performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, or below by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Neeme Järvi (cover image by Michal Dolnik) Thankfully, we have now arrived at uncontested, overwhelming greatness in Shostakovich’s symphonic output. Not … Continue reading Shostakovich Symphony no. 4 in Cm, op. 43
preformed by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, or below by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy It is the creation of a genial mind laboring in a field well known and loved by it, but not … Continue reading Revisit: Rachmaninoff Symphony no. 3 in A minor, op. 44
performed by the New Philharmonia Orchestra under Riccardo Muti, or in a superb recording by the Oslo Philharmonic under Mariss Jansons (cover image by Serge Kutuzov) It’s been a while since we’ve seen any Tchaikovsky (a little over a year) and even … Continue reading Tchaikovsky Symphony no. 2 in Cm, op. 17 ‘Little Russian’
Performed by Maurizio Pollini and the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, or below by Mitsuko Uchida and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto, with an opus number of 58, dates from the time of … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 4 in G, op. 58
performed by the Staatskapelle Dresden under Rudolf Kempe, unquestionably the best recording of the work, in my opinion The death of this aspiring, idealistic, energetic artist is a grave loss… Strauss, on the death of Gustav Mahler Today’s work is … Continue reading Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, op. 64
performed by Truls Mørk and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, or below with Mstislav Rostropovich and the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy (or in a preferred recording with Rostropovich and the London Symphony under Charles Groves) This work is just… … Continue reading Shostakovich Cello Concerto no. 1 in E-flat, op. 107
We’re quite spoilt here in Taipei. I won’t go on again about having seen the world-famous ensembles from Berlin, Vienna, Chicago, and Munich come visit, along with the likes of the Concertgebouw and Philharmonia, and on and on, but we … Continue reading Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Taipei
performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Marriss Jansons One of the largest symphonies in the standard repertoire, along with most of Mahler, bits of Bruckner, and some Shostakovich (but this is his longest). This recording comes in at around … Continue reading Shostakovich Symphony no. 7 in C major, op. 60 ‘Leningrad’
performed, as always, by Neville Marriner and the ASMF, or below by Marriss Jansons and the Concertgebouw (apologies for the anime image, but it’s a nice performance) Mini-German: Part 2(I know he’s Austrian) Now for a slight change of pace. Sort of. While this work came a decade after last week’s Beethoven piece, it is… at least to my ears, not as far ahead of its time. That’s no criticism at all. Let me explain.For one, Eroica was just kind of a phenomenal thing. Beethoven was already into his thirties when this piece was written. Schubert was about half that … Continue reading Schubert Symphony no. 3 in D major, D. 200
performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, or as below, Abbado with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, a wonderful performance So here we are, at kind of the middle point of our series, and we have reached quite a point in … Continue reading Mahler Symphony no. 3
Fugue for Thought 