Your favorite mono recordings

[Jo498]

Thank you for the explanation and nice photos. Yes, Janos Suite is stereo while other tracks are mono. All the tracks sound great, but the mono track of Galanta Dance sounds wild and exceptional.

Fricsay had already been ill when most of his stereo recordings were made. Although he apparently had recovered and worked as normal for several years, the earlier recordings are often more energetic and some of the late ones seem influenced by the illness that claimed his life before he was 50.

[atardecer]

"Harmony, melody, counterpoint" I agree with you and all very true. But these are qualities of what the composer wrote. How much to play dynamic markings is a result of the conductor and recording people.

I don't have much interest in excitement in classical music. I don't even find much exciting in things like film. I get my excitement or rush bombing down technical hills on my mountain bike, taking jumps or enjoying spirited driving in my cars. I like my preferred genres of classical because they're emotionally moving.

I disagree that dynamics are not part of emotional involvement. The first time I heard the end of the fourth movement of Mahler's second by Inbal/TMSO going into that massively dynamic opening of the last movement I immediately had to click back and hear it again it was so moving. Pines of Rome was one of the earliest symphonic works I heard that made me fall in love with classical and Catacombs is my favorite piece from the trilogy. There are plenty of middle of the road interpretations of Catacombs, but when a conductor perfectly balances the horn solo, the orchestral levels and the large dynamic swells that is also an example of incredibly moving moments. I could think of hundreds of examples.

edit: I have to add I am speaking all things being equal, only discussing what I consider great performances. The top tier recording in the world won't save even an average performance.

Some good points, but remember I did not say that 'dynamics are not part of emotional involvement'. I was making a general point in response to your comment that 'dynamic range is emotion'.

[Atriod]

Some good points, but remember I did not say that 'dynamics are not part of emotional involvement'. I was making a general point in response to your comment that 'dynamic range is emotion'.

And I never made an isolated statement saying that dynamic range is the only thing related to emotion.

[Irons]

Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben.

Clemens Krauss conducting VPO (solo violin Willi Boskovsky).



Krauss was a specialist Richard Strauss conductor as this recording testifies.

[Mandryka]

Harold Bauer had a reputation for exceptional Schumann. The fantasiestucke here is astonishing. You can hear the dynamic control, the extraordinary cantabile phrasing, the variety of touch and timbre and the sensitive way he brings out inner voices.

[Atriod]

Harold Bauer had a reputation for exceptional Schumann. The fantasiestucke here is astonishing. You can hear the dynamic control, the extraordinary cantabile phrasing, the variety of touch and timbre and the sensitive way he brings out inner voices.

Will listen, I love his interpretations of WTC, sadly incomplete.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I often tend to prefer mono recordings when I'm listening in a sonically compromised environment, like in the car or outside -- in a modern digital recording it's easy to miss the softly played quiet bits, whereas the compression on old recordings can actually help make sure everything is audible (or at least as much as was captured on the original tapes). 

Lately I've been enjoying a lot of Hermann Scherchen's recordings, particularly his Haydn and Beethoven.  I'd say they're both worth a listen, and if nothing else they convincingly dismiss any argument that the HIP movement invented speedy tempos...



I also like a lot of older chamber music recordings, most recently the very old-school Beethoven SQ cycle from the Hungarian Qt:





 

The recording sound and performance of Scherchen are excellent!

[Xenophanes]

I like a number of mono recordings of pianists and singers.  My favorite is an old recording by Gigli, in Italian, of Ah! Non mi ridestar from Massenet's Werther.  I think it's from the early '30s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAD2JvdRvig&list=PLED37BEF1FCA32D05