iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 7h

#NowSpinning a true classic. There are clearly other great Mahler 9s, but this one remains an extraordinary testament to the relationship between conductor and orchestra. As it happens, the live performance took place 44 years ago today. Of course, earlier in the month…

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 18h

#NowSpinning Karajan’s digital DG Beethoven Fifth. I am much more familiar with the earlier versions Karajan made in Berlin and London, so it’s good to hear this again.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 20h

#NowSpinning Jurowski’s Firebird from this live disc of Stravinsky. We were so fortunate to have this marvellous conductor in London and discs like this remind me why. The crisp clarity of articulation is a wonder unto itself, but Jurowski brings an inner life to the music and really makes it dance.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

#NowSpinning Sibelius’s Suite from the music he wrote for Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande. Wonderful music, for sure, but I’m not sure this is Karajan’s Sibelius at its best. Immediate comparisons with Petri Sakari on Chandos reveal how much more inner life the music can have.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#NowSpinning a rather lovely disc and of Ravel. The Introduction and Allegro is especially gorgeous. Not quite as misty as the wonderful Decca version with Ellis/Melos, but a cracking recording its own right.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#NowSpinning Berlioz Symohonie Fantastique with Ormandy in Philadelphia. Well the cover certainly makes reference to the drug-induced content of the work. Let’s see if Ormandy found the trippier corners of the score.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#NowSpinning the two Grieg Peer Gynt Suites, in Karajan’s last-of-many recordings in Berlin. One of those moments where all his previous versions seem better. It’s amazing how easy it is to undermine the drama of the Mountain King by playing it too fast from the start!

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

#NowSpinning Rachmaninoff Symphony No.2. It’s cut - composer-sanctioned excisions - but it’s totally luscious. Some of the phrasing is quite indulgent, but if you’ve got it, flaunt it!

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

“Whereas most other modern composers are engaged in manufacturing cocktails of every hue and description, I offer the public cold spring water.” Remembering the great Jean Sibelius, who died 69 years ago on 20 September 1957.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

#NowSpinning Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, with Ormandy and some very interesting soloists and the Metropolitan Opera Association. I hardly know this work so I’m following with the vocal score, which helpfully has English and German printed together. Clever!

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

#NowSpinning Bruckner Symphony No.9, live in Hamburg, under Wand in 1993. I do wonder if this might be more dramatically contrasted than the Berlin Philharmonic version he made later.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

New acquisition. Bruno Walter Complete Warner Classics Remastered Edition, on 30 discs. I also really need to get going properly on his Columbia box. So many treasures await.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

#NowSpinning Solti’s Chicago Tchaikovsky Fifth. I haven’t heard Solti conduct this composer’s music much at all, so it’s time for an open mind. The opening is slow and lugubrious, which I like.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

#NowSpinning Strauss’s Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, with Doráti in Minneapolis. Through the mono years box it was obvious that Doráti was shaping this orchestra into something very distinctive. As we emerge into the stereo era, the benefits of that development are clear!

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

#NowSpinning Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the steely, hard-edged Krystian Zimerman and the voluptuous Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan. First impressions point to a lack of sentimentality in the solo part.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

#NowSpinning Sir Thomas Beecham with Sibelius Symphony No.7. It’s good to hear this conductor’s finely-spun magic again. He has a truly winning way with Sibelius.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

#NowSpinning Mussorgsky in Ravel’s clothing, with Zubin Mehta in New York. Recorded in November 1979, at this point Mehta had only been at the helm of this orchestra for a year or so, but band and baton seem to have been in lock step.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

#NowSpinning Solti’s 1975 Chicago Also Sprach Zarathustra. So far, very impressive. This magnificent band did, of course, record this music incredibly well with Reiner and they have to take at least a good whack of the credit here. The playing is spectacularly virtuosic.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

#NowSpinning Solti with some variations by Brahms and……Schoenberg. Well that’s quite a coupling!

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

#NowSpinning I’m going to take my time over this, possibly over several listenings of each Waltz. A Chopin Waltzes comparison, between recordings from Dinu Lipatti and Zoltán Kocsis. And I’ll be ignoring the technological differences.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

#NowSpinning Crespin’s seductive Ravel with Ansermet. This Shéhérazade is truly gorgeous. Crespin finds nuance in every note and every word. I’m already in my third run-through of the day!

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Reposted by Love Your Classical Music Geek

Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Did you get any record tokens for your 50th birthday @loveinner.bsky.social? #NewRelease

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9958010--bruno-walter-the-complete-warner-remastered-edition

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

#NowSpinning Solti’s driven and biting Stravinsky Rite. The brass play with amazing power in this performance.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

#NowSpinning Solti’s Elgar Enigma from Chicago. I have never heard this recording. I don’t always like Solti’s aggression, so it will be interesting to see what happens here. It’s a work that can take some pretty impetuous conducting, but only in places.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Well I had better learn to play. Somehow this 50th birthday gift was snuck into our Norfolk house and I had no clue until we arrived yesterday. Somewhat overwhelmed! Now, where to find a good piano teacher…

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

#NowSpinning Holmboe’s Second Symphony. The somewhat embattled first movement is highly characteristic of the composer. It’s enormously engaging stuff. If you are looking for another Nordic symphonies to collect, fill your boots!

