What are you listening to now?

[Maestro267]

Corigliano: A Dylan Thomas Trilogy
Allen (baritone), Jackson (boy soprano), Tessier (tenor)
Nashville Symphony Chorus and Orchestra/Slatkin

[André]

This is the first, original cd issue of this well-known recording. Subsequent reissues (3 if I count well) corrected what is an unforgivable editing idiocy: cutting the second act less than 5 minutes before the end, spilling over the 3rd disc. All 3 discs clock in around 72 minutes, so there was ample time to fit the rest of the act on the second cd. On the newer issues timings are 72, 77 and 68 minutes, with Act ends in their proper places.

Anyhow, as to the performance, I find it admirable for the conducting, playing and excellent engineering. None of the sung roles make it to the top rung, though. Thomas and Grümmer are both admirable and tasteful, but I looked in vain for a trace of the dramatic. Vocally they do not displace favourites such as Konya, Domingo, Steber or Janowitz. In a few places I thought someone should have given a Ricola to Thomas before opening up his mic.

King Henry is very well sung and portrayed by the veteran, Gottlob Frick. On the Warner sets, the back cover blurb commends Fischer-Dieskau and Ludwig for « subtly bringing new dimensions to the roles of the two villains of the piece». Well, I'm not sure what to make of that newfound subtlety. While DFD rages over his lost honour perfunctorily, the voice is so beautiful that it's hard to envision him as the true scumbag he is supposed to portray. Similarly, Ludwig has no trouble singing beautiflly and forcefully, but where is the venom, the spite, the demonic rage of this hellish witch ? She is more believable when pretending to Elsa that she is a victim than when erupting in vengeful anger. No match for the real giants in this role, Varnay and Gorr.

All in all, a superb phonographic production that could have been markedly better if the singing had been one size larger and the characterization more effective.

[Karl Henning]

Afaik, Brahms himself transcribed them for the viola, so it's as legit as it gets. 

Aye, it was Brahms, indeed.  I reserve the right to quarrel with him on one or two small points in his magnificent oeuvre 

Thread Duty:

Chas. Knox (who recently turned 89)
Rivers Run Through It, Sonatina for Flute & Piano

[André]

It's natural for your clarinetist self to be tickled by this cast makeover, Karl ! 

[mc ukrneal]

Haven't listened to this one in some time: Dvorak Symphony No. 6 Dohnanyi/Cleveland. Phenomenal playing in outstanding sound.  A perfect way to end the day...
[asin]B00000E4KO[/asin]

[San Antone]

Afaik, Brahms himself transcribed them for the viola, so it's as legit as it gets. 

I love these works on viola, and am listening to this right now.



Lars Vogt has made Brahms his focus for a while - and I have enjoyed all of the various recordings.

[Florestan]

Aye, it was Brahms, indeed.  I reserve the right to quarrel with him on one or two small points in his magnificent oeuvre 

Oooops, for a moment I did forget you are a clarinetist by trade! 

But then again:

What's in a name tone? that which we call a rose clarinet
By any other name pitch would smell sound as sweet

[aligreto]

Mahler: Symphony No. 6 [RTE National Symphony Orchestra/Markson]


This is a very good, live, version. The opening first two movements are wonderfully taut and driven without being frenetic: a keen sense of menace also permeates them. The third movement is elegant and lyrical. The final movement is filled with drama and tension and with not a little menace in there too. The recording is full sounding. OK, I am biased, but it is very good, really! 

Gerhard Markson was the Principal Conductor of the Irish RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra from 2001 to 2009. He was a terrific conductor and did two major things during his time here. Firstly the raised the bar to a new level in terms of the performance standards and ability of our National Orchestra. Secondly, he introduced much more "modern music" into the repertoire of said orchestra. It is also interesting that the orchestra became rather proficient in performing this music.

[aligreto]

What's in a name tone? that which we call a rose clarinet
By any other name pitch would smell sound as sweet

Dare I suggest a baroque oboe    0:)

[André]

Reger: Choral Music
Rundfunkchor Stockholm, dir. Ericson; Junge Kantorei Darmstadt, dir. Martini; The Hilliard Ensemble
[asin]B01GQWSWFK[/asin]

Fine disc.  My main complaint is that the Hilliard tracks are significantly louder and more closely recorded than the older recordings filling the rest of the disc.

André, have you heard Op. 110 No. 1?  What's it like compared to 2 and 3?

