101 Classical Music CDs

One particularly annoying thing about the Rimsky-Korsakov works on this CD is that they are recordings of performances I already own, on a CD that I already wrote about . Granted, these works are still a great pleasure to listen to (uh, again), but I'd prefer that that publishers at least chose another performance of the same work by the same symphony. At least then listeners could compare the two . But of course the publisher can make more money by simply re-copying an already recorded performance, and no one, except a few true classical music nerds, will ever know the difference. ********************** Neeme Jarvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Tchaikovsky (1841-1904); Borodin (1833-1887); Rimsky Korsakov (1844-1908) Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture and Marche Slave Alexander Borodin: Polovtsian Dances and In The Steppes of Central Asia Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Festival Overture and Capriccio Espagnol Deutsche Grammophon, 1990 ********************** However, this ...

The overture will be very loud and noisy, but probably has no artistic merit, as I wrote it without either warmth or love. --Tchaikovsky, writing about the 1812 Overture to his patron Madame von Meck Tchaikovsky wasn't the only critic of his 1812 Overture . There isn't a music pundit anywhere who hasn't said something witheringly condescending about this work ("it is filled with cheap thrills," sneers my trusty Essential Canon of Classical Music). 1812 is the bane of high school bands anywhere and an eye-roll-inducer at summer pops orchestras everywhere. And despite all this, it remains one of the most electrifying works of classical music ever written. ********************** Neeme Jarvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Tchaikovsky (1841-1904); Borodin (1833-1887); Rimsky Korsakov (1844-1908) Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture and Marche Slave Alexander Borodin: Polovtsian Dances and In The Steppes of Central Asia Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Festival O...

Somehow it came and went and I never noticed. But my discussion of Grieg's Lyric Pieces was the 100th post here at this blog. And so I'm going to take this opportunity, belated as it is, to thank you for reading and for sharing in this journey I'm taking through my classical music. I'm so grateful for this blog, because it's taught me an important lesson beyond the composers, the history and the music. It has taught me that there is amazing beauty and joy in life right in front of our noses--if we would just take the time to look, listen and pay attention. But because I was too busy with life, all of the amazing classical music I owned just sat there, in a corner of our living room, dusty, forgotten and ignored. Those 101 classical music CDs were a metaphor for how I failed to appreciate the truly important things in life--and now they've become a metaphor for how I'm beginning to get it right. Okay. Enough sentimentality. As some of you have noticed, I too...

I am a composer in search of oblivion, and I'm always slightly ashamed that I compose. -- Alexander Borodin Today we're going to listen to two works by Alexander Borodin: the lesser-known In the Steppes of Central Asia , and the popular and well-known Polovtsian Dances . ********************** Neeme Jarvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Tchaikovsky (1841-1904); Borodin (1833-1887); Rimsky Korsakov (1844-1908) Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture and Marche Slave Alexander Borodin: Polovtsian Dances and In The Steppes of Central Asia Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Festival Overture and Capriccio Espagnol Deutsche Grammophon, 1990 ********************** Borodin never gets top billing in symphony concerts or on classical music CDs, so it shouldn't be a surprise that he's on the undercard on today's CD. Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, a work well-known to the point of parody, gets to be the headliner . It shouldn't be this way. If you take the time to have on...

If there was a golden age for classical music, it certainly wasn't any time during the past fifty years. In many ways, classical music has lost its way in our current cultural landscape. We've seen the Columbus Symphony close down and the San Antonio Symphony declare bankruptcy (admittedly both have re-emerged, but with truncated seasons and musicians working for lower pay). Thanks to our current economic straits, it's highly plausible that in the next few years we will see a number of other symphony orchestras either close down or significantly reduce their size and scope. The key to the long-term sustainability of any art form is the quality, dynamism and impact of its new works. Unfortunately, that's where classical music is struggling most of all. Quick, name three classical music composers who published something in the last ten years. Uh, okay, name two? One? Symphony orchestras all around the world have been subsisting on the crowd favorites like Beethoven, Moza...

What is so-called originality, so-called novelty? It isn't the most important thing. The most important thing is truth of feeling. --Edvard Grieg Grieg wrote a total of 66 lyric pieces for piano, and our pianist, Emil Gilels, chose the twenty works featured on this disc himself. It's refreshing to hear these beautiful works for solo piano played so lovingly, beautifully and with such perfection. This is the kind of classical music CD you'll listen to joyfully for decades. ********************** Emil Gilels, piano Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Grieg: Lyric Pieces (Lyrische Stücke), performed by Emil Gilels Deutsche Grammophon/Polydor, 1974 ********************** It's a pleasure to hear a CD of passionate music performed by a pianist who actually cares about the recording he was making, and it's a particularly stark contrast from our last CD of piano music grudgingly performed by Glenn Gould. Before we get to the listener notes, I'd like to make a brief point about tw...

Today we listen to possibly the most mediocre CD in my entire classical music collection, Glenn Gould's recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. ********************** Glenn Gould, piano Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) The Glenn Gould Edition - Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I The Glenn Gould Edition - Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II Sony Classical, 1971/1993 ********************** It would take a nearly a century for his ideas to catch on, but aspects of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier would eventually come to revolutionize Western music. With this work, Bach promoted a new way of tuning keyboard instruments, using a twelve-tone chromatic system rather than the " meantone " system that predominated at the time. Furthermore, this enormous collection of preludes and fugues heavily influenced composers--including giants like Beethoven and Mozart--for hundreds of years to come, as it established some of the key ground rules for ha...