What are you listening to now?

[Mirror Image]

Sinfonia da Requiem:



Rattle always did well in Britten. This performance is no exception.

[SymphonicAddict]

Bloch's Piano Quintet no. 2:

[asin]B000000T7P[/asin]

Not as great a work as his first essay in the genre, but very good nonetheless. Like multiple other works by Bloch, it's troubled and emotional but ends peacefully and hopefully.

The Piano Quintet no. 1 is really wild, one of my very favorites. The Goldner SQ and Piers Lane (Hyperion label) have given top-notch performances of these works.

Sinfonia da Requiem:



Rattle always did well in Britten. This performance is no exception.

I have that CD too. A superb performance of a powerful symphony.

[Mirror Image]

I have that CD too. A superb performance of a powerful symphony.

Indeed and I wish Britten had composed more orchestral music.

[kyjo]

Godowsky's Passacaglia in B minor (on a theme from Schubert's Unfinished Symphony):

https://youtu.be/f0nlJXooIVc

Antti Siirala, piano

An absolutely stunning and masterful work. I love passacaglias because of their feeling of powerful inevitability and this one is no exception.

[aligreto]

Mozart: Coronation Mass [von Karajan]....





I do not normally like von Karajan in Mozart but this is a very powerful, robust and assertive performance. This is probably the result of the dramatic and celebratory nature of the music.

[RebLem]

On Sunday, December 17, 2017, I listened to the following:

Beethoven: Piano Concerto 1 in C Major, Op. 15 (36'17)  |Piano Concerto 4 in G Major, Op. 58 (36'33)--Russell Sherman, piano, Vaclav Neumann, cond., Czech Philharmonic.  Recorded 1984 at Rudolphinum, Prague, Czech Republic.  Originally issued on ProArte Records.  CD 1 of a 3 CD Vanguard Classics set.

Donald Erb (1927-2008): Tr. 1) String Quartet 8 (1995) (22'24)--The Audubon Quartet (David Ehrlich, violin, Akami Takayama, violin, Doris Lederer, viola, Clyde Shaw, cello)  |Tr 2-5) Suddenly It's Evening (1997) (17'50)--Jeffrey Krieger, electronic cello  |Tr. 6-8) Three Poems for Violin and Piano (1987) (17'11)--James Stern, violin, Audry Andrist, piano  |Tr. 9-11) Three Pieces for Double Bass Alone (1999) (6'40)--Bertram Turetzky, double bass.  TT: 64'02.  No recording dates or venues listed.  CRI (Composers Recordings, Inc.)
Donald Erb's music sounds, at first hearing, wilder and woolier than it really is.  As the liner notes say, "While Erb speaks an intense contemporary musical language, his structures are solidly rooted in tradition."  He is not a serialist, and though much dissonance and unmusical sounding sounds are introduced, he approached his art with great passion, conviction, and a sense of humor.  For example, Suddenly Its Evening, describing a typical day in the life of a mentally unbalanced person, has a first movement titled "Xanax in Xanadu."   Although he travelled extensively and worked for long periods in various places, the center of his life focused on northern Ohio, having been born in Youngstown, died in Cleveland Heights, and associated as he was with a number of music schools in the Cleveland area, including the Cleveland Institute of Music and Kent State University.  In fact, the first time I ever heard of him was when a piece he had written was performed by the Cleveland Orchestra in a concert I listened to on FM radio.

Beethoven: Sym. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 (32'11)--rec. Sofiensaal, Vienna, 9/1974  |Sym. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (27'45)--rec. Medinah Temple, Chicago, 11/1973--Georg Solti, cond. Chicago Sym. Orch.  CD 5 of Solti's first Beethoven symphony cycle with the CSO.  DECCA.

Scriabin (1872-1915): CD 9 of an 18 CD DECCA set of Scriabin's complete works.  CD 9 is a transitional CD.  All the works on this CD are without opus numbers.  It is the last CD in the set which has solo piano works; after this, all the others are of chamber and orchestral music.  The CD has 24 tracks in all, most of them short one movement pieces.  A few are notable for length and/or inclusion of musicians other than pianists.  These are Tr. 2 Romance in F # Major for voice and piano, WoO 2 (1894) (1'25), Tr. 6 Sonate-fantaisie in G# Minor, WoO 6 (1886) (8'07), Tr. 9 Variations in F Minor on a Theme by Mile Egoroff, WoO 9 (1897) (5'06), Tr. 10 Duett in D Minor, WoO 10 (3'42), Tr. 17 Fantasy in A Minor, WoO 18 (6'27), Tr. 18-20 Sonata in E Flat Minor, WoO19 (1887-9) (18'51), Tr. 22 Romance in A Minor for horn and piano, WoO 21 (1890) (2'13)--Anush Hovhannisyan, soprano (WoO 2, (WoO 10), Anna Gouri, piano, (WoO1, 9), Valentina Lisitsa, piano, (WoO 2-5, 7-10, 12-16, 20-21, 25, +,  Roberto Szidon, piano (WoO 6, 10), Vladimir & Vovka Ashkenazy, (WoO 18), Richard Watkins, French horn (WoO 21).

