Birthday classical cds

As I mentioned I had a number of classical music cds this birthday which ties very well into the adult little gurl birthday theme as it always was big part of my childhood so I'll take this entry to talk about them.

It's a very long time ago actually it would of been in my late teens actually that I first heard anything by Bruckner as his music wasn't what I'd call programmed at school in the way that say Dvorak was.

I bought a few lps on the old Vox/Turnabout label that Decca distributed at the time but when in the late 80's I was moving after a period mixing tape with lps to cd exclusively this discs left my house.

I had been on the look out for an affordable set of his symphonies for some time and following some discussion on a forum, I thought I'd look this set up.

Although recorded in the early days of stereo Eugen Jochum's spirited performance spread on nine discs each holding one symphony unlike some others such as Wands 70's set holds up well and comes in space saving box with the discs in card sleeves.

"Bernstein conducts Bernstein" Somy/Bmg 7 cd set.
Back in 1991 Sony compiled a nine cd set of all of Leonard Bernstein's works that he recorded himself which would of set you back about GBP £90 or more new.
In 2011 as part of their Masters series of box sets by Sony Music, this set was rejigged to fit on 7 discs sans notes for a very low price.

Included in it were his recordings of Candide, symphonic Dances from "West Side Story", symphonic Suite from "On The Waterfront" movie score, fancy Free, a selection from on the town, Prelude, Fudge & Riffs and heaps more.

I had the old 1986 CBS Masterwork cd with a number of these recordings on and this sounds much improved with respect to frequency range and smoothness .
It's the  kind of set you dip into at will.

Delius: Violin Sonatas 1 thru 3
Tasmin Little & Piers Lane
Conifer
This was a disc I had been interested in that originally came out at full price in 1997 having had a soft spot for English music from the early part of the twentieth century.

I have a lot of music by Elgar and while being familiar with other British composers  thanks to a decent music education  at my high school (we didn't just learn about making music and composers, we actually performed!), I got a complete set of Ralph Vaughan Williams symphonies.

The acclaimed British conductor Sir Adrian Boult was going through an 'Indian summer' late in his life and by good fortune EMI/Angel got him to make stereo recordings of works he'd previously recorded. This set with either the London Philharmonic or the New Philharmonia Orchestras remains one of the finest ever of these works.

And what works from A Sea symphony with its glorious singing through to Sinfornia antartica inspired by Scott's 1912 South Pole adventures these symphonies are amongst the finest of the last century. Originally reissued from the early 1990's onward they have placed in a boxed set for an inexpensive price -cost me £15.99  new - representing a bargain. (EMI 8  7484 2 5cds)

The Wasps is a highly effective soundscape of that insect! It really buzzes in the overture!!!

The Lark Ascending
Five Variants of Dives  & Lazarus
The Wasps-Aristophanic suite
London Philharmonic Orchestra cond Vernon Handley
CD EMX 9508 Issued in 1985 and one of the very first in Emi Eminence series to be issued on cd in 1987

Partita for Double String orchestra
Concerto for Oboe  and Strings
Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis
Fantasia on Greensleeves
Royal Liverpool Phiharmonic Orchestra cond Vernon Handley with Jonathan Small on Oboe
CD EMX 2197
1991 recording on Emi Eminence

Sibelius was a very famous Finnish composer who sadly also had a drinks problem whose  works I first encountered in the late 1980's buying on impulse a 4 cd set of his symphonies after playing to death a cd of his Tone poems such as Finlandia.

I decided to get the 1993 world premier recording of the entire music from the score set to Shakespeare's play

The Tempest
Lahti Symphony Orchestra cond Osmo Vanska
Bis  CD581

Some of us had our minds blown on American music by people like Copland, Bernstein, Gershwin, Ives, Piston and this guy called Hanson.
I got this one used from a vendor in the same town I work in:
Hanson conducts Hanson
Symphonies 1 & 3; Song of Domocracy
Hanson Eastman-Rochestra orchestra
Mercury 432 008-2
plus
Symphony no3, Elegy &  Lament for Beuwulf
Mercury 434 302-2

Finally I got two Stravinsky cds:

Symphony no1, Symphony in C

Ode

Symphony in Three Movements

Symphonies of Wind Instruments *

The Fairy's Kiss (ballet) **

Scottish National Orchestra  cond Sir Alexander Gibson * SNO with Neeme Jarvi

** Nash Essemble cond Sir Simon Rattle

Chandros CHAN 241-8 

Note: 2 cd  twofer re-issue of previous full price discs with stunning recording and playing.

Stravinsky: 

Concerto in E Flat "Dumbarton Oakes"

Concerto in D from String

Danses concertantes

Cantata on Old English texts

English chamber Orchestra cond Sir Colin Davis

London Enterprise 425 622-2

These will complement nicely my collection of his ballet scores covering his later more neo classical compositions.