What are you listening to now?

[Todd]

Todd, how do you like that cycle? One of my favorites, as is everything Prazak does (did?).

The best digital Beethoven string quartets, partial or complete, I've heard.  Of Budapest and Vegh quality.

They are still cranking out recordings.  The recent DSCH 14 & 15 is as good as any I've heard in those works, too.

[Mirror Image]

Absolument  !

Methink I read a comment to the effect that Madetoja provided more listening pleasure than Sibelius. Since I had long neglected listening to him (Madetoja) or Uuno Klami, I figured a reassessment was in order. Both younger composers wrote very fine music. By any yardstick but the toughest of course. 

I do enjoy Madetoja and Klami as well. Very good composers.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Symphony No. 5, BVN 191 (First Version). Sounds great so far.

[Mirror Image]

This landed today, and went into the CD player expeditiously.


Initial impression:  perhaps the mythical reference recording of the concertos.
At the very least I found it better than the symphonies as recorded in the companion CDs.

Suggest Mirror Image and other Nielsenites push this to the top of their to do lists.

The problem I have with Gilbert's Nielsen stems from my general problem with his own conducting. I'll have to get this recording (eventually) as I own the others and I'm not one that likes an incomplete cycle ( ), but I'm going to hold off as long as I can. I have Schowandt's Maskarade and Storgard's symphony cycle on the way. Those should give a nice little Nielsen fix in the upcoming month.

[kishnevi]

The problem I have with Gilbert's Nielsen stems from my general problem with his own conducting. I'll have to get this recording (eventually) as I own the others and I'm not one that likes an incomplete cycle ( ), but I'm going to hold off as long as I can. I have Schowandt's Maskarade and Storgard's symphony cycle on the way. Those should give a nice little Nielsen fix in the upcoming month.

As indicated in my earlier post, I think these performances are much better than the symphony recordings.

TD
Prokofiev Symphonies 2,3,5
Gurzenich Orchester Koln
Dmitri Kitajenko cond.

[Mirror Image]

As indicated in my earlier post, I think these performances are much better than the symphony recordings.

On a different note, have you heard Oramo's cycle yet? It's outstanding! One of the best I've heard since Schonwandt's on Dacapo.

[Todd]

Sticking with string quartets, jumping forward a few years. 

The original issue is available for eighteen bits new at Amazon, plus shipping.

[kishnevi]

On a different note, have you heard Oramo's cycle yet? It's outstanding! One of the best I've heard since Schonwandt's on Dacapo.

No, but I am not that much of a Nielsenite.  I think the only integral cycles I have are Blomstedt and Kuchar, and the latter only because it is part of the Brilliant 100CD Symphonies box.

TD
Change of gears to end the night.
Fratelli Sammartini. Concertos
Camerata Koln. From the DHM 10 CD Italian Baroque Edition.

[bhodges]

Wow, everybody's listening to really interesting recordings tonight.

Jeffrey, that is an all-star cast of soloists. I'll be excited to hear it, though I'm not a Nielsenista to the same degree as some of the other folks here.

Bruce, that looks really interesting, as a coupling of composers, and a coupling of performers. Thanks for the alert!

Todd, how do you like that cycle? One of my favorites, as is everything Prazak does (did?).

André, that Timpani series is fantastic. The ballet Cydalise is one of my favorite French ballets and gets a listen once or twice every year. It's about due!

That Levine Debussy/Elgar recording is now 20 years old (!), but for some reason I happened to dig it up for summer listening. Both pieces have stiff competition - and I don't have "ideal" recordings - but somehow the Levine/Berlin chemistry works here.

PS, I also received that Seattle release, and while I'm not the hugest fan of the Dvořák Ninth (don't hate it, just don't crave it), the Varèse Amériques is quite incredible.

--Bruce

[Mirror Image]

No, but I am not that much of a Nielsenite.

It's okay we can still be friends.

[Moonfish]

2x
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht         Saito Kinen Orchestra/Ozawa

Glorious! I am loving Schoenberg's piece! A dynamic, vibrant and powerful performance (recorded in great sound)!

[Mirror Image]

2x
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht         Saito Kinen Orchestra/Ozawa

Glorious! I am loving Schoenberg's piece! A dynamic, vibrant and powerful performance (recorded in great sound)!

You should definitely check out HvK's performance of Verklarte Nacht on DG, Peter. It will make the hairs on your neck stand up.

[Moonfish]

You should definitely check out HvK's performance of Verklarte Nacht on DG, Peter. It will make the hairs on your neck stand up.

Hmm, I think it is somewhere in my piles....   
I am going to search out a Mitropoulos/WP performance as well..! 

[Que]

Morning listening:



Volume II inexplicably escaped my attention and ran OOP...

Q

[Mandryka]

https://youtube.com/v/n2GHLVW9F_A

Klangforum Wien play the Barraqué clarinet concerto. IMO this is a masterpiece, beautiful and moving and spiritual and deep and disturbing.

[Camphy]

Symphony 99

[Wanderer]

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[marvinbrown]

  Currently listening to  my favorite, my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE (yes I prefer this far more than the classic Callas recording and the Davis recording and the many live performances I have attended) of Tosca.  My GOD THIS IS DEFINITIVE:

  [asin]B000E6EGZ0[/asin]



   I do not know what it is but beyond Karajan's remarkable ability to  bring out the beauty in Puccini's score, the music seems to flow seamlessly, there is never a sense of hesitation, uncertainty or misguidedness.  The Davis recording is a bit "jagged" for lack of a better word, the classic Callas too "raw".......Thank you Herr Karajan, in this Tosca you are nothing short of PERFECT!

  marvin

[Madiel]

The Kreutzer Sonata

[asin]B000ZB2V42[/asin]

Really interesting this time comparing it to my Stern/Istomin recording, because Cerovsek/Jumppanen take several minutes longer in the first movement. It's one of the few times in the whole set that they're the slower pairing.

I don't think there's all that much difference in main tempo. It's because Cerovsek/Jumppanen are grandly rhetorical in their approach. Tempo changes and pauses are key moments in the argument.

This is one sonata where I'm pretty well equally happy with both performances.

[Camphy]