Havergal Brian (1876-1972): Tr. 1--Festival Fanfare (1967) (1'44)  |Tr. 2-16 Symphony 2 in E Minor (1930-1) (53'28)--Tony Rowe, cond., Moscow Sym. Orch.  NAXOS CD, previously issued on Marco Polo.  Rec. @ Mosfilm Studio, Moscow, Russia, May 1996.
The blurb at the top of the back side of this CD says, "Orthodox in its four movement structure, but, according to the composer, 'very unorthodox inside,' Havergal Brian's Sym. 2 was originally inspired by Goethe's play 'Goetz von Berlichhingen'.  In 1972, however, following the death of his beloved daughter, Brian dedicated his forty year old symphony to her memory.  Scored for a big orchestra which calls, among other requirements, for 16 horns, 3 sets of tympani, 2 pianos and organ, the symphony includes a furious ostinato-scherzo, and a tragic funeral march entirely conceived in Brian's own terms, yet unafraid to evoke echoes of Siegfried's Funeral March from Die Gotterdammerung."

[Kontrapunctus]

No. 4. A powerful performance with sound to match.

[Mirror Image]

A little concert program I devised:

Of Land and Sea

Sculthorpe: Island Songs
Atterberg: Alven (The River)
Sibelius: The Oceanides

-Intermission-

Vaughan Williams: Sinfonia Antarctica

[Ken B]

Haydn
Some late Quartets
Emersons

[Kontrapunctus]

These two Piano Concertos may not have the most memorable melodies, but they are fine pieces nonetheless. Excellent playing and sound.

[Mirror Image]

Barber's 'string' concertos:

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Brahms 4, Nagano/Deutsches SO Berlin. One of the great recordings of the 4th, with wonderfully full, rich sound, the envy of the Majors.

[kyjo]

Walton's Symphony no. 1:

[asin]B074BLZCG7[/asin]

A sizzling performance of this epic work. Like Jeffrey (vandermolen), I don't really understand all the hype about Previn's RCA recording (which made me not think much of this work for a while) and think this newcomer outshines it.

[Turner]

Piano quartet No. 1

A very nice disc ...

[Que]

Morning listening:

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Q

[Harry]

Early morning listen.
CD 5 of a set that brings much joy.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2017/12/the-heritage-of-claudio-monteverdi-cd-5.html?spref=tw

[San Antone]

Bach | Well-Tempered Clavier
Kenneth Weiss

[Biffo]

I've really got to say that even though I believe that The Planets is overplayed, it's still a masterpiece. Saturn and Neptune are just phenomenal in every sense of the word. I love the whole work, but these two movements are spellbinding.

When The Planets was discussed in the Amazon.co.uk forum I was taken aback by the near hysterical devotion some people showed for it. I heard  Mars and the inevitable Jupiter as a teenager in school music lessons but I was a latecomer to the complete work. I first heard it in a Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra concert conducted by Andrew Litton and it was a great experience. I have bought several versions over the years but I don't have the strong emotional attachment to the work others seem to have.

I don't think I have a definite favourite performance but I have one non-recommendation. In the above-mentioned Amazon discussion several posters favoured Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Decca). I find it beautifully played and recorded but totally bland. A few years ago, BBC Radio 3's Building a Library feature chose Yoel Levi and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as its top choice; it is a fine disc.

[Daverz]

Walton's Symphony no. 1:

[asin]B074BLZCG7[/asin]

A sizzling performance of this epic work. Like Jeffrey (vandermolen), I don't really understand all the hype about Previn's RCA recording (which made me not think much of this work for a while) and think this newcomer outshines it.

I thought it was very good, but I still have the Previn in my brain as "the way it should go".  It may take a few more listens to undo that imprinting.  No. 2 is not so ingrained.

By the way, a great No. 2 from a few years ago is Boughton with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.  The Yalies sound very good!

[asin]B00O43D92U[/asin]

[Florestan]