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Chopin
Nocturnes Op. 15.
Maurizio Pollini, piano

Also good, I think I prefer No. 2.

Haydn
String Quartet No. 43
Emerson Quartet

Another good quartet from Haydn. Not a "joke" finish, but still a fairly quiet one.

Vivaldi
Four Seasons: Autumn
Simon Standage, violin
The English Concert
Trevor Pinnock, conductor

The fast movements are familiar to me, the middle

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Chopin
Nocturnes Op. 9
Maurizio Pollini, piano

I have a CD with all 19 Chopin Nocturnes played by Pollini (including the posthumous Op. 72). That seems like too many to absorb at one sitting, so I will try to listen to one opus per day. Today was Op. 19. I listened to each twice.

I like these first three. When I've played this CD in the past, it's just been background music, where I was really only paying attention for the first minute or two. So Op. 91

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Brahms
Arrangement of the 2nd movement from the String Sextet No. 2 Op. 18
Emanuel Ax, piano

Brahms apparently did the transcription himself, as a gift to Clara Schumann on her 41st birthday, but was never published in his lifetime.

I like this, but not as much as the sextet version. Some parts work in the piano version, but other really don't (i particular I really miss the pizzicato in some sections). Nevertheless, enjoyable to listen to.

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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.

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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

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