Roon Music Blog: Classical Community Conversations [2025]


This streamable Klemperer collection on Qobuz has its hits and misses (mostly hits). But Klemperer hits a home run on the Tchaikovsky 5th with the Philharmonia.

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Thank you for your kind comments. Sadly, I don’t really have any other useful gamelan recommendations. I have some other cds, but they were rather random local additions, good, but none of which are in the databases used by Roon.

I had a dive into the youtube rabbit hole and found a few things though.

This is a a real village performance, unlike so many of the performance videos which are actually in Western universities, and is a bit of a delight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcNewws4NnY

This on the other hand is clearly Balinese, albeit I’m not too sure it is very traditional. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEWCCSuHsuQ

In my brief trawl I didn’t find a proper palace performance in Java, but this one at UC Berkeley is suitably serious and refined Javanese gamelan performance - Google Search

Found one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Z1uZgKZM0 and this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92OxZzoOaKk or this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwjXwEO8_NU

All rather short excerpts, but authentic, and the last one is particularly good sound, but is not a performance film, presumably a cd.

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This recording of the Martinu Symphonies 3 and 4 by Belohlavek is very good, on Supraphon in good sound and streamable on Qobuz. He didn’t finish the complete cycle of symphonies with the Czech Philharmonic on Supraphon.

But he did go on to do a complete cycle with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on Onyx, also available to stream, and it is overall better.

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I have the set and enjoy it very much.

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To my ears, this is an excellent remaster (in 2019, 24/96 sample rate) of these iconic works, conducted masterfully by Bruno Walter, and performed adroitly by the CSO.

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IMO, this is an excellent (2023 PentaTone) recording, and a wonderful performance by Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic.

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You might like this one as well. 192/24

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I was replaying this beautiful disc recorded in 1997 by Raymond Leppard/Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (available on Qobuz North America):


It contains an excellent recording of the lovely, derivative Fantasy on a Hymn Tune of Justin Morgan by Thomas Canning.

That led me to Vaughan Williams’ Tallis Fantasia, here by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, on Qobuz (also containing the Elgar Introduction and Allegro):

Which led me to Orpheus’ streamable recording of the Dvorak Serenade in E:

Naturally that brought to mind the Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings:

and the lovely Britten Simple Symphony, here on Naxos (Bedford/Northern Sinfonia):

To add a little spice to all these meditative and chipper string works I thought of the Braga Santos Concerto for strings, here on the excellent and streamable Latin Impressions by Turovsky on Chandos:

as well as the Ginastera Concerto for Strings, also by Turovsky on Chandos:

These are all worthwhile shorter string works, some well known - others more overlooked, with good streamable recordings in good sound. Most of these works have several other choices available to stream. Check them out. Perhaps, more to follow… Do you have any suggestions?

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I just read about this in the latest issue of The Absolute Sound - it is a spectacular recording, with astonishingly perfect playing. Wow. I just used Picard to submit to MusicBrainz, so it should be identifiable soon…Release “Overtures & Dances” by Mēla Guitar Quartet - MusicBrainz

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Really enjoyed this unique recording of incidental music by Ludwig van Beethoven for Goethe’s ´Egmont´. It is part of the Resound project, trying to produce recordings of famous Beethoven compositions, sounding as close to the premier in terms of concert hall, instrumentation and alike.

Unlike other famous compositions for drama theatre, this piece is a pretty neglected one (except from the overture). It does not really work without at least excerpts from Goethe’s text, and lacks hooklines, songs, dances, overly dramatic scenes and other famous pieces. It is mainly meant as a series of entr´acte with a few accompanied scenes.

This recording is very interesting, on one hand because it really gives the impression of being recorded in a drama theatre, not a concert hall. And you have the choice either to listen to the German or the English narration, both exemplarily executed.

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This fun disc from 1999 of Martinu features piano concertos for 2 pianos in excellent performances and sound as well as piano keyboard works for 2 pianos, streamable on Qobuz in US. Mark Clinton and Nicole Carboni are the soloists.

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Thank you @DDPS for highlighting this wonderful guitar quartet’s recording. A group name based upon Sanskrit मेला, mela, referring to gatherings or celebrations/fairs, such as the Kumbh Mela, a huge celebration in India. Such splendid articulation and liquid clarity. This will be on replay today. Exquisite. I find the Ravel Ravelatory. The recording company trtpk is uniquely excellent in their recording methodology/sound engineering and folks here might want to explore some of their other content https://trptk.com.

