101 Classical Music CDs

101 Classical Music CDs is now one year old, and if you'll permit me a brief fit of gratitude, I'd like to list ten things I've learned and discovered from my first year of finally listening to my collection of classical music. 1) I learned how much I loved Mozart. I spent years hating Mozart's music as a high school trumpet player--as far as I was concerned, it was all oom-pah parts and rest-counting. It wasn't until I started this blog (and had high school recede 20 years into my past) that I could at last hear him through fresh ears. 2) I learned even more how much I loved Haydn (yep, trumpet playing again ), and it taught me never to take great composers like these for granted. 3) I became much more familiar with each and every one of Beethoven's symphonies , by itself a worthwhile exercise if there ever was one. 4) It taught me about less-well known composers like Sibelius , who were sitting on my CD shelf, collecting just as much dust as my Bach

I'm listening to Vaughan Williams for the very first time today. Today will also likely be the last time I'll listen to Vaughan Williams. ********************** Barry Wordsworth and the New Queen's Hall Orchestra Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) Orchestral Works: Fantasia on Greensleeves; Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis; Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1; In the Fen Country Argo/Decca, 1994 ********************** Among England's best known and best regarded composers, Vaughan Williams follows a long line of European classical music composers (Brahms, Liszt, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Borodin) who were inspired and influenced by folk music from their native countries. However, here is the challenge for me with Vaughan Williams' music: it is simply too rich. Too rich with emotion, too rich in orchestration, too rich in sickly-sweet major keys, too rich in swelling chords and too rich with melodrama. If you are a music composer and you want your listeners to experience st

Many classical music writers seem to want to group Beethoven's Eighth symphony together with his Sixth (the "Pastoral") and his Seventh symphonies. Perhaps it's because there are some musical traits common to all three works (peasant dance themes, for example), or perhaps it's because he wrote the Seventh and Eighth symphonies at the same time and the Sixth just a few years before that. Or maybe it's just that these symphonies are afterthoughts, grouped together arbitrarily by virtue of the fact that they are bracketed by the Fifth and the Ninth symphonies, works that are of such importance in the world of classical music that they dwarf nearly everything else Beethoven wrote. Let's never make the mistake of overlooking Beethoven's "overlooked" symphonies. ********************** Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Beethoven (1770-1827) Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 8 / Fidelio Overture Deutsche Grammophon, 1977 ******************

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"Beethoven brought three startling innovations to music: first, he altered our very conception of the art by emphasizing the psychological element implicit in the language of sounds. Secondly, his own stormy and explosive temperament was, in part, responsible for a dramatization of the whole art of music.... Both of these elements--the psychological orientation and the instinct for drama--are inextricably linked in my mind with his third and possibly most original achievement: the creation of musical forms dynamically conceived on a scale never before attempted and of an inevitability that is irresistible." --Aaron Copeland, from David Dubal's The Essential Canon of Classical Music We return to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to give a close listen to an alternate performance of this exceptional classical music. ********************** Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Beethoven (1770-1827) Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 8 / Fidelio Overture Deutsche Grammopho

"Paganini's music is virtuosic for the sake of virtuosity," a relative of mine, a professional viola player, once said, "and it has no musical substance whatsoever." We return to Paganini's 24 Caprices to hear the renowned violin prodigy Midori try to tackle these preposterously difficult works. ********************** Midori, violin (b: 1971) Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840) Paganini: 24 Caprices Sony Classical, 1989 ********************** When I listened a month ago to Michael Rabin trying his best to play the Caprices, it was immediately obvious, even to me as a non-violinist, that these works are so technically challenging that even world-class musicians cannot play them cleanly. Midori, however, with her ferocious technical prowess, attacks these works with more success and better results than Michael Rabin. She may not sound entirely effortless, but she gets these notoriously difficult exercises done with a relatively minimal number of stray and off-key no

The Eighth Symphony was the last symphony Bruckner completed, and it will be the final Bruckner symphony covered in this blog. We've already written about his First , Fourth and Seventh Symphonies. ********************** Herbert Von Karajan and the Vienna Philharmoniker Felix Mendelssohn (1824-1896) Anton Bruckner: Symphony No.8 Deutsche Grammophon, 1989 ********************** Bruckner was 59 when he began work on this symphony, but rather than being at the height of his powers at this stage of his life, he was in many ways at the height of his personal insecurity. Unsure of himself, he was prone to accept the suggestions of his fellow musicians, some of them made in less than admiring spirit, some well-intentioned but not always perceptive... which a more self-confident man might have rejected. --John Warrack, in an unusually well-written CD liner note. In 1887, Bruckner thought he had finished this symphony after roughly three years of work, but when he sent the score to t

