What are you listening to now?

[Mirror Image]

Ah ,Debussy is back,good to see you again.
Thank you for the advice.

My pleasure.

[Karl Henning]

Dare I say that the chapter (by Bob Reilly) on Holmboe in "Surprised by Beauty", is particularly good.

Possibly the best chapter (by that author) in the book  0:)

[Karl Henning]

And today in It's only MIDI:

http://www.youtube.com/v/5xDa27UT-LU

[SurprisedByBeauty]

  I'm like parsifal and hope for the best of it.   Maybe that I need that chocolate-vanilla ice  SCREAM afterwards

I just read this about the quartets:

If you like 20th century string quartetes that are modestly challenging to listen to these are very consistent .in quality and will please the connoiseur

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqBagXd55t8

Nah, they are tight and dense. Good, by all means, but I think that Holmboe is more easily appreciated through his orchestral works, first. (Not that after your Boulez-trip, anything should be very challenging to you.)

Here from SBB:

Holmboe's richly contrapuntal thinking also naturally lent itself to the string quartet, and it is no wonder that he composed 20 of them. His cycle easily stands beside the great achievements of Shostakovich and Robert Simpson. There are many treasures in this music, though I am almost inclined to call them "hidden" because Holmboe's style is so reserved. The quartets are perhaps Holmboe's most difficult music to appreciate at first hearing. They display little surface charm, are very tightly argued, and require repeated acquaintance to reveal their very considerable treasures. He described his style as "controlled ecstasy".

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Possibly the best chapter (by that author) in the book  0:)

Love the caveat which I'm going to take as a potential compliment.

[Karl Henning]

And in that wise, fully intended.

[aligreto]

The whole Naxos series of the Vieuxtemps concertos is a winner! How I wish I attended a concert where, instead of playing for the umpteenth time the Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky or Brahms VC, an intelligent, sensitive and brave enough violinist would play Vieuxtemps, or for that matter Beriot, or Hubay... But I guess I have no more chances to that than to hear a Moscheles, Herz or Scharwenka PC instead of the usual suspects. A pity!

I relation to our conversation regarding the Vieuxtemps Violin Concertos I was browsing when I came across this disc





and I was wondering if you have it or know of it?
I will try to seek it out on YouTube.

[RebLem]

On Sunday, 20 MAY 201   8, I listened to 4 CDs.

1)  CD 9 of 10 in a set titled "Carl Schuricht: The Complete DECCA Recordings."  P.I. Tchaikovsky (1840-93):  |Tr. 1.  Capriccio italien, Op. 45 (15'09)  |Tr. 2.  Orchestral Suite 3 in G Major, Op. 55:  Tema con variazioni  (19'26)--Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, rec. La Maison de la Mutualite, Paris, 16-30 JUN 1952.   TT: 34'40.

The DECCA engineers have done a truly spectacular job with the sound engineering on these performances.  Except for the fact that they are in monoaural sound, they sould as if they  could have been recorded in the last year on the best equipment currently available.    And they are wonderful, stirring performances, too, especially of the Capriccio italien.  Highly recommended, and a prime example of the restorer's art.

2)  CD 1 of a 2 CD MEMORIES Reverence set devoted to Willem Mengelberg recordings of the Tchaikovsky Symphonies 5 & 6.  |CD 1, Tr. 1-4.  Symphony 5 in E Minor, Op. 64  (44'05)--Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam.  Studio recording from 10 MAY 1928. 

This performance, unlike the Schuricht, is so old it shows something of its age, even though an excellent restoration job has been done here, too.  It has a fair amount of hiss and background noise, but no big pops. 

3)  CD 2 of a 7 CD RCA set titled "Van Cliburn plays Great Piano Concertos."  S. Rachmaninoff (1873-1943):  |Tr. 1-3.  Piano Concerto 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 (34'07)--Fritz Reiner, cond., Chicago Symphony Orch., rec. Orchestra Hall, Chicago, 1962. |Tr. 4-6.  Piano Concerto 3 in D Minor, Op. 30 (42'57)--Kyrill Kondrashin, cond., Symphony of the Air, rec. Carnegie Hall, 1958.