OP 110 nos 1-3 and op 138 nos 1-4 from this disc:



The music from those 2 opuses is very different. The op 138 is made up of simple, short (2-3 mins) and homophonic works. There are 8 of them, only the first 4 are recorded here.

The op 110 is a set of 3 large-scale motets (10-16 mins each), for 5 to 8 voices. The sound here saturates, which is a pity as it makes listening uncomfortable - at least with headphones.

To answer your question, I find that the 3 works grow in interest in the order they are given. IOW no 3 is the most interesting - arresting, even. I'll look for another version, possibly the Carus disc.

[SymphonicAddict]

How much I enjoy this music. It's a complete rejoice. All the pieces are superb, albeit the piece I like the most is Tintagel, which has to be one of the most atmospheric, awesome, brilliant and, of course, epic tone poems ever written. I really feel transported to that magical place called Cornwall. One of many outstanding moments Bax had.

[Baron Scarpia]

I also listened to a bit of Bax yesterday, the Clarinet Sonata. I started with a recording by the Nash Ensemble on Hyperion, which didn't seem to take flight. I ended up listening to a recording by Robert Plane, which I found much more inspiring. A memorable work.

[asin]B000F6YWSU[/asin]

[André]

Composer/conductor Bruno Maderna conducts an overparted Vienna Symphony Orchestra in this characterful interpretation of Mahler's most Klimt-like symphony.

[Mirror Image]

A ballet triple-bill -

Debussy: Jeux
Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin
Falla: El sombrero de tres picos

From the following recordings:

[Mirror Image]

I must confess I came out of this first hearing of the Malipiero SQs (only 'No. 1, Rispetti e strambotti' and No. 2, 'Stornelli e ballate' so far) with mixed feelings. Perhaps I was not in the mood for this particular kind of "aggressive neoclassicism" last night, but the musics's angularity and jaggedness, and curious formal configuration (single movements with distinct episodes following each other in relatively quick succession) struck me in a not altogether positive way. But I will continue to explore this set, and revisit these first two SQs sometime soon ( when I'm better disposed to the idiom?).

Well, I think it's important to remember that I believe you shared with me in the past some ambivalence towards Malipiero's music. I must say that I don't know the Orpheus SQ's performances, but none of Malipiero's SQs strike me as 'aggressive neoclassicism'. It may very well be the performances themselves. I own the set from the Quartetto di Venezia on the Dynamic label and haven't experienced what you did at all. I suppose the Quartetto di Venezia downplay the more angularity of the music and bring out it's lyricism. I do hope you continue to try those first couple of quartets as I find Malipiero's idiom quite ear-catching.

[Daverz]

My bit of Bax for today was Symphony No. 5.

[asin]B00007JITI[/asin]

Via Tidal as this is the one Bax 5 I don't have on CD.

[RebLem]

On Saturday, 21 APR 2018, I listened to 2 CDs.


1)  Lowell Liebermann (b. 22 FEB 1961): 25 songs.  Robert White, tenor, Lowell Liebermann, piano--Rec. at SUNY--Purchase Performing Arts Center Recital Hall 19-24 MAR 2000.  Arabesque Records CD.  |Tr. 1.  Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, Op. 41 (1993) (12''24) Text: Walt Whitman.  |Tr. 2-7.  Six Songs on Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Op. 57 (1997) (16'08)  |Tr. 8-13.  Final Songs, Op. 21 (9'17)  |Tr. 14-16.  Three Dream Songs, Op. 53 (4'22)  |Tr. 17-22.  A Poet to His Beloved. Op. 40 (13'57)  |Tr. 23-25.  Night Songs, Op. 22 (5'55).

