What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Florestan]

Good Friday to all!

And to you too!

[Harry]

Albert Roussel.

Symphony No. 3 opus 42.

Orchestre National de France/Charles Dutoit.

Two versions this time, the new one on Naxos, and the above one.
Well Deneve is slower but in one movement. But the intensity and commitment is as great as Dutoit's. The French Orchestra is more refined and idiomatic in this repertoire, but the Scotts make a firm stab, and almost bring it of succesfully. Both have their valid points, but I would go for the Dutoit. It does not prevent me from purchasing the Naxos issues also, when they are released in time.
Sound wise, they are a match.

[George]

Seconed/thirded! A great one, Bill.

(George, is your remastering also from 1986?)

Q

No, mine is from 2005.   

[Lilas Pastia]

Haydn: Arianna a Naxos, and English Canzonettas. Carolyn Watkinson mezzo and Glen wilson, fortepiano.

This is lovely, lovely, lovely. Haydn in Jane Austen mood and style. Simple yet sophisticated music. Excellent vocalism from Ms Watkinson, and superb fortepiano collaboration. A fly in the ointment is that the singer treats the Canzonettas as full-blown dramatic scenas, using her ample voice to almost operatic effect. Musically it's very good, but the grand singing affects the diction and delivery. Many words and phrases simply can't be understood without reading the texts simultaneously. Hearing  the same kind of pieces on the BBC TV series shows how it should be done (don't know the singer, but the excellent Mevyn Tan plays the keyboard part). In Arianna, though, Watkinson fully commands the stage to splendid effect. It's a huge piece, probably one of the best and biggest solo vocal works in the classical repertoire. Very different from Janet Baker, but great all the same.

[karlhenning]

Right now I am listening to the weirdest thing ever: a new BIS CD of Grieg's Peer Gynt music arranged for solo accordion. 

Tubular! 

[Scriptavolant]

[Harry]

Albert Roussel.

Symphony No. 2 opus 23.

Orchestre National de France/Charles Dutoit.

What a marvelous piece of music this is, and so well performed.
B flat major, my favourite.
Roussel is bringing me out of the ordinary life, into a dreamlike state, that opens up so many images of tranquility, and vivid yet rustic colors. A painter he is, and a darn good one too!

[Harry]

Albert Roussel.

Symphony No. 4 opus 53.
Orchestre National de France/Charles Dutoit.

Count me in as a admirer. This music is dangerously addictive my friends, do take care!

[karlhenning]

Dmitri Dmitriyevich
Preludes, Opus 34
Konstantin Scherbakov

[orbital]

[Florestan]

Gabriel Faure

Complete Piano Music volume IV

Dolly *
Preludes
Nocturnes

Kathryn Stott
* Martin Roscoe, 2nd piano

The last volume of the set. Excellent, excellent, excellent! I can't recommend it highly enough. This is a box no pianophile should be without... nay, even you hate piano you should still have it.

Take, for instance, the last piece: Nocturne no. 13 in B minor op. 119 (1921). An old man sits at the piano late at night and looks back at his life. He dreamed, loved, struggle, played, had joyous moments and sorrowful hours. But all is gone now, the final tick of the clock is approaching. The old man takes a bow to life and goes slowly beyond, leaving behind his last feeling, his last thought, his last smile... his last chord, gradually vanishing from a piano at which no one sits anymore.

Sublime!

[Cato]

I have just spent some time with a new CD with music by Prof. Karl Henning!

Irreplaceable Doodles and Out in the Sun are what I listened to this morning: see my rave review here:

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,92.40.html

[karlhenning]

Schumann
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Rhenish, Opus 97
Tonhalle / Zinman

[rubio]

Shostakovich Symphony 12 from the Barshai box set. Probably this is my least favourite of Shosty's symphonies so far, but still it is interesting and it will probably grow on me when I hear more recordings.

[dtwilbanks]

Kathleen Ferrier Vol. 8 - Blow the Wind Southerly

[Harry]

Gabriel Faure

Complete Piano Music volume IV

Dolly *
Preludes
Nocturnes

Kathryn Stott
* Martin Roscoe, 2nd piano

The last volume of the set. Excellent, excellent, excellent! I can't recommend it highly enough. This is a box no pianophile should be without... nay, even you hate piano you should still have it.

Take, for instance, the last piece: Nocturne no. 13 in B minor op. 119 (1921). An old man sits at the piano late at night and looks back at his life. He dreamed, loved, struggle, played, had joyous moments and sorrowful hours. But all is gone now, the final tick of the clock is approaching. The old man takes a bow to life and goes slowly beyond, leaving behind his last feeling, his last thought, his last smile... his last chord, gradually vanishing from a piano at which no one sits anymore.

Sublime!

Sublime indeed!

[George]

[dtwilbanks]

Han-Na Chang: Romance 

[Harry]

Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Symphony No. 2.

St Petersburg PO/Mariss Jansons.

If you are looking for intens drama, and heavy accents, and pounding energy, look somewere else.
But if a fleeting almost balletic approach is to your taste, then by all means go for this one.
For one, the Brass is marvelously done, lucid powerfull and with urgency, as with the Strings, incisive pushing forward but no hammering around on notes. Jansons tends to keep things straightforward, and for clearing the sometimes thick scoring from Sergei he resorts to redefine the crecendi and dimenuendi, and that works miracles. And he lets you hear details, that are not obvious, but of which there are many, if you know your Rachmaninoff.
The sound is oke I guess, and the playing somewhat hold back by Jansons, and I guess also, when you unleash the powers of the Petersbergers, a more urgent sound picture will come out, like in the third movement, that happens once or twice.
All in all this is a fine interpretation, not overly romantic, but good nevertheless.

[Harry]

Sergei R.

Scherzo in D minor.
Vocalise.

St Peterburg PO/Jansons.

Very well done, as light on its feet as a ballerina in the Scherzo.
The Vocalise gets the full treatment here!