Music

[Costi]

CD's and DVD's are good souvenirs, but if you really like symphonic and opera music do go to live performances as often as possible. It is like the difference between canned food (or canned sound, as in Baron Muenchhausen's frozen horn story) and haute cuisine.

[Cordovan]

CD's and DVD's are good souvenirs...

I thought you were going to say that vinyl is the way to go . Although, I should say that on occasion, I really do prefer records over CDs.

Cordovan

[garu]

I agree with many of the choices mentioned in previous posts. I do, however, dislike the apartheidization of music. As Duke Ellington once suggested, there are only two kinds of music - good music and bad music. Like the Duke - and all of you - I like good music. Enjoy!

[Des Esseintes]

I have recently developed a taste for Baroque music on period instruments. Before that most of my collection was dominated by Romantic repertoire, especially Hyperion's romantic concerto series.

Dear Bishop - or should I say, Your Excellence

I am sure you are aware already of the fact that your preferred label Hyperion also produces some extraordinarily good baroque recordings. I would particularly recommend their small and somewhat misleadingly named Bach's Contemporaries series - excellent recordings of sacred works by Schelle, Kuhnau and Knuepfer, now almost forgotten early to mid-baroque German composers. Also, some of their English baroque repertoire is excellent, with great Arne and Boyce recordings.

Two other labels worth discovering for their Baroque repertoire are Harmonia Mundi France (particularly for French baroque, of course) and cpo, a small but high quality German label and consequently focussing on the less obvious German and Austrian/Bohemian baroque.

Finally, a particular favourite of mine and strong contender for my "most cherished" recording is Rovetta's "Vespro solenne" (with Cantus Koeln, also by Harmonia Mundi France), vespers comissioned by the French ambassador to Venice on the occasion of the birth of the dauphin who would later become Le Roi Soleil, and appropriately grand and sparkling.



dE

dE

[Manself]

The acceptable face of my CD selection is Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Debussy. The vast majority of it, however, is given over to hip-hop and alternative rock. I recently found myself nodding along to a DMX tune while dressed in a blazer, panama, lido-collar shirt, brick red cotton trousers and deck shoes.

[Bishop of Briggs]

@ Des Esseintes

Many thanks for your helpful post.

I have several Baroque CDs from Hyperion, e.g. Angela Hewitt's excellent Bach piano series. Chandos is another excellent label that champions repertoire unavailable elsewhere.

I am now exploring Harmonia Mundi's excellent catalogue, especially your excellent suggestions. CPO is new to me so I will have to search for that label.

[couch]

I have been resisting the temptation to jump in here but Des Esseintes's excellent post lures me to follow on . . . .

The treasure trove of Harmonia Mundi France and U.S. (very occasionally Germany) is indeed rich. A few personal favorites:
- The complete lute works of John Downland by Paul O'Dette. Simply peerless.
- Handel's Guilio Cesare conducted by Rene Jacobs
- Mozart's Cosi and Figaro " "
- Charpentier's "Te Deum" by Christie and Les Arts Florissants
- Handel's and Corelli's violin sonatas by Manze and Egarr
And dozens more.

The label Opus 111 catalog was/is also splendid in baroque repertory.
- The Corelli Opus 6 concerti grossi by Biondi and Europa Galante
- The Monteverdi madrigal books by Alessandrini and Concierto Italiano
-The remarkable project of recording the trove of Vivaldi operas discovered a few years back in the National Library of Turn. This has changed (and will change your) ideas about the red priest. The recordings on Opus 111-now the Naïve label, by a phalanx of Italy's best ensembles and singers, are beautifully, naturally recorded and the performances are quite remarkably consistent in quality, full of energy, drama, and some of the most surprisingly lovely and affecting vocal writing in the repertory, giving Handel a run for his money in the da capo aria stakes. There's a (link ->) sampler disc of arias (from the first several operas in the series) that gives a good idea of the range and quality.

