What are you listening to now?

[Sergeant Rock]

Will be even better still, later this month.

Looking forward to it 


TD:

Walton Symphony No.2, Szell conducting the Cleveland




Sarge

[Brian]

I don't think they ever played better than they played under Maazel.

It's a perpetually underrated orchestra. They had a great tradition with Steinberg and Previn too. The recent Honeck recordings are (in part thanks to the luxurious engineering) astonishing. I want to see that tandem live together in a season or two.

[Mirror Image]

Three Russian Songs:

[Todd]

Seiji Ozawa's recording with the Saito Kinen Orchestra, an orchestra he helped establish.  This appears to be at least the third recording of the work by the conductor.  This is the best recorded live recording of this work I've heard, and it may just be the best recorded version in my collection.  At the very least, sound is SOTA.  (And though it's the other work not under consideration here, that big bass drum thwack in the first movement of the MSPC gets me every time.)  And that's the stereo PCM layer.  (The stereo SACD layer is pretty much the same, and I've never listened to the surround version.)  The highly polished playing and Ozawa's meticulous and involved direction deliver a finely crafted version that possesses adequate intensity, gobs of detail, and a somewhat anonymous sound.  Typically, this last trait would not be a good thing, and I don't think it's a good thing here; rather, it doesn't matter at all.  The Giuoco delle coppie is quite energetic and fun, and the strings are simply marvelous, weighty and bouncy in the low strings, and marvelously clear in the violins.  The Elegia, at a taut 7' even, approaches Kubelik levels of blistering intensity in the climaxes, and the slower music sounds more like a tetchy dirge.  The Intermezzo interrotto has a lovely first theme, and the interruption is raucous, with a bold trombone glissando and more bouncy low string playing.  The Finale starts with a bold fanfare, and Ozawa opts for a generally quite robust approach, with the needed backing off when and where appropriate.  The brass playing around 6'-ish is about the most detailed and differentiated between instruments as I've heard either on this recording, or any recording of any work, and the timp playing at the end is super clean, with each thwack audible.  Nice. 

This recording exceeded expectations when I bought it, and it continues to impress now, and the sonics make it an aural treat every time I spin it.

[Sergeant Rock]

Walton Partita for Orchestra (commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra)




Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Mozart Piano Concerto No.1 F major and No.2 B flat, Bilson, fortepiano, Crawford conducting the American Classical Orchestra




Sarge

[San Antone]

Jorg Baumann

[North Star]

Prokofiev
Seven, They Are Seven
Yuri Yelnikov (tenor)
Moscow Radio Chorus & Symphony Orchestra
Rozhdestvensky


Rakhmaninov
Three Russian Songs for choir and orchestra, Op. 41 (1928)
Royal Concertgebouw Chorus & Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy
[asin]B00KZ73VDG[/asin]

Stravinsky
Symphony of Psalms
The Choir of Westminster Cathedral
Iain Simcock (pf), Martin Baker (pf)
City of London Sinfonietta
James O'Donnell
[asin]B000002ZO4[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Prokofiev
Seven, They Are Seven
Yuri Yelnikov (tenor)
Moscow Radio Chorus & Symphony Orchestra
Rozhdestvensky


Rakhmaninov
Three Russian Songs for choir and orchestra, Op. 41 (1928)
Royal Concertgebouw Chorus & Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy
[asin]B00KZ73VDG[/asin]

Stravinsky
Symphony of Psalms
The Choir of Westminster Cathedral
Iain Simcock (pf), Martin Baker (pf)
City of London Sinfonietta
James O'Donnell
[asin]B000002ZO4[/asin]

Great line-up, Karlo!

[Sergeant Rock]

Milhaud Symphony No.5 op.322, Francis conducting the RSO Basel




Sarge

[Omicron9]

Today, it's this:

[asin]B000I2IUWA[/asin]

I am new to Rawsthorne, and quite enjoying his quartets.

-09

[North Star]

Great line-up, Karlo!

I thought so too, Karl! 

Now:
Martinů
Concerto da camera, H. 285
Bohuslav Matoušek (vn)
Karel Košárek (pf)
Czech Phil
Hogwood
[asin]B0011FEGW6[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

Now:
Martinů
Concerto da camera, H. 285
Bohuslav Matoušek (vn)
Karel Košárek (pf)
Czech Phil
Hogwood
[asin]B0011FEGW6[/asin]

Prokofiev
Seven, They Are Seven
Yuri Yelnikov (tenor)
Moscow Radio Chorus & Symphony Orchestra
Rozhdestvensky


Rakhmaninov
Three Russian Songs for choir and orchestra, Op. 41 (1928)
Royal Concertgebouw Chorus & Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy
[asin]B00KZ73VDG[/asin]

Stravinsky
Symphony of Psalms
The Choir of Westminster Cathedral
Iain Simcock (pf), Martin Baker (pf)
City of London Sinfonietta
James O'Donnell
[asin]B000002ZO4[/asin]

Pounds the table x 4!

[Biffo]

Brahms: Piano Concerto No 1 in D minor - Nicholas Angelich with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo Jarvi - good all round performance but not a world-beater.

[San Antone]

Part 10

[aligreto]

JS Bach: St. Matthew Passion, Part 1 [Leppard]....

[North Star]

Mozart
Sonata for Keyboard and Violin No. 28 in Eb major, KV 380
Sonata for Keyboard and Violin No. 30 in C major, KV 403
Gary Cooper (fortepiano) & Rachel Podger
[asin]B00N5BQQRW[/asin]

[Parsifal]

Nice recording, but has to go down as one of the dumbest cover photos ever.

[Mandryka]

Yes he did. On the CD Tabulatura Nova vol.1.

And Christoph Lehmann here, not to forget:

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Die-historische-Orgel-in-Tangerm%FCnde/hnum/9751338

T'es incollable.

[aligreto]

CPE Bach: Cello Concerto in A Wq 172....