On March 01 2010 06:36 phosphorylation wrote: Good thread I am a pretty serious pianist so I know my stuff relatively well. I would like to post arguably the best recording of any piano piece in the entire recorded history.
And I don't even like Horowitz that much, aside from this recording. Remarkable playing.
Good choice, one of my favorite Liszt Sonata recordings although I probably have four other favorites, maybe more. Richter 1960, Gilels 1966, Levy, Barere... Here Barere charges through the Liszt Sonata fugato at blazing speed and still somehow manages to make sense of the melodic line.
I don't like Horowitz that much either, but his reputation is well deserved. + Show Spoiler +
On February 28 2010 10:23 boesthius wrote: i'm a classical guitar player - it's my major atm and i absolutely love Barrios' works. i'm working on La Catedral right now for my junior recital. the 3rd movement is a bitch, pure tremolo T_T
On February 28 2010 10:23 boesthius wrote: i'm a classical guitar player - it's my major atm and i absolutely love Barrios' works. i'm working on La Catedral right now for my junior recital. the 3rd movement is a bitch, pure tremolo T_T
I fell in love with this song my freshman (or maybe sophomore) year with Johannes playing
I thought you wanted to quit sax (or one of your other majors); what happened?
EDIT: and you posted Passapied from Suite Bergamasque? I don't really like it as much as the other songs in the suite; much prefer Prelude/Clair de Lune >_>
On March 01 2010 06:36 phosphorylation wrote: Good thread I am a pretty serious pianist so I know my stuff relatively well. I would like to post arguably the best recording of any piano piece in the entire recorded history. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKg81QJ1zLY And I don't even like Horowitz that much, aside from this recording. Remarkable playing.
Good choice, one of my favorite Liszt Sonata recordings although I probably have four other favorites, maybe more. Richter 1960,
Do you mean the one on Philips mislabeled Budapest 1960, but is actually Carnegie Hall 1965? If so, I agree that's a ridiculously good recording (sound quality aside).
I can't say I focus alot of my listening to Classical music but I've listened to Totentanz by Franz Liszt way too many times. I'm sorry to post a live version I really like giving people audio versions their first time through so they don't get distracted. If you got 14 minutes I really advise you to give it a full listen the build up is amazing. Maybe I'm just a sucker for over the top endings I dunno ^_^
Been a long time fan of Philip Glass. Composers who make me change how to listen to music just stick with me. There's alot of work I love from him but the first 2 parts of Glassworks is what made me a fan.
Nice thread I'll get through some more of it during my break between classes tomorrow gotta finish this reading before bed -_-
On March 01 2010 06:36 phosphorylation wrote: Good thread I am a pretty serious pianist so I know my stuff relatively well. I would like to post arguably the best recording of any piano piece in the entire recorded history. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKg81QJ1zLY And I don't even like Horowitz that much, aside from this recording. Remarkable playing.
Good choice, one of my favorite Liszt Sonata recordings although I probably have four other favorites, maybe more. Richter 1960,
Do you mean the one on Philips mislabeled Budapest 1960, but is actually Carnegie Hall 1965? If so, I agree that's a ridiculously good recording (sound quality aside).
Yes, I don't really care about sound quality unless it starts hurting my ears...
On February 28 2010 09:19 koreasilver wrote: Nikolai Kapustin He's one of my favourite modern day composers. His compositions are heavily influenced by jazz. + Show Spoiler +
Uh, why are we not friends? When I get a hold of a piano, I'm going to start seriously learning many of his pieces.
Someone recently posted his Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano on YouTube (I'm listening to it now, the performance isn't that good =/ I can provide you with a better recording). I was hooked on this for nearly a year! It helped me through exams =)
EDIT: I am a classically trained pianist, I dabble into guitar and played French horn in my high school band.
Schubert's Tragic Symphony is easily one of the most underrated and underperformed symphonies of all time IMO. In fact, Schubert is grossly underrated as a composer. In many regards, he is vastly superior to both Mozart and Beethoven.
