Subject: RE: music advice? Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 15:40:39 -0700 you are such a goose. Beethoven - Karajan, Vienna Philharmonic, for all odd number symphonies except No.3. For 3 I like Hogwood, Academy of Ancient Music. Karajan doesn't take the repeat in No.3. You need Missa Solemnis. Gardiner or Karajan should be good. In general, Deutsche Grammaphon has good recordings. Beethoven string quartets are really incredible, especially the late ones. The Emerson String Quartet has an excellent recording of all the quartets. The Julliard String Quartet is also really good, but their recording is live and has applause in it. Beethoven Piano trios are really good. The Beaux Arts Trio is good. Mozart - Requium, the Karajan Gold recording is excellent. Symphonies - Hogwood's recording on period instruments are incredible. Some of Mozart's symphonies are fluffy though. J.S. Bach- Art of Fugue, Julliard String Quartet does an amazing recording of this. Toccata and Fugue, we have the one done by Sony Essential Classics, E. Power Biggs. It is okay. Mass in b minor is really amazing. I can't think of a good recording though. Musical Offering, we have a really good recording of this that escapes me. I remember it has an Abraham van Beyeren (17th century Dutch) still life painting on the cover and the cd is mint green. Cello Suites, I like Rostopovich's recording. Yo yo ma does a bad one. Pablo Casals is worse. St Matthew Passion, The Collegium Vocale Gent, directed by Phillippe Herreweghe (recorded on Harmonia Mundi) is recommended by Philip. I haven't heard it yet. Chopin - Nocturnes are amazing. Ilde Biret recorded on Naxos (Bargain Label). Pretty good. All of his piano music is really good and melancholy. Consumptive. In love with George Sand. Liszt is a virtuoso. He let his daughter Cosima marry Wagner. He is buried in Bayreuth. I don't like his music. He is the reason pianists memorize their music. Schubert is really romantic. Known for his Song Cycles, and Lieder in general. I think he is silly. Bo! Schumann had a beautiful wife that everyone was in love with. She is on the 100 DM. That about sums it up. Clara was a great pianist. Robert wrote okay piano music. I like Chopin more. Rachmaninoff was another virtuoso who wrote music to show off. Puccini is only good for opera. Madame Butterfly and Tosca are some good ones. In general, opera is just not as powerful as other music because it is muddled. Puccini is probably one of the better opera composers. Wagner is a goose. Totalkunst. Richard Strauss is Wagner's disciple. Avoid. Johann Stauss is light. Waltzes. The Waltz King. Fledermaus, baby. Handel is glorious. Messiah. Concerti Grossi. Haydn was jealous of Beethoven. He is pretty good. Symphonies, chamber music. Tchaikovsky. Demented fairy music. Good for ballet. Scary to listen to without the dancing. Grieg, Edvard. More demented fairy music. Scary. Not ballet music, so has no redeeming qualities. Stravinsky writes scary ballet music that every ice skater has had a program to at least once. Program music in more than one way. Was Nicolas' favourite a really long time ago. I could never under stand the lure. Verdi? Keine Ahnung. Opern. I like Monteverdi. But he is not the same. Bartok is demented Hungarian folk music. Dvorak wrote some pretty string quartets. Love of 3 Oranges makes me giggle. Go Czechia. Do you like early music? Palestrina, Josquin, Ockeghem, Hildegard of Bingen. The Hilliard Ensemble does very very good recordings of these early composers. Heinrich Biber is amazing. Pachelbel is 3rd rate. Clementi is strictly good for piano technique. Scarlatti is somewhat better. Vivaldi is nice. Subject: Re: music advice? Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 16:23:33 -0700 i am no expert, but I know what I like. so take it for what its worth: for the Bach suiten fuer violincello solo, I like the recording played by Pierre Fournier. You can hear this at Wall Berlin for a limited time. Request it from Ken. I heard about this recording from Victor, a violin playing, nuclear physicist, co-worker of mine. for the solo violin by Bach, I really like Sandor Vegh's playing them. He is sooooo raw. It sends shivers down my spine just thinking of it. Victor likes Perlman and I have listened to that a few times also. Perlman is a better player - even I can tell that - but I like Vegh's interpretation. He really makes the best attempt to hit all the notes Bach wrote. It is really impossible to play Bach the way he wrote it because the modern violin is different from the one of Bach's day. This being said, the moden violin is enough of an improvement that nobody will play the sloppy old style ones. I get this from the liner notes btw. I think Vegh plays it the way it was meant to be played. Karajan conducting Beethoven is supposed to be the best. Some audiophiles prefer the late recording in extra-special digital, but the early recordings of Karajan when he was young is supposed to be the most powerful. Aparently he had a knack for really ripping it out of the orchestra. When he was older - he just did not have the strength I guess. I would add to the list: Pandolfi, the violin sonatas. Not much is known about him, but I really like his six sonatas. He is an early Baroque composer of the Hapsburg court.