Books, Movies, Music & Entertainment - Sweet! Romantic Period Piano!

Hi everyone,

I recently started listening to classical music, and I don't remember how exactly, but after some research I settled on giving Rachmaninoff a listen first. I borrowed the Van Cliburn performance of the 3rd (also w/ Prokofiev's 3rd) from the librarian at my school. I didn't think too much of it at first, but after a few days I was absolutely in love with it. Especially when it comes to that first, um..., sort of climax? I think about eight minutes into the first movement. Oh! And then right before the second movement ends and leads to the third—so totally rules! The finale is of course my favorite movement now, and I eagerly look forward to it every time I listen to the concerto. I know though that the Van Cliburn is probably not the best out there. I haven't decided yet whether to go with Horowitz or Argerich when I do buy it. I've read Weissenberg's is a good performance too. Any advice?

Since then, I've decided to start my classical music adventure with the Romantic period. I bought Maurizio Pollini's performance of the Chopin Etudes (op.'s 10 & 25) about a week ago, it was my first classical music cd (hooray!). Mostly I'm looking for piano music, but if anyone has any recommendations outside of piano or even outside of the Romantic period, then let me know! Narrow it down to a few though, I'm a bit limited on cash here. :D

Right now I want to get Sviatoslav Richter's perfomance of both Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto and of Schumman's 1st. Also the Liszt concerto, or concertos. And what about Brahms? I mostly read through Amazon and a few classical music sites to get more or less an idea of the best performances, etc. but it can get pretty tricky. For example, what would be the best performance of Brahms' first concerto to buy? Or maybe the top two or three? I've had trouble with this. :o

And about Chopin's preludes, I'm thinking of going with Pollini again, but would it be a mistake to get Argerich's? Personally, though I've yet to hear any of her perfomances, I think she's awesome. Just the idea of this Argentine woman going totally mad on a piano really intrigues me. Plus, she was a pupil of Michelangeli right? And don't Italians just do it better? I mean, come on! :lol:

So all right, what do you recommend?

Thanks!

Sebastián

Argerich is, of course, highly regarded, but, music being subjective, not my favorite for Chopin. To me, she sometimes gets so frantic in her playing that she gets ahead of herself. I like the softer, more poetic sound of Moravec, but, again, what floats my boat may not float yours. Rubinstein is the most historically respected interpreter of Chopin, but the recording quality isn't always the greatest.

As for Argerich, I prefer her in the context of other musicians who seemingly reign in her nervous energy, something like her work with Schumann.

If I had to recommend a new piece for you to check out, although it is with orchestra, it would be Fleisher's superb recordings of Brahm's piano concertos nos. 1 and 2 with Szell and the Cleveland on EMI.

Wow, thank you. I've just become interested in classical music, so I have not yet had the opportunity to check out more. So what about Rachmaninoff's 3rd? What do you think of this concerto, and who's interpretation/performance do you prefer?

Seb.

Hey, no problem. I'm a BIG fan of classical. As far as Rachmaninoff, he's not on my list of "must have every recording" composers, but, of those I've heard of his third, is the Argerich. It's funny because she's so fast, she almost speeds past the orchestra, which tries spiritly to keep up. She's fiery and very kinetic here, but somehow it rings my bell, just like her work on Schumann that I mentioned before. The conductor is Chailly and he's one of the absolute best Mahler conductors around - really a treat there. Here's a LINK. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000041DF/qid=1138497975/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/102-2569656-1592164?s=classical&v=glance&n=5174)

By the way, it's I who thanks you. I used to be heavily involved with a classical music forum, with all sorts of wild opinions and disagreements and sort of grew out of some of the personalities. I LOVE talking shop about classical though.

