sandbox classical

Things I've liked lately:

Viol music by Purcell and Lawes
Cage - Ryoanji and 44 Harmonies
Pergolesi - Stabat Mater
Finnissy - English Country-Tunes
Schumann - Davidbundlertanze

Seeing Berio's 4th sequenza (for viola) live was quite an experience. I was fearing for the violists strings towards the end of it.

Such a grt playlist. I'd rep for Lawes, Finnissy and many of the Sequenzas anyday of the wk!

Hans Zender - Winterreise

am also going thru the schubert lieder

Sequenza 6 is viola, Sequenza 4 is piano [/nit-pick]

been getting into, of all things, historical recordings. which is weird for me - classical is the one field where the clarity of the digital age seems to offer very clear advantages. but I wanted to hear Erich Fried's version of Mahler 2 because Fried knew Mahler, and that's gotten me into getting a bunch of other Fried. a conductor of incredible vision to my ears, his Resurrection is a lot less indulgent than the latter norm but really no less emotional or gorgeous for that! the limitations of the recording are evident but it's still incredible to me

also listening to the Mahler edition of the Schumann symphonies. kind of a Mahler Xmas around here

Been hitting blogs of out of print historical recordings for a few months now, in part due to your Badura-Skora tip pointing me to a few good ones. remarkable to hear how drastically performance styles have already changed from the 30s/40s. And 50's hifi is already nothing to laugh at.

Charles Ives - a radical insult and tie, premiere recordings - lo-fi but Brute Force! Even the sentimental 3rd (which I love so so much and will listen to any version of)
Furtwangler conducts Mozart Piano Concertos
Ben Johnston - Microtonal Piano, Philip Bush

/Radical In Suit And Tie

But as always autocorrect gets at the truth of things

You're right oPal, I guess I can't read roman numerals :|

I need to dive into more of this stuff when I'm not performing it; I just went on a Messiah binge the last two weeks because I was singing "The People That Walked In Darkness" at a recital on Tuesday and I am on the verge of a full-on opera binge starting with Mahagonny because the company I used to perform with is dissolving as of Jan 1.

oh man I only have Furtwangler doing Bruckner & the Sigfried Idyll but it's ace, interested in that Mozart!

Rameau - Hippolyte et Aricie, Dardanus, Platée

Dardanus is beautiful, need to finally hear Platee. I want to get into the earlier Italian operas too: Monteverdi, Caccini, et al.

Bought myself the new Riccardo Chailly set of Beethoven Symphonies on Decca as a birthday present.

ooooooh I should hear that, Chailly is great in my book

http://www.amazon.com/Symphony-No-Charles-Critical-Clothbound/dp/1458418480