Here in # 2, we're talking about one of my favorite conductors, Fritz Reiner, in the second concerto.  These are both very fine performances, though I personally prefer the Earl Wild/Jascha Horenstein recordings to all others.

4)  Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848):  String Quartets 1-3.  TT: (55'19)  |Tr. 1-4.  # 1 in E Flat Major (17'09)  |Tr. 5-8.  # 2 in A Major (19'48)  |Tr. 9-12.  # 3 in C Minor (18'05)--Pleyel Quartett Koln.  (Ingeborg Scheerer, Milena Schuster, violins, Andreas Gerhardus, viola, Marie Dller, cello)--A cpo CD, rec. Studio P4, Berlin, 22-24 OCT 2013. 

A bit of housekeeping first: do not take the order of the two violinists in the quartet too much to heart; their regular practice is to switch between the first and second positions. 

These are only the first three of Donizetti's 19 string quartets, not all of which were completed.  Two people strongly influenced Donizetti's musical education.  The first was Johann Simon Mayr, who was by far the most important musician in Donizetti's native Bergamo in his youth.  Mayr taught Donizetti much of what he learned in his early years, and was hugely influential in the musical life of the city.  He established a conservatory there, and also a retirement home of aged musicians.  Donizetti played violin to Mayr's viola in a string quartet Mayr founded.  In the 18teens, Mayr got him a full scholarship to study with Padre Mattei @ the Bologna Conservatory for two years.  After his return to Bergamo, he immiediately began work as a composer, composing four operas and his first six string quartets in 1817-18 in what a friend called "a white heat" of productivity. 

Donizetti's quartets were a bit old-fashioned, even for his time.  They were more attuned to the aesthetic of Haydn and Boccherini than to Beethoven or Schubert.  They are all laid out in classical 4 movement form, the first movement always in classical sonata form.  In each set of three, one of the quartets is in a minor key.

[PaulR]

.[asin]B00000JXZ3[/asin]
Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata

[Mirror Image]

Brahms
Horn Trio in E♭ major, Op. 40
Teunis Van der Zwart (horn)
Isabelle Faust (violin)
Alexander Melnikov (piano)



Absolutely exquisite.

[SymphonicAddict]

I prefer the Third to the First, but Schmidt's Second and Fourth are gems among the more conservative symphonies of the period.

The complex harmony of the 3rd defies me a bit. Even so, I like it too.

[SymphonicAddict]

I'm very fond of the 3rd, especially the Pesek recording.

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I don't have that recording, yet I do like the work, despite its advanced harmony.

[PaulR]

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[Madiel]

Oh look, Holmboe love while I was asleep! 

The string quartets are often tougher because (as with Shostakovich) there are no early ones, compared to there being quite a few early symphonies.

But there are fabulous pieces in there once you unlock the language.

[Traverso]

Nah, they are tight and dense. Good, by all means, but I think that Holmboe is more easily appreciated through his orchestral works, first. (Not that after your Boulez-trip, anything should be very challenging to you.)

Here from SBB:

It surely is exciting, listening to Boulez  is leaving  the comfort  zone,  to climb  the highest Mountain has his intrinsic   rewarding

[Mirror Image]

Listened to this 2-CD set tonight:

[Mirror Image]

Thompson
Symphony No. 2 in E minor
Bernstein
New York Philharmonic



A superb symphony. I wish Bernstein had conducted Thompson's other two symphonies as well.

[Traverso]

Oh look, Holmboe love while I was asleep! 

The string quartets are often tougher because (as with Shostakovich) there are no early ones, compared to there being quite a few early symphonies.

But there are fabulous pieces in there once you unlock the language.

Unlock the language, I like  this expression., I feel like a gold  digger. 

[Que]

Morning listening:



Revisiting just the Requiem, not the Marian motets that precede it.
Somehow this recording escaped my attention before, but it's a resounding succes....

Q

[Baron Scarpia]

Melartin Symphony No 3

[asin]B00001W08G[/asin]

I feel this work has reached another level in Melartin's output. Harmonic and orchestral sophistication which is beyond the first two symphonies and is really at the highest level. I hesitate to give my overall impression of the work without spending more time getting familiar with it.