Really? It was my understanding that the Welte-Mignon apparatus…
(GOD, I love saying that! “Professor! Engage the WELTE-MIGNON APPARATUS!”)
…reproduced accurately any piano-playing that was programmed into it, including dynamics. It left ordinary piano rolls simply nowhere.
You got me with RK (though I can’t say I’d miss Borodin much). As for the Big T, I can’t agree (especially the 1812)
I know the traditional hymn well:
O Lord, save Thy people and bless
Thy inheritance, grant victories to the
Orthodox Christians over their adversaries,
and preserve Thy dwelling through Thy cross
Definitely the best part of 1812; I’ll take a simple version of the above over the 15+ minutes of gratuitous bombast that T tacks on. I don’t mind Swan Lake or even the Nutcracker (tis the season after all), but I find the symphonies ponderous and the piano stuff boring–all in all, IMHO he’s flavorless, predictable, and incredibly overrated compared to his counterparts.
I agree on both counts, though I’ll admit my Scriabin is very rusty–something I should remedy given the other recs posted.
Neither disagreeing with nor adding me-toos to any of the above, I would add:
Ferde Grofe–Grand Canyon Suite
Richard Strauss–Also sprach zarathustra
Edvard Gried–Peer Gynt Suite
Gustav Mahler–Symphony of a Thousand
Stomo Yamashta–Sea and Sky
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakoff–Russian Easter Overture
Antonio Vivaldi–Gloria
Richard Wagner–Tannhauser Overture
Anton Dvorak–Symphony 9 “From a New World”
OK, one “me too”: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakoff’s Scheherazade. Ideally with Leo Stokowski conducting. The Phase 4 stereo recording he did around 1964, to be specific. And big big speakers hooked to a good amp…oh man…
Well, to each his own, I suppose. I like Tchaikovsky. But then, I can’t stand Handel, especially Water Music. Or Baroque, except for maybe Canon in D or Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desire.
BTW, didn’t Prokofiev study under RK?
Can’t stand Handel? Don’t like Baroque?
Aieeee! <runs and hides>
And to make a long story short, Prokifiev did study with Rimsky-Korsakov. He was the “bad boy” of Russian composition students, and ultimately parodied and rejected much of what he learned from his superiors. Definitely part of his charm.
MR
Probably because my father always listens to Water Music. The Messiah is OKAY, but it just doesn’t do it for me. I like the romance and the 20th century composers better.
I don’t know where Strauss fits in though…
It’s funny-when I was little, I hated having to listen to Peter and the Wolf in music class. Now I like it, but not as much as Romeo and Juliet. (Prokofiev’s R&J, though)
Yeah, really.
Try the Chandos Anthems. And the Concerti Grossi.
If you’re only judging him on the Water Music and the Messiah, it’s like judging Beethoven on the basis of his Fifth Symphony.
Which Strauss?
Johann of the waltzes? (late 18002, IIRC) (Blue Danube, Roses of the South, Artist’s Life, Voices of Spring, et al.
or
Richard of the concert works and operas (early 20th C, IIRC)- (Thus Spake Zarathustra, Der Rosenkavalier [mmmmmmmmmmmmm!], Don Quixote, et al)
Oh, that reminds me:
Ernest Bloch–Concerti Grossi
Of the waltzes, defintely. Johann the Younger.