What are you listening to now?

[You did it]

Stravinsky - Les Noces

[You did it]

Stravinsky - The Flood

This play/opera/oratorio (Idk WTF to call it), has really really grown on me over the years. It is one of his absolute best IMO 

Also, sorry Robert Craft but you have nothing on this recording 

[amw]

Pi-Hsien Chen plays Messiaen's 20 Regards [live broadcast recording]

I don't think I've ever sat down and listened to all 20 in a stretch. Works surprisingly well, with some sense of a bipartite design although the actual "turning point" ends up being No. 15 (the kiss of the baby Jesus). The psychology of timing in larger works is interesting and it seems like we gain some sense of how large a work is while we still have no idea of the exact dimensions, and then identify a moment of catharsis what feels like about two-thirds of the way through, and if the work doesn't obey this particular proportion (ie if the moment of catharsis is only at what turns out to be the halfway point) we think it's too long.... although the reverse doesn't seem to apply, a cathartic moment can take place almost all the way up until the end of the piece and will still be felt as important.

(I mean I think also of the cymbal crashes and final appearance of the harp in Bruckner 8, the triple combination of Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben, Können Tränen meiner Wangen & Komm, süsses Kreuz—particularly the latter—that marks the turning of the St Matthew Passion from hopelessness towards salvation, the final appearance of the winding chromatic melody & resumption of the text at "unheard footfalls only sounds" in Feldman's Neither, the cymbal crash marking the end of the transition from Modulations into Transitoires, etc.)

[You did it]

Yep, you're right about that. Similarly with Messiaen's other large work "La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ", even though trying to amass or comprehend the large scale sense of direction can be a doozy.






They're not Messiaen works I listen to much though admittedly 

[amw]

and now this for contrast

[Karl Henning]

Schoenberg
Moses und Aron
Act I
Concertgebouworkest & al.
M. Boulez presiding

[San Antone]

[Karl Henning]

... in comparison Fischer is competent and very musical, but fantasy, daring and a taste for épater le bourgeois are not in his interpretive armoury.

But, mon cher, where is the need pour épater le bourgeois in the music of "Papa"?  What am I missing here?  0:)

[ritter]

Schoenberg
Moses und Aron
Act I
Concertgebouworkest & al.
M. Boulez presiding

"Einziger, ewiger, allgegenwärtiger, unsichtbarer und unvorstellbarer Gott!".

We were saying the closing line of Moses und Aron is one of the best ever, but these opening lines aren't half bad either...

Good day, Karl!

[Karl Henning]

Cheers, Rafael!


(Is my sudden embrace of Moses und Aron a matter of my listening on headphones lately? Is't possible?)

[Todd]

Steven Osborne's Benediction.  Museum quality playing.  Osborne's Moderato is very, well, moderate in tempo, with remarkable left hand clarity and delicate and beautiful melodies.  As he builds up to the climax, his playing does become notably quicker, but it never sounds rushed, and the playing through to the coda is dominated, if that's the word, by the delicate right hand playing.  The Andante is perfectly paced and lovely and moves into the Piu sostenuto smoothly, which Osborne plays with a deft, lovely touch all the way until the climax, where once again his playing speeds up appreciably as he builds up the volume.  The right hand runs after are slow but gorgeous.  The playing leading up to the coda becomes positively serene, almost static, suspending time.  The playing is exquisite, polished to a T, as per normal from Osborne, but some other traits are missing.  It is impossible not to like this recording, though.

[Mirror Image]

The Concertino:

[Karl Henning]

The Concertino:

It has got to be good.

[Mirror Image]

It has got to be good.

It is, Karl. It is also rather Stravinskian in the instrumentation: cello, wind and brass ensemble, percussion, and piano.

[Mirror Image]

The 4th:

[André]

But, mon cher, where is the need pour épater le bourgeois in the music of "Papa"?  What am I missing here?  0:)

The Esterhazy retinue were the ultimate bourgeois avant la lettre and Haydn was fond of surprising them with all kinds of tricks and traps such as false endings, bassoon farts, retuning in the middle of a movement, etc. He became famous for (among many other things) his ingenious, bottomless bag of tricks. These « special effects » should not be smoothed over, but be given their full due. 

[San Antone]

[Parsifal]

Faure and Ravel Piano Trios, Florestan trio

[asin]B000038I6C[/asin]

From the beautiful to the magical.

Debussy is next.

[Turbot nouveaux]

Harrison Birtwistle
The Tree of Strings (2007)
9 Movements for String Quartet (1991-6)
Arditti Quartet [Aeon, 2012]

[San Antone]

Faure and Ravel Piano Trios, Florestan trio

[asin]B000038I6C[/asin]

From the beautiful to the magical.

Debussy is next.

Looks like something I should get - I love all those works and the Florestan Trio is always a treat to hear.