What are you listening to now?

[Daverz]

Bloch: Concerto Symphonique.  I'm warming to it finally.  This is a post-WWII work, but it has a cinematic quality (stentorian brass fanfares) I associate with earlier works like Schelomo.  The sonics are a bit wooden. 

[asin] B000YKNVGG[/asin]

Symphony for Trombone



This hasn't been recorded often.  It's a short work, similar in melodramatic style to the Concerto Symphonique, but a bit more lyrical.  Hard to evaluate the performance, but the trombone playing seems good and the orchestral playing seems OK.  Sound is good for a Soviet recording.  There's also a recording by Lindberg on Bis and one by Arutiunian on Claves.

...Arutiunian is so much better that I think the old Soviet runthrough can be forgotten.

...And Lindberg is even better.


[asin] B000027E7J[/asin]

[Que]

Morning listening:



Q

[Florestan]

This must be the least melancholy and least sorrowful D960 I have ever heard. It's as if, by choosing fast --- much too fast for my taste --- tempi for the first two movements and by his light, at times playful touch, Curzon wanted to make the case for this sonata being of a much lighter and brighter nature than everybody else supposes it to be. I am not won over. By contrast, the Moments Musicaux are bleak, humourless and dull --- possibly the worst Schubert playing I've ever heard, musically not technically speaking.

Meh.

[Mandryka]

This must be the least melancholy and least sorrowful D960 I have ever heard. It's as if, by choosing fast --- much too fast for my taste --- tempi for the first two movements and by his light, at times playful touch, Curzon wanted to make the case for this sonata being of a much lighter and brighter nature than everybody else supposes it to be. I am not won over. By contrast, the Moments Musicaux are bleak, humourless and dull --- possibly the worst Schubert playing I've ever heard, musically not technically speaking.

Meh.

I heard him play this in a private concert in University College, Oxford. He was very nervous, it was not good. However there is a really special live D960 from him in Salzburg on Orfeo.

[Traverso]

Mozart

To start the day with.
CD 2

Serenade in C minor,KV 388/384a "Nacht Musique"
Serenade in E flat,KV 375

[vandermolen]

Both works:
[asin]B000JJSP72[/asin]

[vandermolen]

Bloch: Concerto Symphonique.  I'm warming to it finally.  This is a post-WWII work, but it has a cinematic quality (stentorian brass fanfares) I associate with earlier works like Schelomo.  The sonics are a bit wooden. 

[asin] B000YKNVGG[/asin]

Symphony for Trombone



This hasn't been recorded often.  It's a short work, similar in melodramatic style to the Concerto Symphonique, but a bit more lyrical.  Hard to evaluate the performance, but the trombone playing seems good and the orchestral playing seems OK.  Sound is good for a Soviet recording.  There's also a recording by Lindberg on Bis and one by Arutiunian on Claves.

...Arutiunian is so much better that I think the old Soviet runthrough can be forgotten.

...And Lindberg is even better.


[asin] B000027E7J[/asin]

I like the Bloch work very much - there is a fine version on Chandos.

[Traverso]

Holmboe

CD 5

String Quartets 13,14 & 15

[Madiel]

I think it's a Nielsen night. Streaming some first listens:

Three piano pieces, op.59. Fabulous stuff, I instantly love Nielsen's mature piano output.



Prelude and presto for solo violin, op.52. Plenty of interest here.



Bohemian-Danish Folk Tune



Clarinet Concerto, op.57. Interesting, though I'm not sure I immediately like it as much as some other works. Will need to hear more.

[Karl Henning]

Holmboe

CD 5

String Quartets 13,14 & 15

How's your survey going?

[Karl Henning]

I think it's a Nielsen night. Streaming some first listens:

Three piano pieces, op.59. Fabulous stuff, I instantly love Nielsen's mature piano output.

Aye.

[Florestan]

I heard him play this in a private concert in University College, Oxford. He was very nervous, it was not good.

AfaIk he was famous for being rather nervous usually, but that recording is not nervous in the least, on the contrary it's relaxed, laid-back and even playful, with plenty of audible humming and groaning , actually (at times I thought it was Fazil Say playing  ) --- a take that doesn't work at all in D960 imho.

On the other hand the Moment Musicaux are heavy-handed, joyless and sound rather mechanical.

That's not at all how I like my Schubert.

However there is a really special live D960 from him in Salzburg on Orfeo.

Do you have it?

[Madiel]

Aye.

Do you have any favoured Nielsen piano recordings? I'm very close to pulling the trigger on the John McCabe set.

[amw]

Do you have any favoured Nielsen piano recordings? I'm very close to pulling the trigger on the John McCabe set.

The McCabe set is very good as is the single disc by Leif Ove Andsnes, & the Mina Miller set on Danacord.

[amw]

The major Nielsen piano works (op.32, 40, 45 & 59) all fit comfortably on one disc and I'm not sure why no one has actually programmed a single CD like that but that's a different question lmao

[Madiel]

The major Nielsen piano works (op.32, 40, 45 & 59) all fit comfortably on one disc and I'm not sure why no one has actually programmed a single CD like that but that's a different question lmao

Quite possibly they feel that the listener needs the "light relief" of the minor pieces.

Or they just think they can get people to shell out for 2 CDs instead of one. In this instance, I think they're right. And I say that as someone who is pretty allergic to unnecessary filler.

[North Star]

Debussy
Images, L. 122 (1905-12)
Orchestra Dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Leonard Bernstein
[asin]B077TR4QSX[/asin]

[Traverso]

How's your survey going?

Thank you for asking, I like his quartets but I still feel a novice in modern classical music.I listen now to music wich I couldn't imagine a few years ago.I'm not fond of the American minimalists with a few exceptions.I listened to Boulez,Ligeti,Dutilleux and the recordings of Les percussions de Strasbourg wich was very satisfactory.
I can't absorb it all,so I have to make choices and I feel comfortable to focus on the big names.I have no big appetite in exploring the new music but I feel guilty in a way if I don't.
I'm sure that there are people who exclusively listen to modern music,it is not likely that I will do the same.
The more traditional music falls far more easely in the ear and I think it is also a matter of lazyness to give less attention to modern music.
So far my confession.
Many recordings I have to relisten before I go further with exploring.

[Madiel]

Brahms, 3 (vocal) Quartets, op.64

Which are on this CD despite not being mentioned on the cover.

First listen. Not quite as delightful as the Liebesliederwalzer, but still good.

[Florestan]

Brahms, 3 (vocal) Quartets, op.64

Which are on this CD despite not being mentioned on versions of the cover (which I suspect comes from a much earlier issue before a repackaging)

First listen. Not quite as delightful as the Liebesliederwalzer, but still good.

I don't have this but the line up is impressive. At least the LLW should rock. Do they?