Mimi Ezust wrote:

>But where is our profound musical 'home'?  Who are the composers we most
>turn to when we are feeling like we want to cleanse our tastebuds?  Which
>are the compositions we select when we need a good old pal, or want to
>renew ourselves after a very stressful time?  What is our own personal,
>guaranteed, tried-and-true feel-good music?  What are the pieces of music
>we have sought out more than five times in the last year?

For me, it depends not only on the composer but on the performer.  I
grant that some of the great composers are almost unwreckable, but some
performers, such as Brendel, have a good try.  I recall the days when
he and Ogden were rated by 'Gramophone' as the leaders of the younger
generation, with Brendel the more thoughtful of the two.  Now, I wonder
what he has been thinking about for that 40-odd years.For me Solomon was
the supreme Beethoven interpreter, his arioso dolente in Op.110 just
before the fugue often reducing me to tears as he sings his sorrows to
the stars.  Kempff (no,not Freddy) on the other hand trudges wearily
through the mud.

But my pianistic heart lies with the romantic miniatures, particularly
Chopin.  The Waltzes (Lipatti), Mazurkas (Friedmann) Berceuse (Solomon),
lots of Cortot, and that astounding version of Op10/7 by Friedmann again.
Artur Rubinstein I loathe.

As I loathe almost all Wagner--yes, he is a musical genius, but what has
that to do with 'coming home'?  The original Nibelungenliede,as is
admitted by several professors of German, is pretty awful stuff, and
Wagner did not improve it.  (My favourite of many descriptions of the
Ring is "Fifteen hours of Noggin the Nog: wiv a dwarf--an' a dragon--
and NO jokes"--- there was at least one in the original).

For a Symphonic 'Coming Home' mine is Schubert's great Cmajor as played
by the LSO under Tenstedt, especially in the last movement wher the
triplets cut like lashes, instead of being relegated to the background
as so many conductors have it

Ernie