#morninglistening to #Dittersdorf on...

#morninglistening to #Dittersdorf on @capricciorec

http://a-fwd.to/46HWNku

in #concertos & #symphonies

#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #karldittersvondittersdorf #orchestralmusic #WienerKlassik #germanromanticism #Flowers #Capriccio #capricciorecords #venustrap

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Forbes Classical CD Of The Week: The Second Coming Of Celibidache

…The quality of this live recording, as the liner notes readily acknowledge, is not good: The light rig hums, there’s white noise, and the benches of the St. Florian Basilica creak. But what a performance! Rémy Ballot, for all practical purposes a no-name conductor, delivers a spellbinding performance of the sprawling, ingenious original version of Bruckner’s “Wagner” Symphony, perfectly paced in the über-resonant space of Bruckner’s St.Florian, and lasting 89 (!) minutes which Gramola somehow fit on one (!) CD. The Bruckner-Festival pick-up band responds with verve to …

-> Classical CD Of The Week: The Second Coming Of Celibidache

#morninglistening to #Reger w/@DDPhilharmonie on...

#morninglistening to #Reger w/@DDPhilharmonie on @capricciorec

http://a-fwd.to/46HWNku

in the #MozartVariations & #Böcklin Suite.

#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #MaxReger #orchestralmusic #germanromanticism #20thCenturyMusic #SurprisedByBeauty #Flowers

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#morninglistening to #Rachmaninov #PianoTrios...

#morninglistening to #Rachmaninov #PianoTrios w/@lisedelasalle

http://a-fwd.to/4hbZAoa

on the @operzuerich label

w/#BartlomiejNiziol & #ClaudiusHerrmann

#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #Rachmaninoff #ChamberMusic #RussianMusic #PianoTrio #20thCenturyMusic #SurprisedByBeauty #PhilharmoniaZürich #noFilter

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#morninglistening to #DSCH on @RefRecordings w/@pghsymphony...

#morninglistening to #DSCH on @RefRecordings w/@pghsymphony & @ManfredHoneck:

http://a-fwd.to/1XxDM5b

@SurprisedBeauty music. ☆☆☆☆☆

#Shostakovich and #Britten

#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #symphonies #symphony #RussianMusic #SovietMusic #orchestralmusic #20thCenturyMusic #SurprisedByBeauty

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#morninglistening to #Bach on @BR_Klassik w/@BRSO~Chorus...

#morninglistening to #Bach on @BR_Klassik w/@BRSO~Chorus

http://a-fwd.to/4apufe4

and #concertoköln ♡
under #PeterDijkstra in the #massinbminor

w/#christinalandshamer, #AnkeVondung, #KennethTarver & #AndreasWolf

#classicalmusic, #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #EarlyMusic #originalinstruments #baroquemusic #choralmusic

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#morninglistening to #Schumann on @berlinclassics...

#morninglistening to #Schumann on @berlinclassics w/@Gewandhaus

http://a-fwd.to/3KMkY5j

& #JürnjakobTimm under #KurtMasur + #Tchaikovsky Rokoko-Variations + 2 #Bach Solo Cello Suites

#germanromanticism #RussianMusic #cellosuites #classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #ChamberMusic #noFilter #solocello

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#morninglistening to #Ligeti’s #poemesymphonique on...

#morninglistening to #Ligeti’s #poemesymphonique on @Sony_classical:

http://a-fwd.to/37GoIKb

(An amazing box set and really a must for any Ligeti-lover)

Very difficult to conduct, I imagine.

#20thCenturyMusic #classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #percussionmusic #györgyligeti #contemporarymusic #metronome

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#morninglistening to #RimskyKorsakov...

#morninglistening to #RimskyKorsakov w/@operzuerich:

http://a-fwd.to/1gTux2L

w/@FabLuisi

#sheherazade #symphonicSuite

#PhilharmoniaZürich under #FabioLuisi, of whom I might yet become a fan what with his Zurich transformation!

#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #RussianMusic #orchestralmusic

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#morninglistening to #Spohr the sacred...

#morninglistening to #Spohr the sacred composer:

http://amzn.to/2gFBrqU

#Mass in c-minor op.54 & Three #Psalms op.85

on #Carus w/#FriederBernius & the #kammerchorStuttgart

#classicalmusic #sacredmusic #choralmusic #acapella #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #LouisSpohr #

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'The Price' at Arena Stage

Hal Linden (Gregory Solomon) and Maboud Ebrahimzadeh (Victor Franz) in The Price, Arena Stage (photo by Colin Hovde)
Among Arthur Miller’s plays, The Price does not rank high. With few revivals in general, it was mounted earlier this year on Broadway, and a new production opened this month at Arena Stage. Seen there on Saturday night, it is not a version that demands a reassessment of this lesser play’s importance.

