What are you listening to now?

[Mookalafalas]

First time for everything.

Actually, I went to the store, cash in hand, to buy the Erato box but, alas, it had already been sold.  Probably for the best. I don't give the Perahia box nearly as much love as it deserves...

[Sadko]

Smetana

The bartered bride

Firsova, Jakushenko, Korotkov, Nelepp, Orfyonov, Ostroumova, Shchegolkov, Shumilova, Skazin, Solovev, Verbickaya
Orkestr i khor Gosudarstvennogo Akademicheskogo Bolshogo teatra SSSR
Kirill Kondrashin

[Wakefield]

Bartók: Baroque Transcriptions - Kodály: Complete Piano Music
György Sándor
Musical Concepts, 2-CD set

[asin]B0040T7COO[/asin]

[not edward]

Bartók: Baroque Transcriptions - Kodály: Complete Piano Music
György Sándor
Musical Concepts, 2-CD set

Wow...that looks like a real winner. Instantly wishlisted.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Sibelius #3.

[asin]B000002RVR[/asin]

[Ken B]

Sibelius #3.

[asin]B000002RVR[/asin]

Robert Kurka, Symphony 2 was written especially for numbered lizards of all kinds.

[Wakefield]

Wow...that looks like a real winner. Instantly wishlisted.

Yes! You're right, it's a true winner.

Sándor is astonishingly transparent and captures every nuance of this music, without never losing intensity or the big picture.

The sound quality is excellent too. 

[Dancing Divertimentian]

A disc that has consistently been absent from all the DG reissues of earlier Stravinsky material. I always hoped that a "twofer" would someday come out, with this recording paired with the other Knussen album, including "Le baiser de la fée". No sir, apparently Knussen doesn't sell. It's better to rehash the same Boulez-Stravinsky discs that we already have over and over again.

I'm a big fan of those DG Stravinsky/Knussen discs, too. I'm lucky I have them but a reissue is long overdue.

[Que]

Q

[Mandryka]

Wolfgang Rubsam plays the Buxtehude prelude Buxwv 142. What's so impressive about this is that he sticks to a clear basic pulse AND he manages to make the fugues interesting to hear -- no mean feat. Part of the trick is his very imaginative registration choices.

[Florestan]

[AnthonyAthletic]

Beethoven Symphonies cpte, John Nelson

Listened to Beethoven 1-8, twice during the weekend.  Saving the 9th for this evening.

[asin]B000K15U2W[/asin]
Got this for under £7 delivered from Amazon.it in another great SDCB heads up.  Very enjoyable all round performances, the 5th has an ending to rival Kleiber, a huge thunderous euphoric uptake...'music released in to pure daylight'..so one critic said.

Superb box too, sturdy with a lift off section at the top.  Great booklet and each symphony/disc is inside its own digipack holder.  Symphonies numbered in order to the cd.  1&2, 3&4, 5&6, 7&8 and of course 9 on its own.

[Florestan]

https://www.youtube.com/v/PrVBj5iV4no

Haydn - Symphony no 88 in G major

Hans Knappertsbusch, Vienna PO, live 1958.

This is exactly like Glenn's Gould KV 331, only applied to Haydn.  Strange, but compelling in its own way.

[Drasko]

Feldman Coptic Light
Gielen / SWRSO

...because I felt like hearing it again.

Actually (whisper it) I think I may prefer this to the MTT.  Doesn't seem to insist quite so much.

Filler piece isn't bad either.

What's your take on Gielen's Bruckner in general? I presume you have complete 3-9.

I have the 6th which I think is well nigh perfect and the 3rd which I like lot less, finding it excessively dry, unsmiling and mundane. 

How does the rest break down, in short.




Some pretty decent Beethoven from little known soviet pianist.

[North Star]

Prokofiev
Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3
Béroff
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Masur
[asin]B0013D8K7S[/asin]

[Florestan]

https://www.youtube.com/v/7rNgs0s4RXM

Schubert - Piano Sonata no. 21 in B flat major, D 960

Evgeni Koroliov

[André]

What's your take on Gielen's Bruckner in general? I presume you have complete 3-9.

I have the 6th which I think is well nigh perfect and the 3rd which I like lot less, finding it excessively dry, unsmiling and mundane. 

How does the rest break down, in short.

I have 3, 5, 6, 7, 8. The oldest of them (5 and 7) appeared on the Accord label. They are among my preferred versions. Very satisfying in a slightly driven, but not implacable  way. Really worth your time and money. I find 8 bloated, unexciting. At this point I don't recall his 3rd. I'll have to schedule a listening. I  lke his 6th, but there are quite a few versions I prefer.

[Wanderer]

.[asin]B000XIJ33O[/asin][asin]B00000E3QD[/asin]

A scorching Second Sonata from Matsuev (among other goodies) and some superb Dohnányi from Schiff & Co.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Robert Kurka, Symphony 2 was written especially for numbered lizards of all kinds.

Embarrassingly, the scaly dragon had to look Kurka up.  He certainly died young enough to confer on him the "lost genius" distinction western culture has been enamored of for centuries.  If Ken B likes K's Symphony #2, it has to be good...why do I feel like there might be some jam in my near future...?

[Todd]

Hengelbrock's Haydn, a HIP, über-disciplined and precise performance.  "Let There be Light" is thrilling, and the entire performance is superb.  Maybe it's not my favorite - that would still be McCreesh - but it's worth some more listens.  I need me some more Hengelbrock.