What Are You Listening To?

[john]

I've been rummaging through Youtube Music and the algorithm is suggesting some interesting stuff. Been really enjoying the music videos, some of which are beautifully done. The art being done with the help of AI now is amazing, even if a little creepy sometimes. I thought this one was quite beautiful. The combo of music and art is compelling. And both the sound and video quality has gotten really good.

 

[stlukesguild]

I stumbled on this box set some years back. I was unsure about it… after all Bernstein was a sworn Romantic… his recordings of Mahler’s 3rd being among his most famous works… and Haydn was the very definition of a Classical… not Romantic… composer. I had long preferred the more stripped-down historically accurate recordings of Haydn, Mozart, etc: John Elliot Gardiner, Minkowski, etc… But this box set was selling on Amazon for a ridiculously low price… so I went with it. And I was not disappointed. Bernstein’s recordings of Haydn are truly splendid… and speaking with other classical music aficionados I found they felt the same. Right now I’m listening to 2 of the “London Symphonies”: no. 100 (“Military”) & no. 101 (“Clock”).

 

[brianvds]

I forgot what a monster Mahler’s 3rd was: his longest work… and the longest symphony in all of the standard repertoire. It’s almost 2 hours long. Several of the movements are longer than almost any of Mozart or Haydn’s entire symphonies. I gotta wonder about Brian’s take on Mahler… considering his obvious links with Wagner.

Strangely enough, I rather like Mahler, or at least, his earlier symphonies. His later works take some getting used to, I think.

One wonders what Wagner might have thought of this particular example of Das Judenthum in der Musik...

 

[Hermes2020]

I am also a big Mahler fan. My absolute favourite compositions are his song cycles, especially Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, along with the fourth movement (Misterioso) from the Symphony No. 3.

What also moves me deeply every time I hear it is the Adagietto from the 5th symphony, which Visconti used so brilliantly in the movie Death in Venice.

However, if I could choose only one Mahler work for my desert island, it would be Das Lied von der Erde. Here is the joyful Von der Jugend from that work.

 

[stlukesguild]

Van Cliburn’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s 1st Piano Concerto with Kirill Kondrashin is one of the best recordings of any piano concerto IMO. It was recorded following Van Cliburn’s winning the first International Tchaikovsky Competition. At the height of the Cold War the judges were concerned about awarding this prize to an American. They went to Khrushchev to ask his permission. Khrushchev asked “Is he the best?” When they replied “Yes,” he told them “Then give him the prize.” Different from a current egomaniacal world leader. Van Cliburn returned to the US to a ticker tape parade in New York City… the only such accolade ever afforded to any classical musician… or artist of any ilk. This marvelous recording of Rachmaninov does not date long after the Tchaikovsky.

 

[stlukesguild]

I was going to say “ a little more Mahler” but with Mahler nothing is a “little” . This is a beautiful, lush recording.

 

[Hermes2020]

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I was going to say “ a little more Mahler” but with Mahler nothing is a “little” . This is a beautiful, lush recording.

Addabo's output over the years was very much to my taste. I have his Mahler 3 in FLAC form on my network player and it is one of my favourites. His Daphnis et Chloe with the London Symphony Orchestra is another favourite in my collection. Here he is with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.