Full time geek. Classical Music lover. founding Head of 1729 Maths School. CUP book author. Opinions are my own. 🏳️🌈
St Albans, UK
Joined May 2018
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I’m currently working through the 234 box sets and 3 composer retrospectives in this thread. The craziness started in early 2020 with the Stravinsky box and I’ve been lost to it ever since. The link takes you to the END, so you’ll need to scroll up. I will continue to…..
#NowSpinning Mahler Symphony No.2 with Rattle in Bavaria. Against a backdrop of divided opinion I always really enjoyed his 1987 CBSO version, even if it feels a touch slow. I never really warmed to the Berlin remake, though. So where will I end up with this one?
#NowSpinning Pappano’s Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony. It took a short while to get used to the slightly anaemic choral sound, as recorded, but the orchestra and soloists are caught with impressive clarity and definition. It’s important to keep this work moving and Pappano does just that.
The Eugene Ormandy Legacy on Sony. This set comprises the complete mono recordings Ormandy made with the Philadelphia Orchestra, for Columbia and RCA. I'll add comments as I listen to each disc.
#OrmandyColumbiaLegacy CD 46 Chopin’s First Piano Concerto with György Sándor. This is a very muscular performance, with both conductor and soloist converging into one approach nicely. Structures are all very clear and sharp and the impact is lucidity over emotional impact.
#OrmandyColumbiaLegacy CD 47 Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen Suite in a genuinely electrifying performance. The outer movements are incredibly swift and played with knife-edge precision. The middle two movements are altogether more chillingly atmospheric, with flickering half lights amazingly well caught. Superb!
#NowSpinning truly stupendous Sibelius from Ormandy. This is thrilling Sibelius, played at white heat.
Karajan Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon, 355 Discs. Part Four! 1980s DG orchestral recordings, avoiding massive threads!
#KarajanDG1980s CD 37 a slightly odd compendium, the contents of which can be seen in the image. The Liszt and Weber feel a touch heavy-footed for me. But the Rossini is pretty spectacular and the Smetana really soars.
#KarajanDG1980s CD 38 Anne-Sophie Mutter and Antônio Meneses join Karajan in Berlin for the Brahms Double Concerto. This is a big, bulky account of the score and the DG recording makes it feel far too congested. The soloists seem to be coming at the work from different angles, too, with Mutter attacking sharply but Meneses going for glowing grandeur. Odd.
#NowSpinning this new version of Bantock’s Hebridean Symphony. As works, I much prefer the Celtic Symphony and Omar Khayyam, but this is a very nice disc. For me, the fanfares in the closing minutes are a touch silly, but there is a lot to like in the work.
WARNING: I’ve reported the issue but every time I browse classical CDs on Amazon, money leaves my account. Looks to me like it happens every time. Be warned. Probably some kind of scam.
#NowSpinning Karajan’s digital Liszt Les Preludes, as part of this slightly odd compendium of works. This was actually the very, very first Karajan recording I ever heard. My Dad had it on a slightly different compilation, which I played to death at university.
…brilliantly coloured and smartly inflected. I just wish there was a bit more of Mahler’s youthful zest. As it is, the performance feels like it’s trying to present this as a mature work. Oh and the inclusion of Blumine between movements 1 and 2 is meaningless in this context.
#MehtaWarner CD 6 Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with Zubin Mehta in Israel. This is a strongly contrasted performance, though Perlman’s earlier recording with the New Philharmonia is somehow more soulful and introspective in the quiet moments. But this is still very beautiful, poised and toe-tappingly charming.
Love your Inner Classical Music Geek retweeted
10 remarks on AI and math that can be true all at once:
1. The recent progress is stunning and exciting.
2. The Quasi-Riemann Hypothesis is arguably Fields-medal level.
3. Mathematics is being transformed and there is no way back.
4. OpenAI doesn't give a fuck about the future of mathematics.
5. Half-baked unreadable preprints claiming major results can effectively stall mathematical progress.
6. Some mathematicians are responding with naive, overly defensive comments.
7. The social-media wankers framing this as "OpenAI tramples gatekeeping" have no experience of mathematical research.
8. The product of mathematics is clarity and understanding. Not theorems, by themselves.
9. Mathematics is a critical infrastructure of human cognition. The human need for understanding isn't obsolete and it can't be offloaded to machines.
10. We haven't "solved" mathematics and we won't get there before the Sun burns out.
#MehtaWarner CD 9 Mozart Piano Concertos 22 and 26. Now these are lovely works, but the performances get a little soft-edged, perhaps. It’s a lovely selection of Mozart concerti overall, but the first two discs seem stronger than the rest.
#MehtaWarner CD 10 Brahms Symphony No.1. Davis returns to Bavaria and draws on the full weight of his exceptional band. The colossal weight has an appeal all its own, but it does mean some details can get a little lost. That said, the finale is spine tingling and the work closes with great passion and excitement.
