# Music you keep reverting to



## Hermastersvoice (Oct 15, 2018)

Hello. I realize that there’s music which I keep reverting to, old war horses , just because I in my quest for great interpretations have come across a marvel. So, for example I rarely ever listen to Tchaikovsky at all, save for Rodzinski’s version of the Nutcracker - which at every repeated listening brings a grin to my face (the percussion!). Likewise, I could do without ever listening to the Mendelssohn VC again, if it wasn’t that Zino Francescatti and George Szell repeatedly remind me how wrong I am. Likewise with Mozart VC 3+4 - I rarely bother visiting the other VCs but the poetry of Francescatti and Walter is almost haunting. But this wasn’t meant to be about a great violinist but about interpretations whose absolute greatness I may be missing. Of course, there are many great interpretations of the repertoire in the catalogue - as I’m writing this I’m listening to klemperer’s Missa Solemnis which is the version I by far am most prone to take down from the shelf. But it doesn’t make me listen to this work to any great excess. Ancerl in Dvorak 6, on the other hand, does, the lyricism many conductors get, but his pairing of this quality with great robustness, absolute sense of purpose gets to me every time. As a result I listen more to this Dvorak than any other. Casals’ way with Beethoven 8 is another example. Are there any interpretations which make you listen more to a piece than you otherwise would - and why? I’m not looking for (yet another) list of favorite this or that. Merely seeking the knowledge of my fellow forum contributors. Give me the 2 or 3 in your collection which play a role like that. That I absolutely must know.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Well, Barbirolli's Tchaikovsky String Serenade makes me realize time and again that it may be Tchaikovsky's most perfect work.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I have heard many _Nights in the Gardens of Spain_. The Falla work remains one of my all time favorite pieces, and I have several recordings and have heard it in concert. But the recording I keep returning to, having never heard anything near its special mystery, magic, and charm is the LONDON Digital Recording featuring Alicia de Larrocha on piano and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos.









I could listen to this recording ten times in a sitting and still not be disenchanted, it's that good.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Beethoven Choral Fantasy, Haitink. 

Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Ormandy.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Have two copies of Brahms Double Concerto by
Joshua Bell
Steven Isserlis
ASMF

Because I listen to it so often, worried about wearing CD out


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

There are certain recordings that have so imprinted themselves upon my brain that competing versions and live performances have
trouble dislodging them. Monteux and Boston in Tchaikovsky Fifth, Bernstein and Francescatti in Sibelius VC, Solti’s Carmen with TT, and a few others. Most of these were recordings that I discovered in my early listening career, starting about 40 years ago. There were several others but over time, especially for the Warhorses, overfamiliarity with a given recording breed if not contempt, at least ennui, and others have nosed in. For example, the Gutierrez/Previn Tchaikovsky PC1 eventually yielded to many other versions (particularly Richter, Gilles, and Horowitz with Toscanini, and Bernstein/NYP in Tchaikovsky Fourth likewise.
I also really like the Ancerl Dvorak 6, but I like the piece so much less than the last 3 Dvorak Symphonies that I ‘m not sure what that means.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I've listened to a few Brahms symphony cycles but I keep coming back to Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. 

I keep reverting to Tasmin Little, Maxim Vengerov and Jascha Heifetz as my preferred violin players. 

I've listened to many different versions of the Sibelius violin concerto but I haven't found a favourite. This is one of my favourite pieces but without a favourite performance.


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## aussiebushman (Apr 21, 2018)

I have lived alone (just with my dog) in a fairly isolated house in the Australian bush for many years - music is not an interest - it is a passion! For me it is largely a "cyclic" thing, as is possibly the case for most of us who have fairly broad musical interests.

Sometimes for days on end, I'll play Brahms, then a week or more of Shostakovitch. maybe then Gliere, Mahler, or Elgar, then a feast of chamber music and so on.(This does not even include opera that can keep me immersed in one composer or another for weeks. 

Ultimately however, it is always back to Bach - especially the organ works.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

I tend to go back to great classical pieces that I'm more familiar with most of the time.

Recently, I have been in love with Bach's organ trio sonatas. Listening to some moments of them give me a great sense of peace and order, like if I was in a highter plane. It's a great pleasure. For me they are a hidden jewel in the world that is Bach's music.

My reference (and only for the moment) recording for them and for most of Bach's organ music is Walcha's. I keep listening to them again and again since I discovered these works about two or three years ago.


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

Hermastersvoice said:


> Are there any interpretations which make you listen more to a piece than you otherwise would - and why? I'm not looking for (yet another) list of favorite this or that. Merely seeking the knowledge of my fellow forum contributors. Give me the 2 or 3 in your collection which play a role like that. That I absolutely must know.


