What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Wanderer]

... in the first concerto ... the intensely, radiantly lyrical intimate moments - this is some of Brahms's best orchestration, right here, actually - is often glossed over rather. To me this stuff is the heart of the piece, and Gilels plays it better than anyone else I know.

The second concerto ... is - well, IMO anyway - harder than anything in Liszt, for instance, or than the Rachmaninov concertos (again IMO), and harder still because it has to sound so effortless - Gilels, to my ear, manages this supremely well.

I totally agree with these comments. Gilel's playing can't be faulted in this domain (nor in any other, really) and the collaboration with the orchestra is superb (these are after all very symphonic concertos). In the end, though, I wish there were less basking in the radiant glow of the seraphic passages and more urgency overall (in the manner of the renditions I mentioned above). If one wants a more relaxed view of these works Gilels certainly is one of the top choices; just not my top choice.

Listening to Schreker's Fünf Gesänge (Karnéus/BBC PO/Sinaisky).
Quoting from here:
The Fünf Gesänge is an orchestration, prepared in 1922, of a song cycle for voice and piano written in 1909. There's more than a whiff of Orientalism, since the texts derive in part from the Arabian Nights, though the subject (shades, perhaps, of Mahler's Rückert-Lieder) is withdrawal from the world into solitary contemplation of death. The score, though still tonal, reveals the influence of later Schoenberg in its step-wise, declamatory vocal line, reminiscent of The Book of the Hanging Gardens, and in its sparse instrumentation in which Schreker employs the Schoenbergian concept of Klangfarbenmelodie.

[karlhenning]

Speaking of which, how is your supply of DARJEELING BADAMTAM doing, Karl?

AIRLIFT, PLEASE !!!

[Opus106]

Franz Joseph Haydn (born March 31, 1732)
Symphony No. 104 in D major, Hob I:104 'London'
Capella Istropolitana/Barry Wordsworth

[Wanderer]

Well, I just spilled some coffee and I blamed it on the table-pounding from the other side of the planet.

Karl, would you kindly refrain from pounding any tables for the next half hour or so? I'd like to make some coffee here, too. 

[Dr. Dread]

Franz Joseph Haydn (born March 31, 1732)
Symphony No. 104 in D major, Hob I:104 'London'
Capella Istropolitana/Barry Wordsworth

How dare you post what you're listening to. You're supposed to post about coffee and pounding tables. Apparently.

[karlhenning]

Karl, would you kindly refrain from pounding any tables for the next half hour or so? I'd like to make some coffee here, too. 

At your service, gents!

Thread duty, while resisting powerful table-pounding incentivizations:

Martinů
Film en miniature, H.148
Giorgio Koukl

[Que]

Q

[Bogey]

Q

Thanks for the gentle reminder, Que.

About to play the above.

[Que]

Thanks for the gentle reminder, Que.

About to play the above.

Playing it because while sitting just now on my sunny terrace reading a book, suddenly the opening of the 22nd concerto popped up in my head!

[Opus106]

Johann Sebastian Bach (born March 31, 1685)

Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, BWV 211, 'Coffee Cantata'

Carolyn Sampson, soprano; Makoto Sakurada, tenor; Stephan Schreckenberger, bass
Bach Collegium Japan
Masaaki Suzuki

[Renfield]

[karlhenning]

Martinů
Film en miniature, H.148
Giorgio Koukl

[jlaurson]

I'm just about to finish this Bach Organ Work cycle... six more tracks to go.

Free of disappointments, full of really pleasing moments... straight and nicely tuned modern organs, fuller and more brilliant than many modern HIP cycles(*) are, but not exactly blazing or of particular grandeur.

(The old Silberhorn Organ Bach cycle on Berlin Classics ex-VEB Schallplatten is interestingly closer to bombast than most I've heard... so it can't just be a matter of the instruments.)



Marie Claire Alain: Complete Bach Organ Works
CDs 14 & 15


P.S. Isn't posting a new message every time your CD player starts a new track a little excessive?? Or is that just me? 

P.P.S. AAAAAAARGH! (see below)

[karlhenning]

Martinů
Spring in the Garden, H.125
Giorgio Koukl

[Renfield]

[karlhenning]

Cage
Seventy-Four (first version)
The Seasons
American Composers Orchestra.
Dennis Russell Davies

[Kullervo]

Martinů
Spring in the Garden, H.125
Giorgio Koukl

Is this the piano music? How do you like it?

NP:



(Syms. 5 and 6)

[karlhenning]

Cage
Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra
Margaret Leng Tan, prepared piano
American Composers Orchestra
Dennis Russell Davies

Wow! Am I ever delighted that this recording was pointed out to me!

Is this the piano music? How do you like it?

It is;  I find it all charming!

[ChamberNut]

Cage
Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra
Margaret Leng Tan, prepared piano
American Composers Orchestra
Dennis Russell Davies

Hmm, "prepared" piano?  Sounds like a condiment. 

[karlhenning]

Hmm, "prepared" piano?  Sounds like a condiment. 

It doubles as exotic percussion. Great sounds!