[science]

Pleased and very surprised with both the results of my first, second, and third totally random polls, I now begin a totally new totally random poll.

As before, the question is, of the recordings listed, which do you think should be the highest priorities for me as a listener?

Everything below this is the same as last time:

If you don't think I should have priorities, or that "should" has any place, or whatever, please feel free to vote for a recording on some other grounds, or anything! Perhaps we've got slightly more famous recordings this time, but still, I'd be very impressed and surprised if anyone has heard all of these recordings. You can vote for things based on your personal experience, your own wishes for yourself, what you've heard about them, whatever.

There is no good explanation or excuse for this poll (or its predecessors, or its successors should there be any). As before, this is not a very serious thing. It is not an attempt to discover the absolute truth about the objectively greatest whatever whatever whatever whatever. I'm just curious. I just want to put the question to the community here and see what the results are. It's nothing more than that.

 

[science]

Let's have some cover art:

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[science]

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[science]

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[Nereffid]

My now-standard 3 votes this time went to the Trobairitz (because it's Jordi Savall), Foss (because I've not heard him), and Martinu (because I need to explore his music more).

 

[science]

By the way, a reflection on poll #3 - Bach and Henselt made late pushes and almost caught up with the Cikada String Quartet album of works by Saariaho, Cage, Maderna. For the first time in this series of polls, I'd guessed the winner of a poll, but I was as surprised by second and third place as I was by any other results in the polls.

Septimal asked why I was surprised by Messiaen's victory in the first poll, and the answer is that I didn't think Des canyons... was a very popular work. But really it was nothing against Messiaen; I'd simply guessed that the Boulez recording of Schoenberg's choral works to win.

 

[SimonNZ]

Heard twelve of the fifteen. I think I'd recommend the Savall Troubadours and the Penderecki there (sticking to my usual two votes)

 

[ArtMusic]

Another interesting list there, science. I shall recommend the Cherubini piece.

 

[GioCar]

Cherubini here as well, together with Foss and Villa-Lobos

 

[Bulldog]

One vote for the Enescu chamber music disc. I like Enescu a lot!

 

[Guest]

Martinu for the Magic Nights and Penderecki for the Partita.

 

[science]

With a 3-way tie for first and (Edit) a 4-way tie for second, nothing is winning. But Pohjonen & Kosminen are losing!

I'd guessed that the Penderecki would win this one.

 

[Nereffid]

With a 3-way tie for first and (Edit) a 4-way tie for second, nothing is winning. But Pohjonen & Kosminen are losing!

I'd guessed that the Penderecki would win this one.

If I'd chosen to use a 4th vote, it would have gone to Villa-Lobos.

 

[PetrB]

Lukas Foss' Time Cycle is a tremendous (and gorgeous) piece. As long as you get around to it, I'm happy for you. If that is the disc with also his Song of Songs, that is an early neoclassical piece, lovely, and charming as well.

But I thought about these polls in an odd moment, and assuming these are all CDs already in your home, waiting to be opened:

Print up pages of I Ching ideograms, including their sub-number headings to concentrate on the various lines, cut them so you have a host of them, tape them at random to the various CD,s and then toss the coins to determine which Ideogram and line, find the correlating CD, play it. (John Cage would be proud of you, boy!)

Another random way to select. Print a list of them all, set it out on your balcony, a windowsill, someplace local insects show up, and while having a beverage, watch the sheet and see which ladybug, spider, fly, etc. alights, or walks across the sheet: whichever creature alights upon or walks across a bit of text, that is your next choice.

You could ask your spouse, with her blindfolded or while "just not looking," to pull one from the heap, open it, and put it on. Benefit: you have no idea what you are going to hear from the selection, what it is, who it is by, and are free of the 'benefit' of any comments or data on the liner notes; you "Just hear the piece."
I actually advocate this last over any of the other ways mentioned above.

None of them, of course, include TC or polls

 

[science]

With a 5-way tie for first and a 2-way tie for second, I'll revisit some of these options in later polls sooner than I'd planned.

@ PetrB - regardless of how I decide what to listen to or when, I'm going to continue making these polls as long as I'm interested and the response is more positive than negative. If you don't like them, just ignore them! All that time spent composing snark is bad for your blood pressure and dissuades me not in the least.

 

[PetrB]

With a 5-way tie for first and a 2-way tie for second, I'll revisit some of these options in later polls sooner than I'd planned.

@ PetrB - regardless of how I decide what to listen to or when, I'm going to continue making these polls as long as I'm interested and the response is more positive than negative. If you don't like them, just ignore them! All that time spent composing snark is bad for your blood pressure and dissuades me not in the least.

Dude, I've voted in this one and several others. Chill.