Richard STRAUSS: _Don Quixote ~ Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character_ (1897)
:: Burgin, de Pasquale, Piatigorsky, Munch/BSO [RCA '53]

This is the _Don Quixote_ of my mind's ear, featuring a lovable, larger-than-life cellist-errant who somehow manages to maintain the requisite "knightly character" as he and his viola-packing sidekick gallivant across the colorful orchestral landscape in chivalrous pursuit of adventure. Cellist Piatigorsky's portrayal has the quality of a world-class raconteur telling an especially tall tale, conveying the humor and sadness and everything in between with, when appropriate, a deftly judged sense of underlying tenderness and vulnerability that makes it all the more believable and affecting. Violist Pasquale and violinist Burgin are wonderfully characterful and perfectly complementary in their smaller roles, and Munch and the BSO's bold and splashy accompaniment is ideally suited to Piatigorsky's animated and outgoing interpretation. Good, vivid mono sound.

* * *

Frédéric CHOPIN: Preludes, Op. 28 (1834-39)
:: Arrau [Arbiter/Prague Spring, live '60]

"As I say, I never think of them as single pieces. They answer one another. When I finish one of them, I need to play the next. In a way, they are a survey of Chopin's cosmos. Alternating light and shade." - «Arrau on Music and Performance» by Joseph Horowitz

Arrau practices what he preaches, as his performance really does have an organic quality about it that brings unexpected unity to this diverse opus, with each prelude in turn providing a contrasting but complementary response to its predecessor-it's all very yin and yang. Relatedly, his beautifully judged pauses (or lack thereof) between preludes help facilitate continuity to a surprising degree, allowing the music to flow as in a well-timed dialogue. If there's less overt contrast and variety from prelude to prelude here than in other performances, then there's that much more insidious contrast and variety, which fosters both continuity and cumulative impact. Indeed, the performance has a seductive siren-like quality about it that gradually strengthens its hold on the listener throughout, eventually luring him to his D-minor doom in the stormy final prelude, which fully embodies Cortot's description: "Du sang, de la volupté, de la mort" ("Of blood, of earthly pleasure, of death"). As such, this is not a recording that rewards dipping into so much as it does listening straight through. And while the occasional individual prelude performance may strike me as being too slow or not phrased exactly to my liking in absolute terms, I have no problem with any of them in context.

The performance as a whole has a somewhat dark, ominous, disturbed disposition, and each prelude is well characterized within that context-especially the dark, ominous, disturbed ones. Arrau plays with uncommon weight and gravitas but without sounding heavy handed or encumbered, tickling the ivories or whipping up a storm with a dexterity, even nimbleness, that belies the weight of his playing. Most impressive, perhaps, is his ability to make the music sound so organic and spontaneous on the surface while making it feel so sturdy and well-founded underneath-no mean trick, and one that might be described as "art concealing architecture." [Jed Distler's review comment that "Arrau's organic feeling for the music's underlying polyphony (as opposed to picking out 'inner voices' at random) belies Richard Wagner's description of Chopin as a 'one-handed composer' " sounds about right to me, but I'm easily swayed on all matters "Chopin," a subject that I don't have a particularly good grasp of.]

Even if you consider each prelude a little world unto itself and don't see a need to go to great lengths to relate them one to another in any formal or organic way, this performance is so exemplary in its way and just plain well-played that it's worth hearing in any event-if nothing else, it's the ultimate alternative/complementary recording to most any other recording out there (that I know of).

It's difficult to pick highlights from such a performance, but I will say that the faster and/or more etud_ish_ preludes are played with impressive, almost scary, proficiency-especially considering that it's a live performance. The mono recording is pretty good by live 1960 standards: a bit diffuse and distorted, but nothing distracting except in the most rambunctious of passages.

* * *

Alfred SCHNITTKE: String Trio (1985)
:: Kremer, Zimmermann & Schiff [Philips/Lockenhaus, live '87]

I was never completely sold on Schnittke's Trio until I heard this ultra-intense live recording from the 1987 Lockenhaus Festival. The pace of the performance is rather slow, but the Lockenhausers inhabit the music with every fibre of their collective being and play with a fanatical conviction and commitment and a level of focus and concentration that are truly awe inspiring. In those respects, I'm not sure that I've heard another performance (of anything) to match this one. This inspired advocacy is matched by superb execution of a savvy interpretation, making for a once-in-a-lifetime Schnittke String Trio event.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

A few favorite interpretations:

For the Ravel Concerto for the Left Hand: François/Cluytens 
For the Sibelius Violin Concerto: Heifetz/Hendl
For the Prokofiev 3rd Piano Concerto: Cliburn/Hendl
For the three Bartók Piano Concertos: Sándor/Fischer
For the Khachaturian Piano Concerto: Orbelian/Jarvi
For the Orff Carmina Burana: Soloists/Rutgers/Ormandy
For the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24: Gould/Susskind
For the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2: Richter/Leinsdorf

I do love these, Doctor Fell
The reasons why I cannot tell
But this I know, and know full well
I do love these, Doctor Fell


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Having heard the Mendelssohn VC so many times I always go back to Hilary Hahn's recording on Sony. To me its a perfect interpretation.

https://www.amazon.com/Mendelssohn-...watch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1542419714&sr=8-13


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