What classical music you listening to, luv?

ArthurDent · « **Reply #2980 on:** 24 May 2019, 01:52 pm »

Saint-saens Quatours a Cordes Nos 1&2

Tyson · « **Reply #2981 on:** 24 May 2019, 06:10 pm »

My Elekit 2a3/300b tube amp showed up this week! So now I'm in the process of burning in new Gold Lion 300b tubes AND burning in my new Klipsch Forte IIIs in my upstairs system. My downstairs system based around the Serenity Acoustic Super 7 open baffle speakers remains unchanged. Right now I'm listening to this new release on Qobuz:

LesterSleepsIn · « **Reply #2982 on:** 24 May 2019, 08:30 pm »

Quote from: Tyson on 24 May 2019, 06:10 pm

My Elekit 2a3/300b tube amp showed up this week! So now I'm in the process of burning in new Gold Lion 300b tubes AND burning in my new Klipsch Forte IIIs in my upstairs system.

Well, that sounds like fun. I had a friend - now passed on - who had Forte 1s pushed by a Cary amp,
a 15 watt pushpull, with the EL34 tube. The upper detail was astonishingly good ... and not harsh. Anyway, enjoy.

And now back to this:

Tyson · « **Reply #2983 on:** 24 May 2019, 09:12 pm »

Quote from: LesterSleepsIn on 24 May 2019, 08:30 pm

Well, that sounds like fun. I had a friend - now passed on - who had Forte 1s pushed by a Cary amp,
a 15 watt pushpull, with the EL34 tube. The upper detail was astonishingly good ... and not harsh. Anyway, enjoy.

And now back to this:

The shocking thing for me is that every iteration of Klipsch speakers I'd head before the Forte IIIs (and Heresy IIIs) were too bright and a bit harsh. The Heresy III has tons of detail and is not harsh sounding at all. The Forte III has EVEN MORE detail and still not bright or harsh. That's pretty impressive to me and a big improvement over all other Klipsch speakers I've ever heard.

The acid test is female vocals. Classical female vocals are actually the most stringent test I can think of, so in honor of that I've been listening to:

andolink · « **Reply #2984 on:** 24 May 2019, 10:09 pm »

First listening to this new 96/24 flac download of some (to me) unfamiliar Mendelssohn and the performance and sound quality of Symphony No. 1 are both on an extremely high level. I’m a sucker for HIP early 19th Century repertoire.

Now on to the rest of the disc…

ArthurDent · « **Reply #2985 on:** 27 May 2019, 04:02 am »

Shostakovitch Symphony No. 5, Op. 47, Leonard Bernstein New York Philharmonic '59

etcarroll · « **Reply #2986 on:** 27 May 2019, 01:27 pm »

Shostakovich ‎– Symphony No. 7 (1942) "Leningrad"

LesterSleepsIn · « **Reply #2987 on:** 27 May 2019, 08:53 pm »

Yet another edge-of-your-seat exciting episode of ... Keeping Up With the Andolinks!

I already own several HM Les Arts Florissants/William Christie recordings on vinyl, but this is the first digital and it doesn’t disappoint.

Tyson · « **Reply #2988 on:** 28 May 2019, 02:37 am »

Some nice Chopin ballades performed by Jean-Paul Gasparian. It's an excellent recording, great sound quality. Performance wise, not on par with Zimmerman or Pollini, but then again, what is?

andolink · « **Reply #2989 on:** 28 May 2019, 11:34 am »

LesterSleepsIn · « **Reply #2990 on:** 28 May 2019, 11:45 am »

What do you guys think about a separate thread, What Classical Music are you listening to ON LASERDISC?

.... Nah, just kidding. I’ll post them here.

Tyson · « **Reply #2991 on:** 28 May 2019, 02:27 pm »

Quote from: LesterSleepsIn on 28 May 2019, 11:45 am

What do you guys think about a separate thread, What Classical Music are you listening to ON LASERDISC?

.... Nah, just kidding. I’ll post them here.

Laserdisc, that's old school!! Haha

LesterSleepsIn · « **Reply #2992 on:** 28 May 2019, 05:41 pm »

Quote from: Tyson on 28 May 2019, 02:27 pm

Laserdisc, that's old school!! Haha

Don’t make me go to the attic for those 8-tracks, Tyson! (I wonder if Van Cliburn My Favorite Encores still plays?)

Meanwhile,

WILLIAM CHRISTIE, ARTS FLORISSANTS - CHARPENTIER oratorios HARMONIA MUNDI, vinyl

andolink · « **Reply #2993 on:** 29 May 2019, 11:09 am »

Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in A flat, Op. 65 (1948)
Tenebrae First Nocturn Op. 72 (1951)
Tenebrae Second Nocturn Op. 72 (1961)
Tenebrae Third Nocturn Op. 72 (1961)
Missa in Honorem Sancti Dominici Op. 66 (1948)
Festival Gloria Op. 94 (1957)
James E. Jordan Jr. (organ)
Gloria Dei Cantores/Elizabeth C. Patterson

andolink · « **Reply #2994 on:** 29 May 2019, 01:33 pm »

Tyson · « **Reply #2995 on:** 29 May 2019, 02:26 pm »

Speaking of 8 tracks, going back in history. Karajan's recording of the Brahms 1st Symphony with the Philharmonia orchestra. I must say the remaster is quite successful and it's probably the best performance of Brahms I've heard from Karajan, really getting the angst, yearning and beauty all in proper proportion (usually he leans too heavily into beauty and not enough into angst, IMO):

Tyson · « **Reply #2996 on:** 29 May 2019, 07:43 pm »

Since I'm going old school today, moving on to some CLASSIC recordings of the Brahms violin sonatas with Rubinstein and Szeryng:

Tyson · « **Reply #2997 on:** 29 May 2019, 08:44 pm »

After listening to the Brahms' violin sonatas, I got on a bit of a Szeryng kick, and now I'm listening to this radio broadcast of him:

I love how Qobuz encourages these sort of rabbit holes of musical exploration.

Tyson · « **Reply #2998 on:** 29 May 2019, 08:59 pm »

And now to some music I have never, ever heard before. This is so cool:

Tyson · « **Reply #2999 on:** 30 May 2019, 01:29 am »

And to close out the listening session today, more Szeryng but this time with Haitink doing the Bartok 2nd, remastered in this big Haitink box: