Kevin's Watch

Uh oh! Read the thread title!

Anyway, I need Fist and Duchess and Matrix and you other classical nuts to tell me what to buy next. Here's all I have so far:

Brandenburg Concertos
Musical Offering
The Art of Fugue
Bach: Magnificat/Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen
Bach - Mass in B Minor
Bach: Toccatas and Fugues - Organ
Bach: Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin
Beethoven: The Late String Quartets
Beethoven: 9 Symphonien
Johannes Brahms: The Symphonies
Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra
Bartok - The String Quartets
Mozart: Requiem
Mozart: Coronation Mass

I'm probably only gonna spend 100 on classical, tops. I've gotta bolster my rock collection, and then there's a couple Akira Kurosawa DVDs that have my attention. Ah, I'm rambling.

And you'll have the St. Matthew Passion as soon as I get around to mailing it. I've been a bit distracted lately. heh

And I'll push Schubert again. His song cycles - Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise (Schwanengesang wasn't written as a cycle, it was just some of his songs gathered into a collection by somebody or other. Still good though.); collections of single songs, cello quintet, and piano sonata D.959 are great starts. Watch out for the song cycles though - full of death and despair! Not at all fit for the Watch.

Death and despair? I like, I like!

Fist and Faith wrote:And you'll have the St. Matthew Passion as soon as I get around to mailing it. I've been a bit distracted lately. heh

I understand completely. Thanks so much Fist! I'd crawl through your computer monitor and hug ya, but that might give you a heart attack!!

Schubert's string quartets You must have those.

Speaking of death and despair, how about another melancholy set of songs: Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder (Songs On The Death Of Children). It's been said (by his detractors perhaps) that much of Mahler's music is obssessed with death. Hey, nothing wrong with that! Thomas Hampson sings a fine rendition of these songs, accompanied by Leonard Bernstein & the Vienna Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon label).

For even more neurotic despair Mahler-style, I positively must mention his 9th Symphony. It was the last complete symphony he wrote before his death. I don't usually have the heart to listen to the entire symphony, only the long, tragic 1st Movement, because it takes so much out of me. It's a symphony in its own right!

There are many recordings of Mahler's symphonies out there. In the case of the 9th, I love Herbert von Karajan's 1982 live recording with the Berlin Philharmonic. It's maybe the most famous version, and deserves to be.

If you're really taken by the 9th, you may want to check out a spooky, 1938 mono recording of a performance by Bruno Walter & the Vienna Philharmonic. Spooky because the faint, slightly scratchy sound makes the music sound even more ominous, like it was reaching out from beyond the grave. This performance was also a dangerous affair for the musicians at the time, because they were playing the music of a Jew while under Nazi rule.

You know, I barely know Mahler. I've just never known anyone who knew him, so never heard talk of him, or knew which recordings to try. This certainly isn't your first post on him, MM. I think I'll have to start getting some.

There's a recording of Mahler's 9th, conducted by Bruno Walter, that's pretty good.

You could also try Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. At it's premiere, a couple of years before WWI in Paris, a riot broke out right after the orchestra started playing it. Traditionalists like Saint-Seans were incensed, while Ravel cheered it on and Debussy called for the audience to quiet down.

Stravinsky's Firebird Suite is also worth a listen.

And one of my personal favourites is Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 From The New World

Damelon wrote:There's a recording of Mahler's 9th, conducted by Bruno Walter, that's pretty good.

Damelon, you just reminded me: there are indeed 2 available recordings of Mahler's 9th by Walter. The one you're referring to must be the much later one Walter did in the 1960's with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra (his "personal" orchestra). It's common opinion that Walter did his greatest work with the Columbia musicians, so I'm not surprised this version of the 9th is pretty darn good. I've never had the chance to hear it, though; just the 1938 mono.

Yeah, scratch the mono, Lord Foul. Go for the later stereo version with the Columbia if Walter+Mahler interest you (it's on the Sony Classical label). I'm sure it's cheaper than the Karajan version at any rate. You'd have to be a serious Mahler nut to actually want to listen to a crappy mono recording that sounds like the orchestra was being miked from the bathroom. (Hey, why are you all looking at me like that?)

I agree with Damelon, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Riot or no.

I happen to like certain operas, and Richard Strauss's Salome is my favorite. Strauss was an innovator for his time. I have two versions, one starring Caballe (London Philharmonic) and one starring Birgit Nilsson. I prefer the Caballe, myself, because of her acting style. Matrixman would probably agree with me, because Nilsson was directed by Georg Solti.

There are also some videos of Salome where the female lead gets naked, as Strauss intended. As with period performances, I think things should be as the composer intended.




And I love Rite of Spring! SOOOO vital and primal! And the changing and complicated rhythms are excellent!

Fist and Faith wrote:There are also some videos of Salome where the female lead gets naked, as Strauss intended. As with period performances, I think things should be as the composer intended.

You traditionalist!

Who are we? That's what I want to know! Who are we to change the intent of these composers that we think so highly of! Why, it's practically blasphemy!!!

I've never heard any of R. Strauss's operas. I know him solely through Also Sprach Zarathustra, and that work I first came to know through its monumental intro movement, used in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's still the most awe-inspiring minute-and-a-half of music I've ever heard. Stanley Kubrick chose his music well.

Does anyone else have the 2001 soundtrack in their collection? I would definitely recommend it (and the film of course) as a great sampling of the avant-garde music of Gyorgy Ligeti. Atmospheres, which accompanies the Star Gate sequence in the film, was totally mesmerizing: I had never heard anything like it before (or since, for that matter).

2001 also includes what I feel is still the best version of the Blue Danube waltz, played by the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan. This 1967 performance is so elegant and majestic, so dramatic and epic, so assured of itself that every other recording of this waltz I've heard--even one of Karajan's later versions--sounds clumsy by comparison. Worst version of the Blue Danube I've heard? Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra on TELARC. They butchered the waltz. Horribly. Avoid like the plague!

Er...anyway, Lord Foul may already have the 2001 soundtrack, Kubrick (and "Ludwig van") connoisseur that he is.

It's funny how Kubrick through his musical choices for his movies ended up enlightening me about classical music (especially the avant-garde stuff) in a way more fun than any classroom could be.

Dragonlily wrote:I prefer the Caballe, myself, because of her acting style. Matrixman would probably agree with me, because Nilsson was directed by Georg Solti.

Years ago I went through a burst of listening to highlights of great women voices of opera. I seem to recall Caballe and Callas stood out as favorites.

Okay, here's what I plan on getting so far:

Schubert: String Quintet in C, D. 956
Schubert: Quintet, Op. 114 "The Trout" / Sonata, D. 821 "Arpeggione"
Stravinsky: Rite Of Spring, Fireworks, Petrouchka / Ozawa, Tilson Thomas, Chicago Symphony
Mahler's 9th

Will look into the other recordings you guys mentioned later, but after a recent spending spree at Circuit City, I've goy about 245 left over. I'm saving most of it for something else other than CDs, so I'm budgeting myself, music-wise. Still looking for a good 9th on Amazon.