What are you listening to now?

[Mirror Image]

For a moment I got excited about a Dvorak piece I'd never heard before. 

[Daverz]

The [Pettersson] VC2 has about the most moving and poignant last few minutes I know, especially on that Caprice recording - worth persevering with I think.

Started listening last night.  Haendel is, of course, fabulous.  However, there's only one track for the 55 minute playing time!  Bis at least breaks it up based on points in the score.  I got about about 18 minutes in before I realized I needed to be better rested for this work.

[Mirror Image]

Ernest Ansermet conducts Paul Dukas's La Péri.



From the big box:

[asin]B00DT2322E[/asin]

What a seductive score this is....

Very nice. What do you think about Dukas' piano music, Rafael? Worth pursuing? I know there's not a whole lot of it.

[Mirror Image]

I thought I would do this fun program again:

Debussy
Trois Ballades de François Villon
Stéphane Degout, baritone
Alain Planès, piano



Debussy
Trois Ballades de François Villon
Alison Hagley, soprano
Pierre Boulez, conductor
The Cleveland Orchestra

[Zeus]

Hovhaness: Harp Concerto, etc.
Yolanda Kondonassis et al.
Telarc

[asin]B00004S8A8[/asin]

[Zeus]

Enescu
Quintet in A minor, Op. 29
Gidon Kremer (violin), Ula Ulijona (viola), Marta Sudraba (cello), Andrius Zlabys (piano), Dzeraldas Bidva (violin)



Absolutely incredible work and after hearing a good bit of Reger, I realize how much Reger's music does nothing for me. Enescu's music speaks to my very soul the way only a few composers can.

Ok, spinning it up!

Sometimes Enescu clicks for me; sometimes he doesn't.  Ditto Kremer. 

Let's see what today brings.  So far so good.

[Ken B]

Max Richter
Return 2
from Sleep

[Mirror Image]

Ok, spinning it up!

Sometimes Enescu clicks for me; sometimes he doesn't.  Ditto Kremer. 

Let's see what today brings.  So far so good.

Enescu was a composer that I didn't really connect with early on, but now I love his music. He's one of my favorites.

[SonicMan46]

Okay, but... why the bathtub?

Well, I have no idea and surprisingly did not think much about the pic - BUT, I visited the website and there is an email address for the recorder player - I just sent her a message - if she responds, then I'll repost -    Dave

[Madiel]

Well, I have no idea and surprisingly did not think much about the pic - BUT, I visited the website and there is an email address for the recorder player - I just sent her a message - if she responds, then I'll repost -    Dave

I bet you she says she hasn't the faintest idea and had no control over it. But if she DOES know it'll be interesting.

[Que]

Morning listening:



Q

[Harry]

No.7 is the other one which comes to mind. The Albany is excellent Harry.

Well the 6th and 7th are on their way Jeffrey. I cannot believe I neglected Lloyd for so long.
I will fill the rest with the Albany records, as far as I can get them, some of them are seriously OOP it seems.
He did write how many Symphonies? 12 I guess?

[vandermolen]

Sounds intriguing to say the least!

I think that you'd find it of interest Cesar. It is a moving, brooding and eloquent work. A very fine and largely unknown wartime symphony composed between 1940-1950. It was the composer's final work. It goes a bit 'socialist-realist' in the finale, as would have been expected but I enjoy the whole thing. I would rate the slow movement as highly as those in the war-time symphonies of Shostakovich and Prokofiev although, as a whole, Miaskovsky might be a closer comparison. Certainly worth investigating. I must have played the symphony about five times yesterday and it lasts about 42 minutes.

[vandermolen]

Hovhaness: Harp Concerto, etc.
Yolanda Kondonassis et al.
Telarc

[asin]B00004S8A8[/asin]

A very nice CD!

[Irons]

TD. Second listen, CD1.
George Lloyd, Symphony No. 4 in B, (1945-46)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Edward Downes.

I totally forgot how brilliant a composer Lloyd is, but I am now reminded by hearing the Fourth Symphony. What a gorgeous work this is, and the orchestration....sublime! I have the Fifth and the eight still to go, but I now know that I have to collect his other works too. Recommendations are welcome.
Superb sound, it is well engineered.
(I ordered the sixth and seventh symphonies from the same forces as above.) So how are the works on Albany, apart from being very expensive!

I have been listening to the 5th over the past week and found it to be a delight. A sunny work of good humour, angst free and most impressive. The fourth movement is darker but not excessively so.  The only Lloyd symphony I have heard, but the often cited criticism that his music is old-fashioned and retro-Romantic is not the case here. This symphony is fast becoming a personal favourite.

[amw]

I still think this is pretty good, at least of the various recordings I've heard.

[Harry]

I have been listening to the 5th over the past week and found it to be a delight. A sunny work of good humour, angst free and most impressive. The fourth movement is darker but not excessively so.  The only Lloyd symphony I have heard, but the often cited criticism that his music is old-fashioned and retro-Romantic is not the case here. This symphony is fast becoming a personal favourite.

Right, another incentive to buy them all, if I can get them all. Thanks for the thumbs up. 

[Irons]

Yes, I get the leg pulling and that is allowed but I genuinely never did own one. I took a deliberate decision not to invest just like years later I never invested in the Mini-Disc technology.
I can see why someone in the 7th grade would be envious of the above 

I did! And I thought I purchased a cassette deck! Eight track is a fitting name as the sound is interrupted by a clunk eight times. The cartridges were about four times the size of cassettes. Horrible things. I have made some bad hi-fi choices over the last half century but I think eight track was the worst!

[ritter]

Yvonne Loriod play Mozart: Fantasia (Adagio) in C minor, K 396, Fantasia & Fugue in C major K 394, Fantasia in C minor K 475, Fantasia in D minor K 397, and Rondó in D major K 485.

From the Vega recordings box set:

[asin]B07JZRR79B[/asin]

[vandermolen]

Well the 6th and 7th are on their way Jeffrey. I cannot believe I neglected Lloyd for so long.
I will fill the rest with the Albany records, as far as I can get them, some of them are seriously OOP it seems.
He did write how many Symphonies? 12 I guess?

Hi Harry, yes, there are twelve. No.12 is one of my favourites along with 4,5,7, 8 and 11. I recently acquired the new Lyrita with 6 and 7 on as people have spoken highly of 6 here and I don't know it well. The piano concertos are also very good.