September Classical CD Purchases
Just as with the last time I redeployed from Kuwait, my final weeks in the desert had me hungry for some new classical music. During those three long months, my main escapes were literature and classical music; I thus become very familiar with the two dozen titles I'd transferred to my Ipod, but also ready for more, particularly after reading Jan Swafford's The Vintage Guide to Classical Music (reviewed here). My first stop was Amazon, as usual, where I found a few used bargains and redeemed a gift certificate earned through this site's referral fees:
The Brahms' symphonies round out the set begun with my purchase of Carlos Kleiber's rendition of the Symphony No. 4 with the Vienna Philharmonic. I like the idea of building symphonic cycles from individually lauded recordings, rather than the boxed sets featuring complete cycles featuring the same conductor and orchestra. I have greatly enjoyed Arthur Rubinstein's rendition of Chopin's Ballades and Scherzos, and am very excited to hear Dinu Lipatti's performance of the Waltzes, which earned a Rosette in the Penguin Guide. The remaining three titles were inspired by Swafford's book, which gave considerable attention to choral music and finally convinced me to dip a toe into the Wagnerian end of the pool.
I had planned for that to be my entire spending for the month; those discs should, after all, keep me busy for at least a few weeks. But alas, the best-laid plans for self-restraint were foiled by an excellent sale at British retailer Presto Classical, which offered 50% off most of the 2-disc titles in the DG Originals series. Coming in at less than $12 each, including shipping across the Atlantic, my admittedly limited self-control was insufficient to resist the temptation:
Nathan Milstein's reading of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas is the third recording of that extraordinary work to enter my collection, after Grumiaux and Mintz. It will surely not be the last; Perlman, Heifetz, and Szeryng are still out there, at the very least.
Another title with multiple recordings on my shelf is Bach's ever-popular Cello Suites, where Yo-Yo Ma is now joined by Frenchman Pierre Fournier, whose performance tops the list of many Bach aficionados. I think it is safe to say this is another piece where I have yet to buy my last recording, knowing that the renditions by Rostropovich, Bylsma, Starker, and Gendron have not yet entered my collection.
Maurizio Pollini's full cycle of Beethoven sonatas has been much-lauded, but his recording of the last five "have assumed almost legendary status," in the words of Amazon editor David Hurwitz. This is another one where I'd like to put a collection together piece-by-piece rather than buy one of the $100 collections. Similar praise has been heaped upon Russian Emil Gilels' recordings of the Brahms concertos, backed by Eugen Jochum and the Berlin Philharmonic. My cautious approach to an appreciation of Gustav Mahler continues; enjoyment of his first symphony has given me the courage to tackle one of his later pieces, Symphony No. 6 with Herbert von Karajan leading the Berliners. Finally, Mozart's late symphonies, the final two of which I already own in an excellent Leonard Bernstein recording, were labeled "sublime" by Swafford and Karl Böhm's recordings, according to Hurwitz, "belong in the collection of every fan of the composer."
