Very, very specific moments in recordings that are the best

[Brian]

This isn't another "favorite recordings" thread. This is about hyperspecific, short, tiny moments in performances that stand out in your memory.

If you're the kind of person who goes, "that's the recording with the really good X solo," or even nerdier, the kind of person who says, "that performance is just fine except for one chord, they play that one chord better than anyone else has ever played that one chord," - this is the thread for you!

For example, I'm hoping someone will nominate a Schubert D. 960 which contains their favorite dissonant note in the main theme!

Here are three examples that popped into my mind:

Shostakovich - Symphony No. 10
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Vasily Petrenko (Naxos)
Scherzo - timestamp 00:05-00:13 (8 seconds)

The clarinets' phrasing at the start of the scherzo is pointed, sharp, hostile, cold, almost bullying in their insistence. It's perfectly expressive for the moment, and I always look forward to hearing the stabbing, dagger-like way they play this. It's brutal, and it's the best.

J. Strauss Jr. - Die Fledermaus Overture
Los Angeles Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta (Decca)
timestamp 7:15-7:18ish (3 seconds)

In the coda of this overture, as everyone's getting all excited, there's a tiny moment where the double basses play a furious pattern and then it spreads upward into the rest of the string section. For this performance, it sounds like Decca spotlight-microphoned approximately 750 double bass players. It's the loudest moment in the whole piece, which I know is unbalanced and "wrong," but it's insanely exciting, and it makes Johann Strauss sound momentarily avant-garde, like the radio just skipped over to a different station. It's a big bass punch in the face, and it's the best.

Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra
Boston Symphony, Rafael Kubelik (DG)
Finale - timestamp 00:13-00:28 (15 seconds)

This is the only recording I've ever heard where you can hear the muted French horns for their entire part here. Many (like the terrific recent Mälkki), you can hear them starting at 00:28 when they start doing that rolling up and down motion. But before that, when they're just adding sinister weird harmonies behind the strings? Kubelik and Boston alone. It's a tiny little extra detail to have, but it's the best.

[Biffo]

In Les Troyens, Didon's final aria Adieu fière cité at the words 'aux nuits d'ivresse.. ' there is a reminiscence of almost the same words from the Act IV love duet. No one does it better than Josephine Veasey and Colin Davis - heartbreakingly beautiful.

[aukhawk]

Along these lines I could cite the first recording by Haitink of Mahler's 9th Symphony, with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.  At about 19:10 into the first movement, there's a short passage where bells underpin the music, to me it always feels like the pivot around which the whole movement, the whole symphony really (maybe even Mahler's whole life) revolves.  Most recordings bottle out and use tubular bells at this point, which just makes me want to shout and throw things - but Haitink's Dutch orchestra uses bell plates, which have a quite different and more complex sound to them - more like a set of small tuned tam-tams.  The effect is just other-worldly.

I saw the same forces perform this live, around the time that recording was made, and when the percussionist softly, lovingly, tapped his bell plates the unearthly sound filled the large hall to stunning effect.  The recording, though very good, sadly doesn't come close to capturing this.

[Florestan]

I do wonder, guys, how the heck are you able to tell the exact timestamp of a specific recording where a specific moment occurs... 

[ritter]

I do wonder, guys, how the heck are you able to tell the exact timestamp of a specific recording where a specific moment occurs... 

Looking at the display of the CD player, or at the computer screen when listening to an audio file, or at the bottom of the YouTube video, or,... 

Good evening, Andrei!

[Florestan]

Looking at the display of the CD player, or at the computer screen when listening to an audio file, or at the bottom of the YouTube video, or,... 

Honestly, if I'm enthralled when listening to music the last thing I do is looking at the display of the CD player, or at the computer screen, or at the bottom of the YouTube video, or,...And even if I did, I very much doubt I'd be able to remember the exact timestamp after three hours, let alone three months or three years. 

Good evening, Andrei!

To you too, Rafael.

[ritter]

And even if I did, I very much doubt I'd be able to remember the exact timestamp after three hours, let alone three months or three years. 

They've come up with this new technology that involves a pencil and a scrap of paper, you know....

[Brian]

Love the examples from Biffo and aukhawk! This thread is going to be great.

I do wonder, guys, how the heck are you able to tell the exact timestamp of a specific recording where a specific moment occurs... 

