[CanadianMaestro]

  Perahia's French Suites are wonderfully performed, and the sound is excellent in the 96/24 downloaded FLAC files (from Prestoclassical).

Not sure I warmed up to Murray's French Suites. His concerti are excellent.
 
For myself, Angela Hewitt's Bach are the ones I reach for these days -- even more so than Mr. Gould. That's saying a lot.
 
(I'm a bit biased too -- being Canadian and all that) 

 

[pbarach]

 
Not sure I warmed up to Murray's French Suites. His concerti are excellent.
 
For myself, Angela Hewitt's Bach are the ones I reach for these days -- even more so than Mr. Gould. That's saying a lot.
 
(I'm a bit biased too -- being Canadian and all that) 

As a onetime resident of Canada, I am not biased against Canadian performers
 
I find Angela Hewitt's Bach consistently dull for my taste. I think she actually does much better with later music, including her exquisite Ravel set and Debussy disk. If I want her in Bach, then I listen to the Hyperion recording that she did of Bach transcriptions.

 

[CanadianMaestro]

^ Her Hyperion discs are very good. Bach's Italian Cto and her 1997 Goldberg are my favs in her Bach discography. Everything else, I prefer Gould (Perahia's Goldberg is also excellent -- he gets a gorgeous piano tonality and color from that piece). I must say, her Fazioli takes a bit of getting used to, for me. Steinway does it for me, with Bach and most everything else.
 
As noted on my earlier posts, I am allergic to harpsichord (and period instruments in general). 

 

[Quinto]

 
Not sure I warmed up to Murray's French Suites. His concerti are excellent.
 
For myself, Angela Hewitt's Bach are the ones I reach for these days -- even more so than Mr. Gould. That's saying a lot.
 
(I'm a bit biased too -- being Canadian and all that) 

I tried Hewitt's Goldberg & WTC  a few times. Most definitely not for me, well maybe when I have trouble falling asleep . Pollini will work also fine for that .I do like Schiff's Bach these days though, especially his last recorded WTC. he uses his own Steinway on this recording which is an exeptionally good sounding instrument IMO..and ECM does record well of course.
 

 

[jegnyc]

 
I tried Hewitt's Goldberg & WTC  a few times. Most definitely not for me, well maybe when I have trouble falling asleep . Pollini will work also fine for that .I do like Schiff's Bach these days though, especially his last recorded WTC. he uses his own Steinway on this recording which is an exeptionally good sounding instrument IMO..and ECM does record well of course.
 

I have that one (signed by Mr. Schiff).  I heard him perform it in two marathon concerts.
 
Last fall at almost the exact time I picked up the Perahia recording of the French Suites, I heard Angela Hewitt perform them live.  While I liked her performance, of the two, I preferred Perahia.  (Ms. Hewitt was not aided by the woman three seats away from me whose phone went off repeatedly during the first half of the recital - she did not know how to silence it.)  I will hear her perform three of the Partitas in April. It's part of a four year survey of all of Bach's keyboard works.

 

[CanadianMaestro]

  I have that one (signed by Mr. Schiff).  I heard him perform it in two marathon concerts.
 
Last fall at almost the exact time I picked up the Perahia recording of the French Suites, I heard Angela Hewitt perform them live.  While I liked her performance, of the two, I preferred Perahia.  (Ms. Hewitt was not aided by the woman three seats away from me whose phone went off repeatedly during the first half of the recital - she did not know how to silence it.)  I will hear her perform three of the Partitas in April. It's part of a four year survey of all of Bach's keyboard works.

I envy you. Haven't heard AH yet in concert. Or Perahia.
 
Has anyone here heard Ms Hewitt's recordings of Mozart's concerti? Opinions?
My references for Mozart concerti are: Geza Anda and Murray Perahia. Alfred Brendel did a good cycle with the ASMF/Marriner.
If only Kempff would have recorded more Mozart.....his Schubert sonatas are unsurpassed.

 

[uchihaitachi]

  I envy you. Haven't heard AH yet in concert. Or Perahia.
 
Has anyone here heard Ms Hewitt's recordings of Mozart's concerti? Opinions?
My references for Mozart concerti are: Geza Anda and Murray Perahia. Alfred Brendel did a good cycle with the ASMF/Marriner.
If only Kempff would have recorded more Mozart.....his Schubert sonatas are unsurpassed.

