What composition are you currently listening to?

dod

Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2

from a French EMI CD
Chopin Concertos pour piano 1 & 2 (EMI 7243 5 62207 2 0)
Francois Rene Duchable/ Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse/ Michel Plasson

To be honest I am not familiar enough with other recordings of Chopins music to give an informed rating of the CD, but Francois Rene Duchable has a nice touch on the piano and, as ever, Plasson conducts with great aplomb. It's a nice CD to have in the collection.

Q_Elexra

At this very moment I'm listening to 'The Four Seasons' or too be more specific 'Spring' by Vivaldi. The Allegro at the start is probably a piece that anyone would recognise. It's all part of a CD called 'celebration of the baroque' that my dad got free with a magazine called 'The Classical Collection' years ago.

Lately I've been listening to 'The Blue Danube'. It's utterly amazing and it's the reason I became interested in Classical music.

sionnach

the rach 3

sionnach

four seasons - summer, amazing piece

dod

Wagner Die Walkure Lehmann/ Fuchs/ Klose/ Melchior/ Hotter

A recent Naxos release (details here)

The release is a recording from 1935 & 1938, the cleaning up job from the old 78s is fantastic. Really good quality stuff. You would never know this stuff is nearly 70 years old.

neoB

Third movment of Gymnopedie by Erik Satie. Fantastic peice!

sionnach

beethoven's ninth

dod

Verdi/ Falstaff
The Los Angeles Phil/ Giulini recording with Nucci/ Bruson/ Hendricks & Ricciarelli.

I recommend it highly

dod

Mozart/ Don Giovanni with the delicious Bartoli.

Oh how I do love her voice.

dod

Anne Sophie von Otter singing Handels Ariodante
(Dawson, Cangemi, Podles, Croft, Sedov, Coadou, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski)

Great recording if you like the Handel Operas.

cerebus

Elgar Cello Concerto - du Pre, Barbirolli, London Symphony Orchestra.

Specky

Anne Sophie von Otter singing Handels Ariodante.....Great recording if you like the Handel Operas.

...and if you think Anne Sophie is a bit of a yummy mummy!!

dod

This has been on my wanted list for some time, and I finally got it last night. I know Carmen isn't for everybody, but Angela Gheorghiu is truly delicious in the role:



I'll even concede that her husband, Roberto Alagna, whose voice I wouldn't hold in anywhere near as great an esteem, is actually quite suited to the role of Don Jose in this recording.

cerebus

Wagner - Das Rheingold. London, Flagstad, Watson, Solti, Wiener Philharmoniker.

Always get a shiver during the prelude!

dod

Liszt's transcription of Bellini's Norma from Liszt- The Great Transcriptions.

I highly recommend this album- it is superb.

dod

The 1961 Bayreuth Tannhäuser with Victoria de Los Angeles as Elisabeth and Wolfgang Windgassen in the title role.

From the Opera D'Oro label, great recordings at very reasonable prices.

dod

The great Von Karajan/ Chicago Symphony Orchestra recording of Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg with Van Dam/ Heppner/ Mattila/ Vermillon/ Opie/ Lippert & Pape.

This is a must have CD- a truly glorious recording.

dod

I just got this today: the Decca Beethoven Fidelio with Nilsson singing Leonore.

I love Nilsson doing the Wagner female roles and wanted to hear her do Leonore (other singers find the role quite demanding, but after doing the Wagner female leads, I guess anything is easy!)

dod

Il Trovatore with the delicious Angela Gheorghiu as Leonore, LSO conducted by Pappano. She has a voice you could eat for breakfast.

Aglomerado

Emma Kirkby singing Vivaldi's Nulla in Mundo pax Sincera

dod

Mozart Piano Sonata in F major, K280

From the Marta Deyanova 5-CD set recordings of the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas

dod

Mozart - La clemenza di Tito with Bartoli, Heilmann, Jones, Montague, Bonney, Cachemaille and the Academy of Aincent Music Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Hogwood

Bartoli and Bonney are superb.

dod

Donizetti, Famous Love Duets.

Nice (curious?) little album with excerpts from Lucia, Fille du Regiment, La Favorita, L'Elisir d'amore, Imelda de'Lambertazzi & Don Pasquale.

dod

Beethoven Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor Op.57 'Appasionata'

From the Bernard Roberts 'Complete Piano Sonatas' box set. Great background music whilst you work.

dod

Angela Gheorghiu, Casta Diva. This is a must have album. It is only glorious. She has the most wonderful voice ever gifted to a singer.

Stop reading this nonsense and go buy this album.

Is1ldur

Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue
Just watched The Godfather properly for the first time (I know, I know), and I loved how Coppola used it during the Baptism/Murder sequence.
By the way I am linking to a BBC Radio 3 site,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/discovernew.shtml

I am sure you have seen it before. The radio series explains pieces in detail, and there is a brilliant episode on the Passacaglia (its about half-way down this archive page.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/discover.shtml

You need to have the Real Radio player installed, which you can get from the site

dod

Die Walkure Act 2 from the famous 1982 Solti recording on Decca.

I went to see The Ring performed live about two years ago, and loaned my copy of this recording to a friend in order not to pollute the live performance by overplaying this reference recording. He only gave it back to me yesterday, and I just love this recording. It is expensive, but I recommend it to anybody who is into their Wagner.





I have a huge collection of classical CDs, much of it Opera, and this recording is probably the proud cornerstone of the whole collection.

catho_monster

I went to see The Ring performed live about two years ago

was that the concert performance in UL?

dod

Originally posted by catho_monster
was that the concert performance in UL?

It most certainly was. An absolutely fabulous week in Limerick.

catho_monster

An absolutely fabulous week in Limerick.

yes, yes it was.

and one of the most profound of my aural experiences.
i had this wierd experience of hearing familiar music (of all genres) on a totally different plane after hearing the whole ring live; noticing things i had never heard before.

wagner is the man.

(coming from a woman who knows a quite a bit of, but really isn;t pushed on opera. i am now willing to make the exception for wagner)

ps. mods: sorry, i know this is totally off topic

dod

Ah not to worry catho_monster, we pretty much have the place to ourselves here. Did you spend the week in the Univerity accomodation? We rented out an apartment for six of us and had an absolutely spectacular week. The music was truely awesome. And I made an awful lot of friends down there through the performances that I still stay closely in touch with.

I have quite an extensive Wagner collection (CDs and books). Any favourites recordings?