Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, live, in Abu Dhabi, Mozart
Augustin Dumay, conductor/violin
Maxim Rysanov, viola
concerto no 10 for 2 pianos & orchestra in E flat (K.365)
concertone in C (K.190) (solo, two violins, but the oboe is a key solo)
sinfonia concertante in E flat (K.364) Allegro; Adante; Presto
symphony no 29 in A (K.201)

Dumay is probably the best living interpreter of Mozart and Rysavov on viola is beyond dreamy. The programme for the concert was full of rich personal details about what Mozart was doing at the time he wrote these pieces.

And, I saw Stevie Wonder, live, in Abu Dhabi. 2+ hours. Excellent weekend, except the bit where Arsenal drew with WBA.

parkening's godly rendition of vivaldi RV 82 second movement

godly.

absolutely love it... it seems me very much in the traditional english romantic vein which i usually don't care for, but this is better than just about anything else from that period that i've heard.... btw it reminds me a bit of scriabin's fifteenth prelude, which is also wonderful.

I don't believe i know that Scriabin, George, I shall definitely give it a listen.
The Eclogue's got a touch of the Rachmaninovs about it but the liner notes also say: It was probably while he was a pupil of Bairstow that Finzi became acquainted with the organ works of JS Bach and his influence remained a potent force throughout Finzi's life, as heard, for instance, in the piano accompaniments to his songs.

This was phenomenal Nick. Probably the best of his I've heard yet.

Excellent!! If either of you want this in an audio file I can send it. Some of his stuff is not available to listen to on youtube (though a decent selection is) so I might upload some various offerings as well.

I've been obsessed with Prokofiev as of late. As well as listening to a lot of Bruckner, Glazunov, and Wagner's amazing four-part opera Der Ring des Nibelungen.

been listening to this album of hilliard ensemble performing various works of bach... pleasantly surprised to find some of it on youtube... here is the climax of the album, the famous "ciaconna" performed with the recently "discovered" hidden chorales.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Fh59lns-I

i like that the tracks alternate between violin partitas and cantatas/chorales, almost as if in response to each other. i won't even bother commenting on the secular vs liturgic aspect because in terms of musical quality and the spirituality bach imbued in both there is no difference. maybe that's the point, or at least one of them.

Been combining my overall popular music works list with my classical list. Am trying to work out the top right now so I've been listening to Vaughan Williams 4th and 9th Symphony along with Firebird by Stravinsky and La Mer by Debussy. So far it looks like it will be all classical in my top 10.

I think I'm basically going to go through the top 100 of this list composer by composer until I feel I've mastered said composer. Currently working on Beethoven, particularly his string quartets (13, 14, and 15). Crazily good.

Also checking out a fair amount of Philip Glass, especially Einstein on the Beach and Songs for Liquid Days (already know Koyaanisqatsi and North Star). Also going to give his Thin Blue Line soundtrack a listen soon.

it's a very good idea, but i have to add that that list is extremely biased for and against certain forms/styles/periods so you're getting mostly just one rather narrow part of a very wide spectrum of classical music... saying it just in case for perspective's sake

The REAL best.

Yes particularly Renaissance and Medieval it's weak on (then again most of us not named George or John 17 are weak on that period) and veers more towards Classical and Romantic forms or forms like them. I wouldn't call it narrow because there is still a lot of stuff but i certainly isn't close to complete.

veers would be an understatement! it comes from a very traditional, i would almost say conservative at this point, perspective... which is why i've said it's a good place to start and help familiarize oneself with some canonic works but for proper perspective one must realize these are almost entirely canonic works of a very narrow period and narrow formal scope... i don't feel like analyzing the list in detail now (maybe some other time) but i'd bet close to 50% of the works are from the 19th century and also symphonic/orchestral... and, needless to say all sound very much alike (i understand almost everything is variation on a theme, it's just that there are hundreds of themes out there and this list fetishisizes maybe only half a dozen)