What are you listening to now?

[springrite]

As Shakespeare said, It rocketh!

Bought it, so I am looking forward to listening to Papa's First Racket! Yeah!

[North Star]

This one has been in my crosshairs for a few months now.

Excellent music and performances, definitely pull the trigger!

[Sergeant Rock]

Sounds lovely, Sarge (and I am guessing that it is a song about a flower, and not a musical instrument . . . .)

Viola...a female name, equivalent to the English Violet. I'm not sure if the poem uses a flower as a metaphor for pubescent/adolescent sexual awakening and love, or uses human love as a metaphor for blooming spring flowers 

Sarge

[North Star]

Viola...a female name, equivalent to the English Violet.

Sarge

In the comic strip Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson, there's a girl who plays viola in a school orchestra, named Viola D'More 

[Willoughby earl of Itacarius]

Symphony No. 7, opus 24.

A fine and boisterous work. Well performed and recorded.

[madaboutmahler]

Good afternoon, everyone!

[asin]B00004Z34H[/asin]

The 8th symphony.

Great music!

[mc ukrneal]

I am on a bus!  Keeping me company on this journey:

MAGNARD
SYMPHONY 1
PLESSON
FRENCH ORCHESTRA   

Sounds pretty crowded on that bus!

[jlaurson]

Earlier:

  J.S. Bach
The B-Burgs 4-6
Gustavo Leonhardt & his Kuijken Bros.
With Anner "Hip" Bylsma on bass(o continuo)
Recordered by Mr. Bruggen
Recorded by Sony/Seon
German link - UK link

Now:


  W.G. Mozart
Sys. Nos. 35 "Haffner", 38 "Prague" & 39
Kubelik / BRSO
Sony/Seon
German link - UK link

[Wakefield]

As I have recently been aware that I have never done a complete traversal through this set, I have decided to fix it. 

First collection included: the Orgelbüchlein BWV 599-644, performed by Robert Köbler on the great organ of Freiberg Cathedral (Gottfried Silbermann, 1710-1714).

Excellent performance, conveying a great reverence for this music (not precisely a religious devotion, but a subtle tremor and devotion to Bach's music itself) which isn't easy to hear today.

Born: 1912 - Waldsassen, Bavarian Upper Palatinate, Germany)
Died: 1970

The German organist, Robert Köbler, studied church music in Leipzig from 1931 to 1934.

From 1935 to 1945 Robert Köbler was choirmaster and Organist in Löbau (Saxony). From 1946 he lectured in organ and harpsichord at the College of Music in Leipzig; from 1949 he was also Organist at the Leipzig University Church, which the communist government destroyed in 1968. He was appointed professor in 1956.

Robert Köbler was widely known as an outstanding organist and brilliant improviser. Concert tours took him to Fast and West F.uropean countries. He composed works for the piano, organ and voice.

[Willoughby earl of Itacarius]

From this set of 16 CD'S.

CD 4,

Symphony No. 8, opus 26.

A sumptuous work, with a magical third movement. The performance is a very idiomatic one, being played by the right orchestra, and conductor.

[Karl Henning]

First listen to this recording:

Дмитри Дмитриевич [ Dmitri Dmitriyevich (Shostakovich) ]
Симфония № 4 c-moll, соч. 43 [ Symphony № 4 in c minor, Opus 43 ]
Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi
Oleg Caetani

[asin]B000IY035U[/asin]

The first Caetani disc I heard contained the Ninth and Tenth Symphonies; I was not crazy about it – all right, I'll go ahead and say meh – although I might perhaps have listened a bit more generously, had I not heard more than one enthusiast praise the Caetani cycle unto the skies.  (I haven't catalogued my quarrels with the Ninth or Tenth, but can attend to that task if there be interest.)  Still, because at least one fellow musician whose opinion I take seriously (even though our tastes do disagree at a few points) has spoken highly of the cycle overall . . . and because, possibly as a partial result of my new-found enthusiasm for Bruckner, I've lately experienced a resurgent fascination with the Op.43 . . . I was curious to try Caetani out here.

