What are you listening to now?

[aligreto]

Bax: Fifth Symphony - Handley/BBC Philharmonic.

[asin]B0000DIGLH[/asin]

I would be curious regarding your thoughts or impressions of the Fifth.

[Mirror Image]

Dvorak: Nocturne for String Orchestra in B major [Neumann]....





I have not heard this work before and I found it to be beautifully written. Yearning but not mournful, it sings away into the night with wonderful string writing. The recording is clear and revealing.

Dvorak + Neumann = Magical! There's no question the amount of joy that Symphonic Works box set on Supraphon (the purple box) has brought me. Dvorak may very well be my favorite Romantic Era composer.

[aligreto]

I've always admired Gardiner, recently I also bought his essay on Bach, "Music in the castle of Heaven", but those performances of Brandenburg Concertos presents some problems, which could be listed in detail.

I also bought that book at Christmas but I have not opened it yet.

[aligreto]

Dvorak + Neumann = Magical! There's no question the amount of joy that Symphonic Works box set on Supraphon (the purple box) has brought me. Dvorak may very well be my favorite Romantic Era composer.

I am delighted with it so far. I bought it because it contained a lot of works that were conducted by Neumann and a lot of works that I have not heard yet. Although I am only commenting on the works that I have not heard before I am also enjoying those that I already know 

[North Star]

First listen

Haydn
Symphony No. 87 in A major (1785)
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
Frans Brüggen
[asin]B01BHFPU3S[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

First listen

Haydn
Symphony No. 87 in A major (1785)
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
Frans Brüggen

[asin]B01BHFPU3S[/asin]

Cheers, Karlo!

[North Star]

Cheers, Karlo!

G'day, Karl!

[San Antone]

Ayre by Oswaldo Golijov - Live Performance August 2015
Ilana Davidson, soprano; Todd Palmer, clarinet; Alexander Sevastian, accordian; Dan Wions, french horn; Barbara Allen, harp; Kathe Jarka, cello; Jonathan Bagg, viola; Laura Gilbert, flute/alto flute; James Baker, percussion; Jered Egan, bass

https://www.youtube.com/v/xNPFAgjR0gY

A contemporary song cycle by Osvaldo Golijov for soprano and 11 players that weaves together Sephardic, Arabic, and Spanish traditions. Typical of Golijov's compositional approach, this piece is about breaking down walls, political, cultural, and stylistic: it's impossible to label Ayre as coming from any particular genre as it veers from classical to klezmer to pop and back, and therein lies its particular power.

Commissioned by Carnegie Hall at the request of Dawn Upshaw, Ayre — meaning "air" and "melody" in medieval Spanish — is a 40-minute cycle of 11 songs drawn primarily from a large body of 15th century Spanish folk songs.

Representing the three prominent cultures in Spain at the time (Christian, Jewish, and Arab), the music is a lush mix of Spanish and Mediterranean influences and reflects a range of human conditions and emotions stemming from the cultural clashes and connections of the time. Tales of love and war, religion and rage are contained in texts sung in Ladino (the lost language of the Spanish Jews), Arabic, Hebrew, Sardinian, Spanish, and even the ancient Aramaic.

Scored for clarinet, French horn, accordion, guitar, harp, flute, viola, cello, double bass, percussion, and laptop computer, Ayre's instrumentation is as eclectic as its languages.

In his review of Ayre, Alex Ross of The New Yorker wrote: "Ayre is not only an aesthetically beautiful piece but also a radical and disorienting one. ... Golijov has created a new beast, of bastard parentage and glorious plumage."

[NikF]

I would be curious regarding your thoughts or impressions of the Fifth.

I'm sure it must have been here that I read discussion of how the 5th was influenced by Sibelius. Unfortunately I don't know Sibelius well enough (yet) to hear that for myself, how I do note the relatively brooding manner in which it opens before the appearance of the more typically lyrical/magical Bax coloured landscape. And there's a nice contrast between the refined slow movement and the grandeur of the last. Keeping in mind I've still to hear the last two symphonies and that I've only listened to the first five once, this one been the most interesting and enjoyable.

What are your own thoughts of the fifth?

[Mirror Image]

I'm sure it must have been here that I read discussion of how the 5th was influenced by Sibelius. Unfortunately I don't know Sibelius well enough (yet) to hear that for myself, how I do note the relatively brooding manner in which it opens before the appearance of the more typically lyrical/magical Bax coloured landscape. And there's a nice contrast between the refined slow movement and the grandeur of the last. Keeping in mind I've still to hear the last two symphonies and that I've only listened to the first five once, this one been the most interesting and enjoyable.

What are your own thoughts of the fifth?

To the bolded text: GASP! You must rectify this immediately young man and march right upstairs and finish your homework!

[aligreto]

JS Bach: O Jesu Christ, mein's Lebens Licht BWV 118/231 [Gardiner]....

