What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[PaulR]

listening to a lot of music tonight:

[asin]B004C4IK8O[/asin]
String Quartet #2

[classicalgeek]

However, pretty much all attention has been completely turned aside by this astonishing arrival:
[asin]B000ENC6VE[/asin]

I have this in my backlog somewhere - I need to make sure I listen to it next time I get the urge to hear M9!  Not to mention all this mention of Schnittke and Tippett has me wanting to dig in - I've not listened much to either, and I find Schnittke a particularly tough nut to crack (but I want to crack it!)

Thread duty - highlights of the last couple of hours:
Op. 12 no. 2 (A major) from this set:
[asin]B0002XL234[/asin]

Followed a few spots later by this 'Heldenleben':


Pretty middle-of-the road, not as virile as some performances I've heard (Bychkov is probably my top choice right now), but Glenn Dicterow's violin work is lovely!

[springrite]

George Rochberg: Twelve Bagatelles (Evan Hirsch)

H V-L: String Quartets 4, 6, 14 (Danubius Quartet)

[Mirror Image]

Now:

[asin]B000YCLR7O[/asin]

Listening to Act I right now and all I have to say is run, don't walk to buy this recording! Amazing so far.

[springrite]

Up next:

H V-L:
Uirapuru
Modinha
(Stadium Symphony Orch, Stokowski)

H V-L:
The Little Train of the Caipira
Ginestera:
Estancia
Panambi
(LSO, Goossens)

[listener]

SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto 1  in a, op. 99
David Oistrakh, New Philharmonia O., Maksim Shostakovich, cond.
prep for hearing it live next wk (with Prokofiev's 4th, he said gloatingly)
after that intensity MYSLIVECEK  3 Wind Octets, DRUSCHETZKY 2 Wind Partitas
Banda Classica, a Zurich wind ensemble

[classicalgeek]

SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto 1  in a, op. 99
David Oistrakh, New Philharmonia O., Maksim Shostakovich, cond.
prep for hearing it live next wk (with Prokofiev's 4th, he said gloatingly)

Prokofiev 4th - now that doesn't get done in concert every day!  Vancouver Symphony, I take it? (I see you're in Vancouver)

Speaking of Vancouver, I'm only about 3 hours south of there - we have family up there, though we haven't visited them in a while.  It's been even longer since I stopped in at Sikora's - it used to be that a trip there was never complete without it

[listener]

Prokofiev 4th - now that doesn't get done in concert every day!  Vancouver Symphony, I take it? (I see you're in Vancouver)

Speaking of Vancouver, I'm only about 3 hours south of there - we have family up there, though we haven't visited them in a while.  It's been even longer since I stopped in at Sikora's - it used to be that a trip there was never complete without it

Yes, here's the VSO website: http://www.vancouversymphony.ca/
Andrew Litton is conducting this week, travelling with the piece.  By the way, good rush seat tickets are $20 if you like the upper balcony right.  Great sound up there, and Sikora's is still in business, have increased the LP section though by reducing the CD stock but still pretty impressive.

[Wanderer]

Good morning, everyone! 

[asin]B000009PZ3[/asin][asin]B004H8J1VK[/asin]

[springrite]

Good morning, everyone! 

[asin]B000009PZ3[/asin]

Now that should be able to get anyone fully awake in the morning!

Now listening to:
Saint-Saens: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
Franck: Sonata in A
Debussy: Sonata in d
Mennuhin in Moscow

[Que]

Good morning.

See my comments on this recording HERE.

Q

[Wanderer]

Now that should be able to get anyone fully awake in the morning!

I'd say!

[Willoughby earl of Itacarius]

Johann Ladislaus Dussek.

Fantasia and Fugue for the Piano Forte, opus 55.
Le Retour.
Elegie Harmonique, opus 61.

Andreas Staier, Fortepiano.

I am not that often negative about the recordings I buy, and certainly not about Andreas Staier, but the first time had to come eventually, and the time is now. I have no idea what possessed Staier to approach Dussek's sonatas this way, but I am not happy with it, in fact I think its terrible. To start with he thinks a Hammerflugel is a instrument to hammer nails in the wall, for that's what he is doing, he treats the instrument like a hammer, combined with breakneck speeds, which takes all the charm out of these pieces. Ordinary show pieces he makes of them, as if he is not interested in playing them to please, but rather to torture us. I had to stop at the first movement of the second sonata, I could not take any more. Furthermore the instrument he uses doesn't sound nice, better take a Bosendorfer and adapt your playing, then recording such a atrocity. Boeeeeeeeeeeee!

[springrite]

Prokofiev VC 1
Khachaturian VC
Kabalevsky VC

All with Oistrakh

[Willoughby earl of Itacarius]

Joseph Haydn.

Piano Sonatas HOB XVI/48-52.

Andreas Staier, Fortepiano.

What a relieve to find that a Hammerflugel can also sound appropriate to the music, and is able to pleasure the ear. Of course I knew this, but Dussek, the CD previous to this one, had me cornered in a unpleasant way. Tempi right, sound right, approach right. Furthermore I cannot imagine Staier has been happy with the Dussek recording, but alas, Haydn is in proportion, and that pleases me no end. The sound world of Haydn is captured in a intimate way, and all the felicities of his writing charm the hell out of you!   

[Conor71]

Brahms: Serenade No. 1 In D Major, Op. 11

[mc ukrneal]

Brahms: Serenade No. 1 In D Major, Op. 11

Could'nt find a picture for this one! - performed by Michael Tilson Thomas/LSO - Sony Classical

This one?
[asin]B00000270S[/asin]

[Conor71]

Quote from: mc ukrneal on Today at 05:15:56 PM

This one?

I found a picture of the cover of my CD on Amazon UK (US amazon does'nt seem to have it for some reason..) Mine is a different cover but is the same performance I think - Thanks for looking for me though mate, much appreciated!

[mc ukrneal]

Quote from: mc ukrneal on Today at 05:15:56 PM

This one?

I found a picture of the cover of my CD on Amazon UK (US amazon does'nt seem to have it for some reason..) Mine is a different cover but is the same performance I think - Thanks for looking for me though mate, much appreciated!

Intriguing. There are actually three. The one I posted, the one with the flower and a third that has both the serenades, but is more in the style of the cover I posted. It is so interesting to follow the history of a recording via the cover.

EDIT: And Amazon US do have this one, just titled differently, which is why it was impossible to find.
[asin]B000065BYR[/asin]

[nesf]

This is lifting my spirits at the moment:

Beethoven - Kreutzer Sonata

Alina Ibragimova
Cédric Tiberghien

[asin]B004S2EP8Y[/asin]