Dave's Faves No. 30 (Barber)

[@heifetz14]

You deserve more traffic than paris in rush hour. You are a legend.

[@chrismusic1180]

Enjoying ‘Dave’s Faves’. Thanks for doing them. Would love to see you invite Robert Levine or Jed Distler one day. Keep up the great work.

[@adrianosbrandao]

English is not my first language, and it shows. When Dave said “this is my go-to Barber recording”, I heard “this is my go-to-barber recording” and I was like “wow, in my local barbershop they play only rock music from the ‘70s”. I definitely should try grooming my beard listening to Barber!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Well, Barber is barber, so it's logical to hear it that way!

[@Plantagenet1956]

I love Dave’s Faves! May it be a long and happy life!

[@ThreadBomb]

I generally don't care for Zinman, but this is a terrific recording. And it really is the best of Barber on one disc. Essential.

[@vincentspinelli9995]

I love this recording! A wonderful collection indeed. Along with the Schippers Barber recordings, a special favorite. Does anyone remember the Samuel Barber collection by Andrew Schenk and The New Zealand Symphony in the early days of CD? It attracted a lot of renewed attention to Barber's music and was a fairly big seller for classical music I think. Schenck was a talented conductor who died rather young.

[@endicot1949]

Thanks for the review and H/T to the Schippers Barber recording from the 1960s. A favorite. In the trivia category, back in the early 60s there was a kitchy daytime TV show called Divorce Court that used a short excerpt of the Barber 1st symphony as a theme.

[@viningscircle]

As for accessibility of most of these releases, KZbin itself is a gold mine, with much of what's out there even in HD quality. A search usually yields what one seeks. 👍

[@williamwhittle216]

Have this recording! I enjoy (almost) everything you do. I get up in the morning looking forward to your daily releases.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@stephenmarmer543]

Your enthusiasm while doing this series is great to see. It shows your music listener side and while your critic side is never far away, this Faves speaks to me. Continue it as long as you want and can. Thanks.

[@vincentspinelli9995]

Keep doing Dave's faves!!!!!!!!

[@garretcahill9950]

"It's my go-to Barber disc that's not a concerto". My sentiments exactly ! Superb performances of marvellous music.

[@JackBurttrumpetstuff]

Love this disc. Especially the 1st Symphony.

[@bbailey7818]

All marvelous stuff, a great disc and I love the Schippers as well but that has fewer pieces. I love the 1st Essay also.

[@roberttownson9459]

Knoxville, Summer Of 1915 is also essential Barber. Dawn Upshaw with Zinman is pretty choice.

[@sansumida]

What do you think of Andrew Schenck and the New Zealand Orchestra? That became my go to CD love the Shelley Overture!

[@dmntuba]

Keep doing "Dave's Fav's" and everything that we luv as time allows. I'm waiting for "Dave's Hates" which I imagine would be fun🤣

[@williammoreing3860]

I’ve had this CD for years and, yes, it’s wonderful. This whole series of “Dave’s Faves” has given me great pleasure. That said, I’m looking forward to hearing you discuss your favorite Vaughan Williams recording!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Check out my video on Job.

[@williammoreing3860]

Now that you mention it, I remember that video! My bad…

[@chadweirick67]

I love this series you are actually my road music today as I drive from Boston to Ogunquit :) I saved up I saved up a whole bunch of the series to listen to

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Safe travels!

[@johnmarchington3146]

The Zinman is certainly a superb disc. I also have a lot of time for a Vanguard CD conducted by Vladimir Golschmann that also has some vocal music on it, including a chamber opera called "A Hand Of Bridge"

[@dsp1970]

Love this recording!! Listened to this a zillion times and never grow tired of the recording! It"s also a real sound treat for audiophiles as the recorded sound is AMAZING! Heard the Philadelphia Orchestra recently play the School of Scandal overture and it was amazing after getting to love this work! Thanks for the review David!

[@shauncorbett3748]

Hi Dave - not commented before but loving the Dave's Faves series as well as your 'regular programming' (eg the minimalism vid, the Makela Sibelius vid) and they've given me a whole new list of recordings to check out (or look out for when they're back in print, in the case of the Eloquence Bizet/Saint-Saens set), which is partly why I tune in! Keep doing what you enjoy doing and I'll keep on listening. Love to see a Zinman recording appear in particular, I really enjoy his Beethoven and feel it's underrated - although to be fair, you do give the Zinman/Bronfman piano concertos their due.

