What are you listening to now?

[North Star]

Ciao, Karlo & Ilaria!

Terve, Karl!

Well, I know very few Copland's works and I'm sorry neither Ballet for Martha nor the Piano Variations are among what I've listened to; but I will make up for that since I've dedicated this month to explore British and American composers. The Piano Variations sounds interesting, thank you for the feedback.

Good day, Karl!
Wonderful choice; although I prefer the Karajan and the Kleiber, the Blomstedt is absolutely marvelous recording (and quite special to me as it was one of my very first cds)

Ballet for Martha was given the name Appalachian Spring by the dedicatee, Martha Graham. 

[Karl Henning]

Liszt's sickening religious fudge

Don't hold back, tell us what you really think.

[Todd]

Good find. I have his recording called "The Holy Music of Franz Liszt." Michel Block is  one of the only people who can make Liszt's sickening religious fudge palatable for me, at least in small doses. I first discovered Michel Block when I was exploring recordings of Schumann's Noveletten and I was immediately intrigued by what he does. There's also a recording of Chopin's Mazurkas which I intend to listen to some tome.

I've tried to get my hands on as many Michel Block recordings as possible.  His old EMI recordings, his great Iberia aside, unjustly languish in vaults, and the Iberia is OOP though available used or new at crazy prices.  His non-ProPiano (the label the Schumann is on) late career stuff is also hard to find, like the Bach/Liszt disc.  He played with some very slow tempos in some of the 80s and 90s recordings, but somehow he manages to hold things together.  Which Mazurkas do you have, the ProPiano or the Guild recording?  The Guild recordings is where he opts for exceptionally slow tempi.  Same with the Guild Chopin Nocturnes.  I'd have to say that the ProPiano disc is better overall.  All four of his ProPiano discs are superb. 

[Karl Henning]

Thread Duty: Fudge is on!

Liszt
Christus, S.3 (1855-67)
Part III: Passion & Resurrection
Benita Valente, soprano
Marjana Lipovšek, mezzosoprano
Peter Lindroos, tenor
Tom Krause, baritone
Slovak Philharmonic Choir
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Jas Conlon

[Ken B]

Thread Duty: Fudge is on!

Liszt
Christus, S.3 (1855-67)
Part III: Passion & Resurrection
Benita Valente, soprano
Marjana Lipovšek, mezzosoprano
Peter Lindroos, tenor
Tom Krause, baritone
Slovak Philharmonic Choir
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Jas Conlon

Hmmmm, interesting. Hmmmm.

Whatever you do Karl don't listen to any of Nyman's nauseating cotton candy.

[Lisztianwagner]

Ballet for Martha was given the name Appalachian Spring by the dedicatee, Martha Graham. 

I didn't know it, thanks for explaining.

William Alwyn
3 Winter Poems

[Karl Henning]

Hmmmm, interesting. Hmmmm.

Whatever you do Karl don't listen to any of Nyman's nauseating cotton candy.

Not that I need much of either . . . speaking purely on a confectionary level, I do in fact much prefer fudge to cotton candy.

[Karl Henning]

Thread Duty: Fudge is on!

Liszt
Christus, S.3 (1855-67)
Part III: Passion & Resurrection
Benita Valente, soprano
Marjana Lipovšek, mezzosoprano
Peter Lindroos, tenor
Tom Krause, baritone
Slovak Philharmonic Choir
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Jas Conlon

I find this wonderful, rich, becomingly solemn.  It is a more overt and grand conception than (say) Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ. (I like both pieces very well, just observing a difference.)

[EigenUser]

Beethoven's 7th. The Allegretto is my favorite thing composed by Beethoven, ever. Funeral march, or imperial court dance in 2? Who knows?
[asin]B000001GPX[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

"Papa"
Cello Concerto № 6 in D, H.VIIb/2 (Gevaert edition [!])
Даниил Борисович [ Daniil Borisovich (Shafran) ]
USSR State Symphony
Геннадий Николаевич [ Gennady Nikolayevich (Rozhdestvensky) ]

[listener]

VIVALDI: Concerto in C for 2 trumpets,,, Concerto in F for 2 horns...
Maximilian FIEDLER: Concerto à 3     HEINICHEN: Concerto with 2 corni da caccia
ROSETTI: Concerto 1 for 2 horns    de FESCH: Sonata for Cello, Double Bass & organ op.8/10
Musici Bavariae  (the Munich ensemble, not a description of the music)
The wind concertos are quite short, the notes suggest that watching the players is like watching a lobster turn red while boiling.
GURIDI: 10 Basque Melodies     USANDIZAGA: Fantasian for Cello & Orch.
ARÁMBARRI: 8 Basque songs for soprano and orch.
Andrés ISASI: Tragic Berceuse for Violin and Orch.
ESCUDERO:  El sueño de u Bailarin     RAVEL: Alborada del Gracioso
Euskadi (Basque) National Orchestra
A 20th anniversary sampler of recordings by the orchestra

[North Star]

I didn't know it, thanks for explaining.

It's rather amusing how people said to Copland that they could feel the Appalachians in the springtime in the piece, when a) the spring in question is a water source b) it wasn't named by the composer, and c) it has nothing to do with the ballet either - it's from a poem of Hart Crane's that Graham read then, and she thought it sounded good. 

[Karl Henning]

It's rather amusing how people said to Copland that they could feel the Appalachians in the springtime in the piece, when a) the spring in question is a water source b) it wasn't named by the composer, and c) it has nothing to do with the ballet either - it's from a poem of Hart Crane's that Graham read then, and she thought it sounded good. 

Aye, a trifecta

[North Star]

Aye, a trifecta

An obvious sign of the need to resurrect this thread.

[listener]

An obvious sign of the need to resurrect this thread.

onomasticon - an appellation spring?

[Ken B]

onomasticon - an appellation spring?

That is too clever and too dreadful not to quote it! 

[EigenUser]

Olivier Messiaen's amazing "Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum" 
[asin]B000001GOV[/asin]

[Moonfish]

CPE Bach: The Complete Works for Piano Solo    Markovina   

I am really enjoying these works quite a bit. Much better sound and performances than I had anticipated.

CD 2 from:
[asin] B00IGJP0Q6[/asin]


Beethoven: Symphony No 3      Vienna State Opera Orchestra/Scherchen

[listener]

LISZT: Symphonic Poems    Orpheus,  From the Cradle to the Grave,  Die Ideale,  Hamlet
New Zealand Symphony Orch., Michael Halász cond.
and Baroque organ music played by Peter Hurford at the Bethlehemkerk, Papendrecht, Holland (1976, K.R. Blank)
nice airy sound, resonant but clear
BÖHM, KERLL, PACHELBEL, L. COUPERIN, WALOND, PESCETTI, etc.
2 manuals and pedal sounding quite appropriate

[Moonfish]

The CPE Bach marathon continues --   
CPE Bach: The Complete Works for Piano Solo    Markovina   

CD 3 from:
[asin] B00IGJP0Q6[/asin]