What are you listening to now?

[Traverso]

That is a wonderful sentiment and you are lucky to experience it. I would feel it too on occasion but not while listening to Berg's Lulu.

Indeed,not while listening to heartbreaker Lulu.

[Madiel]

Holmboe, Symphony No.8, 'Sinfonia boreale'



Because I decided that my Saturday morning needed a truly rousing start.

[Mookalafalas]

Dipping into this for the first time.  I have tried forever to get into the Cantatas--and to my great shame, have always failed. A few tracks in, I'm always lost and bored.  In these they are played "single instrument, single voice", like chamber music rather than orchestra and choir.  I don't know if it is "authentic"--but boy is it good! 
  Beautiful sound and playing, of course.

[asin]B074CTRRRR[/asin]

[SymphonicAddict]

I picked up No.23 in the same series with the Holbrooke and Wood piano concertos. My reaction on listening is the same as yours. Never say never but doubt I will play the CD again.

Many CD's of this series are not up to the great stuff, albeit there are some that stand out like, other than the focused on the mainstream repertoire, the ones devoted to Medtner, Scharwenka, Rozycki, Busoni, Bortkiewicz, Moszkowski, Stenhammar, Korngold, Marx, and a few others.

[SymphonicAddict]

Holmboe, Symphony No.8, 'Sinfonia boreale'



Because I decided that my Saturday morning needed a truly rousing start.

I foretell you a molto intensivo day.

[SymphonicAddict]

That is a wonderful set and I agree on Symphony No. 6.

Indeed! If Mirror Image had been here lately, he would probably have agreed too!

[Muzio]

Tuneful, neo-Romantic music--what a concept. Very well played and recorded.

Thanks for posting.  A beautiful album.  The sound is fantastic. 

[Traverso]

Dipping into this for the first time.  I have tried forever to get into the Cantatas--and to my great shame, have always failed. A few tracks in, I'm always lost and bored.  In these they are played "single instrument, single voice", like chamber music rather than orchestra and choir.  I don't know if it is "authentic"--but boy is it good! 
  Beautiful sound and playing, of course.

[asin]B074CTRRRR[/asin]

Congratulations,these are fine recordings and it is HIP.Authentic? Most important is that it is convincing and that it opened for you the door to this great music.

[Madiel]

I foretell you a molto intensivo day.

I watched an episode of The Handmaid's Tale immediately afterwards, so, yeah.

[Madiel]

Schumann, Symphony No.3

[Mookalafalas]

Most important is that it is convincing and that it opened for you the door to this great music.

Well put! Should be a motto of sorts...
TD:

[asin]B000FI9OOK[/asin]

[SimonNZ]

[Madiel]

Schumann, Bunte Blätter op.99

As performed by Dana Ciocarlie. Streaming. Always impressed that these are live performances.

[Andy D.]

Once again greatly enjoying the Kurrentzis take on Tchaikovsky's 6th. I never liked the inner movements anywhere near as much as the outer, but they're played so well here I can't help but be on board for the whole show.

[kyjo]

I've had a bit more free time recently, so I'll post some of my recent listening - for once!

Linde: Cello Concerto

[asin]B000E0VNXY[/asin]

My first encounter with the music of the short-lived Swedish composer Bo Linde (1933-70). The first two movements are dark, often angry, and rather Shostakovichian. They're good, but not remarkable. But it is the finale which really "makes" this piece. It is resigned and cathartic, yet hopeful and ultimately quite moving. Think of a Finzi slow movement or a Bax epilogue but with an added harmonic "chilliness". A very accomplished and involved performance from Maria Kliegel.


Thompson: String Quartet no. 2

[asin]B000003JW5[/asin]

Wow, it is hard to believe this lovely work was written in 1967 - at the very height of the avant-garde regime! A lot of the material here wouldn't have made Dvorak lift an eyebrow, but that is hardly a criticism on my part as I find myself increasingly drawn to melodic, carefree, life-affirming music like this. Ignore the morose cover art - this is music of joy and peace! A real treasure!