We will take a few more tentative steps into modern classical music today as we listen to Béla Bartók's Second Violin Concerto. This is the first time I've listened to Bartok here at 101 Classical Music CDs, and despite the fact that I've been listening to classical music for some 30 years, it took me a surprisingly long time to acclimate to this work. This extremely complex concerto only started to make sense to me after three very close listens. ********************** Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra Bela Bartok (1881-1945) Violin Concerto #2 Deutsche Grammophon, 1991 ********************** And this is why, if you are still new to classical music and are just starting up your collection of recordings , I would suggest you do not buy this CD until you've first become familiar with key works from earlier classical music eras. For some additional thoughts on the various challenges and rewards of listening to modern classical mus

We return to Dvorak after an extremely long hiatus to listen to his Sixth Symphony, performed on a CD recorded live by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Colin Davis. ********************** Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) Dvorák: Symphony No. 6 LSO Live, 2004 ********************** If you're in the early stages of building a classical music collection and are wondering whether you should include this work, let me be brief: don't bother. Dvorak has more impressive symphonies. If you want his best-known work, get this excellent recording of his Ninth; if you want to impress your friends with your originality by owning one of Dvorak's less-well-known work, then get the Seventh or Eighth Symphony (or both--they can be found on one CD here). This symphony was beautiful and well-played, don't get me wrong. But I failed to connect with it on an emotional level, and the four movements just didn't seem to go

After last week's derisive post on Paganini, I thought I'd shift to a composer who writes difficult-to-play music that doesn't threaten the very health of the musicians who play his works. Chopin. The poet of the piano. Today's Four Scherzi are masterpieces, full of emotion, tension, lyricism and complexity. They were among Chopin's last publications before his untimely death from consumption at age 39. ********************** Maurizio Pollini, piano Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) Chopin: 4 Scherzi, Berceuse, Barcarolle Deutsche Grammophon, 1991 ********************** What is a scherzo, exactly? Usually the word refers to one of the middle movements of a traditional symphony; typically it will be a lively dance-like piece in 3/4 time. Unfortunately, the word scherzo also means "joke" in Italian, leaving us to wonder if Chopin was being ironic or serious in using this name for these deeply emotional one-movement works for solo piano: How are seriousness and gra

Today's post is about not one, but two of history's greatest violin prodigies, and one of the most challenging collections of classical music ever written for the violin. Nicolo Paganini, our first prodigy, was not only the greatest violinist who ever lived, he can also be thought of as classical music's first rock star, with worldwide fame, groupies, mistresses, and stupefied audiences of weeping and crying fans, some of whom were convinced that Paganini was under the control of Satan himself. I like to think of him as a 19th century version of The Devil Went Down to Georgia . ********************** Michael Rabin, violin (1936-1972) Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840) 24 Caprices For Solo Violin EMI Classics, 1958/1993 ********************** On the other hand, our second prodigy, Michael Rabin, never made it to his 36th birthday. Widely seen as one of the 20th century's most gifted violinists, he died in a freak accident in his New York City apartment--he slipped on the floor

Today's post will cover Felix Mendelssohn's Second Symphony, from disc 2 of our 3-CD set of his five symphonies. Admittedly, the Second is a bit of a marathon. It starts off innocently enough like any other symphony, with three instrumental movements. But instead of finishing things up with a predictable fourth movement, Mendelssohn takes us into a nine-movement choral work. Collectively, the entire work is as long as two "normal" Mendelssohn symphonies. Mendelssohn dedicated his Second Symphony to the 400th anniversary of the invention of printing, which he believed to be one of the most important events in history. ********************** Herbert Von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Five Symphonies Deutsche Grammophon, 1973 ********************** Listener Notes for Mendelssohn's Second Symphony: 1) I'll say this for Mendelssohn: in this symphony he finally puts the brass section to work. 2) I don't see what's so

