[Harry]

Second listen. A fine example of Pasquini's art.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/03/second-rerun-new-acquisition-pasquini.html?spref=tw

[Karl Henning]

An old favorite:

Hindemith
Konzertmusik, Op.49 for piano, brass & two harps
Siegfried Mauser, pf
Members of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony
Werner Andreas Albert

[asin]B000058TDA[/asin]

[kishnevi]

Aow!  Not yet!  Been thinking about them...

You need to do more than think about them.  I have the whole series, and not a bad 'un in the bunch.

Thread duty:

Paul Ben-Haim
String Quintet in e minor/String Quartet No. 1 Op. 21
Carmel Quartet w/Shuli Waterman, viola in the Quintet
on Toccata Classics, a new release.  There seems to be a smallish boom (more like a trickle) of new recordings of Ben-Haim, which in general is A Good Thing.

[EigenUser]

Sibelius "Symphony No. 2": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu0Y2FyHfxM

(North Star  )

Am I way off by saying that parts of it remind me of Schoenberg's "Verklarte Nacht"? A lot of unusual tonal resolutions and unexpected landing places in string writing. This is a good thing, as I love that work.

[Karl Henning]

Hindemith
Symphony in E^b
NY Phil
Lenny

[Sergeant Rock]

Havergal Brian Symphony No.14 F minor (1959-60), Downes conducting the LSO




Sarge

[North Star]

Sibelius "Symphony No. 2": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu0Y2FyHfxM

(North Star  )

Am I way off by saying that parts of it remind me of Schoenberg's "Verklarte Nacht"? A lot of unusual tonal resolutions and unexpected landing places in string writing. This is a good thing, as I love that work.

Well, I can't say that I have ever noticed a resemblance between the two works, but this doesn't mean you're wrong at all. Wait till you hear the later ones!!

Thread duty

Bach
Cantatas BWV 12, BWV 38 & BWV 75
Herreweghe
[asin]B003122HDC[/asin]