Bainton: Symphony no. 2

[asin]B00001T6KJ[/asin]

An epic, dramatic and atmospheric symphony which should certainly appeal to Bax fans. Cracking performance and recording, too!


Poulenc: Piano Concerto

[asin]B0000042DK[/asin]

I've never understood why this has always been one of Poulenc's least popular works. In fact, it's one of my very favorite works of his. The first two movements contain some of the loveliest, most effortlessly melodic music I know. I had to play the all-too-brief slow movement (a sentimental favorite of mine) twice, it's just so beautiful! Perhaps the cheeky finale is a bit of an anticlimax, but that's a small quibble.


Rubbra: Symphony no. 8 Hommage à Teilhard de Chardin

[asin]B00000IM71[/asin]

As befits its subtitle, this is a work full of spiritual power and ecstasy (contained within Rubbra's typically eloquent, restrained style). Not a note seems out of place and all the material seems organically connected. A very satisfying work.

[Introverted]

NP:

[asin]B000H3095G[/asin]

Reich: 8 Lines

[ChopinBroccoli]

NP:

[asin]B000H3095G[/asin]

Reich: 8 Lines

Very cool piece of music

[Introverted]

Very cool piece of music

Thanks.

Do you enjoy a bit of Minimalism yourself? - any favourite works or Composers?

[ChopinBroccoli]

Thanks.

Do you enjoy a bit of Minimalism yourself? - any favourite works or Composers?

It's not my favorite realm, to be quite honest; I'm very much a harmony/melody guy... but Reich is different... there's something mesmerizing about his best music and the effect of the pulsing cadences is almost like a study in the very act of hearing itself... Music for 18 Musicians and The Desert Music are two of my favorites.  Reich avoids feeling stiff, formal and academic to me the way some minimalist music does and he never bores me (Philip Glass bores me )

With Reich, there's just so much going on within the deceptively straightforward structure... pulsing voices coming and going, bass winds rattling, webs of percussive piano ... it's awesome to try and zero in one particular instrument and isolate it; all the more amazing because so much of it is organic in execution, no editing trickery or electronic manipulation.  Many years ago, I played the opening minutes of the early 80s recording of The Desert Music for friends of mine I was in a band with and they couldn't believe there was no electronic looping or delay effects being used.  Amazing effect of just perfectly disciplined rhythm and dynamics in the voices and instruments.  There's nothing else quite like Steve Reich's music.

[Harry]

Live recording I attended Friday evening in the:
Catharina Kerk in Roden, The Netherlands.
Johann Sebastian Bach.

Wolfgang Zerer, played on the Hinsz organ.

The Church was full to the brim, the air was sticky, and there were many international organ students. Before I say anything about the performance, you have to know that they removed the plaster from the walls some time ago, to show all the brickwork underneath. Looks pretty, but it ruined the acoustics, and thus the Hinsz organ is badly treated. No reverb, music bouncing steel hard against the walls, with the mixtures cutting through your ears as a knife goes through butter.
Although Zerer has played often on this instrument, he does not realize that you have to cut back on the loudness, and play in a  less dynamic way, or with less agitated energy. that way we are spared some of the nasty sounds.
But he does not, at least not in the first half of the J.S. Back recital. He starts with the Praeludium in G, BWV 568, so fast that none of the notes get a real chance to unfold, and due to the dynamics and loudness, he makes it ramble like a couple of iron chains, painful to the ears, and this is repeated till the last piece before the pause, Valet will ich dir geben, BWV 736, a beautiful piece that falls short of compassion.
After the pause it gets much better, starting with the praeludium in C, BWV 874/1. Well balanced still a tad to fast but more expression. The highlight for me was Partite diverse sopra O Gott, du frommer Gott, the Hinsz was treated according to its possibilities, and had me in raptures, closed off with the Fuge in c, BWV 575.
Now it is not Zerer's fault that they ruined the acoustics, for I think him one of the best organists we have in Europe.  But his playing made abundantly clear, that if you want the sound of the original intonation, and the instrument to bloom, they have to reapply the plaster.