We return to classical music's second best -known prodigy, Felix Mendelssohn. Today I'll be writing about his Fifth Symphony. ********************** Herbert Von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Five Symphonies Deutsche Grammophon, 1973 ********************** It's been a long while since I returned to this three-CD set of Mendelssohn's five symphonies. I covered Symphony #1 way back in March 2008, and somehow eight months passed by before I came back to this collection (a side note: a commenter left a link on that post to a weirdly mesmerizing performance of Louis Farrakhan--yep, that Louis Farrakhan--playing a Mendelssohn violin concerto. You just never know who might be out there in cyberspace reading your blogs). In any event, what is taking me so long to finish off this CD? It's certainly not because the music isn't wonderful. But I will say that on some level, Mendelssohn's symphonies lack the powerful feeling of

Prior to today, I can't remember ever listening to a single work by Liszt in my life. What a spectacular oversight! ********************** Leonard Bernstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Faust Symphonie Deutsche Grammophon, 1977 ********************** In his day, Liszt was better known for his piano playing than his composing. His prowess at the keyboard was legendary, and he may have been the greatest pianist who ever lived. Just two quotes from my Essential Canon of Classical Music will suffice to illustrate how even the great composers of his era held him in awe: I should like to steal from him the way to play my own etudes. --Chopin I've just witnessed a miracle! I was with Liszt at Erard's [a piano maker], and I showed him the manuscript of my concerto. He played it at sight--it's hardly legible--and with the utmost perfection. It simply can't be played any better than he played it. It was miraculous. --Felix Mendelssohn Of course,

Today's post will cover Beethoven's Second Symphony, the other symphony on my 1985 CD of the Berliner Philharmoniker under the direction of Herbert von Karajan. Like the First , this symphony is part of Beethoven's "backward looking" period. Most of what we hear in this symphony bears striking resemblance to what you'd hear from Mozart, Haydn or other composers of the Classical era. ********************** Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 Deutsche Grammophon, 1985 ********************** And yet, while the structure and many of the melodic and harmonic elements sound "Classical" you can also hear, at times, a level of stress and emotional content unheard of in a typical Classical-era symphony. Part of the increased emotional content of this symphony was doubtless a function of Beethoven's personal struggles. It was at this time he was beginning to suffer from

Today we will cover Beethoven's First Symphony, from a 1985 CD of the Berliner Philharmoniker under the direction of Herbert von Karajan. I can see why music critics and historians consider Beethoven's First Symphony to be backward looking. There are times when you can hear Beethoven's stormy temper lurking in the First, but otherwise this symphony work sounds stylistically and structurally quite a bit like the music of Haydn or Mozart, key composers of the Classical era. ********************** Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 Deutsche Grammophon, 1985 ********************** Most music historians group Beethoven with Classical-era composers. But he wasn't really of the Classical era, nor was he truly of the Romantic era. He straddled both. His work evolved from Classical in style into forerunner works of the Romantic era (the Third Symphony is arguably a proto-Romantic work), and th

Today we will cover listener notes to Haydn's Symphony #40 and Symphony #50, the final two works on this exceptional CD of four Haydn symphonies. Haydn was a giant of the classical era of classical music, and if you're interested in getting a representative sample of his music, you should seriously consider buying today's recording, as well as a recording of either his "London" Symphonies, or his "Paris" Symphonies. Let me just repeat for emphasis from last post that the four symphonies on this CD are performed brilliantly, and nearly flawlessly, by the Heidelberger Sinfoniker. ********************** Thomas Fey and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 39, 34, 40, 50 Hanssler Classic, 2001/2003 ********************** Listener Notes for Haydn's Symphony Nos. #40 and #50: Symphony #40: 1) 30 seconds into the first movement of #40 (and it happens again at 1:38 when the initial theme is repeated) there's a an

I've mentioned before how I had never really appreciated Haydn before starting this blog. I had always thought of his music as rigid, highly structured and filled with more ornamentation than emotion. ********************** Thomas Fey and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 39, 34, 40, 50 Hanssler Classic, 2001/2003 ********************** This batch of four Haydn symphonies puts the lie to those assumptions just like all my other Haydn CDs . Haydn did amazing, facetious, challenging and even shocking things with the symphony. He was every bit the flexible risk taker that Mozart was, despite that era's relatively strict sense what the structure and format of a symphony should be. And this CD of the Heidelberger Sinfoniker, under the direction of Thomas Fey, is an exceptional performance across the board. There is hardly a mistake or off-key note in the entire CD, a particularly significant achievement as this recording was done with peri