March 2011 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S. - Prelude in E flat minor from BWV 853, arranged for cello and piano
Barber - Medea's Dance of Vengeance
Beethoven - String Quartet No.5
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No.3 (2nd movement)
Brahms - Piano Quintet
Chopin - Funeral March in C minor
Debussy - Cello Sonata
Debussy - 12 Etudes for piano
Faure - Fantasie for Piano and Orchestra
Faure - Piano Quintet No.2
Faure - Barcarolle No.13
Faure - Cello Sonata No.2
Faure - Nocturne No.13
Handel - Keyboard Suites 6, 7 and 8
Haydn - Piano trios 29 and 30
Hindemith - Kammermusik Nos. 5 and 6
Holmboe - Symphonies 7, 12 and 13
Honegger - Cello Concerto
Mozart - Piano Sonata No.14 in C minor (2nd movement)
Schubert - Piano Sonata in A minor, D.784
Schubert - Octet in F
Schumann - Die Arme Peter op.53/3, Tragoedie op.64/3, Lehn deine Wang' op.142/2, Mein Wagen rollet langsam op.142/4
Shostakovich - String Quartet No.11
Simpson - Symphonies 9 and 11
Stravinsky - Petrushka
Tallis - Loquebantur variis linguis
Tortelier - Burlesque: Le Pitre (The Clown), 3 Duos 'Chameau-Loutres', Toccata
Vivaldi - Bassoon Concerto in A minor, RV 498

I finally finished working my way through a 20-CD collection of performances by Paul Tortelier, a Frenchman who has now massively expanded the cello section of my library.  Thanks to my catalogue I can tell you that it took exactly 368 days to listen to absolutely everything in the box.

Meanwhile, some of the other listening is from my last classical buying spree on New Year's Eve.  This was from a local music store that closed about a month later, after many years of being the premier classical music specialist in the area. Evidently the modern world with easy overseas ordering has not been kind to them.

Their sales are probably responsible for the majority of my classical collection. I bought most things on the strength of reputation and reading, rather than listening.  I'm not sure what I'll do from now on.

The collection of Schumann songs I bought, performed by Wolfgang Holzmair and Imogen Cooper, has been a particular delight. As you can see I'm now down to the 'bits and pieces' section of the discs, but it has 4 complete song-cycles and the performances are consistently wonderful.

Faure is definitely one of my favourite composers. This month, I spent an evening listening to a series of late works (the Fantasie being one of the New Year's Eve purchases).  Every one of them rich and strange and beautiful in their complexity.

The couple of one-movement excerpts are from recordings where that's all I have. I don't totally ignore the sampler discs in my library.

Late in the month I went back to my 20th century symphony friends, Holmboe and Simpson.  Holmboe in particular is someone that I occasionally have a little obsession over.  I'm looking at adding some of his other works to my collection, and in the last couple of weeks I've been doing a fair bit of research on just what else is out there.  The list-maker in me strikes again!