Miller turns to some familiar subject matter in this play: two sons divided by their failure of a father. One brother feels he has given up his hope for a better future to support the father, who went bankrupt in the Great Depression. The other brother went on with his life and became a successful scientist. Now that the father has died, the brothers have to get rid of all of their parents' possessions before their apartment building is sold off, and it is time for the family to settle its debts.

Other Reviews: Nelson Pressley, Hal Linden is right for ‘The Price’ at Arena Stage (Washington Post, October 13) Arthur Miller, The Past and Its Power: Why I Wrote 'The Price' (New York Times, November 14, 1999)

The best part of this production is to watch veteran actor Hal Linden in the role of Gregory Solomon, the hustling furniture appraiser called in to set a price on what is left in the apartment. Linden has a lot of fun with the character, who claims to be the age of Linden himself (or so), whom you may recall from his turn as the title character in the television show Barney Miller in the late 1970s. Most of the time that he is on the stage, more in Act I than Act II, Linden keeps the pacing of the play moving.

The text of the play stalls badly in the second act. More than once, when characters threaten to leave the scene, one really hopes that they will just get going. Maboud Ebrahimzadeh was the most sympathetic as Victor Franz, the police officer brother, a man all too comfortable resting in his misery, which irritates his wife, Esther Franz, played with a shrewish edge by Pearl Sun, in her Arena Stage debut. Least effective was Rafael Untalan as the wealthy brother, Walter Franz, although part of the weakness was due to Miller's text.

The Price runs through November 12 at Arena Stage.

#morninglistening to #Weinberg & #Bloch on...

#morninglistening to #Weinberg & #Bloch on @CRozhlas/#AnimalMusic

http://amzn.to/2lgR4Ks

#PianoQuintets
w/#StamitzQuartet & #AnetaMajerová ☆☆☆☆♡

terrific recording of the Weinberg!

#classicalmusiccollection #classicalmusic #PianoQuintet #classicalcdcollection #ChamberMusic #MieczyslawWeinberg #ErnestBloch Stamitz SQ4t

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Forbes Classical CD Of The Week: Johann Sebastian Clown

…Blow thy mighty cheeks and do your best impression of a wizard organist. Then add an instrument that can do absolutely everything (electronically), from imitating a clown car to reproducing pretty much any organ in the world: Limitless possibilities, and at the controls, recklessly, the lovechild of Pee Wee Herman and Sid Vicious. Endowed with an excess of skill and ability and unrestrained by limitations that good taste or fusty organ-decorum might prescribe, the self-styled heretic Cameron Carpenter sets about to reinvent the genre in his own image. The fact that he is playing Bach here isn’t primarily important; Bach is merely the playground on which he might just propel the organ (his own, custom-made, truck-size, Swarovski-encrusted digital monster) to popularity again…

-> Classical CD Of The Week: Johann Sebastian Clown

#morninglistening to #CesarCui songs on...

#morninglistening to #CesarCui songs on #Klanglogo

http://amzn.to/2zuEtFX

w/#JeanBermes & #DenisIvanov with a view of #Montserrat

Not a beautiful voice, Jean Bermes’, but a really interesting one and full of character. Beats pretty and meaningless!

#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #RussianMusic sounding like #frenchmusic! #liedmelodieartsong #Catalonia

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#morninglistening to #Ullmann songs w/@landshamer on...

#morninglistening to #Ullmann songs w/@landshamer on @oehmsclassics

http://amzn.to/2yFfuC1

A most welcome selection of songs by this just-about-great but largely unsung composer.

☆☆☆(☆)

w/the great #GeroldHuber on piano.

#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #entartetemusik #degeneratemusic #liedmelodieartsong #RobertSchumann

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#morninglistening to #Bach w/#MasaakiSuzuki

#morninglistening to #Bach w/@MSuzukiBCJ

http://amzn.to/2l3l1Oe

The second volume of #MasaakiSuzuki’s Bach organ works, except hadn’t he already recorded the organ mass before that?

☆☆☆☆

#classicalmusic #EarlyMusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #baroquemusic #organMusic #historicalinstruments #nofilter

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#morninglistening to #Mozart et al. on @sony_classical...

#morninglistening to #Mozart et al. on @sony_classical w/#BerlinPianoQuartet

http://a-fwd.to/2qynbg1

#PianoQuartet

#classicalmusiccollection #classicalmusic #JohannesBrahms #ChamberMusic …also includes #pianoquartets by #RobertSchumann and #GustavMahler

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Mariinsky Ballet returns with curious, occasionally brilliant 'La Bayadère'

La Bayadère, Kingdom of the Shades (Act III), Mariinsky Ballet (photo by Valentin Baranovsky)
The last time the Mariinsky Ballet performed La Bayadère at the Kennedy Center, it was in 2008, when the company was still calling itself the Kirov Ballet. Regret over missing that run is almost entirely due to the chance to see Diana Vishneva dance the role of Nikia, in what was the company’s first performance of the ballet, in the Marius Petipa choreography, here in Washington. The second run of this ballet, which opened last night in the Kennedy Center Opera House, was most remarkable for its male lead.