[@davidhollingsworth1847]

I have this recording, and it's one of my frequent go-to albums. The programme per se is nicely imaginative and the playing superb. I actually hoped for a follow-up album featuring Barber's other pieces like, say, his Second Symphony, the Third Essay, Toccata Festiva (love that work), etc.

[@josecarmona9168]

I have this CD among my personal faves. It's amazing. And also I have two more Barber discs as faves: Leontyne Price singing Knoxville (Schippers) and other songs (with Barber himself at piano) and other CD with songs and Dover Beach sung by Thomas Allen. All three of them are beauty and feeling encapsuled in music.

[@Vandalarius]

It's great and I actually quite like having shorter videos because I can carve out time here and there to watch them.

[@timothygoode764]

Thank you Dave - I too love this recording. Could you do a video on the Kurt Masur Warner box? Would be really interested to hear your views especially on his New York Phil recordings. Warning though, it is the worst physical box set yet. It is virtually impossible to remove the lid to access the discs, it is that tight and there is no place to grip the box. The only way is to shake the box until it starts to ease! Needs calling out!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I will do it.

[@charlescoleman5509]

Dave’s Faves has been an enjoyable segment. Having said that, I look forward to future Best (or worst) of Vaughan Williams and or Bax symphonies. 😊

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

No point in doing Bax. There are too few recordings. I've done some RVW and will probably do more.

[@charlescoleman5509]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Yeah, I find that the Bax Symphonies are generally neglected. Especially #3.

[@HassoBenSoba]

@@charlescoleman5509 Bax 3rd was recorded separately by Barbirolli (in the 40.s? I forget..and by Edward Downes (LSO?) in the 70's; thus, I've always considered the 3rd as one of his more popular. #7 was recorded as part of the Lyrita series, but never separately that I'm aware of. And #4 had to be recorded (poorly) by Vernon Handley, since the Lyrita series did not include it. Again, the point is that the 3rd was, to my knowledge, recorded MORE often than the others. But..what the heck....it's always good to see any of them appear in good performances.

[@charlescoleman5509]

@@HassoBenSoba I have both the Bax cycles by Handley and Lloyd Jones in my iPod. Love them both, but I think Handley's is generally better.

[@ThreadBomb]

@@charlescoleman5509 I prefer Lloyd Jones, but I think the sound lacks body.

[@richardwiley3676]

Thanks for this Dave, some people are never happy, you're doing all this for free. Surely you should decide what you want to do. You're judgements, in my opinion, are far more informed and entertaining than those in published guides e.g. Penguin's or exalted magazines e.g. Gramophone, think how much these cost to buy or subscribe to! Keep it up! It's fine to make a request but to complain? That's out of order.

[@jimyancy6842]

I'm enjoying the Dave's fave series, and I appreciate all the work that goes into your videos. I've been collecting classical recordings since I was fourteen -- my first record was Rise Stevens and Highlights from CARMEN -- I'm 81 now and still collecting. Looking forward to the Mitropoulos box and your comments on it. How is Pipo?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

She takes more prescriptions than I do, but for an 88 year old gal (in cat years) she's doing fine and sends her best regards. Meow.

[@pauldavidartistclub6723]

It’s your channel of course, so you get to choose what you want to do, and if you get more viewers you have good reason to do more, but personally I MUCH prefer the ideal, the repertoire, and the box review series to Dave’s Faves.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Fair enough. I just don't understand why people look at it as a zero sum game. Dave's Faves have been around for a bit more than a week, everything else for nearly two years. It's not exactly a crisis, or a either/or proposition.

[@pauldavidartistclub6723]

​@@DavesClassicalGuide I discovered your videos a couple of months ago, and have been spending inordinate amounts of time listening, and re-listening, to them. They have certainly been entertaining and informative, and on a personal level, your videos have been helping me get through the depression I have been suffering from (as has listening to music). I find the ‘best and worst’, the box sets, etc have a comprehensiveness and a certain rhythm of delivery, and humor, and meat on tge bones that I don’t seem to find in listening to just a bunch of short takes on your own favorite single recordings (which you reveal in the best and worst of’s, etc, anyway). (But I also have cherished the reviews of single discs, general discussions about music, composers, and the industry as well). If others seem to have jumped on you, it’s possible that there were just too many at once, even if you hadn’t given up the other themes). But like I said it’s your prerogative to do what you want to do with your own video channel , I’d hate for people to issue directives at me if I was offering entertainment (for free yet!)

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

@@pauldavidartistclub6723 I understand, and preferences always will vary. I just hope that whatever I do it will continue to lighten your spirits and that you will get past whatever it is that is depressing you.