On the fourth to last unnumbered page (counting the back cover as a page), is this statement:  "Mr. Liebermann's works are published exclusively by Theodore Presser Company and he is a Yamaha artist."  Then, two pages later, on the inside back cover, the piano used for this recording is listed as "Steinway 812."   MOMMY, I'M CONFUSED!
Out of the Cradle...,Op. 41 was originally composed in 199e for mezzo-soprano &  string quartet.  This is the premiere performance of the tenor-piano version.
The Longfellow poems were LL's response to a commission from the Geraldine C & Emorty Ford Foundation for a setting of "poems of a romantic nature," and LL chose these HWL poems as his response to the commission.  It was composed in 1997 and first performed by White & Liebermann. 
The Final Songs have that title not because they are some sort of valedictory works--the early opus number shows they are not.  But they all deal with death and loss, thus the title.  Among them are Robert Graves's "Death by Drums," Randall Jarrell's "Farwell Symphony,"  and of Rod Jellema's  "Listening to Comrade Shostakovich on the Day of His Death,"  LL writes, "My setting includes a fleeting reference to Shostakovich's Viola Sonata, his very last completed work, composed shortly before his death in 1975."  The Final Songs is dedicated to Vincent Pershichetti, who was Liebermann's doctoral dissertation supervisor @ Julliard.  "I asked Persichetti to look at these songs, and we read them through together.  When he finished...he shoved the music away...and told me, 'These are wonderful and they are terrible (in the old Biblical sense" and I don't want to see them again.'  I was bewildered by his reaction but two weeks later I learned he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and been given a short time to live.  During my recital in which these songs were introduced he was up in his studio working away at things he was determined to finish in the time he had left, but he came down to Paul Hall to hear these songs and thanked me for them."
The Three Dream Songs are musical settings of poems by Langston Hughes.  It was originally composed for tenor, flute, string quartet, and piano, but Robert White, the tenor here in the tenor-piano version, was also the vocalist at the world premiere performance of the original version.  The six texts are by William Butler Yeats. 
The Night Songs, Op. 22 were premiered on the same program with the Op. 21 Final Songs.  They are all poems about sleep written by Mark Van Doren, Robert Graves, & Randall Jarrett, adapted from Rainer Maria Rilke.
Texts to all the songs are included into the 24 page unnumbered booklet (counting both the front and back covers as pages).  I marked my copy with page numbers for personal reference.  Its all in English, no translations.


2)  CD 3 in the 10 CD box "Carl Schuricht: The Complete DECCA recordings."  |Tr. 1-4.  L.V. Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony 2 in D Major, Op. 36 (32'41)  |Tr. 5-8.  Johannes Brahms (1833-97): Piano Concert 2 in B Flat Major, Op. 83 (46'11)--Wiener Philharmoniker, Wilhelm Backhaus, piano (Tr. 5-8)--Rec. Greater Hall, Musikverein, Wien, 25-30 MAY 1952.

This is one of three Schuricht performances of the Beethven 2 in my collection.  Another one is a 30'56 performance with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande from 1947 on Disc 1 of this set.  The last is his 32'17 1958 stereo recording with the Paris Conservatory Orch. which is part of his 7 CD EMI set of all the Beethoven symphonies + the Bruckner 3, 8, & 9 with the Wiener Phil.
It is instructive to compare the timings, movement by movement, of Schuricht's 3 recordings of the Beethoven 2nd, as they have quite a range:
1947    |1952     |1958
LOSR   |Wien    |Paris
9'22      |10'05     |10'01
8'11      |11'58     |12'08
6'50       |3'31       |3'21
6'33        |7'07       |6'47
Note in particular the wide discrepancies in timings for the 2nd and 3rd movements.  In his earliest recording, he gave the second movement alleghretto short shrift, whereas in the two later ones, they get much more expansive treatment.  By contrast, he lingers over the scherzo in the first recording, but shortens them up by almost half in the last two.  In the present recording, the 1952 one, he really lingers on, one might almost say, caresses the second movement. 
The Brahms PC 2 is an excellent recording.  Backhaus was born 26 MAR 1884.  When he made this recording in MAY 1952, he was age 68.  He died 5 JUL 1969 at age 85.  Here, he is still young enough that his powers are undiminished, but not so old as to be in a deteriorating state.
Somehow, I sense some slight problem with this recording.  It seems not to have picked up a certain range of frequencies, the cello solo in the third movement seems a tad wan, as if some tones in its midrange are missing, and the piano sounds a little off, too.  I don't know what it is.  This was made in Vienna.  Backhaus was known to favor Bosendorfer pianos, and they are made in Vienna, so it would be strange if the piano were other than a Bosendorfer, though the liner notes do not say if it was or not.  But the discrepancy could not have been in the piano.  Maybe there was something wrong with the mics, or with the transfer here, I know not what.  Otherwise, this is a fine performance.  All the deficiencies seem to be in the recording, not the musicians.   

[Que]

Morning listening:

[asin]B009PXNFQY[/asin]
Q

[Undersea]

Earlier:

[asin]B001GVA7DW[/asin]

Haydn: String Quartet #14 In E Flat, Op. 9/2, H 3/20
Kodàly Quartet


NP:

[asin]B00000C2KP[/asin]

Beethoven: Piano Sonata #15 In D, Op. 58, "Pastoral"
Daniel Barenboim

[aligreto]

Taverner: Missa Mater Christi Sanctissima [Christophers]