@classicalcritic
Roving Classical Critic-at-Large & Translator. Opinions are my own - or stolen. https://ionarts.blogspot.com/search/label/jfl https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/ Amazon links are affiliate links
JessyeNorman & HansSotin are appropriately Wagnerian voices, too.
This is smashmouth, on-the-beat-Beethoven of the Toscanini 2.1 type. Only ever boxed once. (Link) All other issues include the 70s cycle.
#morninglistening to something I've long avoided: GeorgSolti's Beethoven Symphonies. I opted for the he digital 80s remake. (Both w/the CSO & on DECCA.) The 9th has a ridiculously slow slow movement, Parsifalling (as a commenter mentioned) LvB. Something to it, though!
Amzn: amzn.to/4cEG1TD
#morninglistening to AndreiGavrilov's 1993 #GoldbergVariations. Buried in DG's catalog, they're Easy to overlook, but it's hard not to be charmed by the elegant machine-gun-fire in all the fast V's or the compelling coherence of his rigorous pulse.
Amzn: amzn.to/4mSxlv6
#nowplaying #JSBach
Amzn: amzn.to/3Nj7y2s
Out soon, joining an extant 19 sets, and as one of the decidedly good ones at that. What are your favorites? And why is it either Pacifica Or Talich!? π
#morninglistening to this fresh arrival: the #Mendelssohn StringQuartets on the now-completed & boxed recordings w/the @MinguetQuartett on CPO. Listened straight from beginning to end; 4 discs, incl. 2Pieces op.81 & E-flat Q4t.
Amzn: amzn.to/3Nj7y2s
A little reminder what music used to cost!
(1DM in 1990 would have had the same purchasing power, or slightly more, than $1/β¬1 today.)
Amzn: amzn.to/4cEG1TD
Opinions as to which is preferable differ wildly; this is certainly of its time. And for what it is, it's superb: smashmouth, on-the-beat-Beethoven of the Toscanini 2.1 type. Only ever boxed once. (Link) All other issues include the 70s cycle.
#morninglistening to something I've surprisingly long avoided: #GeorgSolti's Beethoven Symphonies. Recommendation of a musician-acquintance who likes the analog recodings; I opted for the he digital 80s remake. Both w/the CSO & on Decca...
Also up on ionarts: More from the @RSOWien.
#criticsnotebook: Marin Alsop, the RSO and Bruce Liu in "Program vs. Performance"
ionarts.blogspot.com/2026/03/crit...
Up on @ionarts.bsky.social: #CriticsNotebook: When Alban Berg is the Sweetener: Great Programming with Metzmacher and the RSO Wien.
ionarts.blogspot.com/2026/03/crit...
Hungry #Weidringer[TM] earlier at the Wiener Konzerthaus for Ilya Shmukler and lentils. Melodie-#Weidringer[TM] now across the street, in the Musikverein Wien for the once (still?) irresistible Marianne Crebassa.
www.diepresse.com/20667695/spi...
Spinat-Lasagne und hohe Klavierkultur zur Mittagszeit: Ilya Shmukler im Konzerthaus
KΓΌnstler zum Kennenlernen: Mit Ilya Shmukler gab der amtierende Geza-Anda-Wettbewerbsgewinner seine Visitenkarte im Konzerthaus ab.
Nom-nom-nom! 2024 @C_GezaAnda Competition Winner #IlyaShmukler's lunchtime recital at the Konzerthaus. With the lunchtime menu woven into the review because HUNGRY!
(Wer Konzertkritiken schΓ€tzt, kann nichts besseres machen, als ein (Probe)Abo ΓΌber eine unserer Kritiken zu bestellen!)
#morninglistening to the @yle_rso, @hannulintu & #OlliMustonen in #Prokofiev's PianoConcertos on @ondine_records. Mustonen in Prokofiev is always special and these discs are top of the line even amid several strong cycles of these works!
#morninglistening to an outstanding new recording of the #Shostakovich PreludesAndFugues by HannesMinnaar on ChallengeRecords
Amzn: amzn.to/4bwSuYm
I wonder, though: what makes an interpretation of the P&F work for me or not... Steadiness? Pace? Tempi? Tone? Still not quite sure myself. π¬
Classical also-ran #Weidringer[TM] at the Wiener Konzerthaus for VΓ‘clav Luks & Camerata Salzburg
Link to go with the review: www.diepresse.com/20661680/fau...
"Badass*" Marin Alsop conducts the MDW-Wien's Webern Orchestra in a challenging program on women's day with Heldenleben and a world premiere along the way.
(* as per Pink)
www.diepresse.com/20658210/mat...
Faust/Melnikov at the @Musikverein. A wildly gorgeous evening of chamber music!
Women's #Weidringer[TM] for the A. Webern Orchestra w/Marin Alsop at the MV. Incl . Heldenleben & Ingi Kim
#morninglistening to the MieczysΕawWeinberg & DSCH CelloConcertos w/NicolasAltstaedt, M.Nesterowicz & DSOBerlin on @channelclassics. Also a little Lutoslawski-kicker, but the main ingredients count. @surprisedbeauty Music!
Who else is Team #MieczysΕawWeinberg?
#morninglistening: On first listening, this appears one of the most notable, gratifying recordings of the JSBach CelloSuites to come out in years! AnastasiaKobekina brings nuance & spunk but nothing gratuitous to the table.
Amzn: amzn.to/4d2XdSK
One of a few serious artists left on SonyClassical.
...rather than outside factors. It's a little tighter, as it would have to be, in a better acoustic, and as a result the elements link even more naturally into each other and the sense of structural grandeur becomes even more intuitively felt. (Or something along those lines.)
After hearing this, the out-of-print LΓΌbeck performance was the apple of my eye. Eventually sourced it for Tower Records, if I remember correctly. In any case, what the LΓΌbeck performance gives in atmosphere, it takes in actual SQ. In the Berlin recording Wand makes the *music* cerate the atmosphere
#morninglistening to one of the all-time greatest #Bruckner 8ths: GΓΌntherWand's @berlinphil recording on RCA. For me, this exceeds all his other, also excellent, 8ths, including the LΓΌbeck-account. My NΒΊ1 recommendation, among many great recordings.
Amzn: amzn.to/4sjOWym
Einfach drauf pfeiffen!
Oberlinger & MΓΆnkemeyer im Konzerthaus
Rezension fΓΌr @diepressecom.bsky.social
www.diepresse.com/20643782/kon...
Rezension in der Presse (@diepressecom.bsky.social)
Lesung mit Musik im Konzerthaus mit Dorothee Hartinger & OnutΔ GraΕΎinytΔ (Klavier)
Fabulous album!!
It's an old joke/wisecrack (usually in response to a social gaffe), but I've not heard it in a while and it still cracks me up:
"Other than that: how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"