What are you listening to now?

[Undersea]

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[asin]B00004SA8A[/asin]

Schubert: Piano Sonata #15 in A, Op. 120, D 964

Wilhelm Kempff


[asin]B0000666AF[/asin]

Haydn: Symphony #34 in D minor, H 1/34

Adam Fischer: Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra


For a first listen most likely...

[amw]

Karajan Brahms 1988.



This is definitely more my thing than the 1978 one. Lots of distortion/clipping on headphones though.

[Que]

Morning listening is volume V of the Leiden Choirbooks:



Q

[amw]

Karajan Brahms 1988.



This is definitely more my thing than the 1978 one. Lots of distortion/clipping on headphones though.

I guess the technical term is flutter, but yeah. Every time it goes above f the microphone seems to be struggling to cope.

This is a very bombastic performance (even more so than the 1978 one) but has a kind of hieratic air to it, like when a religious leader wears an absurdly gaudy outfit covered in gold and jewels. I can see why people like it.

Might skip the Schoenberg today, the orchestral version of Verklärte Nacht requires a high tolerance for saccharine.

[amw]

Instead, another Brahms 1, this one requiring a pretty significant volume adjustment and also a pretty significant adjustment of time expectations. (19:11 / 11:21 / 5:07 / 18:32 as opposed to 13:42 / 8:59 / 5:02 / 18:14)



Very slow introductions do work well for me, but I do prefer that if so they come with a Furtwängler-esque sense of doom and pounding timpani. Timpani here are somewhat MIA. I hope the performance improves from there.

Update: Allegro is also slower than average, and keeps slowing down for quiet passages. That said, actually weirdly enjoyable. Andante is very slow with overplayed pianissimos and I feel guilty for liking it. They also play the Un poco allegretto, and I listened to it. Finale has lots of instrumental detail (love being able to hear the contrabassoon) and is pretty good if still slower than I'd like. This is definitely a recording I'd revisit.

[Mandryka]

I found Hamelin's Medtner, Szymanowski, and Chopin sonatas rewarding. That said I guess listening to him is mostly a pianophile thing; you listen more for the quality of the piano playing than anything else (as w Volodos and Cziffra).

What it is with me, I've decided, is that he's got a tendency to be happy and sunny, in places where I don't expect it - like in the first movement of the Chopin second sonata, or the Appasionata. I haven't heard the Medtner or the Szymonowski. Anyway, I can hear that he can drive a Steinway.

Still struggling to make sense of his Mozart. I've decided that there's only one modern piano person I can tolerate in Mozart sonatas these days: Leon McCawley.

[Undersea]

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[asin]B06X16D4V9[/asin]

Messiaen: 20 Regards sur l'enfant-Jésus

Yvonne Loriod

[Florestan]

Sgambati - String quartet [No. 2] in C sharp minor



The more I explore this composer, the more I leave fascinated by that sophisticated filigree of notes from a work like this one. Music of exceptional artistic quality. The two piano quintets are no exception. Excellent stuff.

Wholeheartedly agreed. Check his piano music, great stuff too.

[aligreto]

Haydn: Creation, Parts Two & Three  [Gardiner]

[Traverso]

Bach Cantatas

CD 23

[aligreto]

Honegger: Symphony No. 3 [Baudo]





I find the opening movement of Symphony No. 3 to be turbulent, almost belligerent and aggressive The slow movement is the complete antithesis being a beautiful, calming, somewhat forlorn, pastoral essay after the initial storm. This does descend to the dark side however in the middle of the movement but we eventually pull back from the brink. The final movement is essentially in two contrasting parts commencing with some bleak, disconcerting language and culminating in an almost prayer like hymn. This is a compelling work.

[amw]

Instead of listening to more Karajan or whatever, a symphony (No.11) by Allan Pettersson.



This piece is ugly and noisy, much like myself, but I do like it a good deal, unlike myself. The music is sort of featureless in that there are very few recurring ideas to hold onto, and relentlessly contrapuntal, producing what's basically a seamless continuum of sound.

[anothername]

Opinion...please?!?!? At your leisure. I'm not familiar with Hough's pianism, but I know he receives many accolades.

If you like a traditional pianist, he's your man,  he following the score immense precisely, whether it's Hummel or this CD, all good.
Recommended.

[Traverso]

Albert Roussel

Symphonie 3 & 4
Le festin de l'araignée

[André]

Instead of listening to more Karajan or whatever, a symphony (No.11) by Allan Pettersson.



This piece is ugly and noisy, much like myself, but I do like it a good deal, unlike myself. The music is sort of featureless in that there are very few recurring ideas to hold onto, and relentlessly contrapuntal, producing what's basically a seamless continuum of sound.

Good description. Pettersson never attempts to prettify a basically ugly, tormented and thorny material. The 11th is my favourite in that respect, his most uncompromising score (IMHO of course).

[aligreto]

Segovia, playing music by

Tárrega
Granados
Albéniz
Turina
Villa-Lobos
Ponce

Disc 3 of this set

[aligreto]

Instead of listening to more Karajan or whatever, a symphony (No.11) by Allan Pettersson.



This piece is ugly and noisy, much like myself, but I do like it a good deal, unlike myself. The music is sort of featureless in that there are very few recurring ideas to hold onto, and relentlessly contrapuntal, producing what's basically a seamless continuum of sound.

Good description. Pettersson never attempts to prettify a basically ugly, tormented and thorny material. The 11th is my favourite in that respect, his most uncompromising score (IMHO of course).

I am nearly there in my introductory survey of Pettersson's symphonies. Looking forward to hearing it.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

#morninglistening to #Bach's #StJohnPassion w/ #MarcMinkowski & @mdlgrenoble on @warnerclassics

: http://a-fwd.to/Tp2gPAY

(cheating on @naiveclassique w/ @eratofrance )

[Mahlerian]

Schoenberg: Suite for string orchestra in G
20th Century Classics Ensemble, cond. Craft
[asin]B000BRJY04[/asin]

Likely one of Schoenberg's least distinctive pieces, though the minuet is nice.

[milk]