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Musical Discussions
Topic: Top Recordings of All Time!

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Posted by drdna on 06-14-2009
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After seeing Paul's recent lament that classical records are getting harder and harder to find, I noted that I listen to only a small portion of my collection. I have my favorites, but I wondered about everyone else.

What are your favorite performances of all time, the ones that if you were stranded on a desert island with only food, shelter, your stereo system, a solar powered battery source, and a box of records, what records would be in the box?

Adrian

Posted by Romy the Cat on 06-16-2009
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If you visited this site before 2004, when I conversed it to audio site then you remember that it was performances-centric site. It was structured by composers, and each (let say some) composition had a list of reported performances in descending order, according to quality of performance. The performances competed for being the “first” and so on…

I did not take this idea very far and I have to tell that I kind of lost interest for maintaining that site as I did not find it stimulating. Why the “competition” even needed? I did feel that it goes anywhere for me. I knew my performances and frankly I egotistically did not care about the performances of others. No one can teach anyone, people juts discover the new things with themselves….

Anyhow, the piece with this notion I found in 2003 when I visited local Clark Johnson, the Miserable. Clark had an interesting way to organize his records. It was by label, by composer, by performer, by instrument, by category – I was not able to figure out - not only in his organization but even in the organization of my own record, however it was also a well designated area with mixed labels, composers, performers, instruments and categories and this area was dedicated for the best  performances ever.

Since then I do very much the same. I have a few shelves where I put the best performances. How can I or anybody else to equate them to a desert island or to not a desert island? They are not really “compete” but they just live on the shelf as the best achievement of mankind musical experiences committer to recorded media. I kind of not need to  stratify them. They are good as they are….

The Cat

Posted by tuga on 06-17-2009
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 Romy the Cat wrote:

If you visited this site before 2004, when I conversed it to audio site then you remember that it was performances-centric site. It was structured by composers, and each (let say some) composition had a list of reported performances in descending order, according to quality of performance. The performances competed for being the “first” and so on…

I did not take this idea very far and I have to tell that I kind of lost interest for maintaining that site as I did not find it stimulating. Why the “competition” even needed? I did feel that it goes anywhere for me. I knew my performances and frankly I egotistically did not care about the performances of others. No one can teach anyone, people juts discover the new things with themselves….

The Cat


Hi Romy,



Whenever I hear an interesting work I come here and use the search engine hoping to find suggestions for interesting performances of that piece. I do this only because I can't afford the discovery way, and music magazines either only recommend new performances or serve a role as advertisers/marketers for the big labels.


I have once only asked for suggestions on Sibelius' Violin Concerto but I got the impression that you weren't very favorable to this kind of post.


Your Great Violoncello and Orquestra performances list has been quite helpful as well and it's a pity you haven't done something similar for the Piano or the Violin (although it's perfectly understandable that you haven't).



Best,

Ric


Posted by op.9 on 06-26-2009
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Sibelius' Violin Concerto?

Kavakos Kavakos Kavakos! http://www.amazon.com/Jean-Sibelius-Concerto-Original-Version/dp/B0000016GW

or... Pekka Pekka Pekka!!? http://www.amazon.com/Jean-Sibelius-Concerto-Karelia-Belshazzars/dp/B000003794/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1246050791&sr=1-2

tricky one...

cheers, james

Posted by drdna on 08-02-2009
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I was recently listening to Les Mysteres des Voix Bulgares, Volume 1. I was really struck by the way the arrangements and the tonal structures seem for me to crystallize a moment in time in the context of the cultrure for which the music originated. It seemed to me a perfect form of social commentary in musical form. So often I feel that compositions fail because the composers try to create a social commentary through the structure of the musical form in a very ham-fisted way, such as in the "Requiem for the Victims of AIDS." To allow the music simply to speak through its fundamental structure, as it is influenced by the socioeconomic conditions at the times in which the composer lives seems a million times more effective, if more sublime. I wondered if anyone had some thoughts on this or if you had some compositions that came to mind on this topic?
Adrian

Posted by el`Ol on 08-05-2009
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Hello Adrian!

I have a CD with sacred music from Bulgaria in my collection, from the Jaro label that has vocal music from all parts of the world in their program.
Something you might be interested in is this sampler which is a trip to different cultures all over the world.
http://www.jaro.de/php/endex.php3/page/content:flypage/cd_id/12/artist_id/369cdd9d98eb00a534b25b85617e04a5


Oliver

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