It has to be said that La Bayadère is not exactly a work for the ages. It has a largely undistinguished score by Ludwig Minkus, often little more than a harmonic pattern and accompanying figures in search of an interesting melody. The story is a fairly standard love triangle, involving a prince who has to marry Gamzatti, the rajah's daughter, but is actually in love with Nikia, the temple dancer (bayadère) of the title. There is a lot of rather stilted pantomime in the first two acts, and the divertissment in the second act, for the wedding of Solor and Gamzatti, is a ludicrous pageant that opens with Solor arriving atop a (fake) elephant and reaches a silly climax with the corps holding stuffed parrots. Dance critic Alastair Macaulay once quipped, “No matter which production of this full-length ballet you see, at least 60 percent of it is trash.” The math is indisputable.


Kimin Kim in La Bayadère, Mariinsky Ballet (photo by Natasha Razina)
The Solor of Korean dancer Kimin Kim, who has also danced the role with American Ballet Theater, was the high point of the solo casting. Lithe and bounding with energy, Kim made the most of the role's many leaps and other acrobatic feats -- “a formulaic series of standard bravura tricks," Macaulay also noted, which "have much more to do with a ballet competition than with dance drama.” The lightness and verticality of his movement through the air was breath-taking.

Other Reviews: Sarah L. Kaufman, The ballerina who fights back: In ‘La Bayadere,’ she won’t be manhandled (Washington Post, October 18)

Viktoria Tereshkina was technically impeccable as Nikia, her iron-like form holding beautiful shapes in lifts. Her strongest moment was the tragic dance at her beloved's wedding in the second act, to the accompaniment of a poignantly played solo by principal cellist Amy Frost Baumgarten. In this moment, especially going to a perfectly still arabesque while remaining en pointe with consummate strength, Tereshkina was astounding to watch. In much of what had come before, she was a cold, even steely presence, not creating much sympathy for her plight.

Although the Mariinsky has recently restored the fourth act of La Bayadère, this production ended mercifully with the best part, Solor's extravagant opium dream in the third act. The "Kingdom of the Shades" scene is “one of the sovereign images of ballet classicism” (Macaulay again), and few companies mount it as strikingly, as mysteriously as the Mariinsky. Susan Robinson's harp solos set the otherworldly tone, as the gorgeous corps de ballet, supremely drilled, made their slow descent from the Himalayas. The meditative repetition of movements and music creates a spell, greater than either music or dance by itself.

The solo variations for Solor and Nikia's ghost were also fine, featuring a softer version of Tereshkina's style, the perfect foil to the loveless pas de deux Solor had with the Gamzatti of Anastasia Matvienko in the second act. Oleg Rylatko, concertmaster of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, played the dazzling violin solos with admirable virtuosity.

La Bayadère runs through October 22, at the Kennedy Center Opera House.

Forbes Classical CD Of The Week: Lose Your Heart In Heidelberg's Spark-Plug Haydn!

…Joyous, rambunctious, and infectious; pert and alert here, swaggering and swinging there: Thomas Fey and his trusty Heidelberg band deliver Haydn like none other. The unknown L’incontro improvviso overture on volume 21 of this deliberately paced* Haydn symphony cycle alone would prove so much. “London Symphonies” Nos. 99 (“The Cat”) and 100 (“Military”) – follow in the same vain, as do 98 and 103 (“Drum Roll”) on volume 22. Fey’s drum-rolls in #103 are a thunderous “Intrada”; Haydn’s fortepiano in-joke in the Finale of 98 is played with dry humor. No period instrument group exceeds the Heidelbergers in spark or pluck. It makes you ask for more of such Haydn.…

-> Classical CD Of The Week: Lose Your Heart In Heidelberg's Spark-Plug Haydn!

#morninglistening to #Musorgsky w/@paullewispiano on...

#morninglistening to #Musorgsky w/@paullewispiano on @harmoniamundi

http://a-fwd.to/20RVeI8

aka #Mussorgsky. #picturesatanexhibition

#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #pianosonatas #solokeyboard #RobertSchumann #Schumann #Fantasie Op.17 #tableauxduneexposition
clear and fresh and colorful and alert and with a fine spruceness: After wanting to like his recordings for so long and often being disappointed, i approached this expecting little and i end up loving it.

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#morninglistening to #Brahms & #Hindemith on...

