What are you listening to now?

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Louis Vierne, Piano Quintet



This is a piece of chamber music by a composer better known as a composer for organ (especially the Organ Symphonies).

A moving piece, with interesting melodies, harmonies and sonorities. The central slow movement is particularly impressive, with an otherworldly aura that is hard to describe. According to the notes the piece was written to note the death of Vierne's son in the first world war.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Another go at the mighty Te Deum by Walter Braunfels (1882-1954).

Good evening all,

First listen to Hans Gal's symphonies.

Oh, my. Two of my favorite composers and causes! Love it. (And Bax, whom I adore.)

TD:



#morninglistening to #Beethoven on #PolkadotDay!

The #StringQuartets w/#AmadeusQuartet on @dgclassics

: http://a-fwd.to/21OWVQm

#NationalPolkadotDay

This marvelous reissue makes me listen to the Amadeus' #Ludw... http://bit.ly/2FT4OEa

(See also: LvB String Quartet Survey: http://bit.ly/LvBSQ4ts )

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

#morninglistening to #Beethoven on #PolkadotDay!

The #StringQuartets w/#AmadeusQuartet on @dgclassics

: http://a-fwd.to/21OWVQm

#NationalPolkadotDay

This marvelous reissue makes me listen to the Amadeus' #Ludw... http://bit.ly/2FT4OEa

(See also: LvB String Quartet Survey: http://bit.ly/LvBSQ4ts )

Can you confirm what is implied by the ad copy, that only the Blu ray disc is remastered and the CDs are the same masters that have been in circulation since the 1980s?

I don't know if the blu ray sounds better, but the sound of those CDs is insufferable to me. Scratchy like finger nails on a chalk-board. (Maybe our younger members don't know what that is.) Maybe if I wrapped my head in a thick woolen blanket.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Can you confirm what is implied by the ad copy, that only the Blu ray disc is remastered and the CDs are the same masters that have been in circulation since the 1980s?

I don't know if the blu ray sounds better, but the sound of those CDs is insufferable to me. Scratchy like finger nails on a chalk-board. (Maybe our younger members don't know what that is.) Maybe if I wrapped my head in a thick woolen blanket.

I cannot confirm that -- not, at least, from the release's information. It only says "this edition (P) 2018" and "Complete repertoire remastered at 24bit/192 kHz" at the bottom of the listing... which happens to be beneath the "Blu Ray Audio" listing.

One the one hand I'd be surprised if they had remastered it for CD release, too, because they haven't done that for other releases like the Kempff Schubert. But then I'm listening to them on CD and your experience is not at all applying to my ears.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I cannot confirm that -- not, at least, from the release's information. It only says "this edition (P) 2018" and "Complete repertoire remastered at 24bit/192 kHz" at the bottom of the listing... which happens to be beneath the "Blu Ray Audio" listing.

One the one hand I'd be surprised if they had remastered it for CD release, too, because they haven't done that for other releases like the Kempff Schubert. But then I'm listening to them on CD and your experience is not at all applying to my ears.

We all have different ears. When I listen to those recordings I feel like I'm hearing the rosin on the bow scraping steel strings.

Subjective impressions aside, I don't understand the decision not to use the new masters on the CDs. They went to the trouble to dig out the old tapes, and paid someone to sort through them, fix old splices, run them, edit them, assemble them, how much more trouble to run the result through a format converter and make 44.1 kHz masters? I would be falling over myself to replace the 1980's masters I have for many of these classic recordings. I'm sure I'm not the only one. They saved a few bucks and turned away a lot of customers, I think.

[André]

Incredible orchestrations by the Stokowski of his time. Excellent program. The Bach, Debussy, Rachmaninov and Mussorgsky have been orchestrated many times over, but not as idiomatically as here. Ravel's take on the Pictures is from 1922 and owes much to Woods', completed and played in 1915, recorded in 1920.

Recorded in 1990-93, superbly played by the LPO and engineered with a suitably wide dynamic range.

