What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

That is one serious box set for anyone that does not know it. I own very little of Liszt's piano music but this is a valued set in my collection as I much prefer to listen to his Tone Poems.

A great set, indeed. You should check out more of his piano music like Années de pèlerinage, the Piano Sonata in B minor and Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. I think you would enjoy these works. I'm less interested in his transcriptions of other composers, which make up a rather large part of his oeuvre for solo piano.

[vandermolen]

Third listen:

[Traverso]

Even better 

The majority of these recordings were made in "Chaikhane "or tea houses,conversation may break out occasionally but without breaking the peaceful,even meditative atmosphere.Never is the slightest constraint to be felt,everyone is free to go in and out,to take part in a conversation.
In these tea houses men spend days on end  drinking tea in silence.
I love this LP and I wish I was there ,I love the sense of community,a shared culture,not like our individual society with it's pitfalls

[aligreto]

Charpentier: Messe de Minuit [Minkowski]





One of the aspects that I particularly like about this work is the scoring. It yields up wonderful orchestral sonorities that are well played here. The vocal contributions here, both solo and choral, are also very appealing.

[aligreto]

A great set, indeed. You should check out more of his piano music like Années de pèlerinage, the Piano Sonata in B minor and Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. I think you would enjoy these works. I'm less interested in his transcriptions of other composers, which make up a rather large part of his oeuvre for solo piano.

Cheers John. I have all of those works in my collection [multiple versions] but I rarely listen to them to be honest. I am simply not engaged with solo piano music to any great extent, to be honest, with a few exceptions - the Années being among them though.

[aligreto]

The majority of these recordings were made in "Chaikhane "or tea houses,conversation may break out occasionally but without breaking the peaceful,even meditative atmosphere.Never is the slightest constraint to be felt,everyone is free to go in and out,to take part in a conversation.
In these tea houses men spend days on end  drinking tea in silence.
I love this LP and I wish I was there ,I love the sense of community,a shared culture,not like our individual society with it's pitfalls

Wonderful. I am with you there, Jan, sharing a tea, the silence and the atmosphere   

[Traverso]

Schubert

String Quartets D94-andante D3 & D804 "Rosamunde"

[Traverso]

Wonderful. I am with you there, Jan, sharing a tea, the silence and the atmosphere 

[Mirror Image]

Cheers John. I have all of those works in my collection [multiple versions] but I rarely listen to them to be honest. I am simply not engaged with solo piano music to any great extent, to be honest, with a few exceptions - the Années being among them though.

I understand. I like a lot of solo piano music, but my favorite genres are orchestral and chamber.

[Mirror Image]

Fantasia for Soprano Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra



Anyone who likes Villa-Lobos should definitely check out this work. I'd rate it as one of my favorites (in a long, long list of favorites from this composer).

[Traverso]

Wonderful. I am with you there, Jan, sharing a tea, the silence and the atmosphere   

I just looked on the site of Discogs and I'm surprised to see how many LP's I found of this album.

[Mirror Image]

Choros No. 11 for piano and orchestra



I haven't heard this work in ages. A gargantuan piano concerto in all but a name, but there are so many access points in this music that it doesn't feel like empty note-spinning like many concertos of this size I've heard.

[Biffo]

Franck: Variations symphonique for Piano and Orchestra - Rudolf Firkusny piano with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Claus Peter Flor - a return to the Sony Firkusny box set

[Todd]

Op 2.  At five bucks, I couldn't not buy it.  I can't really consider it a proper cycle since seven pianists are involved, and the stylistic differences are apparent in the first trio of sonatas.  Anyhoo, even with that, it's much better than Binns, a bit better than Brautigam, but not nearly as good as PBS.  The modern instrument reconstruction of old instruments sound plinky across the board. 

I do very much appreciate the 209 page PDF that accompanies the set (I downloaded right from Claves), and the fact that the label issued the set on 111 tracks is a nice touch. 

I may have to explore Tom Beghin's artistry some more.

[vers la flamme]

Op 2.  At five bucks, I couldn't not buy it.  I can't really consider it a proper cycle since seven pianists are involved, and the stylistic differences are apparent in the first trio of sonatas.  Anyhoo, even with that, it's much better than Binns, a bit better than Brautigam, but not nearly as good as PBS.  The modern instrument reconstruction of old instruments sound plinky across the board. 

I do very much appreciate the 209 page PDF that accompanies the set (I downloaded right from Claves), and the fact that the label issued the set on 111 tracks is a nice touch. 

I may have to explore Tom Beghin's artistry some more.

Is the whole set made up of reconstructed instruments, or are there legitimate period instruments involved?

[SonicMan46]

I've got Couteau as well.  I'll probably have to do some comps among the complete sets in my collection at some point - I also have Oppitz, Katchen, and Klien (probably the best performances; definitely the worst sound) - and so far, ironically enough, Douglas sounds sharper edged than Couteau.  My objective is to find the best complete set among extant complete sets.

Plowright and Rösel would be the strongest contenders I think. Andreas Boyde is also not bad.

Brahms, Johannes Piano Music w/ Geoffroy Couteau - finishing up the 6-disc box this morning; BUT from the comments above, I listened to several (of 5) CDs of Plowright on Spotify and was impressed - so, checked my usual places and PrestoClassical was having a 20% off sale on each of the five BIS discs - placed the order for the set!  In this COVID pandemic, the airmail rate has about doubled from my pass orders but just an x-$7 - looking forward to their arrival.  Dave

 

[Todd]

Is the whole set made up of reconstructed instruments, or are there legitimate period instruments involved?

Three restored instruments are used.

[aligreto]

Bruckner: Te Deum [Jochum]





Powerful music that is well performed here.

[ritter]

A potpourri of French piano music played by Philippe Entremont:



CD 8 of this set:

[asin]B01A6NG7WU[/asin]

[Todd]

Disc 2 equivalent.  I had no expectations, so to report that this exceeds expectations doesn't mean much, but I prefer it to Suk/Panenka, for which I had high expectations that were handily met.

This set is also $4.99 at Qobuz.  The company is nickel-and-diming me to death.