Not my favorite interpretation, but it's still pretty good. The lack of quality Schubert symphonies on Youtube is quite disappointing.
I am a big fan of the romantic movement, and I would rate my top five composers as something like:
1. Beethoven/Schubert 2. Beethoven/Schubert 3. Liszt 4. Tchaikovsky 5. And here is where it gets difficult because I get reminded of who I'd have to leave out. :3 Brahms, Mendelssohn, Bruckner, Vivaldi, and many others could all belong here.
Beyond my favorite, symphonic and orchestral repertoire, I'm also quite fond of piano repertoire. For interpreters of Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, I would say Brendel and Kempff are without equal. Rubinstein is spectacular in some pieces and boring in others (his Chopin is basically all top-notch though), and I (forgive me) find Horowitz quite bland overall.
I think one of the reasons I enjoy Brendel and Kempff so much is that the former firmly believes in conveying the will of the composer and not the artist in a performance, so I feel that often, the true intentions of the composers shine through quite well. Kempff adheres to a similar belief from what I've heard, and I would say that he can achieve the cliche "passion and feeling" in a performance without compromising the integrity of the music. To continue my Horowitz hate, I find that he embellishes too much of his own intent into the piece, and often needlessly integrates rubato.
I saw a few Karajan videos earlier - while Karajan did do great work and have a wide repertoire, many would agree that some of his recordings left much to be desired. Karajan was at his best conducting the late romantics such as Strauss and Bruckner. Under Abbado, the Berlin Philharmonic, I felt, achieved a clearer and more piercing sound, which I prefer.
My all-time favorite conductor would, from what I've heard, definitely Evgeny Mravinsky. The precision and clarity and control he achieved with the Leningrad Philharmonic was easily without par. It's a pity that he spent much of his professional life in Leningrad and received very little exposure beyond the few tours he made to western Europe. This is easily one of the best B4's out there:
For those of you who, like me, love Beethoven and Schubert's symphonies, I highly recommend checking out Frans Bruggen and the Orhcestra of the 18th Century. A period ensemble, they nonetheless produce such a vast sound, and their Schubert cycle is one of my all-time favorites, and his Beethoven cycle (recorded live,) was also superb. I personally have always felt that the prevailing view of portraying Schubert's symphonies, especially his earlier ones, as simple, light, Mozart-esque forays to be quite insulting, and Bruggen captures the sheer emotional intensity present in them better than any I've seen. For my favorite, the fourth, however, I think that the separation of sounds was a bit off and I would recommend Ricardo Muti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.
That was my random rabblings, reading back it seems quite disjointed haha. Having just one umbrella "classical music thread" seems so...over-generalizing D:
Hm, I'm surprised no one has had anything on Stravinsky. To me, The Rite of Spring (particularly the first movement) is one of the most interesting, most fascinating pieces I have ever heard. No other piece holds my attention quite like The Rite of Spring. Unfortunately, not being a huge classical music fan (well, rather, I don't spend as much time listening to it as I should), I'm not as wonderful at finding good interpretations of it as some of you guys might be. However, I'll post a youtube just for the sake of it Stravinsky - Rite of Spring + Show Spoiler +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgHMpYsv0_0
Oh, happy birthday Chopin~! In 7th grade, you were always my favorite composer for your name alone :D!
The advantage of a recent composer is that there are recordings of Stravinsky himslf conducting the Rite of Spring, I suggest you check it out. If anything it's at least the most "authoritative" interpretation.
I really haven't listened to much Schubert before. I'll give a thorough listening to the stuff you posted, Sheep, when I get back home.
I've listened to a lot of Stravinsky, and I can see that he was one of the most important composers of recent times, but his music just doesn't really appeal to me as much as some of the other recent composers. I have a lot of reservations in calling minimalist composers as classical, but when it comes to recent composers I have a soft spot for minimalists, mainly due to Steve Reich and Arvo Part.
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