[aligreto]

I'm sure it must have been here that I read discussion of how the 5th was influenced by Sibelius. Unfortunately I don't know Sibelius well enough (yet) to hear that for myself, how I do note the relatively brooding manner in which it opens before the appearance of the more typically lyrical/magical Bax coloured landscape. And there's a nice contrast between the refined slow movement and the grandeur of the last. Keeping in mind I've still to hear the last two symphonies and that I've only listened to the first five once, this one been the most interesting and enjoyable.

What are your own thoughts of the fifth?

I had indeed recently referred to that Sibelius connection but that was not really what I was particularly interested in, merely whether or not you enjoyed it on its own terms. I am pleased that you have enjoyed the Fifth. It is my favourite.

I definitely agree with Mirror Image's comment above 
Seriously though, if you have yet to explore the musical world of Sibelius in some depth you are in for some rare moments of musical wonder....but that is for another day 

[Karl Henning]

Игорь Борисович [ Igor Borisovich (Markevich) ]
Sinfonietta (1928-29)
Arnhem Phil
Lyndon-Gee

A less meaty work than Le nouvel âge (which is to be expected), but also (I think) a less distinctive piece.  It has got something of a Prokofiev Lite feel.  A good piece, mind you;  it's just that, if this were the top of his game, I should not think nearly so well of him.

[NikF]

I am pleased that you have enjoyed the Fifth. It is my favourite.

I definitely agree with Mirror Image's comment above 
Seriously though, if you have yet to explore the musical world of Sibelius in some depth you are in for some rare moments of musical wonder....but that is for another day 

Cool.

I've only one Sibelius cycle (Saraste/Finnish Symphony Radio Orchestra) and quite some time ago oor North Star was kind enough to recommend a box, but I haven't got around to it yet. I did get to hear an early piece of his chamber music - piano quartet - at a concert last week, but even in the opinion of the performers that was so atypical as to be almost unrecognisable as his work. Eventually, eventually, eventually...

As for the comment of MI - that's made my day, because I can't remember the last time I was called a 'young man'. 

[North Star]

Cool.

I've only one Sibelius cycle (Saraste/Finnish Symphony Radio Orchestra) and quite some time ago oor North Star was kind enough to recommend a box, but I haven't got around to it yet. I did get to hear an early piece of his chamber music - piano quartet - at a concert last week, but even in the opinion of the performers that was so atypical as to be almost unrecognisable as his work. Eventually, eventually, eventually...

As for the comment of MI - that's made my day, because I can't remember the last time I was called a 'young man'. 

There's little properly mature chamber music from Sibelius apart from the String Quartet Voces Intimae, not to say that the earlier chamber works don't have their charm.

Thread duty - first listens

Haydn
Symphony No. 93 in D major (1791)
Symphony No. 102 in B flat major (1794)
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
Frans Brüggen
[asin]B01BHFPU3S[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Игорь Борисович [ Igor Borisovich (Markevich) ]
Sinfonietta (1928-29)
Arnhem Phil
Lyndon-Gee

A less meaty work than Le nouvel âge (which is to be expected), but also (I think) a less distinctive piece.  It has got something of a Prokofiev Lite feel.  A good piece, mind you;  it's just that, if this were the top of his game, I should not think nearly so well of him.

Well, and as I do some reading, what should I learn but that it was a 16-year-old who composed the Sinfonietta.  So: a good piece, and a fine feather in the cap of so young a man.

So now the really impressive thing, is the 1929 Piano Concerto:

https://www.youtube.com/v/kCV95InICZ8

Where the youngster's Sinfonietta struck me as "Prokofiev Lite," with this concerto I feel instead that we have two masters, speaking in something of a common language.  The concerto is a tour de force.

[Karl Henning]

Игорь Борисович [ Igor Borisovich (Markevich) ]
Cantata (1929-30)
Nienke Oostenrijk, soprano
Men of the Netherlands Concert Choir
Arnhem Phil
Lyndon-Gee

https://www.youtube.com/v/_HOJKcSZ1HQ

The progressive strides in artistic assurance over the course of these three scores (the Sinfonietta, the Piano Concerto, and the Cantata) are little short of breathtaking.  Here was a major composing talent of the 20^th century . . . and all but hidden from most of us.

[San Antone]

Ferrabosco the Elder : Lamentations of Jeremiah
The Tallis Scholars | Peter Phillips

[Todd]

Gielen's Seventh.  Gielen conducts the original 1883 version, and brings it in at a swift fifty-eight minutes and change.  The balance is a bit bass-light, but the scale is still large.  The symphony comes off as something of a hybrid, recalling more youthful symphonies while still being a late work.  There are Mahlerian, Brahmsian, Wagnerian, and even Mendelssohnian moments, but it is all Bruckner.  Not one of the very best versions, perhaps, but extremely good.

[Karl Henning]

Игорь Борисович [ Igor Borisovich (Markevich) ]
Concerto grosso (1930)
Arnhem Phil
Lyndon-Gee