What are you listening to now?

[Florestan]

Less gripping, more detached and relaxed than the Piano Quintet, but every bit as enjoyable.

[Harry]

Less gripping, more detached and relaxed than the Piano Quintet, but every bit as enjoyable.

I well remember this box, bought a long time ago. I had some Taneyev from others in my player the last few weeks, equally enjoyable.

[Madiel]

It's late, but I've decided to start my first ever listen to Symphony no.4 anyway.

[asin]B00CX1Z5ZO[/asin]

I'll come back in an hour and tell you what I thought!

[Karl Henning]

It's late, but I've decided to start my first ever listen to Symphony no.4 anyway.

[asin]B00CX1Z5ZO[/asin]

I'll come back in an hour and tell you what I thought!

Cool!

Thread Duty: First I ever listened to this composer, as far as I can tell.

Berwald
Grand Septet in B^b
Melos Ensemble

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[Florestan]

Thread Duty: First I ever listened to this composer, as far as I can tell.

Berwald
Grand Septet in B^b
Melos Ensemble

[asin]B004HF0PFE[/asin]

You assessment?

[The new erato]

It's late, but I've decided to start my first ever listen to Symphony no.4 anyway.

[asin]B00CX1Z5ZO[/asin]

I'll come back in an hour and tell you what I thought!

Hopefully you will. This work takes no prisoners.

[Karl Henning]

You assessment?

It would be a highly gratifying piece to play.

[Florestan]

It would be a highly gratifying piece to play.

Thanks. If you feel like exploring his music further, you should try the symphonies and the violin concerto.

[mc ukrneal]

No worries, maybe someone else on the forum can answer that. I am always very much interested in the first three symphonies of this composer.

It's on youtube, and while I've not heard this version, judging by timings it seems a little on the faster side. Anyway, here are some comparative timings:

Noseda - 10:34, 6:42, 5:11, 9:48
Rozhdestvensky (Melodiya): 11:34, 6:11, 5:10, 10:40
Svetlanov (Warner): 11:23, 9:18, 5:21, 11:28
Karajan (DG - 1976?): 11:07, 8:05, 5:45, 10:16
Pletnev (DG): 11:04, 6:50, 5:32, 9:46

[Harry]

It's on youtube, and while I've not heard this version, judging by timings it seems a little on the faster side. Anyway, here are some comparative timings:

Noseda - 10:34, 6:42, 5:11, 9:48
Rozhdestvensky (Melodiya): 11:34, 6:11, 5:10, 10:40
Svetlanov (Warner): 11:23, 9:18, 5:21, 11:28
Karajan (DG - 1976?): 11:07, 8:05, 5:45, 10:16
Pletnev (DG): 11:04, 6:50, 5:32, 9:46

Well the tempi are what I desire, so I am going to explore this. Thank you Neal, for searching this info.

[Brahmsian]

It's late, but I've decided to start my first ever listen to Symphony no.4 anyway.

[asin]B00CX1Z5ZO[/asin]

I'll come back in an hour and tell you what I thought!

Very much looking forward to your thoughts.  I love this work now, but it took a long time (longest of all Shostakovich symphonies), to appreciate and love.

[ritter]

Dipping into this box, starting with Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140  :

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This historical performance, proto-HIP more by the use of modest forces (force majeure, given the year?) than IMHO by any particular interpretative approach, has a quaint charm to it, and is actually most enjoyable. A very young, but immediately recognizable FiDi appears here.

[Madiel]

Shostakovich 4th was too much to properly take in all at once. Plus I think I dozed off a couple of times (as I said it was late, plus other factors predisposing me that have nothing to do with the quality of the music).

One thing I will say, though, is I was surprised by how just how much of the music is quiet. After reading about the size of the work, and the size of the orchestra, and Mahler references, I was expecting a full-on blast a heck of a lot more often than I actually got one.

I certainly didn't hate it. And there were some ear-catching sonorities.

[NikF]

Janacek: Piano Music - Firkusny.



Giving this another listen. I'm not really taken with it. And that surprises me, because his string quartets are some of my favourite chamber music.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

I listened to what I could last night of the Celebrating Strauss Blu-ray.

