What are you listening to now?

[Malx]

A recording worthy of investigation if German baroque is of any interest!

[Malx]

Last disc before sleep, a fantastic historic recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto No 24 performed by Kathleen Long with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Eduard van Beinum.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

#morninglistening to #Buxtehude #organmusic w /#HaraldVogel on #mDG:

: http://a-fwd.to/4cmhuNs

♡ Really the most terrific cycle of this music I've heard so far. Listened through the whole set in one go. ♡

Oh gosh... I realized only now that there are about 20 (!) Buxtehude Organ cycles, not five or six, as I thought.

[Moonfish]

Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette
Roggero/Chabay/Sze
Radcliffe Choral Society/Harvard Glee Club
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Charles Munch

[André]

Pollini is superb here, his tone bright yet without a trace of hardness.

[TheGSMoeller]

My first listen to this newly purchased recording of Brahms German Requiem with Vienna and Giulini.





In que for after the Brahms is quite a shift to DSCH's 5th Symphony. My love for this work is resurfacing after a few years. This earlier Bernstein recording from 1959 is dynamite, including a brooding Largo, and a more victorious coda to close out the work, although I prefer a slower ending this one still sends chills down my back.

[Madiel]

Christmas Carols written by Nielsen in 1923.

Scattered across several different albums as I'm hunting through my streaming service. Rather sweet.

[André]

Symphony no 3 and Vox maris, a tone poem for orchestra with soprano and offstage voices.

Richly coloured music, expansive and unabashedly romantic. Anyone with an affection for the music of Szymanowski, Karlowicz, Bantock, Magnard or Schmitt will find lots to admire here. Not that there is any connection that I know of btw these composers, but they share a penchant for large structures, bold strokes, ambiguous harmonies and very effective yet transparent orchestration.

The symphony is probably Enescu's most ambitious and accomplished score. The tone poem is a seascape with storm and shipwreck. The words are based on a breton poem (translated in French). It is powefully evocative and very beautiful. The whole 2-disc album is a gem.

[Madiel]

After various small scraps of Nielsen from 1923-25, it's time for the main course...

Symphony No.6

[asin]B005FF2U2Q[/asin]

[Moonfish]

Brahms: Symphony No.1        (yes, by coincidence - it must be a GMG Brahms telepathy event!)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Günter Wand

[Moonfish]

Changing realm and continuing with....

The HMV Recordings 1947-1952
Works by Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt and Debussy
Moura Lympany

APR certainly are wizards when it comes to remastering historical recordings!

Disc 1 from

[Ken B]

Beethoven
Piano Sonata 9
Robert Taub

[Undersea]

Agreed. If you are not already aware of it, you may want to consider his cycle of Schumann symphonies (with the Cleveland Orchestra) which is similarly superb.

OK, Ill keep it in mind - Cheers.

[Undersea]

.
[asin]B000026D4K[/asin]

Strauss (R): Aus Italien, Op. 16

Rudolf Kempe: Staatskapelle Dresden


Beautiful work - A favorite from this box of delights.

[vandermolen]

I've somehow avoided Haydn's symphonies almost completely for three months. Key signatures seem like a fine alternative listening plan, instead of going through them over again in chronological order..

Thread-duty - First-listen Friday
Tubin
Symphony No. 4 in A major 'Sinfonia lirica' (1943/78)
Bergen Philharmonic
Neeme Järvi
[asin]B000079AZT[/asin]

No. 4 is lovely, especially in Jarvi's recording. I've heard the work compared to 'A Pastoral Symphony' by Vaughan Williams. The start of Symphony 4 is my favourite Tubin symphony opening.

[vandermolen]

Collins' cycle, which I wanted stand-alone but found too expensive in Japan, was the reason I got this set, too. Marvelous if obviously aged.

Almost as good as the Ole Schmidt Nielsen cycle, in a way, but with a lot more great competition than the latter.