[71 dB]

Listening to this great disc:

[asin]B000001RTC[/asin]
[asin]B000001RTC[/asin]

why not working? Boccherini symphones vol 1 cpo why not working?

Luigi Boccherini - Complete Symphonies Vol. 1 - op. 7 ° op. 10 No 4 ° G 490 - Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss
Import
Johannes Goritzki (Dirigent), Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss (Orchester)  Format:

https://www.amazon.com/Luigi-Boccherini-Complete-Symphonies-G491/dp/B000001RTC/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=boccherini+goritzki&qid=1548185814&s=Music&sr=1-4

[pjme]

Incredible orchestrations by the Stokowski of his time. Excellent program. The Bach, Debussy, Rachmaninov and Mussorgsky have been orchestrated many times over, but not as idiomatically as here. Ravel's take on the Pictures is from 1922 and owes much to Woods', completed and played in 1915, recorded in 1920.

Recorded in 1990-93, superbly played by the LPO and engineered with a suitably wide dynamic range.

https://www.youtube.com/v/FeErAbMS6t8

"Over the top" !

[JBS]

why not working? Boccherini symphones vol 1 cpo why not working?

User originated images (usually found on OOP items) and images for downloaded items don't show on the ASIN link (the link itself still works)--as here, a CD Amazon itself is not selling.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

We all have different ears. When I listen to those recordings I feel like I'm hearing the rosin on the bow scraping steel strings.

Subjective impressions aside, I don't understand the decision not to use the new masters on the CDs. They went to the trouble to dig out the old tapes, and paid someone to sort through them, fix old splices, run them, edit them, assemble them, how much more trouble to run the result through a format converter and make 44.1 kHz masters? I would be falling over myself to replace the 1980's masters I have for many of these classic recordings. I'm sure I'm not the only one. They saved a few bucks and turned away a lot of customers, I think.

If that's indeed what they did, it doesn't make much sense to me, either. I'll inquire.

[André]

https://www.youtube.com/v/FeErAbMS6t8

"Over the top" !

Nice, thanks for that ! I will listen to it with much interest.

[André]

Symphonies 1and 2 from this set:



This time around I found the 1st slightly too heavy of gait. For the same kind of big, muscular POV Giulini's LAPO is more illumimating. The 2nd is also warm and slightly heavy but it suits the work better. The finale is superb, patient but steadily building to a thrilling coda. A performance of the 2nd lives and dies by its success in the last few bars. Bernstein and the WP happily had reserves of energy and delivered the goods handily.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Symphonies 1and 2 from this set:



This time around I found the 1st slightly too heavy of gait. For the same kind of big, muscular POV Giulini's LAPO is more illumimating. The 2nd is also warm and slightly heavy but it suits the work better. The finale is superb, patient but steadily building to a thrilling coda. A performance of the 2nd lives and dies by its success in the last few bars. Bernstein and the WP happily had reserves of energy and delivered the goods handily.

I was thinking I never heard a Brahms symphony recording where there wasn't something to enjoy, but now you've reminded me of this one.

Particularly the 3rd symphony. I remember seeing Bernstein on TV doing an interview in conjunction with this recording and I seem to remember him saying that he had the insight that the temp indication, allegro con brio, didn't apply to the main melody so much as to the accompanying voices. The result is that it is veeery sloooow. Just dreadful, IMO

I agree that Giulini's Brahms 2 with LAPO is a great example of using a slow tempo to illuminate a score. It is a terrific recording.

[André]

I was thinking I never heard a Brahms symphony recording where there wasn't something to enjoy, but now you've reminded me of this one.

Particularly the 3rd symphony I remember seeing Bernstein on TV doing an interview in conjunction with this recording and I seem to remember him saying that he had the insight that the temp indication, allegro con brio, didn't apply to the main melody so much as to the accompanying voices. The result is that it is veeery sloooow. Just dreadful, IMO

I agree that Giulini's Brahms 2 with LAPO is a great example of using a slow tempo to illuminate a score. It is a terrific recording.