#morninglistening to #Brahms & #Hindemith on #Mirare

http://a-fwd.to/7aakxbB

w/@RaphaelClarinet & #QuatuorPrazak

#raphaelsevere
#classicalmusiccollection #classicalmusic #classicalcdcollection #ChamberMusic #ClarinetQuintet #JohannesBrahms #PaulHindemith #pražákquartett #prazakquartet

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#morninglistening to #Beethoven on ...

#morninglistening to #Beethoven on @ladolcevolta

http://a-fwd.to/406Jcla

w/#TalichQuartet.

☆☆☆☆☆♡

@alpha_classics SQ4t cycle in its #LaDolceVolta iteration.

#classicalmusiccollection #classicalmusic #classicalcdcollection #ChamberMusic #StringQuartet #ludwigvanbeethoven #StringQuartets … One of the recommendations in my grand Beethoven String Quartet Cycle Survey. #WienerKlassik #ludwigvanbeethoven #QuatuorTalich #SQ4ts

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#morninglistening to #Brahms on @harmoniamundi...

#morninglistening to #Brahms on @harmoniamundi (@piasclassicsusa)

http://a-fwd.to/5jevtIU

w/#IsabelleFaust & #AlexanderMelnikov on a 1875 Bösendorfer

☆☆☆☆

in the #ViolinSonatas, including the #FAE - sonata.

#classicalmusiccollection #classicalmusic #JohannesBrahms #ChamberMusic … #historicalinstruments #RobertSchumann

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#morninglistening to #Bartok on...

#morninglistening to #Bartok on @harmoniamundi

http://a-fwd.to/3pIYZPC

w/@JerQuartet (@piasclassicsusa)

#SQ4ts

#classicalmusiccollection #classicalmusic #Bartók #ChamberMusic #StringQuartet #Shostakovich #StringQuartets … #JerusalemQuartet

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A Survey of Beethoven Symphony Cycles: Alphabetical Index

An Index of ionarts Discographies

The Beethoven Symphonies
A Survey of Complete* Recordings

This is the alphabetical listing of every Beethoven Symphony Cycle that has been recorded. At least that's the ambition. This will go together with a much more detailed survey that will be created bit-by-bit over the next weeks. That survey is referred to as the "main page" below. The style has yet to be determined - whether similar to the piano sonata survey or the string quartet survey or the previous symphony surveys (Sibelius, Dvořák, DSCH) or in a new format altogether. On that or those main page(s), the recordings are (going to be) listed in chronological order. The ionarts-logo under "QuickLinks" takes you to the appropriate page where the releases and their editions are presented in greater detail - when the relevant pages are up. (Notice will be given on this page when that is the case.) The flags take you to the respective Amazon page; the global logo takes you to the relevant Amazon listing in your (browsing-) country. Those links are already active. Amazon links to alternate versions of the same recording (or lists with links to the individual recordings where no set is available) will be found on the main respective main page. Cycles with multiple conductors can be found under V for "Various". At the bottom of the table, you will find the recordings of the Liszt piano transcriptions of the Beethoven Symphonies. Recommendations you will find on the main page. *A few cycles are not entirely complete or have not yet been finished but are underway or were never thought of as integrals, but cobbled together after the fact. Where that is the case, mention has been made on the main page.

Ed. 10-07-18: I have found and added a cycle by the Des Moines Symphony.

Ed.: Thanks to Hiro Miyashita, Dennis Bade & Christoph Schlüren for helpful corrections, hinters, additions, and links! Celibidache, Matacic, Weil, Frühbeck de Burgos, P.Jordan and a few other overlooked cycles have been added.

Ed.: I have found cycles by Rögner and Yamada and will add them soon.

#morninglistening to #johnlutheradams on...

#morninglistening to #johnlutheradams on @cantaloupeNY

http://a-fwd.to/gDYI4BJ

w/@SeattleSymphony

#BecomeOcean
The most hyped album of 2015, but plenty enjoyable in its way. A 21st-century Watermusicke.

#classicalmusic #ambiance #21stCenturyMusic #watermusic #contemporarymusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #ambiantmusic pseudo-#apocalypse #americanclassicalmusic

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#morninglistening to #Taverner on @hyperionRecords w/@wabbey...

#morninglistening to #Taverner on @hyperionRecords w/@wabbey choir

http://a-fwd.to/1gT972f

#classicalcdcollection #sacredmusic #classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #EarlyMusic #renaissancemusic #EnglishMusic #vocalmusic #choralmusic

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#morninglistening to #Bruckner...

#morninglistening to #Bruckner w/@nedpho_nko:

http://a-fwd.to/5jAjX8W

on @challengerec.
#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #orchestralmusic #germanromanticism #symphonies #symphony #germanromanticism #AntonBruckner

#8 is spectacular here; #6 terrific. #5 suffers from inaudible opening double bass pizzicatos, sadly; #9 is strong as a bull.

