Full time geek. Classical Music lover. founding Head of 1729 Maths School. CUP book author. Opinions are my own. 🏳️🌈
St Albans, UK
Joined May 2018
- Tweets37.5K
- Following10.7K
- Followers12.4K
- Likes76.5K
Pinned Tweet
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…..
#NowSpinning a version of Sibelius’s Symphony No.2 I don’t think I recall ever hearing. To be honest the very option gestures seem too relaxed to me, but let’s see how it pans out as a whole…
Igor Stravinsky complete Columbia Recordings on 57 discs. Several of these feature the composer as conductor, but many were merely supervised for him. But it's clearly an absolute treasure trove.
#ColumbiaStravinsky CD 4 starts with the 1946 recording Stravinsky made of his own Symphony of Psalms. This is stripped back and avoids any lushness or sentiment, so that it sounds mechanically ritualistic and somewhat obsessive. A real window into the composer’s thinking.
#ColumbiaStravinsky CD 4 also includes the Symphony in 3 Movements. A fabulous example of how easily this angular and jabbing music yet falls easily on the ear. Stravinsky relishes the jazzy rhythms, which are made all the more compelling by the piano contribution. Superb!
#NowSpinning Ireland’s Concertino Pastorale from this new disc. The close recording in a big acoustic makes the music sound massive.
Oh. My. Dear. God. I just watched this film, having stumbled across it. I didn’t know it existed. I can’t think of many horror films with such a grim ending and it takes a LOT for me to react this way. If you like ‘found footage’ films, this one is way better than Blair Witch!
#NowSpinning Stravinsky’s Symphony in 3 Movements, conducted by the composer. Even when the music is angular and spiky it somehow falls so easily on the ear. What a genius Stravinsky was.
Love your Inner Classical Music Geek retweeted
RIP Steven Kovacevich who passed away yesterday at the age of 86.
He made me love Brahms’ PC 1 when I heard him perform it live with the Montreal Symphony circa 1988. I can still feel the electricity that was running through the hall thanks to the intensity of his playing!
#MehtaWarner CD 8 Mehta's Holst Planets from New York. The odd distancing of the sound actually really blunts the impact of Mars and leave the rest feeling just *too* remote. There are lovely sounds - including a gorgeous take on Jupiter's wonderful big tune - but little power. In comparison...
#NowSpinning Shostakovich Violin Concerto No.1 with Perlman and Mehta. The Mehta Warner box has quite a few really interesting couplings and this is certainly one of them. And great cover art, too!
New acquisition. I realised only recently, when I stumbled across this box, that the only Solti Strauss opera recording I have is Die Frau Ohne Schatten. I see reviews of the others are variable in some quarters, but I’ll decide for myself! Solti complete Decca Strauss Opera Recordings on 15 discs.
#NowSpinning Bruch’s Second Violin Concerto, a work I do not know. Fortunately Perlman seems to know it rather well! How interesting to hear it’s first movement almost pick up where the First left off. A bit of recycling isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
#NowSpinning Weinberg’s achingly beautiful Cello Concerto with Nicolas Altstaedt taking the solo part. The meditative opening is grippingly gorgeous. What a corker this work is.
We have a Battle Royale! A thread to chart my ongoing comparison of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s Complete Ravel with…..Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s Complete Ravel. I have set up a playlist that takes both recordings of each work and places them side by side in a random order. Let’s see…
For the Menuet sur le nom Haydn, there is once again little in it. For me a minutely greater forward momentum brings a slight edge in favour of Chandos, though both are delicately done. So it’s 2 - 4 on Chandos.
For Miroirs - which has five movements - I am going to compare each individually. ‘Noctuelles’ clearly inspired Bavouzet’s design imagination in both performances. The harder-toned MDG evokes a skittishness in the nocturnal flutterings, but the Chandos has more light and shade, with even the shadows dancing. So it’s 2 - 5 in favour of the Chandos.
#NowSpinning Andris Nelson’s with Mahler Symphony No.2. Well the first movement is actually quite sunny and pretty. That’s when it’s not just frosty. I think Mahler intended something much more trenchant and dark than this. I didn’t really feel any particular build up of…
…feeling of colossal transcendence? Once again, it sounds spectacular but it’s just sound, at least until the choir really lets rip. But at that point, it’s pretty hard to kill it. The organ is a bit wheezy on top, but actually adds to the canvass pretty nicely. So, overall…
