Magical Recordings

Gerringong, NSW 2015

If you have some spare time, please enjoy these memorable performances. How incredibly fortunate we are these magical recordings are easily accessible to us. There are many insightful quotes connected to music and one of my preferred belongs to Victor Hugo (the author of Les Misérables). “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” I have a long list of favourite recordings that I will invariably turn to when my spirits are a little down. Those below saved for posterity on YouTube I will visit often and cannot ever imagine being without:

Brigitte Engerer plays Chopin Nocturne in D-Flat Major

Motzart The Requiem Mass in D Minor conducted by Herbert von Karajan

Beethoven Symphony No 9 conducted by Leonard Bernstein

Motzart Piano Concerto in D Minor soloist and conductor Mitsuko Uchida

Beethoven Symphony No 3 in E Flat “Eroica” conducted by Herbert von Karajan

Vladimir Horowitz plays Rachmaninoff 3rd Concerto

Beethoven Moonlight Sonata conducted by Wilhelm Kempff

Mahler Resurrection Symphony No 2 conducted by Claudio Abbado

Mahler Symphony No 6 “Tragic” conducted by Lorin Maazel

I love the dynamics of Beethoven (1770-1827) and the range of Motzart (1756-1791) but too regularly I am overcome by the volatility of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). And then there are: Handel, Bach, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Liszt, Fauré. You would think them angels made flesh on conditional release from another plane. There are the moderns as well: Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), John Tavener (1944-2013), Arvo Pärt (b. 1935), and more. I will leave these latter day greats for another time.

I have only just drafted a little story:

…a deaf Beethoven arm-in-arm with a blind Brahms… Ars longa, vita brevis.