Desert Island Discs

[Peter]

The Schubert Impromptus I was talking about are superior to the earlier ones, IMO. And I should have put on my list Schubert's String Quintet in C. My recording from the Emerson SQ and Rostropovich is magnificent.

Michael, I've been told by a friend that Swafford's Beethoven is an exceptional biography. I'm about to start reading it within weeks and very much look forward to that. I like the Solomon (2nd ed.) because of the psychological insights the author brings to the life of Beethoven (though many suggest the scholarship is now dated). Some people don't like that but I do because I prefer to think in three dimensional terms about the people I admire. And it's magnificently written.

Yes the Schubert quintet is superb and then of course there's the glorious Brahms chamber music and if I had to pick one of his chamber pieces it would be the piano quintet for its slow movement alone!

[Hollywood]

Beethoven: Symphony #3
Beethoven: Egmont Overture
Beethoven: Wellington's Victory
Mozart: his opera "Die Zauberflöte"
Mozart: Masonic Funeral Music for Orchestra in C minor, K. 479a477
Schubert: Symphony #9 in C major, D. 944
Schubert: Der Erlkönig, D. 328
Brahms: Hungarian Dances, WoO 1 (especially dances #5 and #6)
John Philip Sousa: Invincible Eagle
Scott Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag

[Quijote]

Ah, summer fun!
In my scenario, when I get shipwrecked I'm allowed one work and one publication:
- Bach B minor Mass
- The complete Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

[Megan]

Discs I would choose that comes to mind would be:- plus a piano.

Allegri - Miserere mei deus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Y_ztEW1NE


Beethoven's piano concerto no. 4

Brahms violin concerto no. 77

Bach's double violin concerto & B minor mass.

Some Vivaldi and Handel.

Montinverdi , Vespers.







Books would probably be, War & Peace. Homer's Iliad, Shakespeare, Byron, poetry.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. . A book I would like to read again would be, George Prince Regent, eldest son of George the III, a hilarious read.

[Michael]

Nice choice, Megan, but how would you save a piano if the ship is going down?
(Come to think of it, I couldn't have my TV either!)

[Megan]

Nice choice, Megan, but how would you save a piano if the ship is going down?
(Come to think of it, I couldn't have my TV either!)

But my ship just ran aground conveniently on the beach!

[Decrepit Poster]

An interesting topic which I am, alas, no longer fully qualified to contribute to, my hearing being what it now is. My understanding is that the traditional definition of "desert isle discs" (nowadays better termed "desert isle recordings") refers not just to musics works, but a particular recorded interpretation of a musical work or works, sometimes a particular "pressing/edition" of a particular recorded interpretation of a musical work or works. I'm racking my feeble brain to recall qualifying recordings with little success. Three possibilities come to mind:

1) J.S.Bach: Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin, BWV 1001-1006, Sigiswald Kuijken soloist, EMI deutche harmonia mundi CDS 7 49290-2 (compact disc). This set can out fairly early in the modern "period instrument" resurgence and was panned by some critics at release. Me, I love the interpretations. What's more, back when I had the ears to properly hear it, it was acoustically one of my favorite recordings. Not only did it reveal much of the violin and bow "sound", but soundstaging and imaging, heard over a pair of properly situated, decent quality loudspeakers, was (is?) superb. I heard the sound of Kuijken's vioin interact with the acoustic environment behind, to the sides of, above, and in front of him, as if I was listening to a live performance. It pulled this off better than most every other recording in my collection. As such, it became something a test recording for me, used to audition new audio gear and evaluate changes in speaker location/angle. (I of course also listened to it for pleasure.)

2) R.Schumann: Symphony No.4, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Wilhelm Furtwangler. I have it on a Deutsche Grammophon CD, but unlike the Bach a particular "pressing" isn't really the point here. I find it an excellent overall interpretation in the best Furwanglerian tradition, but what adds it to my list is the transition passage linking the final two movements. On first hearing it blew me away, and never ceased to do so.

3) Beethoven: String Quartets Op.18 complete, Vegh-Quartet, telefunken SPA 25128-T/1-3 (LP). I bought this vinyl disc set in the mid/late 70s. It is the Vegh's second go at the Beethoven quartets, the first being mono recordings. This is another that I loved both interpretatively and acoustically. I later re-bought it on CD along with the rest of B's string quartets. To my great disappointment the CDs, while quite decent, did not sound nearly as good as the LPs. (My military dorm roommate at the time I bought the LPs was a former violinist. He was as enraptured with them as I was. We'd lie on the floor for hours listening to Vegh's Beethoven and never tire.)

I'll think it it some more try to recall other "desert isle" recordings.

[Michael]

3) Beethoven: String Quartets Op.18 complete, Vegh-Quartet, telefunken SPA 25128-T/1-3 (LP). I bought this vinyl disc set in the mid/late 70s. It is the Vegh's second go at the Beethoven quartets, the first being mono recordings. This is another that I loved both interpretatively and acoustically. I later re-bought it on CD along with the rest of B's string quartets. To my great disappointment the CDs, while quite decent, did not sound nearly as good as the LPs.
I'll think it it some more try to recall other "desert isle" recordings.

When I was replacing my Beethoven vinyl records with CD back in the early 90s, I settled on the Quartetto Italiano recordings because, for some reason that I can't remember, they were easily accessible. I haven't regretted the decision, by the way. I have several different sets of the quartets now, but I still prefer the Italianos for most of the individual works.

I like to listen to "chamber" music (what a horrible term) through headphones and the first thing I noticed about the newfangled CDs was the sheer amount of extraneous noise on the recordings. I could hear road traffic in the distance and audible sniffs from the performers.

On vinyl, these noises were all disguised by the background rumble and clicks which accompanied all music back then. It took me a while to tune out these new sounds. I thought at the time that I was the only one who noticed these intrusions but then I read an article about a new recording by the Lindsay quartet where they actually had to wear something resembling gas masks to cover up the sound of their breathing!
I think everybody had to adjust to the hyper clarity of CD.

All this was about 30 years ago. Alas, I don't notice those sniffles any more - along with a lot of high frequency tones. But I'm still hearing better than Beethoven!

[Humoresque]

Yes the Schubert quintet is superb and then of course there's the glorious Brahms chamber music and if I had to pick one of his chamber pieces it would be the piano quintet for its slow movement alone!

I absolutely forgot a rock bottom DID on that list and that is the Brahms "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Händel". I couldn't imagine life without that piece, played by Stephen (Drop Dead Gorgeous) Kovacevich!! So, one on my list has to go and that's the Wagner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9tbCkACbGU

Ecstasy.

[gprengel]

Dear Peter,
thank you for your picks of the Handel duetto and the Puccini Aria - I had never heard these pieces before (awesome)!

What would I choose for my island?

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis
Beethoven: 9th symphony
Beethoven: Piano Sonata Op. 111
Beethoven: string quartett op. 132 a-minor

Requiem by O. Kozlovsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik8ktuRwIRo

Mozart: Cosi van tutte or piano concerto KV 488
Mozart: Requiem

Bach: Well-tempered piano II (performed by Daniel Barenboim !!)
Bach/Busoni: Chaconne in piano arrangement with specatucular Helene Grimaud
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw9DlMNnpPM

Mendelssohn Reformation symphony #5

My book is: the Bible / New Testament

[Peter]

Dear Peter,
thank you for your picks of the Handel duetto and the Puccini Aria - I had never heard these pieces before (awesome)!

What would I choose for my island?

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis
Beethoven: 9th symphony
Beethoven: Piano Sonata Op. 111
Beethoven: string quartett op. 132 a-minor

Requiem by O. Kozlovsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik8ktuRwIRo

Mozart: Cosi van tutte or piano concerto KV 488
Mozart: Requiem

Bach: Well-tempered piano II (performed by Daniel Barenboim !!)
Bach/Busoni: Chaconne in piano arrangement with specatucular Helene Grimaud
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw9DlMNnpPM

Mendelssohn Reformation symphony #5

My book is: the Bible / New Testament

And thank you for introducing me to the wonderful Requiem by O. Kozlovsky - a completely unknown work and composer to me. What a find!

[Michael]

And thank you for introducing me to the wonderful Requiem by O. Kozlovsky - a completely unknown work and composer to me. What a find!

Seconded. Beautiful!

[Harvey]

Can I count my 84-CD Complete Beethoven Set as one of the ten choices to take to the desert Island?

[gprengel]

And thank you for introducing me to the wonderful Requiem by O. Kozlovsky - a completely unknown work and composer to me. What a find!

Yes, this was the top discovery in the last year while looking for the 2 requiems from Cherubini. I can't tell you how much it moves me eventhough it doesn't have any fancy counterpoint passages, but the emotionel dephth and beauty is extraordinary. Just to imagine that it was written in the year Haydn wrote his creation oratorio and how much more progressive and 'Romantic' this is. And this man doesn't seem to have written anything noteworthy else - a miracle for me! Did you read the commentaries in the YouTube video and how people are stunned by it ... ? if you have spotify try to get it from there ...

Gerd

[Quijote]

And thank you for introducing me to the wonderful Requiem by O. Kozlovsky - a completely unknown work and composer to me. What a find!

To be honest, I thought it rather sounded like "beefed-up" Haydn, and that is not necessarily a criticism! Interesting choice of key, too (E-flat minor).