What Classical are you spinning?

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Heard a lovely piece by Aho in Reykjavik a while back, same conductor.

Now listening to this.

ex

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Just got around to this. The first wasn’t that bad but, having reached the second, it is a lot more playful.

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https://www.steinway.com/news/features/jeffrey-biegel-at-play-with-bach

Easily the best sounding four seasons on the planet.

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I doubt anyone has heard, let alone thoughtfully compared, the hundreds of recordings of this work.

You got me!

It’s just so much better sounding than all other great ones I heard, so that I dared to say :wink:

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I’ve never heard one in DSF - what’s that?

Inspired to listen to this one:
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DSF is a file format for DSD which allows the inclusion of metadata.

The Richter/Vivaldi album sounds exactly as you would expect: Vivaldi Meets Richter. It is fun when one knows the original well, which I am certain you do. :slight_smile:

I relate the Richter version to a fabulous piece for the Paris Opera Ballet by Crystal Pite, which was performed at Covent Garden.

Pite also creates works for the Royal Ballet, most recently a piece about refugees, specifically for Marcelino Sambe, set to Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. We’ve seen it twice and it is also a fine piece of music.

I get just as much pleasure from listening to any of Vivaldi’s 4 sets of 12 violin concertos, and the equally populous bassoon concertos, specifically the Sergio Azzolini recordings.

The weirdest I’ve ever heard. Tempos all over the place. At the beginning of Summer they seem to forget that they are playing music are are minded to stop for a cup of tea, but the finale is so fast it’s impossible to play the notes. Autumn started perfectly normal, but then descends into chiselling violins like the Bates Motel. Spring has bowing that it seems the strings are being hit giving another bizarre dynamic, and there seems to be an organ puffing away in the background.

I listened to Richter and prefer it to the original. This one I can take no more.

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I agree, it’s special. And nothing for traditionalists (I don’t say you are one…as much as I’m not someone who needs the special for the sake of ā€œthe differentā€).

I for the most part find it comparatively slow, with strongly wavy speed, expression and dynamics. I love this one as much as my other favorite pictured below (available as 33 and 45 vinyl remasterings, which are equally special, namely comparatively fast played, but fresh, unusual, fascinating). Probably you won’t like this one, too.

For me, the old war horse ā€œfour seasonsā€ has to catch me in a way how it’s played and how it sounds. Most of the traditional interpretations don’t do (anymore).

I love this one…the beginning is a masterpiece.

Wonderful, I wish that I’d seen this ballet performance with the Richter version! I think I have at least two digital and the LP version of the Richter recomposition.

Here’s a few.

The best is without doubt the green box, a selection of concerti by Concentus musicus Wein under Harnoncourt, with Jaap Schroder, Gustav Leonhardt and Franz Bruggen. Das Alte Werk recorded and produced by Telefunken. The best of everything really. Also a very early original instruments version. There is another famous version of the Four Seasons, same band, with Alice Harnoncourt on the fiddle.

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My wife told me this morning that she had tried to get tickets to see it again in Paris in September, but sold out in minutes. She loves that music as well, but Crystal Pite is worth travelling for.