Best polkas music according to redditors
We found 5 Reddit comments discussing the best polkas music. We ranked the 3 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 5 Reddit comments discussing the best polkas music. We ranked the 3 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Rachmaninoff made some recordings on piano rolls, which allows them to be replayed in a modern studio with modern equipment. Check out this Window in Time recording to hear what he might sound like with a modern recording.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hv2zh_Z0Io
The headbanging analogy took things a bit far. I think that's where you lose people. There are often quiet introductions or interludes within a waltz. Maybe if you were talking about polkas. :-)
I get what you are saying about not turning it into a lullaby, though. The themes may be lilting but a good recording should always be 'crisp' and appropriately 'punchy'. There are non-trivial drum parts and even cymbal parts in most waltzes and that needs to be heard.
Which conductors do you like for JStraussJr? I have this one by Willy Boskovsky and the VPO. The five big waltzes seem to be done beautifully yet punchy as I noted. But if you want headbanging, the polkas added to fill out the CD steal the show. Someone with a sense of humor put the Hunter's Polka in as track 2 to immediate follow the Blue Danube. So you pop in the CD and you enjoy the most familiar piece and then GUN FIRE. It still scares me from time to time, ha ha.
(Edit to fix link)
So check this out: Rachmaninoff was a big fan of an early type of player piano type rig, and made a handful of "proto-midis" himself, playing a special piano that recorded his every nuance to a paper reel.
The reels were recently recovered and digitized, then made available as CD. I give you Rachmaninoff - A Window In Time (LGT amazon page, but it's also available elsewhere...)
Prelude in C# Minor is my personal fave.
> What would you say is the 'greatest' Rach 3?
Well, there are a lot of opinions on the best Rach 2 & 3 recordings out there. Personally, I think Ashkenazy does it best. This one with Andre Previn in particular. There's another one he recorded with Anatole Fistoulari with the LSO that also is beautiful.
For "white hot" virtuoso playing, the consensus is the previously mentioned Argerich or Horowitz.
Editing to add that Valentina has some YouTube videos of her playing the Rachmaninoff concertos without orchestra backing and they're really cool to watch if you've heard these a million times. Your brain fills in the orchestra part.
Enjoy!