Welcome aboard classical music enjoyment, your listening world is about to change
When you want to move a bit further try Jan Sibelius 2nd and 5th Symphonies, the 2nd is dreamy with strings
And the French ........ H.Berlioz Symphonie Fantastic,great for a stormy, thunder and lightening nite...... Francis Poulenc, C. Saint Saens organ Sym. will knock your sox off when the organ enters
The Russian romantics are my favs Rach at the head of the list, Peter Illyich next
Difficult to get better than Franz Liszt

If you live near a PBS radio station there is a daily classical music show called Performance Today which will give you a good start
Try to hit on KUSC-FM from LA which broadcasts live in the I-net, 24 hrs a day,no commercials. I listen to it all the time, its on as I type this, you need DSL to receive it, however
Try the classical music depts at Borders and Barnes and Noble both have cds which have entry level collections of reasonable priced cds NAXOS is one, and I think EMI is another, and both stores have earphones so you can listen to cds before buying

A.Rubensteins piano playing always reminds me of ice chrystals breaking. and Cliburn is precision personified. Cliburn started a piano competition in his home town of FT Worth after he won in Moscow decades ago and has started many fine kids on their pro careers

AHHHHH I could go on forever, but won't

Thanks guys—lemme go get my pen and notepad here... :D

S.

Another great station to listen to (in my humble opinion) would be this: http://www.allclassical.org/

There are so many good pieces to recommend, it's hard to know where to start. My symphony just played a concert last week of Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe." Amazing music. Bernstein put out a good recording of it.

Being a string musician, I'd recommend Rostropovich's versions of Bach's Suites for Cello and Haydn's Cello concertos.

Happy listening!

Thanks everyone. I'll check back in tomorrow, it's been a busy weekend.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll be sure to check them out!

Sebastián

I like my Ashkenazy recording of the four Rachmaninov piano concerti (I rarely listen to the first, but I love the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, the last of which gets overshadowed by its famous siblings). For the third, any recording but David "Shine" Helfgott! :)

For violin concerti, it's hard to beat Brahams, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, or Tchaikovsky. I particularly like my recording of both the Beethoven violin concerto and its lesser-known piano transcription.

For relaxing listening, try the "Romantic Adagios I" and II CD collections.

For powerful symphonic music, Beethoven is arguably the master, but the Saint Saens Organ Symphony (#3) will knock your socks off, and the Brahams First Symphony has rightfully been called "Beethoven's Tenth" more than once.

The Romantic Period, with its dynamics and emotional uplift, is a great entry portal into the world of good music. From there, move into the Baroque (Vivaldi for chamber, Handel for oratorio, J.S. Bach for everything, particularly organ) and Classical (Haydn, Mozart, early Beethoven).

At UCLA, I once took a Beethoven class, in which the professor claimed that if one had to pick an arbitrary point at which the Romantic period began, it would be late in the fourth movement of Beethoven's Symphony #2, when the pattern of Mozart-like repetitions and variations on the main theme suddenly becomes clouded with darker, richer harmonic content. Yes, this is arbitrary and debatable, but it does highlight some of the contrast between the Classic and Romantic periods.

Sweet. I've been listening to WCPE (http://theclassicalstation.org/internet.shtml) online. Last night they played Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19, and later on they played Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2 in C-sharp minor(not all of it though). This is very fun!

Right now I'm debating wether to buy Argerich's Rach 3 or some sweet NOS Original Ambrosio bike ribbon in white(!). I go to the nearest B&N all the time, and anyway I know that if they don't have something I'm looking for I can usually order it. Music has always been one of my strongest interests, and so I'm very much used to not finding what i'm looking for.

Right now my nearest B&N has Richter's Schumann Concerto, and also the Pollini Chopin preludes that I want to get, and I'm not so sure about Liszt. Anyway, I'm very thankful to you all, because I admit I also want to listen to other types of classical, even though I'm extremely excited about the piano... which I'd love to learn to play, sometime in the future...

Since the Saint Saens Organ Symphony (#3) has been mentioned twice already, it's likely to be one of my next buys.

Thanks everyone :)

Sebastián

:lol: Yesterday I was listening to WCPE, they were playing something, and I was like, "Dude! I recognize this!" And guess what—it turned out to be Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony:



"OH! I remember now!" :roflmao:

I'm so getting that!

Seb.