Then there are old favorites, like Gardiner's dramatic Monteverdi Orfeo, and some of the delightful Hogwood AAM recordings on Decca/l'Oiseau Lyre. Despite advances in playing technique since it was recorded, I'm still captivated by the utter transparency of texture in his landmark Messiah (with Emma Kirkby in her freshest voice). It was a late analog recording, digitized in '9l; I don't think it's been remastered yet, though as I recall the sound of the LPs it would yield great dividends if remastered at higher definition.

There's Rachel Podgers's amazing disc of Vivaldi's La Stravaganza concerti on Channel Classics, and Podger and Manze doing the Bach solo and double concerti for Harmonia Mundi, and -- well, I'd better stop or this will go on forever.

[Bishop of Briggs]

I recommend Vivaldi lovers to hear, and then buy, Guiliano Carmignola's violin concertos with the Venice Baroque Orchestra on Sony and DG. Marvellous!

[OldBill]

I agree with The Duke and his view on music. However what makes the distinction between good and bad? I have long pondered on this as music has long been a passion of mine.

To my mind (ears) there has to be be two basic ingredients present, talent and a part of the artist themselves. That is to say they have to need/want to play music because it is what they are. The more it comes from the core of their being the better it is going to be,

It is all very well being a talented technician but if you cannot infuse the music with that something more, to my mind it remains ordinary and is of little interest.

Eric Clapton is s perfectly competent technician but his music has never reached inside me and grabbed a hold of bits I didn't even know I had, Jimi Hendrix did.

Joni Mitchell has less of a voice than Whitney Huston (in range and technical purity) but Joni can take me to the point of tears whereas Whitney just takes me to the point of madness.

Consequently I hear music that is not to my taste (Miles davies for example) but can appreciate that what he was doing was what he 'had' to do, and he did it well.

Unfortunatly these days many of the 'stars' we are fed, went into it for the fame/celebrity and not because they had music inside them that if they didn't get out would have destroyed them.

Does that make sense?

[storeynicholas]

Unfortunatly these days many of the 'stars' we are fed, went into it for the fame/celebrity and not because they had music inside them that if they didn't get out would have destroyed them.

I see the point and agree about many modern 'stars' - but there have alwways been composers, singers and musicians who self-destructed, even while letting it out - from
Mozart, to Judy Garland, Edith Piaf and Carmen Miranda.
NJS

[OldBill]

True enough sir, but I think the point is a fair one, great music comes from those who simply have to express it. That does not mean that great music can only come from tortured souls (universal positives can only be partially converted as Monty Pyton once said!) but often it seems to help.

Certainly the artists I seem to like are often of that genre so maybe it is just me!

[storeynicholas]

True enough sir, but I think the point is a fair one, great music comes from those who simply have to express it. That does not mean that great music can only come from tortured souls (universal positives can only be partially converted as Monty Pyton once said!) but often it seems to help.

Certainly the artists I seem to like are often of that genre so maybe it is just me!

Yes, I don't disagree with you really. But there are some, such as Caruso or Kathleen Ferrier - or even Gertrude Lawrence and Frank Sinatra whose voices can reach us without seeming to be actually tortured souls - but even here, I note, that 3 of the 4 whom I have picked at random, died very young and, in Kathleen Ferrier's case,it was of throat cancer, which (I once read) might have derived from the peculiarities of her throat and voice box which gave her voice (even evident in old recordings) that extraordinarily plangent quality.
NJS

[Concordia]

in Kathleen Ferrier's case,it was of throat cancer

Breast cancer, which metastasized to the skeleton.

[storeynicholas]

in Kathleen Ferrier's case,it was of throat cancer

Breast cancer, which metastasized to the skeleton.

Yes, I am sorry, it was - although it was a medical anomaly which gave her the voice. And she was carried out of the theatre, after completion of her penultimate performance - not so much a tortured soul as a very brave one. There is a free clip of her singing a Brahms' song on this site: http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Contralt ... hleen.html
NJS

[DonB]

I have been enjoying Mendelssohns 4th symphony (the Italian Symphony) by the Concertgebouworkest conducted by KIRILL KONDRASHIN in 1979.

Regards,
Don