What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Subotnick]

Just arrived in the post! 



But my drive is drowning out the opening of the 1st movement! 

TTFN.
Me.

[Harry]

Just arrived in the post! 



But my drive is drowning out the opening of the 1st movement! 

TTFN.
Me.

Try a normal cd player!

[Subotnick]

Try a normal cd player!

Mine died a few months ago! I think it got fed up with me playing Xenakis for breakfast!  Never fear, I'll just have to import the cd via iTunes.

TTFN.
Me.

[Monsieur Croche]

I suppose you are both amusing yourselves; but the comparison between Toch and Schoenberg is musical and intelligent;  and cultural and social (they were both expatriate German-Jewish composers in the US).

So to make a game of exaggerated parody (if you like Monteverdi and Boulez, then you'll like Hartmann) is mindlessly empty, don't you think?

But then, perhaps you've nothing better to do with your time?  Or brain?

In fairness to M. Croche, it wasn't he that started the joke.

Thank you, Corey, but I would like to defend myself anyway:

Perhaps my comparison was rather 'mindless', since I didn't really exercise much thought looking for similarities between the music of Palestrina, Bach, and Debussy. My remark was derived literally from Debussy's well-known love of what he called the 'arabesque' present in the music of the other two composers, and which subsequently informed much of his music. Let me quote directly from his writing:

"Yet the beauty of this concerto stands out from among the others which appear in Bach's manuscripts; it contains, almost intact, that musical arabesque, or rather that principle of ornament, which is the basis of all forms of art. The word 'ornament' has here nothing whatever to do with the meaning attached to it in the musical grammars.

The primitives, Palestrina, Vittoria, Orlando di Lasso and others, made use of this divine arabesque. They discovered the principle in the Gregorian chant; and they strengthened the delicate traceries by strong counterpoint. When Bach went back to the arabesque he made it more pliant and more fluid; and, in spite of the stern discipline which the great composer imposed on beauty, there was a freshness and freedom in his imaginative development of it which astonishes us to this day."

It is a stretch to suggest that someone who likes Palestrina and Bach would have the same response to Debussy, but, as you said, my remark was meant as an amusement, and by that standard, the comparison I made between these composers was not as 'empty' as you alleged it was. Perhaps I would have made more sense if I had said Rameau and Couperin instead?

[Kullervo]

You don't need to explain yourself, as there is absolutely no reason why someone shouldn't love Debussy.

[Drasko]

R.Strauss - Horn Concerto No.2

[Sergeant Rock]

You don't need to explain yourself, as there is absolutely no reason why someone shouldn't love Debussy.

Well, there is that pesky, negative association with Pink Harp...enough to put some people off their Debussy 

Sarge

[SonicMan46]

Boccherini, Luigi (1743-1805) - Clavier Quintets w/ Ensemble Claviere - 4 CDs of 12 works (G.407-G.418) in another excellent Brilliant box!  Recent recordings (2005) w/ outstanding sound - played on period instruments of the time, including a fortepiano (C. Schantz, 1802); these quintets were composed later in Boccherini's life - late 1790s - 

[Conservationist]

Right now, I'm listening to Slayer, but after that it's a Furtwangler Bruckner #8

[Papy Oli]

Good evening everyone 

Ralph Vaughan-Williams
Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis

Andrew Davis/BBC SO

[Que]

Q

[rubio]

A lovely Fidelio - slow, broad, monumental and dramatic. I think it must be difficult to better this one!

[Sergeant Rock]

Just finished this



and now starting the Shostakovich Eighth



I'm in an intense mood tonight.

Sarge

[M forever]

Just finished this

That's a very good recording, musically and also sonically. Surprising - and in a way, saddening - really how well DG could actually record the BP without "polishing" the sound and giving it the unnatural glariness of so many Karajan recordings. This recording, along with the Organ Symphony with Levine, was made "spontaneously" because at that time, the orchestra and HvK were quarrelling the time. He de-invited them from the Salzburg Festival (which was after all a private venture, the BP played there during their holidays from regular orchestra service), so in return, they cancelled the at that time exclusive recording contract they had with him. He went to make the scheduled recordings in Vienna, and they used the free dates to make these recordings. So, in the end, everyone was happy...more or less...

[Subotnick]

Evening! I'm currently listening to Furtwängler conduct Strauss and Beethoven:



And this afternoon I was listening to the following:

Carl Maria Von Weber: Invitation To The Dance, Op. 65 (Orchestrated by Hector Berlioz)
    Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
    Ferenc Fricsay
    1963

Konzertstück In F Minor, Op. 79
    Margrit Weber - Piano
    Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
    Ferenc Fricsay
    1963



TTFN.
Me.

[Keemun]

0:)   0:)   0:)   0:)   0:)   0:)   0:)

[SonicMan46]

Dinner music for tonight - Göran Söllscher -Eleven-string Baroque - a BMG bargain - broad collection of Baroque composers, including Bach, Weiss, Couperin, Pachelbel et al - the sound of this instrument is just wonderful and delightful listening for the moment! 

 

[George]

28, 33 (a blistering performance), 35, 39, 40, 41 (unfortunately he never made a studio recording of 36 or 38). 34 he recorded with the Concertgebouw, a CD worth tracking down. In truth, I bought the box just to have Szell's K.131. I'm not kidding...I love it that much.

Sarge

I have all of those except 39. 

When Sony put out this CD two years ago:



They made the VERY dumb move of including Haffner, which had already been released on Sony Essential Classics, instead of Symphony 39. 

[12tone.]

Checking out some keyboard sonatas by Soler on Naxos   



A bit too much bombast me thinks... I perfer way older material.  This seems to include lots of fast flash.  Interesting though.

[Sergeant Rock]

I have all of those except 39. 
They made the VERY dumb move of including Haffner, which had already been released on Sony Essential Classics, instead of Symphony 39. 

And the majors wonder why they are in financial trouble...dumb decisions like that.

Sarge