That's coming up next, probably tomorrow  . Mind you, I love Giulini's very slow 3rd (with the WP). But Giulini has a way of allowing the light to shine even through the dense thickets of slow moving, full-blown romantic brahmsian textures. In LA (symphonies 1 and 2) he was a bit less inclined to wallow, so even at slow tempos his Brahms sounded muscular.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

That's coming up next, probably tomorrow  . Mind you, I love Giulini's very slow 3rd (with the WP). But Giulini has a way of allowing the light to shine even through the dense thickets of slow moving, full-blown romantic brahmsian textures. In LA (symphonies 1 and 2) he was a bit less inclined to wallow, so even at slow tempos his Brahms sounded muscular.

The key to a slow tempo is using the extra breathing space to include more expressive detail. Barbirolli was great at that, IMO. And Giulini when he was on.

[Daverz]

Urspruch: Symphony

[asin] B0791VZ9KK[/asin]

Jerry Dubins raves about this in the latest Fanfare.  It was pleasant.

Lachner: Symphony No. 3

[asin] B07D2Z8KKK[/asin]

Lachner is more interesting.  A very nice Scherzo.

[André]

A varied program of orchestral, vocal and concertante music. The Carnival Overture and the Prelude and Fugue are substantial works - particularly the latter. The musical language of the two songs for baritone and orchestra is lushly late-romantic, but they didn't catch my attention as much as the Scottish Fantasy, a viola concerto in all but name. After a lengthy orchestral introduction the viola ushers in with droning sounds before launching a lyrical melody rather similar to the Laudamus theme of his Te Deum. Apparently Braunfels used a popular scottish folk song but I didn't detect it on first hearing. I'll try to get it from youtube (Kathleen Ferrier used to sing it, so it must be available). 

The excellent album notes are by our own Jens F. Laurson who, unusually, does not hesitate to recommend discs from the competition to further our knowledge of Braunfels  .

Edit: Youtube is indeed replete with versions of Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes. It seems very popular. I listened to a few versions of it. Very beautiful. It appears in the Fantasy quite late, around the 17' mark and dominates the last part of the work.

[JBS]

From the Karajan Remastered  set
Brahms Symphony 2
Schubert Symphony  8 (Unfinished)
HvK /Philharmonia recorded 1955

Karajan recorded Symphonies 1,2 and 4, plus the Haydn Variations in the 50s, but apparently did  not do the Third.  No reason given in the booklet for the lacuna. The Variations he actually did twice, once in mono and once in stereo.

[Daverz]

Roussel: Symphony No. 3



Provincial German orchestra, radio broadcast recording, and a conductor named "Bour", hahaha. 

But this is a fabulous performance of the Roussel.  The sound is a touch blowsy, but very vivid stereo.

On Qobuz: https://play.qobuz.com/album/3298490078044
On Tidal: https://listen.tidal.com/album/68610871

[JBS]

Roussel: Symphony No. 3



Provincial German orchestra, radio broadcast recording, and a conductor named "Bour", hahaha. 

But this is a fabulous performance of the Roussel.  The sound is a touch blowsy, but very vivid stereo.

He seems to have been one of those prominent conductors no one has heard of
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Bour

Bour's repertoire was marked by a concentration on contemporary music. World premières he presided over included works by Bussotti, Ferneyhough, Górecki, Ligeti, Rihm, Stockhausen and Xenakis, and he gave the French premières of Hindemith's Symphony Mathis der Maler and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress and the European premiere of Susman's Trailing Vortices.[3] His recordings ranged from music of François Couperin[4] to André Jolivet.[5

It says he gave the European premiere of Berio's Sinfonia besides those.
And this

Perhaps his most heard recording is of Ligeti's Atmospheres with the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra aka Sinfonieorchester des Südwestfunks Baden-Baden heard on the soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey.