Opera by Walter Braunfels “The Birds” from Aristophanes. Being staged in 2009 in LA Opera’s Recovered Voices program.
Maurizio Pollini, pianist. Claudio Abbado conducting the Chicago Symphony. The Anda recording is rightly renowned, but John finds this Pollini recording especially brilliant.
One of many complete recordings of Bartok quartets. Click the photo to see info on this album and then do a search for “bartok string quartets” and it’s a fair bet your favorite string quartet has recorded them.
Friedrich Schorr was a noted Wotan of the 30s and 40s. This recording features highlights from Die Meistersinger, The Flying Dutchman and a heart-rending Wotan’s Farewell.
Am I permitted to say that my comment on listeners “being free to luxuriate in the beautiful melodies” of the Barber concerto is an observation, not a condemnation?
One of the comments in these pages expressed incredulity that I could even consisder the possibility of Barber’s popularity waning. Well, I can conceive this possibility because of what happened to me from my conservatory days to the present, which is the central musical irony of my life.
John Gibbons