What are you listening to now?

[Draško]

Delalande - Miserere, motet for voice & accompaniment, S. 87
Lully - Omnes gentes plaudite, motet for 3 voices and continuo, LWV 77/10

[aligreto]

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 [Mengelberg]





This performance is not about the almost 90 year old vintage recording quality [which is very good given its age] but rather about the vintage performance and interpretation. This is a a tense, taut and exciting performance that is electrically charged and readily engages for its freshness and insight. It leaves one almost breathless in places. A magnificent performance.

[aligreto]

You're welcome, aligreto!

I congratulate myself, if it turned out to be a good teaser...   

Indeed. I have seen it over the past while but I have not paid it much attention really....until now 

[Traverso]

Mozart

Symphony No. 33

[NikF]

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No.1 - Jablonski/Ashkenazy/Royal Philharmonic.

[asin]B006FUA7UW[/asin]

[aligreto]

Mozart

Symphony No. 33

I have always liked Bohm's Mozart 

[Florestan]

Sonata in E minor op. 25 No. 2 "Night Wind"

A hauntingly beautiful hyper-Romantic one-movement work of massive proportions based on an 1836 poem by Fyodor Tyutchev.

Why moan, why wail you, wind of night,
With such despair, such frenzied madness?
Why is your voice now full of might,
Now piteous and tinged with sadness?
In tongue known to the heart, of pain
Unknown to it for ever chanting,
At times within it well-nigh frantic
Sounds you awaken and insane.

Sing not, O wind, your fearful song
Of chaos, for the hungry spirit,
Into night's world of shadows flung,
Exults in it and strains to hear it.
The bounds of mortal flesh 'twould fly
And merge with boundless ocean sweeping.
Take heed! Let slumbering tempests lie:
Beneath them chaos stirs unsleeping.

The three opening chords, which reoccur all throughout, including in the rather anti-climactic coda, will probably be stuck in my head forever.

[SymphonicAddict]

String octet

Along with the Mendelssohn, the Glière, the Svendsen and the Bargiel, the most spellbinding string octets I know.

[Traverso]

I have always liked Bohm's Mozart 

I like also Klemperer and the Mozart symphonies,Krips with the Concertgebouw orchestra,Tate and the English chamber Orchestra,Hogwood and the Academy,Marriner and the other Academy.
They all have their weak and strong points.Klemperer No.29 is very dear to me,Hogwood is too.......at first I liked his recordings very much but for an authentic Mozart I prefer Frans Brüggen.,Krips is wonderfull and Tate is perhaps my first choice for a complete set.

[Kontrapunctus]

No. 1 and 2 today--incendiary performances!

[Que]

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 [Mengelberg]





This performance is not about the almost 90 year old vintage recording quality [which is very good given its age] but rather about the vintage performance and interpretation. This is a a tense, taut and exciting performance that is electrically charged and readily engages for its freshness and insight. It leaves one almost breathless in places. A magnificent performance.

I agree, Mengelberg's Tchaikovsky is extraordinary. 

Q

[aligreto]

Spohr: Clarinet Concerto No. 1 [Ottensamer/Wildner]

[aligreto]

I like also Klemperer and the Mozart symphonies,Krips with the Concertgebouw orchestra,Tate and the English chamber Orchestra,Hogwood and the Academy,Marriner and the other Academy.
They all have their weak and strong points.Klemperer No.29 is very dear to me,Hogwood is too.......at first I liked his recordings very much but for an authentic Mozart I prefer Frans Brüggen.,Krips is wonderfull and Tate is perhaps my first choice for a complete set.

I would like to add my endorsement to the Tate and the English chamber Orchestra cycle. One that you do not see very often but it is a fine cycle.
I would also like to put a word in for the Mackerras cycle 

[aligreto]

I agree, Mengelberg's Tchaikovsky is extraordinary. 

Q

Cheers Que; another fan 

[Mirror Image]

Mozart

Symphony No. 33

I gave that set away to a friend many years ago. Not because I didn't think the performances were good, but because I don't think much of Mozart.

[SymphonicAddict]

Dello Joio - The Triumph of Joan Symphony

How polystylistic and authentic this is. Certainly it has a VW-ish grandeur to it, some Baxian-less-diffuse stuff, some cragginess of Hindemith (?), the Hanson's spirit and a voice of his own. Worth listening and deservedly recommended. Last, but not least, the performance makes justice to the work, vivid sound, a noticeable experience.

[vandermolen]

Dello Joio - The Triumph of Joan Symphony

How polystylistic and authentic this is. Certainly it has a VW-ish grandeur to it, some Baxian-less-diffuse stuff, some cragginess of Hindemith (?), the Hanson's spirit and a voice of his own. Worth listening and deservedly recommended. Last, but not least, the performance makes justice to the work, vivid sound, a noticeable experience.

x

I enjoy this fine CD and many other releases conducted by James Sedares.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

No. 1 and 2 today--incendiary performances!

+1. Monumental.

[Daverz]

I gave that set away to a friend many years ago. Not because I didn't think the performances were good, but because I don't think much of Mozart.

I don't see much need to have the early Mozart symphonies, but Böhm did seem to think they were worthwhile recording.

[André]

This afternoon, this version of Shostakovich's 5th, from 1959:




And tonight, this one from 1953:



Two diametrically opposed conceptions of the work. I doubt Ormandy was capable of infusing his conducting with blackness and despair. Although there is great drama, sunny vistas are never far from the corner. Mitropoulos OTOH was a past master at making music sound pitch black and full of wrenching despair. That both are equally satisfying is a measure of the greatness of the music and a testament to great conducting.

The Mitropoulos is in excellent, ample-sounding mono. The slight tubbiness in the bass actually contributes to the recording's pessimistic atmosphere. The Ormandy has some stunningly beautiful wind and horn solos that melt the heart. The strings in the slow movement are beyond gorgeous. I found the coda slightly dispassionate, with low brass and percussion not ripping as they could have.