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#morninglistening to @tonkuenstler in #Bruckner: ...

#morninglistening to @tonkuenstler in #Bruckner:

http://a-fwd.to/3KSHutn

#YutakaSado w/the Ninth #Symphony + #takemitsu

☆☆☆☆(☆)

#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection
#classicalcdcollection #germanromanticism #orchestralmusic #tonkünstlerorchester #20thCenturyMusic #Sho

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#morninglistening to #Beethoven w/#BaduraSkoda on...

#morninglistening to #Beethoven w/#BaduraSkoda on #Gramola:

http://a-fwd.to/5seN6Zi

His Vienna/@Lboesendorfer cycle. op.111, after what was probably his last recital at age 90!

(Check the Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle Survey on ionarts for more details and links to every such cycle ever recorded.)

#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #pianosonatas #solokeyboard #ludwigvanbeethoven #LvB #ludwigvan #WienerKlassik @Lboesendorferofficial #cancersucks

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#morninglistening to #Ives/#Berg/#Webern on...

#morninglistening to #Ives/#Berg/#Webern on @outheremusic

http://a-fwd.to/29fqsY2

w/#AlexeiLubimov ☆☆☆☆☆ #classicalmusic #20thCenturyMusic #secondvienneseschool #contemporarymusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #solokeyboard #antonwebern #albanberg #CharlesIves #americanclassicalmusic

Both, my new favorite op.1 and Concord Sonata.

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#morninglistening to #Kurtag on...

#morninglistening to #Kurtag on @ECMRecords

http://a-fwd.to/3jk4dlK

w/@grootomroepkoor & @AskoSchonberg

Complete music for ensemble and #choir. Out there, not for everyone, but lots of humor and ghosts and spooky stories.

#classicalmusic #20thCenturyMusic #21stCenturyMusic #contemporarymusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #choralmusic #vocalmusic #HungarianMusic

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#morninglistening to #ValentinSilvestrov on...

#morninglistening to #ValentinSilvestrov on @ECMRecords

http://a-fwd.to/5sseqkO

w/@anjacello & #AgnesVesterman

#classicalmusic #20thCenturyMusic #21stCenturyMusic #contemporarymusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #solocello

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Forbes Classical CD Of The Week: York Bowen, The English Rachmaninoff

…The charming romanticism of York Bowen shows well in the Rhapsody Trio; the sunny Clarinet Sonata presents him at his mellifluous lovely and droll. Latter-Day Brahmsians will delight in certain Bowen and his use of the clarinet (such as in the Phantasy Quintet). Saint-Saëns thought Bowen was hot stuff, as did Hans Richter, and he’s also known as the “English Rachmaninoff”. Now, that sounds just a little too well-meaning, even to someone…

-> Classical CD Of The Week: York Bowen, The English Rachmaninoff

Birthday #morninglistening to #VaughanWilliams on...

Birthday #morninglistening to #VaughanWilliams on @ChandosRecords w/@LondonSymphony

http://a-fwd.to/3diucqo

@SurprisedBeauty music!

#symphonies #symphony
#classicalmusic #20thCenturyMusic #orchestralmusic
#classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #EnglishMusic #BritishMusic #blackandwhite

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#morninglistening to @DevieilheSabine on...

#morninglistening to @DevieilheSabine on @warnerClassics

http://a-fwd.to/3EBhZg2

after her @wienerkonzerthaus performance in their wonderful Bach-Cantata cycle. The terrific #Mozart Album of #Arias & such.

#classicalmusic #opera #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #historicalinstruments

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Matthew Bourne puts on 'The Red Shoes'

The Red Shoes, Ashley Shaw (Victoria Page) and Sam Archer (Boris Lermontov)
(photo by Johan Persson)
Matthew Bourne's pantomimes -- somewhere in the cracks between dance, theater, and cinema -- may have appeal to broad audiences. The last one to come to the Kennedy Center, his Sleeping Beauty, left me cold. His latest, an adaptation of The Red Shoes, the beloved film directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, with an Oscar-winning score by Brian Easdale, opened on Tuesday night in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Premiered this past December, it proved another disappointment, but a large audience seemed to like it just fine.

The film is legendary among ballerinas and ballet fans, so much so that to attempt to recreate it on the stage inevitably seems like an act of hubris. Bourne has said he did not want merely to recreate it, but fans of the movie may puzzle at how the story has been altered. Easdale's score has been jettisoned, replaced by gorgeous excerpts from the film scores by Bernard Herrmann (Citizen Kane, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Hangover Square, and Fahrenheit 451, arranged by Terry Davies) -- regrettably all played in recorded tracks, often at ear-piercing volume. Pieces of Chopin's music, used in the section of Les Sylphides shown in Act I, are preserved. The worst change is the transformation of the imperious ballet impresario, Boris Lermontov, changed from a man who worships dance as a religion, and tries to force his ballerinas to do the same, to someone who is merely in love with his prima ballerina.

