Full time geek. Classical Music lover. founding Head of 1729 Maths School. CUP book author. Opinions are my own. 🏳️🌈
Joined May 2018
- Tweets 36,750
- Following 10,821
- Followers 12,397
- Likes 75,494
8,547 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
21 Dec 2023
I’m currently working through the 234 box sets and 3 composer retrospectives in this thread. The craziness started in early 2020 with the Stravinsky box and I’ve been lost to it ever since. The link takes you to the END, so you’ll need to scroll up. I will continue to…..
4 Nov 2023
The Jessye Norman Studio Recital Thread.
26
23
259
144,010
#NowSpinning For those who think Järvi is th me only real word on Tubin symphonies, think again. The Volmer set is also superb. If you don’t know these Symphonies, they are approachable and gritty at the same time. There’s a lot of atmosphere and stories to tell…
1
3
30
644
#NowSpinning Sibelius Symphony No.1 with Jukka Pekka Saraste. This is his third complete cycle and will be at least his fourth recording of the Fifth. I always loved the RCA cycle, but not the Finlandia one so much. Let’s see where this settles.
8
6
63
1,416
Well, well. This is just a first listen, of course, by my first impressions of the First are very positive indeed. Lots of nuance and idiomatically-inflected phrasing, but also pretty from point-making. Fresh, but also dark. On to the Second.
1
1
21
512
So, I think I liked the second. This time applause is included. The sound seems a touch more congested than it was for the First, but it’s still good. I particularly liked the accenting in the strings right at the start. But I need to hear again several times yet. Onto the Third.
15
274
#NowSpinning Earl Wild lays Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with Jascha Horenstein. This set is quickly drawing up alongside Hough for me. I can’t believe it took so long for me to hear it!
4
1
43
702
#NowSpinning a spot of Mahler with Herbert Blomstedt. This Resurrection has sat in my collection for a long time, but I think I have only listened to it once. So something of a re-discovery this evening. First impressions are of strong forward momentum and inner life.
2
5
58
1,106
#NowSpinning Arnold’s two sets of English Dances, from this terrific disc. Thomson absolutely knocks these little gems out of the park, and he’s bloody well recorded, too. The Philharmonia horns are particularly refulgent.
4
32
574
#NowSpinning Karajan’s Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony. I have not heard this recording before now. YES I KNOW there are plenty of negative reviews out there, particularly with regard to the dubbing of the organ from Notre Dame Cathedral. But let me listen and make up my own mind!
9
3
54
1,500
Karajan Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon, 355 Discs. Part Four! 1980s DG orchestral recordings, avoiding massive threads!
5
10
91
4,587
#KarajanDG1980s CD 18 is a powerful, but flawed Planets. Mars, Venus, Uranus, Saturn and Neptune made me happy, particularly in the magically atmospheric quiet moments, but also when angry power is required. Jupiter left me joylessly cold and Mercury is somehow less than fluid.
1
2
212
#KarajanDG1980s CD 19 Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Grieg's Holberg Suite and Prokofiev's Classical Symphony. all three need much lighter and buoyant treatment than they receive here, but there is no denying the quality of string playing. Holberg is very beautiful.
3
170
#NowSpinning Karajan’s Berlin Holst Planets. Another Karajan recording I have not heard since the early 2000s. My immediate observation is that Mars has an impressive power, but we have to try to ignore the dreadful, mangled sound that should have been much better.
6
4
59
1,567
#NowSpinning Karajan’s Bruckner Symphony No.1. I have previously expressed my reservations about Karajan’s early Bruckner, but I can keep an open mind on this one. I have only heard this recording once and that was at least a decade ago. Will he allow the work to be ‘das kecke Beserl’?
4
3
53
1,157
#NowSpinning Mozart’s Great C Minor Mass with Karajan. I am slightly bracing myself for this one. I haven’t always enjoyed Karajan’s Mozart, but let’s keep an open mind, peeps!
12
6
80
2,379
A good deal more enjoyable than I expected. Barbara Hendricks is just magnificent. It’s all very perfumed and grand, but I’m fine with that. I’ve a sneaking suspicion Mozart *may* have liked it, too.
2
13
471
#NowSpinning Bach, Handel and Corelli with Eugene Ormandy in Philadelphia. The C Minor Bach Passacaglia and Fugue starts with a dark and glowering outlook. I wonder what Bach might have made of this?
2
3
45
1,014
27 Jun 2023
Antal Dorati Mercury Masters. All the mono recordings on 31 discs. Just adding this to my box set thread, ready for comments on each disc.
4
2
47
5,248
#DoratiMercuryMono CD 9 Beethoven Symphony No.5. Almost all of this is dramatic, precise and crackling with energy. Just two gripes: firstly, there is no repeat in the finale and secondly the final moments seem just a little limp and lacklustre.
1
4
364
#DoratiMercuryMono CD 9 is completed by spirited, if not terribly tidy performances of the Egmont, Coriolan and Leonore III overtures. The first two come off really well, but there is just a touch of scruffiness in the strings in Leonore. It doesn't matter; the spirit is willing!
4
164