I was very tempted by that set but have too many of the recordings, including the Collins cycle, on individual Decca Eloquence releases. Still, it looks like a terrific set.

[vandermolen]

Symphonic Variations on a popular song from Alentejo
[asin]B00006B1KD[/asin]
And, of course, the wonderful Symphony 4.

[Madiel]

Sibelius, 6 Songs, op.86

[asin]B00YQIFXWW[/asin]

Perhaps not as impressive as some of the other opuses of songs (www.sibelius.fi describes the last few song collections, including this one, as simpler and less dramatic or expressionistic). But they're still enjoyable.

[RebLem]

On Friday, 8 JUN 2018, I listened to 2 CD.

1)  Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915):  Tr. 1-9.  Cantata 2, Op. 36   "At the Reading of a Psalm" (69'01)--Mikhail Pletnev, cond., Russian National Orch., St Petersburg State Academic Capella Choir, Boys Choir of the Glinka Choral College. Lolita Semenina, soprano, Marianna Tarassova, alto, Mikhail Gubsky, tenor, Andrei Baturkin, bass.  Pentatone Hybrid Multichannel SuperAudio CD, rec. live @ the Philharmonic Hall St. Petersburg, 1-2 MAY 2003.  TT: 69'01.

Pentatone production packages are works of art in themselves, aside from their contents.  This CD is in one of those fold-out booklets, with a CD pressed into a plastic template glued to the inside first page, the the other side is a 76 page (including front and back covers) booklet about the CD.  Pages 2-25 are in English, and it has comparable German and French sections.  Then near the end we have four pages consisting of the text of the work in four languages, beginning with a Latin-alphabet version of Russian.

This work is divided into three movements, each of which, in turn, is divided into three subsections, as follows:
First Movement-- 1 Chorus (5'12), 2 Double Chorus (4'50), 3 Chorus (7'38)
Second Movement--4 Chorus (3'39), 5 Quartet (10'55), 6 Quartet & Chorus (8'40)
Third Movement--7 Interlude (instrumental ending with choral exclamation) (6'20)  8 Alto solo aria (10'22) 9 Double Chorus (10'55)
The work begins with a choral passage:  "The earth is trembling  /The thunder rolls through the ether.  /It is the voice of God.  He orders the world:  /Israel, my people, listen to me!"
All the other words, whether sung by a chorus, a quartet, or a soloist, represent the voice of God speaking directly to Man.  One of the most beautful passages is the one in Tr. 5, sung by the quartet: "I need no incense.   It is the breath of flowers,  /Smelling sweet beneath the dew,  /That showers praise upon me  /From all parts of the world."

Although the choirs are mixed, basses and baritones seem to set the tone here, as they do in so much of Russian vocal music., and it has a rousing climax as well.  Altogether a fine performance of an interesting work.  Although it was a late work in Taneyev's output, it is written in a very conservative 19th century musical idiom.  Nothing here, I think, that would have made Robert Schumann uncomfortabe.

2) A. Bruckner (1824-96):  Symphony 7 in E Major (1885)--Karl Bohm, cond., Wiener Philharmoniker, rec. Musikvereinsaal, 4-5 JUN 1943.  CD 3  of a 3 CD Tahra set titled "Hommage a Karl Bohm."

This was one of the WWII recordings made with a Magnetophon tape recorder, and the sound is magnificent for 1943.  It is a broad, generous, flat out gorgeous performance.  This CD set, you may recall, is a 3 B's, or maybe 4 B's issue--except Bach is replaced with Bruckner and Bohm is added.  Highly recommended. 

[Mandryka]

https://yadi.sk/mail?hash=4VW4kJWt6dUPU92nE1DPeF6WAvEWUR%2Bkz3oXfrYRSNM%3D&uid=96602421

Ensemble Nevermind, Telemann quartets. Not my sort of thing at the end of the day, but I thought the link may interest people who are interested, if that's not a tautology . . .