Other Articles: Sarah L. Kaufman, Matthew Bourne’s ‘The Red Shoes’: Lovely when focused on what he knows best (Washington Post, October 11) Nelson Pressley, Dance maverick Matthew Bourne on the ‘Technicolor riot’ of ‘The Red Shoes’ (Washington Post, October 9) Roslyn Sulcas, ‘The Red Shoes’ Takes the Stage (New York Times, December 22, 2016) Luke Jennings, The Red Shoes review – Matthew Bourne delivers obsession with a flourish (The Observer, December 18, 2016)

Sam Archer did his best to give this much flimsier character individuality, even though it was hard to imagine Boris Lermontov ever lowering himself to dance in any way. Ashley Shaw captured most of the wide-eyed optimism of Victoria Page, the dancer from a wealthy family who works her way into Lermontov's company, even without Moira Shearer's bright red hair. The most vivid dancing came from Marcelo Gomes, the star ballerino seen with American Ballet Theater, as the aspiring composer Julian Craster. Most of the other dancing was, unfortunate to report, forgettable.

Many of the scenes in Bourne's version seemed completely unnecessary, background on the partying of Lermontov's troupe or the burlesque show where Victoria Page wasted her talents. Somewhere the dark message of the Hans Christian Andersen tale, more brutal certainly than the film but found there in a sublimated form, got lost. On opening night there were some significant technical issues, including a delay about fifteen minutes into the first act, when set pieces did not fly into properly and the show was put on hold for about ten minutes. This was followed by what seemed like a delay at the start of the second act. Glitches can happen, of course, in any production, but in Bourne's style, where so much more rests on the technical aspects than on dance or dramaturgy, these silences were deafening.

The Red Shoes runs through October 15, at the Kennedy Center Opera House.

#morninglistening to @DevieilheSabine on...

#morninglistening to @DevieilheSabine on @warnerClassics

http://a-fwd.to/3EBhZg2

ahead of her @wienerkonzerthaus performance in their wonderful Bach-Cantata cycle.

“Mirages” - French #coloratura #Arias with which she made her name, apart from #baroquemusic.

#classicalmusic #opera #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #cantatas #historicalinstruments

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#morninglistening to #Bach #concertos...

#morninglistening to #Bach #concertos w/@wavequartet

http://a-fwd.to/1AXyVT3

on bloody #Marimba(s)! A @Sony_classical release w/#lorfeobarockorchester

☆☆☆(☆)

#classicalmusic #EarlyMusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #baroquemusic #historicalinstruments

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#morninglistening to #Sibelius on @Sony_classical...

#morninglistening to #Sibelius on @Sony_classical w/@leifoveandsnes

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@surprisedBeauty music!

#solokeyboard #classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #contemporarymusic #20thCenturyMusic #finnishmusic

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#morninglistening to #Fasch w/#cappellacoloniesis on...

#morninglistening to #Fasch w/#cappellacoloniesis on @capricciorec:

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#concertos for #trumpet, #traverseflute, #cornodicaccia & winds.

#EarlyMusic #historicallyinformedperformance #historicalinstruments #baroquemusic #JohannFriedrichFasch #Capriccio #capriccioRecords #SACD

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#morninglistening to #Mendelssohn string...

#morninglistening to #Mendelssohn string #symphonies:

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w/@lorfeo_baroque in knock-out performances! on #cpo

#classicalmusic with slight hints of #germanromanticism but mostly #classicism #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #orchestralmusic #Symphony #lorfeobarockorchester #stringsymphony ☆☆☆☆(☆)

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À mon chevet: Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes

À mon chevet is a series of posts featuring a quote from whatever book is on my nightstand at the moment.

This is what was taking place at the Palais while Lucien's protectresses were obeying the orders issued by Jacques Collin. The gendarmes placed the moribund prisoner on a chair facing the window in Monsieur Camusot's room; he was sitting in his place in front of his table. Coquart, pen in hand, had a little table to himself a few yards off.

The aspect of a magistrate's chambers is not a matter of indifference; and if this room had not been chosen intentionally, it must be owned that chance had favored justice. An examining judge, like a painter, requires the clear equable light of a north window, for the criminal's face is a picture which he must constantly study. Hence most magistrates place their table, as this of Camusot's was arranged, so as to sit with their back to the window and leave the face of the examinee in broad daylight. Not one of them all but, by the end of six months, has assumed an absent-minded and indifferent expression, if he does not wear spectacles, and maintains it throughout the examination.

