What are you listening to now?

[André]

[Que]

Morning listening:



Q

[Mandryka]

Pollini's Schoenberg recordings are the ones for me, but do think that the solo works are rather mixed - they dont really push the instrument and seem more like compositional studies. They are most subject to the 'Brahms with wrong notes' charge that sometimes gets laid on his music.  It seems Schoenberg was struggling on how to fully utilize the textures of the piano for his compositional style.  Having lost all the Romantic piano textures, and avoiding doublings but not using the really dense vertical chords you see in later 20th century piano music, the pieces sound thin.  None of the piano writing in the solo pieces comes close to that of the Concerto.  certainly Webern's piano music overshadows AS's

He did figure out the piano when he wrote the Concerto, but none of the solo works are from this period

Serkin makes this music sound like dewy gossamer webs in the dawn sunlight. Nuanced, delicate, fresh, refined, kaleidoscopic. Is this what you meant by thin?

It would be good to hear Serkin play Lemma Icon Epigraph (Ferneyhough), which seems to me to owe a lot to Schoenberg.

This music sounds nothing like Brahms - the idea of "Brahms with wrong notes" is rubbish, even in op 11, at least as interpreted here.

I only know one Webern piece for piano alone, that's the variations. Is that what you're thinking of? It's not obvious to me that it "overshadows" the music Schoenberg wrote at all. 

It's a while since I heard Webern's chamber music with piano, and I haven't got a clear enough memory of how he writes for piano there to comment on your idea. I'll be back!

[Mandryka]

I have a huge soft spot for the Orgelbüchlein, so I immediately searched for his version on Apple Music. Unfortunately the sedated tempi put me off almost immediately too. BTW, do you have something like a favorite Orgelbüchlein, Poul?

I think that given your interest in string sounds, you should try this



(For me one main weakness of the recording is that there's a pause after each piece, I like orgelbuchlein when the pieces seem to flow naturally one from the other.)

[vandermolen]

Strong Sibelian overtones (never a bad thing!). Seems well performed and is very well recorded.

Great work! The CD conducted by Stig Westerberg is my favourite version although I don't know this one.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Hello there. Biking about the countryside over; back in front of a computer. Cheers & all!
(Oh, and GMG is working for the first time in weeks (to the extent I have been able to try.)



#morninglistening to #SPECTER - #Antheil w/@Duo_Odeon

https://amzn.to/2NhtjLz

"Gebauer" #ViolinSonata No.4, #ViolinConcerto (reduction) & #SpecterOfTheRose #Waltzes

[Christo]

Please do, Johan! I'd think it would be right up your alley. 

Tasted my first slice of Pizzetti, soon to be followed by more. 

[North Star]

Test-drive Tuesday
Holmboe
Chamber Concerto No. 8, Op. 38 'Sinfonia Concertante' (1945)
Danish National Chamber Orchestra
Hannu Koivula
[asin]B07B6FP2QN[/asin]

[Traverso]

Poulenc

Concerto  pour Orgue
Gloria
Quatre Motets pour un temps de Pénitence

[Draško]

3 & 4. Brahms deconstructed.

[Wakefield]

I think that given your interest in string sounds, you should try this



(For me one main weakness of the recording is that there's a pause after each piece, I like orgelbuchlein when the pieces seem to flow naturally one from the other.)

Thanks, Mandryka! I will listen to it. It's available on Tidal. 

[Karl Henning]

This music sounds nothing like Brahms - the idea of "Brahms with wrong notes" is rubbish [....]

It is no use as a general rule, no.  But, like much rubbish, there was a time and a specific place where it seemed to serve a purpose.  IIRC the phrase was given to an orchestra which was having trouble "getting inside" the music they were asked to play.

It is one of the odd things in life, when a moment's inspiration, serving a temporary purpose, becomes a marble albatross....

[Karl Henning]

Hello there. Biking about the countryside over; back in front of a computer. Cheers & all!

Good to "see" you, Jens!

[Karl Henning]

Tasted my first slice of Pizzetti [....]

That had the air of inevitability about it, non è vero?

[Draško]

A mish-mash of everything that could be heard in Venice from 8th to 18th centuries, from Byzantine chant, Turkish and Armenian dances, through usual Gabrielis, Monteverdies and such, to Mozart and even Beethoven. Quite an undertaking, interpretatively. 

[Traverso]

Louis Couperin & D'Anglebert

A pity that it is not available on CD.

I could only find this American pressing,I have have never seen a European  pressing by DHM.

[André]

Brusque, strongly accented, charmless performances.

[Florestan]

[Mahlerian]

This music sounds nothing like Brahms - the idea of "Brahms with wrong notes" is rubbish, even in op 11, at least as interpreted here.

Some of Schoenberg's earliest juvenilia do indeed sound a lot like Brahms (the Three Piano Pieces of 1894, the D major string quartet, maybe the Op. 1 songs), but none of his mature works really sound like "Brahms with wrong notes."  For one thing, although he took Brahms' rhythmic procedures as an inspiration (one of several), his own treatment of rhythm is quite unique.

[prémont]

Almost too weird with the OB arranged for four celli. I couldn't resist to order it.

(For me one main weakness of the recording is that there's a pause after each piece, I like orgelbuchlein when the pieces seem to flow naturally one from the other.)

Well, this is a collection of pieces. Of course they were never meant to be played like a suite. Why do you think they should?