What are you listening to now?

[Mirror Image]

Aye.

Thread Duty:

Not my favorite cycle.  And not anyone's favorite symphony.  So an interesting data point as we stress-test the Is it any good at all? question.

Дмитрий Дмитриевич [ Dmitri Dmitriyevich (Shostakovich) ]
Симфония № 12 ре минор «1917-й год», соч. 112 [ Symphony № 12 in d minor, Opus 112 "The Year 1917" ] (1961)
Moscow Phil
Кирилл Петрович [ Kirill Petrovich (Kondrashin) ]
Recorded in 1972

I think the 12th is just good fun, but I also don't have a lot of the negative reactions a lot of members here seem to share. Is it any good? I think it's good, but certainly not one of Shostakovich's most inspired works, especially considering the symphonies that preceded it.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

#morninglistening to #Handel w/@BachConsortWien & #SalzburgerBachChor on #Gramola. Even th... http://ift.tt/2hNfuGi


#morninglistening to late #Schumann w/#SooPark
on Label-Hérisson: Terrific and my #ForbesO... http://ift.tt/2h55hmA

and then, conveniently, this also became my CD of the Week:


Classical CD Of The Week: Or How I Learned To Love Late Schumann

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/12/22/classical-cd-of-the-week-or-how-i-learned-to-love-late-schumann

[Brian]

I only really do one annual Christmas listening tradition: the last piece of classical music I intently listen to before Christmas must always be...



...and despite my great love for the work, I can only listen to it once a year. Restraint.  0:)

The time is now!!

[Karl Henning]

I think the 12th is just good fun, but I also don't have a lot of the negative reactions a lot of members here seem to share. Is it any good? I think it's good, but certainly not one of Shostakovich's most inspired works, especially considering the symphonies that preceded it.

I took this to the Dacha.

[Karl Henning]

Not my favorite cycle.  And not anyone's favorite symphony.  So an interesting data point as we stress-test the Is it any good at all? question.

Дмитрий Дмитриевич [ Dmitri Dmitriyevich (Shostakovich) ]
Симфония № 12 ре минор «1917-й год», соч. 112 [ Symphony № 12 in d minor, Opus 112 "The Year 1917" ] (1961)
Moscow Phil
Кирилл Петрович [ Kirill Petrovich (Kondrashin) ]
Recorded in 1972

The sound is a bit tubby and blurry for my tastes.  On the plus side, there are fewer instances than usual in the Кирилл Петрович cycle of (e.g.) the brass losing it, and getting blatty and ragged.  And (the factor which makes the cycle the favorite of many of our neighbors) there is an impressive commitment to the piece, and a fine artistic sense of making it something whole.

I still prefer Haitink and Максим Дмитриевич (possibly among others) in this symphony;  even so, this was scarcely ever anything less than musical pleasure to listen to.

[Todd]

Is it any good?

Reasonably.  I wouldn't pay money to buy it outside the context of a big box, though.

[Mahlerian]

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in E-flat (1874 version)
Hamburg Philharmonic, cond. Young


This symphony is wonderful in any version, even the little-known original recorded here.

[Todd]

[Mirror Image]

The sound is a bit tubby and blurry for my tastes.  On the plus side, there are fewer instances than usual in the Кирилл Петрович cycle of (e.g.) the brass losing it, and getting blatty and ragged.  And (the factor which makes the cycle the favorite of many of our neighbors) there is an impressive commitment to the piece, and a fine artistic sense of making it something whole.

I still prefer Haitink and Максим Дмитриевич (possibly among others) in this symphony;  even so, this was scarcely ever anything less than musical pleasure to listen to.

Kondrashin's cycle was important, but it could never be a favorite. Rozhdestvensky, on the other hand, has continuously impressed me and I highly recommend his cycle (if you can find it).

[aligreto]

Harty: Piano Quintet in F major....





A wonderful work with an opening movement that is on a symphonic scale and which also has a hauntingly beautiful slow movement.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I like the look of this, repertoire wise. Might not be easy to get these days?

It doesn't look like it's available anymore. Which took me by surprise, actually. And unusually for Harmonia Mundi it hasn't been reissued (as far as I can tell).

But yeah if you ever find it reasonably priced I'd say it's worth the coin. Great fun.

[San Antone]

Some isorhythmic Dufay

[Todd]

51.  Four more to go before I can definitively state that I prefer Gardiner. 

[Kontrapunctus]

This has beautiful playing--he's very sensitive to all of Haydn's kaleidoscopic moods--and some of the finest piano sound I've heard in a long time. They recorded it using ultra-high resolution DSD technology  with a bit rate of 11.289 mb per second (normal digital is 44k per second) and is quadruple even a normal SACD! I can only imagine how good the master recording sounds. The downside to all of this clarity and resolution is the pianist's humming and other vocalizing is clearly audible!

[Todd]

[Dee Sharp]

Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Op 12, 23, 30. Ibragimova,Tiberghien. Outstanding (all three discs). Recommended.

[Kontrapunctus]

An absolutely stunningly well played and recorded set of Baroque violin works by Pachelbel, Mealli, Frescobaldi, Fontana, Bohm, Biber, Tunder, and many more. One question: What is that thing on the cover?

[André]

Piano concerto # 2 with Konstantin Lifschitz at the piano.

One of the very best versions. Live from Berlin's Konzerthaus, 12.14.2002

[André]

Quartet # 3. Ropartz was 5 years old when Berlioz died, and he himself died in the year of Boulez' Le marteau sans maître. Over the very long span of that life he composed 6 quartets, a genre usually not favoured by the French (except Milhaud who hatched them by the dozen).

This is a very powerful, concisely written work.

[Mirror Image]

Yep, well I've now finished my own Stravinsky (and Webern) binge from the majority of this month but boy it was fun! 

Does Le Sacre still haunt your mind like it haunts mine?  I haven't listened to The Rite at all since I got that Stravinsky box but it still gets in my head all the time 

Sure, yeah, Le sacre is a work that one doesn't forget about even if you've heard hundreds of times. Boulez's early account on Columbia (Sony) is unbelievably good and blows his later mediocre one on DG away IMHO.

Now:



Listening to Orpheus. Another awesome work from Stravinsky.