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 here we are, at 6.36 am on 26 August 2026, exactly 50 years - to the minute - since my birth. At #1 in the 50 recordings I’ve chosen to celebrate, we have Richard Hickox’s incredible Vaughan Williams 5. And how apt, given today is also the anniversary of RVW’s death.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. And it’s now the top 5. At #2 we have a set that was conceived as a single whole. The Bis Sibelius Edition contains multiple gems and I cannot imagine living without it.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. And it’s now the top 5. At #3 it is Klemperer’s Mahler Das Lied Von der Erde, with Wunderlich and Ludwig. Such deeply moving music making is the stuff of legend.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. And it’s now the top 5. At #4 it’s Bernard Haitink’s stunning Debussy collection. I particularly love La Mer here, but it’s all great. I might choose others for individual works, but I treasure everything here.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. And it’s now the top 5. At #5 we have Charles Munch’s spellbinding Martinů Fantaisies Symphonies. This performance is simply astonishing, both for execution but also for the interpretive majesty. Quite a record.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #6 we have another modern classic. Sure, I love Jessye Norman in this music, but I find Soile Isokoski’s account of the Four Last Songs even more touching. A disc to treasure.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #7 we have another rarity. And you must try it if you haven’t already. Howard Ferguson’s Piano Concerto has a slow movement of stunning beauty and can make time seem like it is standing still. A hidden gem.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

New acqusition. Bernard Haitink: Berlin, Vienna, Boston on 31 discs. This effectively mops up the items not included in his London or Concertgebouw sets, at least from a Universal point of view.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #8 it’s Leif Segerstam and Sibelius. The Lemminkäinen Legends are thrilling here, but there’s also a terrifying Tapiola. As a whole, the disc is irresistible

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #9 we have the complete Holmboe Symphonic Metamorphoses. This is music of genuine depth, but if you want a slightly lighter starting point, try Symphonies 1 and 3!

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #10 it’s Bernstein’s Vienna account of Mahler’s Sixth. This is a truly lacerating and emotionally challenging performance. Such sustained intensity is a very rare thing indeed.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #11 we have another Piano disc, this time with Pollini. I believe this was his Debut for DG. The Stravinsky and Prokofiev are thrilling and deserve the widest possible attention.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #12 we have two works by two different composers, in extraordinary performances. And here the Sibelius actually sounds like Sibelius. It’s so much more than a virtuoso showpiece.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #13 Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra with a Saint-Saëns Orgsn Symphony of epic proportions. Watch out, though. Some streamed copies distort badly. The original doesn’t at all!

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #14 it’s another Chandos disc from Richard Hickox. Sorry not sorry. Herbert Howells was not especially known for orchestral music, but you should hear it. The Suite ‘The Bs’ is totally inspired.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #15 we have Wagner’s Ring from the 1956 Bayreuth Festival under Knappertsbusch. This is a monumental interpretation, though I realise views will vary widely on this.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #16 we bring in film music. The three extended Lord of the Rings scores amount to over 14 hours of music and they are epic. Howard Shore’s imagination blazes throughout, matching Tolkien’s towering inspiration.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #17 we have Eugen Jochum’s truly inspired Schubert Unfinished from Boston. A darkly dramatic first movement is followed by flowing lyrical elegance in the second.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #18 another little-discussed work the world should hear. Alwyn’s uncommonly beautiful harp concerto, Lyra Angelica, with Rachel Masters and Richard Hickox. I urge those who don’t know it to investigate the whole disc….

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #19 we have Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet with Elisabeth Leonskaja and the Borodins. Stupendous music-making with an amazing balance between bleakness and beauty.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #20 we have more Vaughan Williams and it won’t be the last! It’s Boult’s 1970 recording of the Masque for Dancing, Job! This version captures both the vehemence of the Satan episodes and a certain pastoral warmth.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #21 we have Richard Hickox’s uncommonly beautiful rendering of Vaughan Williams’s Pilgrim’s Progress. This work is hardly ever discussed, yet it is a complete musical wonder. A set to treasure.

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Love Your Classical Music Geek @loveinner.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

#LYICMGat50 50 recordings, ahead of my 50th birthday. At #22 we have Petri Sakari’s recording of Madetoja’s Symphony No.2. A powerfully atmospheric performance in glowing sound, full of fantasy alongside searching introspection. Lovely!

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