Everyone loves Chopin and he wrote so much instantly likable music it is hard to pick a favorite. But for me it is probably one of his less well know works, the Cello Sonata.



On CD.

Janos Starker and the Mercury crew do a great job, of course.

Great description! Tomorrow I will have time for a listen, but tonight you get an "A" for descriptive writing ✍️ Loved the Koufax line.

One more bit of Americana for the 4th.



On CD.

Those of us who were around for early digital will no doubt remember the hoopla about the "Telarc Bass Drum" and Fanfare for the Common Man one of the recordings that made it a thing. Honestly, I'm not that impressed, and if necessary could prove mathematically that even 15" woofers just aren't going to hit you as hard as the 3 foot drum head beaten with mallet. But I digress. Mostly I'm interested Appalachian Spring and Rodeo, which are concert arrangements of ballets, and just about the most fun you can have in a concert hall.

New page, next Beethoven Symphony. The Ninth. The Big Kahuna.



DSD rip from Tower Japan SACD

There are many, many great recordings of The Ninth, but for me Ferenc Fricsay runs up the score on all them with his early stereo recording, with the Berlin Philharmonic made in the early sixties. The only possible downside is the DG stereo sound is not close to what RCA or Mercury were doing at time. Even Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (of whom I am no fan) is (mostly) on his best behavior. But really Fricsay is the star of the show. The way he highlights the woodwind parts in the ethereal first movement (which a lot times just sounds like a warm up exercise) to the absolute precision of rhythm and articulation in the 2nd to the way he coaxes the last measure of unutterable beauty from the slow movement, to the heroic finale which becomes a runaway freight train in the very best possible way.

There are a lot of really cool things about Beethoven, starting with the very first chord of his first symphony is a dissonance. And the last 20 seconds of his last symphony, after the magnificent setting of Schiller's Hymn to a joyous  vision of humanity, is a bit of a shambles. Like Beethoven is saying there are no easy answers and even in the best case things are going to be a little messy. YMMV.

Brahms wrote two cello sonatas that are repertoire staples, and feature plenty of Brahms's trademark seriousness and craftsmanship. But one wishes he might have been just a little less serious and given us more beautiful cello music.



On CD from the Mischa Maisky/ DG box.

Fortunately there is Mischa Maisky's disc of arrangements of Brahms songs for cello and piano. Which feature plenty of Brahms's trademark melancholy that suites both the instrument and the instrumentalist very well.
 

On the short list of great string quartets not written by Beethoven is Mendelssohn's F# minor, written on the death of his sister. And the Emerson Quartet is on the short list of all time great string quartets so no surprise they play it unforgettably.



On CD.

Bruno Walter was conducting professionally while Brahms was still alive. That isn't the reason he is a great Brahms conductor (and my personal favorite), but it is an interesting bit of context. I'm hard pressed to intellectualize what it is about his conducting that makes Brahms 2nd Symphony come so alive, beyond just saying everything: the pacing, the voicing, the phrasing and most especially just Walter's trademark blend of intensity and lyricism.



On CD, from the Walter Edition Box.

Baseball's All-Star Game is coming up, and I was reflecting on Musical All-Stars. There is a long tradition of bringing famous (All-Star) soloists together to play chamber music. With mixed results. Chamber music is, in theory, an interesting conversation between instruments but a lot of All-Star soloists are more interested in talking than listening, to strain the analogy. But this is one occasion when it worked really well.



On CD.

Starker, Suk and Katchen play together like Tinker, Evers and Chance. And the opening theme of Brahms's Trio No. 1 is unforgettable.

I left off yesterday with Bernstein…so I’m staying with him today with the classic Swan Lake.  Streamed in Qobuz in Hi Rez at 24/192.  It’s been a while since I’ve listened to Swan Lake…so  this a great way to start the morning at work.

For someone who is as big a fan of both Tchaikovsky and Bernstein as I am, I have very few recordings. But I do have this one.



On CD.

And the music is as good as H.R.H's watercolour on the cover is dorky. YMMV.

Some people I know object to organ music, esp. baroque organ music, because it sounds too "churchy." But Handel's Organ Concertos sure don't, at least IMO.



On CD.