@CoralRad Loved your musical adventure. Very nice musical trail. Also enjoying the Martinů.

@Simon_Chick thank you for the additional pointers to gamelan recordings. I hear you re: recordings not recognized by Roon. I’ve got some Korean and Japanese recordings that I have to hand enter using InnuosSense. Takes a bit of time, but is worth it.

@Arindal The Resound Beethoven: Egmont is a fascinating recommendation. Thank you for bringing up the Resound project.

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Pleasure! I was mesmerized by the concept of this project when I first read about it. Bringing back important compositions by Beethoven (piano concertos and symphonies in particular), each one to the concert hall of its premier (or a substitute in case the original venue is not existing anymore), with maximum fidelity to how they would have sounded in early 19th century, sounded like something that should have been done much earlier.

Although, to be frankly honest, I am not as happy with the resulting recordings, particularly when it comes to the popular symphonies No. 3-9. Surely, interpretation is subjective, but recording technique maybe not to the same degree. In my understanding, most of the recordings are focussing too much on some kind of documentaric sound ideal of the orchestra in the hall rather than keeping level and timing of all instruments in balance.

One exception being the aforementioned ´Egmont´, as it was recorded in a theatre, not in a concert hall. If you want to get more into this project, I would recommend the series of the piano concertos:

They were using contemporary fortepiano instruments from that period around 1820, which is forcing the orchestra to adopt in dynamics.

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There is a live video recording here:

The liner notes mention: “This arrangement features the first use of the hocket texture that we employ occasionally across the album, where players alternate semi-quavers to achieve scales at staggering speeds, a technique established for classical guitar ensemble with repertoire such as Tedesco’s 24 Preludes and Fugues or Duo Assad’s arrangements of Rameau.”

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what’s the 6th concerto?

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The 6th piano concerto is Beethoven’s own arrangement of his Violin Concerto adapted for piano, published as Opus 61a. There are about 25 recordings listed on Qobuz.

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The Martin Haselböck conducted Wiener Akademie with Gottlieb Wallisch playing the Conrad Graf (1818 and 1823/24) and the Franz Bayer 1825 Hammerflügels (fortepianos) are wonderful. So enjoy the greater fortepiano articulation with less sustain, although they get thin in the more robust piano cto 4. The Wiener Akademie acquits itself splendidly here. Thank you so much for this recommendation.

I note that in Roon, some tracks are amiss for CD 2. Has Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor right, but has it going for 1:09:21. What is listed as Largo following the Rondo. Allegro is actually the Allegro movement for Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major and so on. CD 3 also has incorrect track listings. No such problems in Qobuz. Hmm. Tried re-importing and the mis-listing persisted.

@mSpot There is also an unfinished Beethoven 6th piano concerto in D major, Hess 15 (nice recording of this by Michael Korstick), but you are right that the version assayed on these recordings is Op. 61, the transcribed violin concerto.

@woodford what about the 7th concerto (see above)? Just messing around. Your questions are always astute.

@DDPS Thank you for the pointer to the newly reconstituted Mela Guitar Quartet YouTube video. I purchased their recording from Presto. Really like the trptk label and the performance. The hocket texture is amazing. I’m assuming you’ve enjoyed Duo Assad, as well. Spectacular guitarists.

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These Handel works are, to my ears, wonderfully performed and excellently recorded (in DXD) by PentaTone.

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Greetings Classical music buffs, the latest edition of Classical Community is now available on the Roon home page. You’ll find 142 pieces and over 11 hours of listening bliss courtesy of your expert recommendations — assembled for the enjoyment and edification of all Roon listeners.

My sincerest appreciation and deep gratitude go out to our playlist contributors for the new edition. In order of appearance @CoralRad, @Arindal, @Saturn94, @eclectic, @PFBTG, @bill_perkins, @woodford, @Thomas_Becker, @Nathan_Wilkes, @Bolivar_Pou, @Mike_O_Neill, @Richard_Graham, @DDPS, @Rugby, @Bauer, and @mSpot

Thank you, as always, for making this conversation thread and its resulting playlists such a joy.

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Finding new music cancome from anywhere, a piece of background advertising music that reveals “Lakme”, a friend’s recommendation, or a Roon Valence suggestion, or this blog. This time it was a friend @andybob, who suggested an album, that was completely unknown to me.

I enjoyed it and has sent me focusing on Classical guitar.

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