What Are You Listening To?

I need to look into Hewitt’s Debussy. My “go tos” are usually Walter Gieseking and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Admittedly, I need to give her Mozart a listen as well. I just have too many recordings of these already including Uchida… who is also a marvelous performer of Debussy. Two other recordings by Hewitt I quite admire are the keyboard works by Scarlatti and Rameau:

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To me, listening to music is like wearing shoes. Not all shoes suit my body; likewise, not all performers dovetail comfortably with my DNA. I have a benchmark that is a useful screening test. When I encounter a new pianist, I check whether they have recorded Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit. From that work, I listen to their interpretation of Scarbo, which reveals a great deal about their personalities and styles of playing. Here are some examples of pianists I revere, showing their individual styles in Scarbo.

Angela Hewitt


Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. This is from Bavouzet's early 2000s recording. He re-recorded it in 2025, which is also breathtaking.


My last example Louis Lortie, who was unknown to me until recently. I like his interesting take on Scarbo, so I have acquired his complete Ravel piano works.

 
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Somehow Frank Zappa, and multiple versions of White Rabbit keep popping up in all sorts of unexpected places. Shopping, friends, my CD compilations and way more.
 
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There are definitely certain performers who resonate more with me than others. I likely have every recording by Glenn Gould performing Bach. I have a good majority of Karajan’s work. Definitely Callas, Schwarzkopf, Anne Sophie Mutter, John Eliott Gardiner… and Rubinstein. Here paired with the equally brilliant Piatigorsky performing Brahms’ Cello Sonatas. Brian knows that my admiration for Brahms has been hit or miss… but I have always loved his chamber works… especially the Cello Sonatas.

 
I just came upon this performance of White Rabbit by the Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock. Not only was this from a time before auto-tune… but the band admitted they had been slipped LSD before going on stage 😳

 
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This is a delicious collection of short pieces for unaccompanied violin by Spanish and Latin American composers. Pine is an incredible violinist having recorded violin works by Bach, Mozart, Bruch, Dvorak, etc… Her career… and life… almost ended in 1995 was severely injured in a train accident in a Chicago suburb. As she was exiting a commuter train with her violin over her shoulder, the doors closed on the strap to her case, pinning her left shoulder to the train. The doors, which were controlled remotely and had no safety sensors, failed to reopen, and she was dragged 366 feet (112 meters) by the train before being pulled underneath and run over, one leg severed and the other mangled. She was saved by the prompt application of tourniquets by several passengers.

Pine sued Metra and the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company for compensation for her injuries and legal and medical expenses. The jury ruled in Pine's favor. The transportation company ultimately made changes to the trains and safety procedures following the incident. Pine took 2 years to recover before returning to her career as a violinist.
 
I did not know about Rachel Pine's horrific accident. It's amazing that she was able to recover well enough to resume playing at such a high standard after her ordeal.
 
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For some reason this cold snowy time of the year seems perfectly suited to the music of Lehar… and other Austrian waltz and operetta composers (Strauss, Kalman, etc…)

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I have been looking for an excellent performance of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez in a modern, high resolution recording. Well, I've got hold of Thibaut Garcia's recording with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, conducted by Ben Glassberg. I think it is the equal of my ancient recording by John Williams and Eugene Ormandy. The sound is exceptionally clear and it is a pleasure to hear on my system. Here is the first movement.


My hope is that Thibaut Garcia will record the Castelnuovo Tedesco Guitar Concerto in the near future. My recording with John Williams and Eugene Ormandy is good, but the sound is not great, as one notices in this YouTube video.

 
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Currently I am listening to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s recording of Richard Strauss including his Last Four Songs… quite possibly my favorite vocal work of the 20th century. Schwarzkopf was one of the towering vocalists of the 20th century standing head and shoulders along side Maria Callas. She had initially planned to become a physician, but her father, a university professor, was dismissed from his job and banned from any teaching position after refusing the Nazi Party from holding meetings at his school. His daughter was banned from attending any university as a result, and so she headed more deeply into her musical studies. Ironically, there were rumors that she was Der Führer’s favorite singer. This… and the fact that Schwarzkopf was required to join the party in order to perform in Germany… and her appearance (blonde and blue-eyed) led to repeated rumors after the war when she had moved to England.