This performance is marvelously good, and entirely enjoyable.  Are there recordings of this complex symphony with which I have no quibble at all?  I think there may be, one or even two.  With the present recording, my quarrels are refreshingly few, and non-fatal. The string fugato in the first movement feels a bit cautiously under-tempo – but then, I respect that more than driving the tempo fast, and failing to hold the string choir together (I'm talking to you, Rudolf).  Overall, it is a splendidly musical performance, and sheer pleasure to listen to.

[mahler10th]

 

Sounds pretty crowded on that bus!

I had to tell everyone to turn their mobiles off and myself and the Orchestra leader had to throw some Scottish grannies off the bus to make room for the second violins.   

[Willoughby earl of Itacarius]

CD 2 from a set of 17 CD'S.

Organ Works, Volume II.

La Nativite du Seigneur.

Willem Tanke, Organ.

Well recorded, and so far the performances are quite good. Its a maiden trip, my first acquisitions if it comes to Messiaen, a composer I am not wild about to say it mildly. His organ works have a tiny opening for me to get in, so lets see what comes of it. Lets see where the ship sinks.

[Sergeant Rock]

Some Haydn sonatas, beginning with the D major Hob.42, GG creaking and humming along




Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

In the comic strip Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson, there's a girl who plays viola in a school orchestra, named Viola D'More 

Cool...I'll have to check it out.

Sarge

[jlaurson]

In the comic strip Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson, there's a girl who plays viola in a school orchestra, named Viola D'More 

But she plays the Marimba!

Thread duty:

  J. Haydn
Symphonies 31 "Hornsignal" & 45 "Farewell"
Mackerras / St.Lukes
Telarc
German link - UK link

Anyone know a GREAT Haydn Symphony disc (only one disc, max.2) under $13 that is still in print, and is very suitable for a 'first exposure' to Haydn?
The only one such disc - Fricsay, 44, 45, 98 - is OOP... and the Haydn single-disc market has become tiny and a good deal is quite boring.

[Mirror Image]

Josef Suk
Ripening, Op. 34 ^a
Epilogue, Op. 37 ^a
Fairy Tale Op. 16 ^b
Václav Neumann^a, Libor Pesek^b & Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
[asin]B000EBFVJU[/asin]

Thumbs up! Excellent set. Love Suk's music.

[kishnevi]

(cross posted from Elgar's Hillside)

Now listening to this
[asin]B009IF123W[/asin]

It's an excellent recording, but probably appeals most to three sorts of people:
1)Elgar completists
2) Families with children in the 8-13 year old range
3)Someone looking for a Christmas fantasy that doesn't involve Scrooge or Rudolph the RNR.


Background to the work:
It's based on a children's story by Algernon Blackwood entitled A Prisoner in Fairyland, published just before WWI,  and turned into a play by one Violet Pearn, who grafted on an ending with the Star of Bethlehem and upped the sentimentality level of the story.  Originally, one Clive Carey (who would in later years be one of Joan Sutherland's teachers) was supposed to write incidental music for the play, but delays and someone's bright idea replaced him with Elgar.  The play with Elgar's music was premiered in 1915 and had a run of 40 performances.  Some of the music is regular song, but much of it was meant as melodrama--that is, music played while the actors spoke conventional dialogue onstage.

For this recording,  a narrative was written to be spoken over the music summarizing the action of the play--or rather, the play with changes reverting back to Blackwood's original story (the Star of Bethlehem still present but apparently not so in your case as in the original play), and a suite of the songs and other music organized by Andrew Davis.  Three of Carey's songs (never used for the stage version) were orchestrated by Davis and are included in the recording.

The narrative is a little confusing and hard to condense, so I won't even try.

Musical performances are fine, and Elgar had nothing to be ashamed of with the music he produced.   Acts I and II of the melodrama version comprise CD 1, which is just under an hour;  Act III takes up just under half an hour on CD 2;  Carey's songs take up about six minutes;  the suite arranged by Davis is about three quarters of an hour long, and is the portion of the recording that will doubtless be most listened to.

[Karl Henning]

First listen to this recording:

Bruckner
Symphony № 9 in d minor
Berliner Philharmoniker
HvK

[asin]B001DCQI8W[/asin]

Below the green lemon.

[Fafner]

Verdi - Rigoletto
Kubelik; Fischer-Dieskau, Scotto, Bergonzi

[asin]B00099BPP6[/asin]