More Ancerl. One of my favorite recordings of one of my desert island pieces:



DSD rip from Tower Japan SACD.

Listening to this Mahler 9 is a staggering experience, both from the virtuosity of the playing and the emotional range of the interpretation.

I think today will be a 20th Century day. I started with one of Bartok's lesser known works, the ballet The Wooden Prince.



16/44 FLAC download.

This is a fairly early work by Bartok and is neither dissonant nor especially beautiful, in the conventional sense of memorable melodies. I would call it abstract, and, like a lot of Bartok, it requires active listening and rewards the active listener with some excellent and very interesting music.

TIL about Anne Queffelec. She is a French pianist with a fabulous technique and a very French sound: quick, transparent and light on the keys. I heard her Scarlatti then learned her complete recordings are available on Erato, so I bought them. She does a great job with a wide variety of music, from Scarlatti to Liszt to Erik Satie. Highly recommended.



16/44 FLAC download

One more Stravinsky, Firebird with my hometown team the LA Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel (recently bailed for NY).



16/44 FLAC download

Very nice performance and spectacular sound.

Agreed….I am a big fan of  Brahms as well.  I didn’t the love the piano concerto on this album as much as the violin by comparison.  I figured I would give it a try, but it was a bit underwhelming.  

After listening to the Reiner/Chicago Rossini disc a few days ago I decided to spin up a few more of my favs. Starting with Marche Slave and Ruslan and Ludmila from the Pictures at an Exhibition disc.



Marche Slave is a high school band staple, and a bit nostalgic for yours truly while Ruslan is one of the great virtuoso show pieces and you can almost smell the rosin burning on the bows as the strings dig into the demi-semiquavers.

And then there is the Polka and Fugue from Schwanda the Bigpiper.



This might be more of a guilty pleasure because many of my "serious musician" friends roll their eyes when I mention it, but I love it. Esp. the great fugal finale where the legendary Chicago brass blow the roof off the joint.

Both DSD rips from the Living Stereo SACDs

Après un rêve. An hour plus of, in a word, dreamy French songs arranged for cello and piano.



On CD from the DG/Maisky box.

Before the Pathetique or the epic Op. 18 string quartets there was what I consider Beethoven's first unquestionable masterpiece: the Opus 10 Piano Sonatas. They have all the drama and energy you would expect from top shelf Beethoven and just enough classical elegance to make it interesting.



16/44 FLAC Download

Konstantin Lifschitz is relatively new to me. I first found him through his Bach, and his Beethoven is excellent, YMMV. Rhythmically and technically precise, as you might expect from a Bach specialist, but with the wide emotional pallet that Beethoven requires. On the very short list of my favorite contemporary pianists.
   

Decided to listen to some early morning music and landed on this one from Liszt

Classical SACD sale that may be of interest:

https://tinyurl.com/2xh4j5mc

One would think the slightly dark, mellow sound of the cello would be a perfect match to Sibelius' slightly dark and mellow style. And that is correct. Sibelius didn't write a lot of music for cello unfortunately but what he did write, a lot of it when he was a student, is very nice.



On CD.

In honor of the Dodgers winning the World Series I give you Handel's Water Music in a scintillating performance by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.



On CD.

Originally written for King George I's procession on the Thames it would not be out of place in a 21st century civic victory parade. YMMV.