Schwarzkopf was one of the greatest performers of Mozart’s operas. She was also especially known for her performances of works by Richard Strauss, Lehár’s operetta, The Merry Widow, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Brahms’ German Requiem, Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermauss, and Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier in which her performances of The Marschallin became her signature role. She retired from performing following her husband’s death and taught master classes around the world, notably at Juilliard.

Schwarzkopf recorded the Four Last Songs twice… this version with Otto Ackerman, and a second version with George Szell that is considered by many as ranking among the greatest recordings of the century.

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This disc… a recording of choral Russian works… seems well-suited to the weather and the season. It is also a disc… one of a series… that I used to play in the evenings in the studio after a long day painting. My studio partners used to sit around drinking beers with only a spotlight on one of my paintings creating quite a mood. One of my studio partners suggested that this was how I should exhibit my work… with these choral works playing, spotlights theatrically illuminating my paintings as if they were altarpieces… and myself dressed like a Russian monk. Such a display might work even better today now that I have grown the full monkish beard. 😆
 
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Erich Korngold (1897-1957) was one of the true musical prodigies. His early compositions impressed Mahler at the age of 9. His works were already being performed in major Austrian and German theaters while he was still a teen. His opera, Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) made him famous at the age of 23. With the rise of the Third Reich moved to the US and settled in Hollywood where he wrote a series of lavish scores for films including Captain Blood and Robin Hood. Following WWII he returned to Europe… but his lush late Romantic style found little favor with the dominance of the austere Modernism of the era. The one exception was his gorgeous Violin Concerto first performed by Jascha Heifetz.

Other works on this disc include the Overture to a Drama was composed for full orchestra in 1911 when Korngold was 14. The music to Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing was composed in 1918 and first performed in Vienna in 1920.
 
I don't know if you guys do the streaming thing, but I just started a subscription to Qobuz. CD quality and a huge selection of music. It's a bit overwhelming but the quality is so good that I'm done buying records or CDs. I can't even tell you what I listened to today as it was probably twenty different artists. I was on the exercise bike so I was playing some techno to help my energy levels.
 
stlukesguild said:
View attachment 52662

This disc… a recording of choral Russian works… seems well-suited to the weather and the season. It is also a disc… one of a series… that I used to play in the evenings in the studio after a long day painting. My studio partners used to sit around drinking beers with only a spotlight on one of my paintings creating quite a mood. One of my studio partners suggested that this was how I should exhibit my work… with these choral works playing, spotlights theatrically illuminating my paintings as if they were altarpieces… and myself dressed like a Russian monk. Such a display might work even better today now that I have grown the full monkish beard. 😆
Click to expand...

There is something icon-like about your pictures, though I daresay the Virgin is usually portrayed wearing a bit more. :-)
 
There are a good number of streaming services available and many now offer lossless audio sound. Spotify offers such with the Premier Plan which I have to allow all my family members access. I’ve had Spotify for so long that I have huge playlists saved… but even with such there are CD recordings not available (Karajan’s lush DG recording of Tristan und Isolde immediately comes to mind). The problem is that no single streaming service has legal rights to every artist/musical work you might want. It can also be tricky to search for older recordings. I’m slowly plugging recordings that I found in my CD collection into playlists but this is a long drawn-out process.
 
I’m on a roll with French Classical songs or Mélodie… akin to the German Lieder.

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Reynaldo Hahn is a favorite… as is Susan Graham.

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I just discovered Sabine Devieilhe… but have several recordings by Alexandre Tharaud. This disc includes songs by Poulenc, Ravel, Debussy, & Fauré.
 
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