It was a sudden change of expression in the prisoner's face, detected by these means, and caused by a sudden point-blank question, that led to the discovery of the crime committed by Castaing at the very moment when, after a long consultation with the public prosecutor, the magistrate was about to let the criminal loose on society for lack of evidence. This detail will show the least intelligent person how living, interesting, curious, and dramatically terrible is the conflict of an examination--a conflict without witnesses, but always recorded. God knows what remains on the paper of the scenes at white heat in which a look, a tone, a quiver of the features, the faintest touch of color lent by some emotion, has been fraught with danger, as though the adversaries were savages watching each other to plant a fatal stroke. A report is no more than the ashes of the fire.

"What is your real name?" Camusot asked Jacques Collin.

"Don Carlos Herrera, canon of the Royal Chapter of Toledo, and secret envoy of His Majesty Ferdinand VII."

It must here be observed that Jacques Collin spoke French like a Spanish trollop, blundering over it in such a way as to make his answers almost unintelligible, and to require them to be repeated. But Monsieur de Nucingen's German barbarisms have already weighted this Scene too much to allow of the introduction of other sentences no less difficult to read, and hindering the rapid progress of the tale.

"Then you have papers to prove your right to the dignities of which you speak?" asked Camusot.

"Yes, monsieur--my passport, a letter from his Catholic Majesty authorizing my mission.--In short, if you will but send at once to the Spanish Embassy two lines, which I will write in your presence, I shall be identified. Then, if you wish for further evidence, I will write to His Eminence the High Almoner of France, and he will immediately send his private secretary."

"And do you still pretend that you are dying?" asked the magistrate. "If you have really gone through all the sufferings you have complained of since your arrest, you ought to be dead by this time," said Camusot ironically.

"You are simply trying the courage of an innocent man and the strength of his constitution," said the prisoner mildly.

"Coquart, ring. Send for the prison doctor and an infirmary attendant.--We shall be obliged to remove your coat and proceed to verify the marks on your shoulder," Camusot went on.

"I am in your hands, monsieur."

The prisoner then inquired whether the magistrate would be kind enough to explain to him what he meant by "the marks," and why they should be sought on his shoulder. The judge was prepared for this question.

"You are suspected of being Jacques Collin, an escaped convict, whose daring shrinks at nothing, not even at sacrilege!" said Camusot promptly, his eyes fixed on those of the prisoner.

Jacques Collin gave no sign, and did not color; he remained quite calm, and assumed an air of guileless curiosity as he gazed at Camusot.

"I, monsieur? A convict? May the Order I belong to and God above forgive you for such an error. Tell me what I can do to prevent your continuing to offer such an insult to the rights of free men, to the Church, and to the King my master."

-- Honoré de Balzac, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life (trans. by James Waring)

This long book, originally published in four sections, is first in the Scènes de la vie Parisienne section of La Comédie Humaine. It follows the end of the tragic life of Lucien de Rubempré, and it has been one of the high points of my Balzac reading project so far. Lucien, at the brink of suicide, comes across one of Balzac's celebrated characters, the villainous Vautrin, who convinces him not to commit suicide. He becomes the creature of this criminal, whose identity is hidden under many names.

At the opening of the book Vautrin has assumed the name of the Abbé Carlos Herrera, serving an important embassy to Paris on behalf of the King of Spain. In this scene, an examining judge is engaged in a chess match to get him to reveal his true identity, Jacques Collin. This book has also been translated under the English title A Harlot High and Low, apt because Balzac pairs the lowest and highest elements of Parisian society as alternate sides of the same coin. Lies, deceit, sexual depravity, crimes of all kinds are committed at both ends of the social spectrum, with vastly different treatment by the authorities.

#morninglistening to #SebastianoMeloni’s Moods &...

#morninglistening to #SebastianoMeloni’s Moods & Sketches:

http://a-fwd.to/1GQsqsb

#solokeyboard #improvisation #classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #contemporarymusic #21stCenturyMusic

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A Survey of Bruckner Cycles

An Index of ionarts Discographies

Like the Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle Survey, the Dvořák Symphony Cycle Survey, the Bach Organ Cycle Survey, and the Sibelius Symphony Cycle Survey, this is a mere inventory of what has been recorded and whether it is still available. Favorites are denoted with the “ionarts’ choice” graphic.

There are several incomplete, out of print, hard to get, and just plain obscure (at least in the West) Bruckner Symphony cycles that are not listed below. This includes all but the third of six (!) complete and partial cycles of the Japanese conductor, founder of the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, and Furtwängler-inspired Bruckner-nut Takashi Asahina. (His Sixth and last, from within months of his death, can be found here.) That also includes the once ultra-inclusive Gennadi Rozhdestvensky cycle on Melodiya, which has been cobbled together from various, dubious sources as a sketchy MP3 offering on Amazon. While some incomplete and unboxed cycles have been included (Norrington, because I think his traversals are worthwhile), others (Roegner, on Edel) have not. [Ed. It has now.] There is no particular logic to that decision.

