Bach Well-Tempered Clavier (Angela Hewitt, 2008).
Completely mindblowing. The utter musical complexity on display here can't be described, only experienced. Not bad for 1722 and 1742. Our brains cannot process everything that is happening, especially the counterpoint in the fugues. You need like 3 brains. How people play this stuff should be one of life's most curious mysteries.
People where used to that in those days.Originally Posted by chalkpie
I just got a copy of the Goldberg Variations by Beatrice Rana. A lot of music to absorb but I can see myself listening to this CD many times.
Goldberg is definitely one of my fav Bach keyboard works. I love Murray Perahia (Sony), and he does take the repeats (which makes it twice as long). The Partitas and Suites are also killer. TWC is definitely blowing my mind currently, though.
I should probably pick up a modern recording. I have Gould, and Richter. I also have a good sounding harpsichord version on Naxos.
Any particular parts? I'm listening to my Richter set today. P & F No. 21 playing at the moment.
Pretty much everything is so good. I love the variety in both major and minor keys, plus in every key there is. The mood and style changes are so interesting. Plus the crazy counterpoint in the fugues are beyond fun...it's like a game to see how much you can actually "get". Book II seems a little deeper, but not really. Maybe more intricate? It was written like 20 years later.
After listening to Book 1 by Richter, I don't think I need to get a newer version. For some reason the first piece sounds a little fuzzy but after that the recordings sounds great. I agree that all of them are fascinating listens. You're listening with a trained ear and a knowledge of theory so your appreciation surpasses mine. I just hear it as beautiful and inventive music.
After I finished the CDs I watched Schiff's performance from the Royal Albert Hall. He plays the whole thing from memory.
Great! You hit the nail on the head Reidster: Bach can be so highly technical and uber complex, especially in his contrapuntal writing, yet his music can tear at your heartstrings and is always full of these incredibly different emotions. Great music that is endlessly fascinating. Can you imagine knowing these so well to play from memory....I can't even remember to take the garbage out on Sunday nights.
I'd have to listen for weeks just to remember some of the melodies in my head, much less play the stuff. As it stands, the parts I can hear in my head are the opening prelude, and part 6, which is the one Keith Emerson played on side two of Tarkus.
A. Scriabin: Prometheus or the Poem of Fire
Richard Strauss - Metamorphosen
I just got the Naxos recording by the Nashville Symphony, and Chicago Symphony Chorus. Great sonics on this one!I've been hitting Ravel's mini opera L'enfant et les sortilčges.
Nerd.
Ok, Holmboy
Nurd.
LOL...fuckin' great Reidster!
Seiji Ozawa dead at 88.
https://www.npr.org/sections/decepti...ra-dies-age-88
^ I saw...RIP good sir. He was the real deal. He made one of my favorite Bartók recordings.
I have the Philips box. It has his recording of C. for O. and Music for Strings.
If you're classical music of the pre-recording era, musicians need to understand you from sheet music alone (even if heard other musicians play it) --- the point is, there's no "composer's own recording" for reference, and obviously despite this, many orchestras gladly played and recorded the music after the recording era began. Exact opposite, prog rockers give the world a studio album (such "composer's own recording", the "reference") but don't get to see their whole piece (album) performed by others. Some prog bands should put out a new album by the band using sheet music alone, to support the practice of others learning to perform it, to see what results this generates musically. Actually it might be an interesting pursuit for especially bands which, despite not performing as a band anymore (such as Genesis), can write an album that they never need to perform themselves. One reason this won't draw the same level of interest from listeners is that the fact that many rock listeners form a connection to the certain uniqueness defined into the band's sound by the band's own vocalist will make the listener approach the new different listening experience without that vocalist as mostly a "cover band experience". Nevertheless it would be interesting to hear a "new but typical so-and-so band album" as performed by some other bands from sheet music alone, with no reference recording for the listeners to compare to, to see how the music turns out differently when performed by different bands, much like hearing a classical piece performed by tens of different orchestras over decades.
In some cases there were piano-rolls by the original composers.
And problem with sheet music is you can't note everything. And with older music even tempos might be cause for confusion.
Pianist Maurizio Pollini passed today at age 82. I'm remembering him while listening to the Luigi Nono album he recorded with Claudio Abbado in 1970.
Poul Ruders - https://poulruders.net/ - about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEZQ0jbqMps
Erik Satie - Furniture Music
Tapisserie en fer forgé
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