The Shed

 

Of course, Perahia is the man at the moment, isn't he?  His recent Mozart Piano Concertos are the ones to get...  That said, I'm personally just not familiar enough with Chopin to make a judgement..

 

I love the line: A spokesman for Tiggywinkles said: "We're starting to get calls, ... ,  for wallabies, which weren't there before..." 

Dean, what on earth is your signature?

Thanks for your help!

The problem I have with Karajan is that I don't like this whole thing of warping tempos because the conductor thinks it sounds dramatic, and even if the rest of it is very good and I'm being prejudiced, everyone agrees that his Pastoral is terrible, and I hate buying things twice. I think I'm going to go with Abbado, both you and Rico recommend it, and from what I understand, he plays it faster (or at the proper speed?), and I am impatient. ;-) And who can pass up the Berlin Philharmonic recorded in glorious digital clarity? Klemperer is also famous, but I didn't realize before that he was of the Karajan slow approach. By the way, is Abbado using the updated score Zinman used?

Gardiner sounds good, there's no reason to cheap out when it's the only version I plan on buying. You are right, there is a huge difference between Bernstein and Gardiner. I am sucker for the big Romantic sound, but Bernstein sounds like he's overdoing it. On Youtube, his Lacrymosa is almost twice as long as Gardiner's!

Pinnock sounds great, although I'm not sure if I'm ready for 5 discs of Concerti, despite my deep love for the 4 Seasons, because I've heard some of Vivaldi's other work on the radio, and none of it was as good as 4 Seasons, even if they still included some air violin moments. ;-) I guess the piercing violin tone on his 4 Seasons is the result of period instruments, but I've never heard anything like that, and it sounds fantastic. 

Rico are these performances definitive? I don't quite need the complete Chopin, but for that price I'm ok with getting extra discs.