Bruckner wrote 11 Symphonies (counting the Study Symphony in f, “00”, and the retracted Symphony in d, “0”). Ten of them are complete, and the unfinished “Ninth” exists in various performance versions. The inclusiveness of a set is indicated: 00-9* would mean all 11 Symphonies including a completed 9th; 1-9 would indicate the conventional nine, with only the three finished movements for the Ninth. There are no cycles that include “00” but not “0”. Where the Te Deum is included in a set, it is mentioned; “Te Deum (F)” means that the Te Deum directly follows the third movement of the Ninth in the make-shift completion suggested by Bruckner. There are a few different ‘performing editions’ of the finale, most prominently William Carragan’s (in three revisions) and those based on the work of Nicola Samale and Giuseppe Mazzuca (1984). With John A. Phillips and Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs included on their team, they produced the 1992 Samale/Mazzuca/Phillips/Cohrs Completions below abbreviated SMPC, along with the year of the particular revised version.

Bernard Haitink recorded a Bruckner Symphony cycle with the Concertgebouw for Philips, which is temporarily out of print. [Ed.: It can be had as part of the catch-all "Haitink Symphony Edition" box set, along with his Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and Mahler] Meanwhile he was and is busily recording with his favorite orchestras (BRSO, CSO, Dresden Staatskapelle, LSO, and RCO of course). From those recordings, many in the Super Audio format, one can cobble together an incomplete Bruckner cycle of astounding quality. It's bound to expand over the next few years, and we'll be the richer for it.


[Ed.08/03/18] I've now added Ivor Bolton's cycle - the third to appear on Oehms! Somebody loves Bruckner overe there!

[Ed.03/03/18] Yannick Nézet-Séguin's cycle has just been released and added below. The mostly-Kurt Eichhorn-cycle of the Bruckner Orchester Linz has also been added, at last.

[Ed.10/09/17] A massive, much overdue update: SWR Classic has at last issued Hans Rosbaud's near-complete cycle (2-9) in never before achieved sound quality. Kurt Masur's Bruckner has been re-issued. Daniel Barenboim has recorded a third cycle, now, for the first time with "his" orchestra, the Berliner Staatskapelle. I have reviewed the 7th on Forbes: "Classical CD of the Week: Bruckner for DG" and the 4th here on ionarts: "Dip Your Ears, No. 163 (Visual Bruckner)". Jaap van Zweden had his excellent Bruckner cycle issued on Challenge Records on SACDs. The Korean Symphony Orchestra has recorded a cycle for Korean Decca under Hun-Joung Lim. The Riccardo Chailly cycle has been re-issued cheaply on Decca/Eloquence. Mario Venzago finished his controversial cycle on CPO. Brilliant Classic has put all of Heinz Rögner's Bruckner with the RSO Berlin together and made a complete cycle out of it by adding contemporary East German performances of Vaclav Neumann, Kurt Sanderling, and Franz Konwitschny to it. The Bruckner Orchestra Linz' cycle with Dennis-Russell Davies will be re-issued by SOny in December of this year. And Simone Young completed her very complete set ("00" + "0"), which has been released on Oehms. Global Amazon links have been added in all the lines I had to edit. The incomplete cycles of Dohnanyi & Harnoncourt will be added in the next round of edits...

#morninglistening to @SWRClassic’s #Bruckner...

#morninglistening to @SWRClassic’s #Bruckner w/#HansRosbaud:

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Awesome re-issuing job! Up to the Fourth #Symphony by now.

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#classicalmusic #classicalmusiccollection
#classicalcdcollection #germanromanticism #orchestralmusic #swrsymphonieorchester #südwestfunk-Orchester #BadenBaden #AntonBruckner #historicalrecord

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#morninglistening to underrated #BorisBlacher on...

#morninglistening to underrated #BorisBlacher on @Brilliant_De/@BrilliantClas6:

http://a-fed.to/6jI817s

w/@DDPhilharmonie. @SurprisedBeauty music!

The Grand Inquisitor w/#HerbertKegel

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#opera #classicalmusic #classicalmusic #classicalcdcollection #20thCenturyMusic #entartetemusik #dostoyevski #fyodordostoyevsky #grandinquisitor #Dresden

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#morninglistening to #Spohr, the most innovative symphonist of...

#morninglistening to #Spohr, the most innovative symphonist of his time?

http://a-fwd.to/7KgsRpM

w/#ndrradiophilharmonie under #HowardGriffiths in #symphonies 7 & 9.

#classicalmusic #EarlyMusic #classicalmusiccollection #classicalcdcollection #LouisSpohr #orchestralmusic #Symphony #SACD

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