Whoops, I forgot to include this one on Jan 22: Brahms String Sextet No. 1 Violins: Isaac Stern, Cho-Liang Lin Violas: Jaime Laredo, Michael Tree Cellos: Yo-Yo Ma, Sharon Robinson I've owned this disc for a long time, and I really like this piece. I think I prefer it to the 2nd sextet, but it's a close call. I particularly like the 2nd movement. 0 Likes
Charles Ives Holidays Symphony Chicago Symphony Orchestra Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor A big question for me with this piece (and other Ives' pieces) is how can we fully understand and appreciate what he is doing, unless we are familiar with all of his source material? I like the way that familiar tunes come in and out of "focus" in this piece, but I suspect that there is a *lot* going on here that I am missing because the source material is unfamiliar 0 Likes ...
* Jan 20 & 22, 2021 Mozart Andras Schiff, piano This is a 1986 recording with eight different pieces. I've owned this for a long time, and always enjoyed it. There are two sets of variations, 10 on "Twinkle Twinkle, and 12 on "Unser dummer Pöbel meint". I do like the Twinkle Twinkle ones, though I was once told by a (with hindsight snooty) pianist that they are actually really boring. I admit that this time I thought the 12 0 Likes ...
To mark the Tuesday Blog’s Tenth Anniversary year, I intend to bring back throughout the year an old post format – which I have dubbed PTB Classic – that threads together works off a YouTube playlist to mark a theme (today, a pair of works from one composer) that may not fit any of our recurring series. The main work today is Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, the last of the so-called Wunderhorm symphonies as it is inspired from that very collection of poems, and repurposes one of the texts 0 Likes ...
Jan 18 Orchestral Suite No. 1 J.S. Bach The English Concert Trevor Pinnock, conductor 1979 It's unclear to me whether there's supposed to be some unifying theme in this 7-movement piece, but something did seem common to be about the different movements. I should read more about these pieces. French Suite No. 2 J.S. Bach Maria João Pires, piano It's nice. I think not my favorite from this particular 0 Likes ...