What are you listening to now?

[Harry]

Quite an interesting piece, Casella's Second Symphony  ...written under the spell of none other than Gustav Mahler! I find Casella a rather fascinating composer, inconsistent perhaps, but usually very rewarding. His later Sicilian-inflected neoclassicism is also very enjoyable. His ballet La Giara (with a scenario by Pirandello!) is a favourite of mine...

Yes you are right, Mahler is all over the place in the second symphony. La Giara peaks my interest, so I am going after that one too. I am certainly go digging out all my Casella discs, they are somewhere....

[Sergeant Rock]

Atterberg Symphony No. 4 "Sinfonia piccola"




Sarge

[Sadko]

François Couperin

Pièces de clavecin des Livres I & II

Frédérick Haas (harpsichord: Hemsch 1751)

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[Todd]

The Fifth & Sixth.

[Sergeant Rock]

Atterberg Symphony No. 8 E minor




Sarge

[Karl Henning]

My listening so far this morning has been samples of a few Shostakovich piano solo discs, inspired by reading David Fanning's essay on the Piano Sonata № 2.  And I have found a disc which could have me joining our Ilaria as an out-&-out Ashkenazy fan-boy 

[bhodges]

George Benjamin: Written on Skin (George Benjamin, conductor / Royal Opera House) - A fascinating opera, given an equally fascinating production. The story is based on a 13th-century tale of a wealthy landowner, his oppressed wife, and an artist. It's short, just 90 minutes, and though I won't give away what happens, suffice to say that I wouldn't plan on dinner afterward. 

The production is quite beautiful, with a 13th-century room framed by clinical 21st-century spaces (where contemporary "angels" affect the action), and the three leads are terrific, especially Barbara Hannigan as the wife (doing incredible work), and countertenor Bejun Mehta as the artist. Benjamin, who studied with Grisey, conducts his own gorgeous score, which includes things like a glass harmonica.

http://www.npr.org/2013/10/04/229194497/this-opera-will-eat-your-heart-out

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--Bruce

[Karl Henning]

Holmboe
String Quartet № 1, Op.46/M.159 (1948-49)
Kontra Quartet

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[Karl Henning]

At it again . . . .

Дмитрий Дмитриевич [ Dmitri Dmitriyevich (Shostakovich) ]
Струнный квартет № 11 Фа минор, соч. 122 [ String Quartet № 11 in f minor, Opus 122 (1966) ]
The Emerson String Quartet

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[Karl Henning]

This a first listen:

Дмитрий Дмитриевич [ Dmitri Dmitriyevich (Shostakovich) ]
Piano Sonata № 2 in b minor, Opus 61 (1943)
Konstantin Scherbakov

[asin]B000H4VZD0[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Le Chant du Rossignol. Fantastic performance.

[ritter]

Listening to Le Chant du Rossignol. Fantastic performance.

Your Stravinsky phase appears already to be in full swing  !!!! Enjoy!!!! 

Curiously, La Chant du Rossignol is one of few Stravinsky works I haven't been able to warm to in all these years of loving the composer's music 

[ritter]

And now for something completely different  ...

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Last night, I was in the mood for something really light, funny...what better than this enchanting little opera (with it's  marvelous Goldoni libretto)? 

[Mirror Image]

Your Stravinsky phase appears already to be in full swing  !!!! Enjoy!!!! 

Curiously, Le Chant du Rossignol is one of few Stravinsky works I haven't been able to warm to in all these years of loving the composer's music 

Oh, it's definitely in full swing. I'm going to try and listen to a lot of Stravinsky today, but also squeeze in some Prokofiev and maybe even some Honegger. Coincidently, I've never had any problems with Le Chant du Rossignol and have enjoyed for many years now.

[Mandryka]

Gwendolyn Toth, Bernard Foccroulle and Julia Brown play Scheidemann's Verbum Caro Factum Est.

The interesting things about Gwendolyn Toth's is that it's full of exquisite dissonances  -- much more so than either Foccroulle or Brown in the same music. I guess it's about the incarnation -- in that case dissonances may be absolutely spot on. Foccroulle's basically celebratory and comforting and mystical. What Foccroule does is lovely.  Julia Brown is, as in her  Buxtehude, big clear unambiguous gestures, deliberate almost, somehow ordinary like Gulda and Toscanini (as opposed to Arrau and Furtwangler.)

[prémont]

The interesting things about Gwendolyn Toth's is that it's full of exquisite dissonances  -- much more so than either Foccroulle or Brown in the same music. I guess it's about the incarnation -- in that case dissonances may be absolutely spot on.

I was very underwhelmed by Toth´s Goldbergs on lute-harpsichord, but never-the-less her Scheidemann is on my wishlist, if not for other reasons because of the organ she uses.

Julia Brown is, as in her  Buxtehude, big clear unambiguous gestures, deliberate almost, somehow ordinary like Gulda and Toscanini (as opposed to Arrau and Furtwangler.)

Well, straightforward, and a bit Apollonian I think.

[Karl Henning]

Again (and I call it the return of Harry Sonata) . . .

Hindemith
Organ Sonata № 1 (1937)
Marcus Torén
Marcussen Organ (1939), Skänninge, Sverige

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[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Pulcinella. A great performance and lovely work of course.

[listener]

another HINDEMITH listener  Violin Concerto   - Joseph Fuchs, vn., London S.O.  Goossens, cond.
Symphony in E^b       London Philh. O.   Boult, cond.
and then MILHAUD piano music
Printemps  2 Suites,  Sonatine, Premiere sonate   L'automne, Quatre esquisses
Billi Eidi, piano

[Lisztianwagner]

My listening so far this morning has been samples of a few Shostakovich piano solo discs, inspired by reading David Fanning's essay on the Piano Sonata № 2.  And I have found a disc which could have me joining our Ilaria as an out-&-out Ashkenazy fan-boy 

So glad to hear that. Speaking of Shostakovich/Ashkenazy:

Dmitri Shostakovich
Aphorisms

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