I love Pires' mozart - live it was stunningly beautiful.

 

[CanadianMaestro]

I love Pires' mozart - live it was stunningly beautiful.

Uchida as well. More for the solo sonatas than concerti.

 

[kostaszag]

 

Got Levine/Chicago doing Saint Saens' 3rd at 96/24 from Presto (cheap too). The organ was the one at Chartres, which is a magical Gothic cathedral and town -- so some sentimentality here for me. Along with Munch, probably the best version I've heard yet.

Looking on prestoclassical.co.uk and not sure if I'm finding the recording you've recommended. Can you provide a catalog number, upc or other ID number?

Thanks!

Here it is
 
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/DG/4746122#download
 
I would recommend this one though
 
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/BMG/09026615002#download

 

[CanadianMaestro]

 
Here it is
 
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/DG/4746122#download
 
I would recommend this one though
 
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/BMG/09026615002#download

Ouch. Seems I had a brain cramp. I typed in "Levine" instead of Barenboim. Apologies to the OP.
 
The Munch is my reference for #3. That may change with the Barenboim -- both together does it for my collection.

 

[pbarach]

  Has anyone here heard Ms Hewitt's recordings of Mozart's concerti? Opinions?
 

I've heard them. I thought they were fine, nothing special. My favorite Mozart concerti recordings, all of which I prefer to Hewitt's, are (in no particular order) Brendel, Moravec, Casadesus, Kirschnereit, Uchida/Cleveland, Pires, Edwin Fischer.

 

[CanadianMaestro]

A reference for these ctos.
 
Her Beethoven sonatas are even better.
 

 

[Arcamera]

Hi All, Just wondering if people have an opinion on the best Brahms complete symphony set-- factoring in both performance and (best) recording quality.
 
I haven't been able to keep up with the thread. Sorry if this has already been discussed.
 
And I wonder what the most popular or praised headphone is currently among classical music listeners here. I've been really happy, end-game happy, with a relatively new acquisition: the Kennerton Odin planar-magnetic headphones (with my Woo WA22 amp). I love them so much I actually traded my Focal Utopia for another pair of Odin's (in a different wood). I thought the Utopia would be my classical music end-game, but no. The Odin is better to/for my ears.

 

[CanadianMaestro]

  Hi All, Just wondering if people have an opinion on the best Brahms complete symphony set-- factoring in both performance and (best) recording quality.
 
I haven't been able to keep up with the thread. Sorry if this has already been discussed.
 
And I wonder what the most popular or praised headphone is currently among classical music listeners here. I've been really happy, end-game happy, with a relatively new acquisition: the Kennerton Odin planar-magnetic headphones (with my Woo WA22 amp). I love them so much I actually traded my Focal Utopia for another pair of Odin's (in a different wood). I thought the Utopia would be my classical music end-game, but no. The Odin is better to/for my ears.

Headphone for classical: My fav is HE560. Period.
 
Brahms: I'm probably the wrong person to vouch for Brahms. In terms of SQ: I like Abbado/BPO and Haitink/Concertgebouw Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Hall is superb, and when properly recorded, the SQ is sumptuous. Second only to perhaps the Musikverein in Vienna. In terms of artistry. People rave about Kertesz/Vienna and Jochum/BPO (1950s). I don't disagree, but the edgy SQ (esp in the brass crescendos) distracts me from the artistic traits. Just me.

 

[jegnyc]

 
Headphone for classical: My fav is HE560. Period.
 
Brahms: I'm probably the wrong person to vouch for Brahms. In terms of SQ: I like Abbado/BPO and Haitink/Concertgebouw Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Hall is superb, and when properly recorded, the SQ is sumptuous. Second only to perhaps the Musikverein in Vienna. In terms of artistry. People rave about Kertesz/Vienna and Jochum/BPO (1950s). I don't disagree, but the edgy SQ (esp in the brass crescendos) distracts me from the artistic traits. Just me.

I don't have the Haitink, and my two favorite cycles from a musical standpoint (Klemperer and Szell) are not sonic wonders.  (If you get the Szell, there a Japanese release that sounds better than any other I've heard.)  I picked up Abbado fairly recently, and it may be the best I have when both performance and SQ are taken into account.
 
I mentioned in another thread that I tried to purchase the Hi Rez Blu-Ray of Chailly's recent cycle, but it would not play in my Oppo (or in a budget Sony).  Apparently a lot of people had the same problem.