What are you listening to now?

[Daverz]

Bliss: Checkmate -  the suite (Handley/Chandos) and the complete ballet.  The old Chandos recording of the suite is cold sounding and hard to enjoy.  The complete ballet is very good, so I see no reason not to get the whole thing.

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[Mirror Image]

The 4th:

[Madiel]

Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht, for string sextet
I feel the sextet version is more satisfying than the string orchestra version. Personally, this is how I like Schoenberg: more human, passionate, and less dissonant.

Röntgen - String sextet in G major
Another remarkable sextet.

You're definitely pushing me towards having a sextet festival, although I'm not sure how many I own. Brahms x 2, Dvorak, Schoenberg... that might be about it for string sextets.

[San Antone]

My favorite recording of the Debussy SQ.

[GioCar]

I've found it quite hard to get into, but once you do, very rewarding. I'm exploring contemporary chamber music quite slowly on disc, over the past 4 years or so - I like to spend a while with each purchase, getting to know its nuances. In that time I have gone from experiencing it as intriguing organised noise, to just music. Going to live recitals at the Huddersfield contemporary music festival and at our regional music college has helped me a lot.

Speaking of contemporary chamber music, I am back from a concert held yesterday evening in our local planetarium, where Quartetto Noûs played the Italian premiere of G.F. Haas' String Quartet No.9 (2016), performed in almost complete darkness, just the revolving night sky projected above the audience.
An amazing experience indeed.
The composer was there, and he received a real ovation after the performance, quite unusual for a contemporary music concert...

[Harry]

Good morning all

Rerun of disc 17. An ongoing pleasure.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2017/12/locatelli-pietro-antonio-1695-1764_3.html?spref=tw

[LKB]

Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht, for string sextet
I feel the sextet version is more satisfying than the string orchestra version. Personally, this is how I like Schoenberg: more human, passionate, and less dissonant.

I quite agree. Hopefully you own, or at least have had the opportunity to hear the Hollywood Quartet et. al. on Testament, coupled with the Schubert C Major Quintet. Sublime...

Cheers,

LKB

[Madiel]

Now streaming Stravinsky, Persephone

[Mookalafalas]

Bought this last year, but never played anything from it.  Doing so now, from the beginning.  First disk is from 1913.  It is amazing how good the second disk sounds (from 1928) if you make yourself sit through the 1913 disk beforehand!!
Presumably it will be sounding (getting?) better and better from here.

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[GioCar]

I have that one and like it, as I do everything I've bought from Hyperion of Early Music.

Prophetiae Sibyllarum is still one of the best pieces of any genre, any time period I've heard. That is a desert island disk for me too 

The rest on that CD is gorgeous as well, particularly the Missa Amor ecco colei and the motet Tristis est anima mea 

[Que]

Morning listening:



Disc VII: Music for Queen Elizabeth

Q

[RebLem]

On Saturday, Dec 2 and into the wee hours of Dec 3, I listened to 9 CDs! And here they are--


1) Scriabin: CD 4 in the 18 CD DECCA set of Scriabin's complete ouevre. 5 Preludes, Op. 15 (1895-6) (7'35) |5 Preludes, Op. 16 (1894-5) (9'09) |7 Preludes, Op 17 (1895-6) (9'49) |Allegro de concert in B Flat Minor, Op. 18 (1896) (5'46) |Piano Sonata 2 in G# Minor, Op. 19 "Sonate-fantasie" (1892-7) (15'30) |Polonaise, Op. 21 (1897) (1'09) |4 Preludes, Op. 22 (1897) (14'48) |Piano Sonata 3 in F# Minor, Op. 23 (1897) (14'27)--Gordon Fergus Thompson (Op 16-17), Valentina Lisitsa (Op. 18, 21), Ivo Pogorelich (Op. 19), Vladimir Ashkenazy (Op. 22, 23). Recorded 1972-2014, various venues, mostly in England.


2-3) Prokofiev: The Fiery Angel, opera in 5 acts and 7 scenes, Op. 37 (118'37)--Valery Gergiev, cond., Kirov Opera and Orch of the Mariinsky Theatre with Galina Gorchakova, lyric soprano, as Renata and Sergei Leiferkus, baritone, as Ruprecht, the two principal characters. Recorded Sept. 1993. This is CDs 3-4 in the 12 CD Decca box of 6 Prokofiev operas conducted by Gergiev.


4) Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707): 9 vocal works ranging in length for 2'57 to 11'50. (76'08). The 7th from last in this set of the complete works of Buxtehude. Ton Koopman, hpsi. and cond. Amsterdam Baroque Orch. and Choir. Challenge label.