I was listening to the Fledermaus overture this morning in the car, and the time shows on the car screen. I had already been thinking about this thread idea for some time, so I paid attention deliberately. For the others, I logged onto a streaming service.

[Florestan]

They've come up with this new technology that involves a pencil and a scrap of paper, you know....

I was listening to the Fledermaus overture this morning in the car, and the time shows on the car screen. I had already been thinking about this thread idea for some time, so I paid attention deliberately.

That's like saying: I'm going to have the multiple fuck of my life and mark the timestamp of the best orgasm. 

(Sorry, gentlemen, couldn't resist.)

[prémont]

That's like saying: I'm going to have the multiple fuck of my life and mark the timestamp of the best orgasm. 

(Sorry, gentlemen, couldn't resist.)

You are forgiven.

[Brian]

That's like saying: I'm going to have the multiple fuck of my life and mark the timestamp of the best orgasm. 

(Sorry, gentlemen, couldn't resist.)

I don't have sex while driving a car, so that is one difference.

[Florestan]

I don't have sex while driving a car

You should! It completely changes one's perspective on life...

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I admire any recording of Mahler's 7th where you can clearly hear both of the close-together, loud pizzicati near the end of the Scherzo. Most recordings only get one of them right (usually the first one, with the second obscured).

Gielen gets it right in his SWR recording (at 7:30-7:33).

[Mandryka]

Andres Segovia's performance of Albeniz's Leyenda - the rubato is just amazing, miraculous.

The first movement cadenza in Harnoncourt/Lang Lang Mozart PC24 - just a perfect, imaginative and romantic cadenza, composed by the pianist.

[Mandryka]

Sofrinitsky's 1949 Chopin Barcarolle - the transitions from A to B and B to C. Somehow he makes the music into a continuous arc, rather than a triptych.

[Sergeant Rock]

Here's a quote from MacDonald's magnificent three-volume The Symphonies of Havergal Brian. It describes the most intense ending of a piece of music I've ever heard: the conclusion of the third movement (Vivace) and Part I of the Gothic:

"...suddenly it is the climax of the Part I. Brian flings the music back into the home key of D minor with a cadence of astonishing boldness. From C major to D minor by way of F sharp, all in three triads: it is the sensational juxtaposition of C and F sharp that is so exhilarating [and shocking, terrifying--Sarge]. Brian has discovered his full powers. He can stride from one end of the tonal universe to the other in a split second: he can make a single cadence bear the dramatic weight of an entire movement. This is the victory of imagination over form."


Lenard's performance on Marco Polo or Naxos is the only recording that does that moment justice. He does it by holding the F sharp just a tiny bit longer than anyone else, and it makes all the difference.

Sarge

[Symphonic Addict]

The fragment between 3:06 and 4:15 from Langgaard's Symphony No. 4 in E-flat minor, BVN 124 Løvfald in the Stupel/Danacord recording is impeccably well done and no other recording manages to "emulate" this music as fine and poetic as Stupel and the Anton Rubinstein Orchestra do here. It's the epithome of nostalgia and placid moments in autumn, and like seeing the sunbeams through the trees' branches. It brings that scene to my mind. One of favorite moments in all music in general! And this work has plenty of special and memorable passages. Man, Langgaard was quite a tunesmith! And how he develops and transforms themes is proper of a genius IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/v/LSldLoHFP9E?list=OLAK5uy_kZNrgnA279Ax6xNHFug0_IitKJamfM8OA

[(poco) Sforzando]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIU7MLfRYOE&t=1061s

Brahms, Symphony 4 - slow movement, Walter at 22:30. Has anyone else gotten the first violins to soar up to that high A the way Walter did. Very special.

[(poco) Sforzando]

You should! It completely changes one's perspective on life...

Too much information . . . .

[Wanderer]

The first movement cadenza in Harnoncourt/Lang Lang Mozart PC24 - just a perfect, imaginative and romantic cadenza, composed by the pianist.

I don't remember that one, I will re-listen. Even though I generally avoid LL like the plague, the fact that I happened to read this just as I'm listening to the Mozart PC No. 24 - Anderszewski playing - must be some kind of a sign. 🤷‍♂️
And speaking of Mozart K491 cadenzas, the one I'm particularly fond of is by Lucas Debargue, which he played at the Tchaikovsky Competition. Short, expressive, tumultuous, to the point. And with a Bachian twist. Just gorgeous.