Irmgaard Seefried does a sprightly and coy Standchen Op. 17 No. 2 with Piero Bellugi and the Orchestra National de l'ORTF from 1965. Perhaps too coy though; and too fast.  Although Seefried's voice exudes a full-toned confidence and brilliance which is supremely attractive to me, her interpretation of the piece is a more unsubtle rendering than Diana Damrau's more recent endeavor. One just can't skate over this music with the greatest of ease like Seefried does. It needs a dramatic and searching emotional commitment; and an attention to textual detail.

So, exeunt Seefried and enter Damrau.

Damrau of course has a bit of a wobble here and there, to be sure- but the enchantment and the sighing-Innigkeit that she brings to the  Friedrich von Schack poem is captivating.   

Ständchen by Adolf Friedrich, Graf von Schack (1855-1894)

Mach auf, mach auf, doch leise mein Kind,
Um keinen vom Schlummer zu wecken.
Kaum murmelt der Bach, kaum zittert im Wind
Ein Blatt an den Büschen und Hecken.
Drum leise, mein Mädchen, daß [nichts sich]1 regt,
Nur leise die Hand auf die Klinke gelegt.

Mit Tritten, wie Tritte der Elfen so sacht,
[Die über die Blumen]2 hüpfen,
Flieg leicht hinaus in die Mondscheinnacht,
[Zu]3 mir in den Garten zu schlüpfen.
Rings schlummern die Blüten am rieselnden Bach
Und duften im Schlaf, nur die Liebe ist wach.

Sitz nieder, hier dämmert's geheimnisvoll
Unter den Lindenbäumen,
Die Nachtigall uns zu Häupten soll
Von unseren Küssen träumen,
Und die Rose, wenn sie am Morgen erwacht,
Hoch glühn von den Wonnenschauern der Nacht..

Ständchen in free translation by Albert Combrink

"Love Song"

Open up, open up, but softly my child,
So as not to wake anyone from their sleep,
The stream is barely murmuring, the wind hardly causes quivers
In a leaf on bush or hedge.
So, softly, my young girl, so that nothing stirs,
Just lay your hand softly on the door-latch.

With steps as soft as the footsteps of elves,
that hop over the flowers,
Fly lightly out into the moonlit night,
Sneak to me in the garden.
Around us sleeps the blossoms along the trickling stream,
Fragrant in sleep, only love is awake.

Sit down, here it darkens mysteriously
Beneath the linden trees,
The nightingale over our heads
Shall dream of our kisses,
And the rose, when it wakes in the morning,
Shall glow from the joyous showers of the night.

And then of course there's Duchess Schwarzkopf on the same Blu-ray- which was the first section that I explored, actually (small wonder). Her closing to the Mackerras/Philharmonia 1961 Act I of Rosenkavalier just rips my 'heart out' with the sighing-Innigkeit (her and Janet Baker really are sans pareil at this). But as exquisite and as bittersweet her sad inflections in front of her vanity mirror are in this performance- and they actually did bring tears to my eyes- her Karajan/Philharmonia rendering is still in a sublime class of its own. 

[Karl Henning]

Mendelssohn
Prelude & Fugue in A^b, Op.35 № 4
Prelude & Fugue in f minor, Op.35 № 5
Frith

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[Karl Henning]

Shostakovich 4th was too much to properly take in all at once. Plus I think I dozed off a couple of times (as I said it was late, plus other factors predisposing me that have nothing to do with the quality of the music).

One thing I will say, though, is I was surprised by how just how much of the music is quiet. After reading about the size of the work, and the size of the orchestra, and Mahler references, I was expecting a full-on blast a heck of a lot more often than I actually got one.

I certainly didn't hate it. And there were some ear-catching sonorities.

It is a lot, and probably more for most to try to absorb in a single hearing.

[NikF]

Smetana: String Quartets - The Smetana Quartet.

[asin]B003RECF54[/asin]

More familiar ground for me after listening to the Janacek.

[Harry]

An essential set to have, so therefore I recommend this most urgently! Organ works pur sang.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2016/02/walther-johann-gottfried-1684-1748.html?spref=tw

[Karl Henning]

LvB
Septet in E^b, Op.20
Melos Ensemble

[asin]B004HF0PFE[/asin]