What are you listening to now?

[SimonNZ]

Mozart Serenades -  Les Folies Francoises

[SonicMan46]

You have VERY good taste in LvB sets! But I think you will find Lucchesini to be a strong contrast, since a lot of yours (Brautigam, Gulda, Annie) tend towards being steely & fiery & fast. Yes, all the Lucchesini recordings are live, which to me enhances the accomplishment. Enjoy and report back 

Beethoven, LV - Piano Sonatas w/ Lucchesini - continuing to listen to this set on Spotify (iPad cabled to my stereo) - about half way through the works - I'm really enjoying his performances - much more lyrical w/ more delicate transitions in the dynamics - if this set was re-released, I'd certainly consider a purchase.  Dave

[Ken B]

Whoo! The sound on this Abravanel recording doesn't half sound constricted after his Mahler 7;which I listened to earlier. (The Boulez 6,before this!) The horns need to come out more. They sound like the ones you get in christmas crackers. The big ones to be fair!! I am beginning to wonder what the hammer blows will sound like now,or whether I'll even hear them,at all!! A pity,because the performance has it's virtues. There is a sweep to it;and the Andante moderato was great. The hardness of the sound seemed to add a kind of steeliness which I really liked. And yes,I can hear the hammer blows!!! He really is hammering through that finale,too! I think I'm quite enjoying this. Hm!

I like it a lot too, despite some flaws. As an approach though it's very convincing.
The whole set can be had for a few bucks digital download on Azon. I think I paid 2.99 last year.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to VC1. Such an astonishing performance from Mordkovitch/Jarvi. Certainly in the pantheon of great performances for this masterpiece.

What I like about the Passacaglia in this Mordkovitch/Jarvi performance is very much the reason why I think the Batiashvili/Salonen and Vengerov/Rostropovich performances are so successful for me: they turn this movement into a moving lament and aren't in a rush to get to the finish line. They are also a bit more restrained, which I think works on a much deeper emotional level. There's plenty of fire to found in each of their cadenzas and the 2nd/4th movements, though.

[Mirror Image]

Now:

Now onto VC2.

[André]

A superb interpretation in the grand tradition of german conducting (even though he is Polish). Furtwängler, Wand, Klemperer come to mind. This is c minor, after all !

Splendid orchestra, great sound.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Symphony No. 5 in B minor
Suite from 'Kratt'

Great stuff. Tubin doesn't even sound like Shostakovich as the ill-informed reviewer posted on an Amazon review. Perhaps a point of comparison, and this may be a bit surprising, is Nielsen, but not so much in overall expression, but more in terms of how Tubin never stays in one spot for any length or period and how he rapidly develops his ideas. There's a forward momentum in this music that brings to mind that great Dane for me.

[André]

Gounod: Faust. With Léopold Simoneau, Pierrette Alarie, Heinz Rehfuss. Vienna Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Gianfranco Rivoli conducting.


An all-francophone recording of Faust, possibly the last one since its release (1959). And what a difference it makes ! The conversational aspect of the work has not in my experience come across as well as here.

It helps that the conductor is so attentive to the score's myriad colours and incidents. I've read that maestro Rivoli's conducting is placid and pedestrian. The author of the liner notes, David McKee, a regular contributor to Opera News and Opera Quarterly is avowedly "hopelessly to Faust", and thinks otherwise: "His is a spacious Faust, with every chord and phrase given its full measure of breath" . "Breath" is the operational word here: everything goes as naturally as the air flowing through the singers' throats.

This is a studio recording, with quite good and spacious stereo. Loud notes or crowd scenes occasionally sound constricted.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Original 1874 version of the 4th symphony conducted by the brilliant Simone Young

[Kontrapunctus]

I bought a used copy for $9.95. Based on his playing in Op.106, "Hammerklavier," it's a super bargain! A pity it isn't in stereo, but the sound is decent enough. Haven't listened to the other sonatas yet.

[San Antone]

This is not meant as a joke, but I had a very Cageian listening experience this morning.

I was waiting for around half an hour at an appointment in an office this morning and was mesmerized by all the different sounds happening around the office. At one end of the room was a printer going, there where various people talking in the place. Lots of incidental sounds, I actually found very interesting.

Then after I left the office I was waiting for the bus for about an hour (it's slow bus service over here) and was once again mesmerized by the sound of cars and trucks going by, people walking, birds etc.

Every once and a while I have a "Cageian moment", it can seem quite profound as a composer despite its "nothing out of the ordinary" nature.

Cage often said that he no longer listened to music; just to the sounds around him.  During the 50s Cage and Boulez were close and corresponded quite a bit.  They both wanted to remove subjectivity from the process of composition, but each through drastically different methods.  Boulez ended up splitting from Cage over his complete reliance upon chance operations, and around the same time Boulez also lost interest in complete serialism after Structures.

But if you listen to the Boulez's 2nd Piano Sonata and Cage's Music of Changes you will hear amazing similarities; but achieved through opposite methods.

Enjoyed your post.

[NJ Joe]

This is not meant as a joke, but I had a very Cageian listening experience this morning.

I was waiting for around half an hour at an appointment in an office this morning and was mesmerized by all the different sounds happening around the office. At one end of the room was a printer going, there where various people talking in the place. Lots of incidental sounds, I actually found very interesting.

Then after I left the office I was waiting for the bus for about an hour (it's slow bus service over here) and was once again mesmerized by the sound of cars and trucks going by, people walking, birds etc.

Every once and a while I have a "Cageian moment", it can seem quite profound as a composer despite its "nothing out of the ordinary" nature.

+1

I have similar experiences with the music of sound.  Do you ever start tapping in time or adding harmony to machine noises? I do!

Thread duty:

[Dee Sharp]

Inspired by the B minor thread, I've kept my listening in this key all day. All excellent recordings.

Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor BWV 1067. Hogwood/AAM


Vivaldi: Concerto in B minor for 4 violins. Hogwood/AAM


Barber: String Quartet Op. 11. Emerson String Quartet


Saint-Saens: Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor. Perlman/Barenboim/Orchestre de Paris


Berg: Piano Sonata Op. 1. Hélène Grimaud.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to the 14th. Winding down the Rozhdestvensky Shostakovich cycle. This symphony (errr...song cycle..errr...I have no idea) is impressing me more and more each time I hear it.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Eleanor by Olga Neuwirth and then I reckon I will listen to some Britten once this is over.

[Todd]

Book II.  More of the same, not too surprisingly.  In this book, there are a few times when the playing does assume a more obvious organesque quality, to good effect, and a few times Levinas plays with snazzy rhythmic verve - the preludes of BWV874 and BWV893 come to mind.  Levinas also backs off incessant pedaling from time to time to good effect.  A superb 48.  Dina Ugorskaja's set is up next.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Diversions for piano left hand and orchestra

[Mirror Image]

Diversions for piano left hand and orchestra

Excellent work! I wonder who put you up to this?

Joining you in some Britten:



Listening to Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20. Outstanding work.

[Kontrapunctus]

Elgar and Lutoslawski might not seem like obvious recording companions, but both are very well played and recorded.