5) Ernest Bloch (1880-1959): Symphony in C Sharp Minor (1902) (54'38) |Poems of the Sea (3) (1922) (13'35)--Dalia Atlas, cond., London Symphony Orch. Rec. 14-15 NOV 2011 Abbey Rd Studio 1, London. NAXOS. Bloch is, in my opinion, an unjustly neglected composer. His music is full of verve and commitment, but nevertheless adheres to classical forms and developments. The symphony was written when he was still in Germany (he was born in Geneva, Switzerland), before he emigrated to the US in 1916, where he lived the rest of his life in various places. He died in Portland, Ore, but had lived in NYC, Cleveland, Berkeley, Calif, and a small town near Portland. Poems of the Sea was inspired by his reading of some poems by Walt Whitman.


6) Beethoven: String Quartets 15 (45'13) and 16 (25'05)--Tokyo String Quartet. the 9th and last CD in the Tokyo Quartet's traversal of Beethoven's SQs. Very fine performances, squarely avoiding interpretive extrems, these are MOR performances of the highest standard. Probably not really one of my favorites, though, which would be the Quartetto Italiano, the Leipzig Gewandhaus String Quartet, and two at interpretive extremes, the Alban Berg Quartet, which takes a classical view of these works, and the Smetana Quartet, which takes a head over heels romantic approach. You should also get the Yale Quartet recordings of the Late Quartets, though they did not record the early or middle quartets.


7) CD 25 in the 45 CD set of the complete orchestral recordings of conductor Ferenc Fricsay for the DGG label. Two pieces by Zoltan Kodaly here. Hary Janos Suite, Op. 15 (1926) (23'10), and Symphony in C Major (1930-61) (30'48)--Berlin RSO.


8 ) Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35 (41'06)--soloists Gregor Piatagorsky, cello, Joseph de Pasquale, viola, Richard Burgin, violin--rec. 17 AUG 1953 MONO |Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28 (14'52)--rec. 20 MAR 1961 STEREO--Charles Munch, cond., Boston Sym. Orch. CD 9 of the 9 CD RCA set featuring Charles Munch conducting the BSO.


9) Beethoven: Symphony 1 in C Major, Op. 21 (26'01) |Symphony w in D Najor, Op. 36 (36'57)--Georg Solti, cond. Chicago Symphony Orch., rec. May, 1974, Medinah Temple, Chicago. This is CD 1 in Solti's first Beethoven Symphony cycle with the CSO. Excellent performances, not quite as good as his remake in the 1980's. Solti was always a conductor who saw these first two symphonies as full throated Beethoven, not mere "study symphonies" before he really found his muse in the Eroica. However, this view is, in my view, more successfully realized in the remakes from the 1980s, and in much better sound. The one advantage of this cycle is that it has a better Ninth than the remake, mostly because he had better soloists in the 1970s than he did later.

[The new erato]

Very fine and recommended stuff:

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[Que]

First run:

[asin]B009YYNUT6[/asin]

The superb, vivid and elegant performances, the recording quality and the elaborate presentation give a feeling of unadulterated luxury....
This came, if I'm not mistaken, highly recommend by the previous poster! 

Q

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

A bunch of pieces by Adriana Hölszky (b. 1953)



There are some brilliant things on here. I am especially fond of the first piece; it is probably the best thing written for choir I have ever heard.

[Madiel]

Beethoven: incidental music for Leonore Prohaska

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For something so deeply obscure, this was surprisingly good. Seriously. This is one of the most enjoyable things in this set so far. There's an unaccompanied male chorus, a soprano song with harp, a spoken-word piece with glass harmonica, and an orchestral version of the funeral march from the op.26 piano sonata. And it all works extremely well here.

[Madiel]

From the same set, first ever listen to Wellington's Victory, op.91.

EDIT: What a hoot. As is Beethoven's response to criticism: "What I s*** is better than anything you could ever think up!"

[The new erato]

Krenek is an underrated master. A fine cycle and recording, this:

[aligreto]

Dufay: Missa L'homme armé [Summerly]....

[aligreto]

I've found it quite hard to get into, but once you do, very rewarding. I'm exploring contemporary chamber music quite slowly on disc, over the past 4 years or so - I like to spend a while with each purchase, getting to know its nuances. In that time I have gone from experiencing it as intriguing organised noise, to just music. Going to live recitals at the Huddersfield contemporary music festival and at our regional music college has helped me a lot.

That is somewhat similar to my own experience with contemporary chamber music. Yes it is hard work and one has to put the effort and listening hours in to get any reward. However, we keep trying as the rewards do eventually justify the effort involved.