What are you listening to now?

[Wanderer]

.[asin]B008S87SYW[/asin]

[Muzio]

Elizabeth Harwood (soprano) sounds wonderful in this presentation:
\

Leontyne Price in a "rediscovered" 1965 recital at Carnegie Hall, her first appearance there.  For me, the applause is irritating, but the voice is beautiful.  I wish she had done more recital performances than she did.

[Harry]

New.

Francisco Guerau, (with consummate Skill) Complete Works for Guitar. CD 1.

Xavier Diaz-Latorre plays on 5 course guitars by Julio Castano.

Passacaille 2010.  (3 CD'S)

We have a heatwave in the Netherlands, so better act slowly and listen to music, that makes the mind quiet. Gureau does that. Latorre is a fine Guitar player, with some sensitive fingers which caress the strings gently and elicits the most gorgeous sounds. Perfect recording.

[Florestan]

[Harry]

Ex Vienna, Accordato, Habsburg Violin Music.

Gunar Letzbor, Violin.
Ars Antiqua Austria.
Pan Classics 2015.

For me this disc is an outstanding achievement. Not only is the performance first rate, but the interpretation on this disc is excellent too. The Manuscript XIV 726 is one of the most important sources of Austrian baroque music. It contain about 100 compositions of a very high quality. 9 are on this disc. It's amazing journey in the music of known and unknown composers. Virtuosic in character and sublimely written. It very much pleases the ear and soul.
Sound is top notch.

[vandermolen]

Other than "yeah that sounds like Kabalevsky if you take away the cheeky tunes", it'll take me a couple more listens to make up my mind about them.

Thanks.

[kyjo]

Hymne à la Justice from this set:



I like the sense of urgency that opens this work, and the subsequent struggle throughout. Needless to say it's excellent.

Great piece! Magnard was an excellent composer with a really unique and compelling voice.

[kyjo]

Really liked the Lloyd 4 Kyle, like most of his symphonies actually. Only 3 &10 didn't work for me or left me underwhelmed.

Great to hear!

[kyjo]

Stale Kleiberg:
His String Quartet No.3 is one of the most immediately appealing and, in places moving, contemporary string quartets. I'd imagine that it would appeal to admirers of Vasks for example. 'Do You Believe in Heather?' Is a very poetic and beautiful song cycle. I was so impressed by this composer's 'Bell Reef Symphony' that I emailed him and he sent a very nice reply and then two CDs, including this lovely discovery, of his music. Strongly recommended:

Looks very enticing, Jeffrey. I've read some glowing reviews of Kleiberg's music on MusicWeb International.

[Brian]

Looks very enticing, Jeffrey. I've read some glowing reviews of Kleiberg's music on MusicWeb International.

Back in the day, I wrote one of them 

First listens to the non-Janacek in this set:

[Harry]

New!

Sevilla 1560. Secular Polyphony of the Andalusian School.

Works by: Cevallos, Navarro, Guerrero, Mudarra, Vasquez, Palero, Morata.

La Trulla de Bozes, Carlos Sandua.

Quite an impressive CD. The music is gorgeous and the performance is in all respects stunning. The balance between voices in this choir is one I admire, for they leave room to each other to unfold without hurry, and I am not irritated by a voice that is always hovering above the rest. True polyphony at it's best. The choice of composers is equally impressive, a few I did not know, but deserve to be. Anyone loving vocal music from the Renaissance should not hesitate in acquiring this CD.
Its very special indeed.

[HIPster]

Hi there Harry!

That Sevilla 1560 looks very interesting. 

Now playing:

[asin]B000059OCR[/asin]

A splendid disc of Froberger and his contemporaries.

[Mandryka]

Morning listening is a return to this:

[asin]B01MZDAZM4[/asin]
http://earlymusicreview.com/jean-guyot-te-deum-laudamus/

I think Mandryka has a point about the post-Josquin music not being very distinctive.
But it is attractive all the same and of good quality. Superb performances by the Ensemble Cinquecento.

Q

I agree. I think for me I find the 16th century music in this style, long stretches of fluid imitative counterpoint, to be rich sounding, and rather consonant. I like it in small doses, but a whole CD is just too much for me. My feeling is that the experience would be very different if I had a spontaneous understanding of sung latin. I am, in effect, listening to what may as well be vocalise for me when I listen to these things.

This Guyot CD is something I appreciate more and more each time I dip into it.

[Brian]

Back in the day, I wrote one of them 

First listens to the non-Janacek in this set:

Whoa at the Slavenski "Religiophonia" symphony movement titles:

I. Pagans: Prehistoric music
II. Hebrews: Musica coloristica
III. Buddhists: Musica architectonica
IV. Christians: Musica melodica
V. Moslems: Musica articulatiae
VI. Free Thought: Musica polifonica
VII. Hymn of Toil: Musica harmoniae

Alrighty then 

[Karl Henning]

The mixed winds version of my Saltmarsh Stomp

[Brian]

Whoa at the Slavenski "Religiophonia" symphony movement titles:

I. Pagans: Prehistoric music
II. Hebrews: Musica coloristica
III. Buddhists: Musica architectonica
IV. Christians: Musica melodica
V. Moslems: Musica articulatiae
VI. Free Thought: Musica polifonica
VII. Hymn of Toil: Musica harmoniae

Alrighty then 

Noped out of this piece after "Pagans" turned out to be a xylophone and a bunch of dudes shouting "AH!"


More my speed:



with Duparc and Debussy

[Harry]

Hi there Harry!

That Sevilla 1560 looks very interesting. 

Now playing:

[asin]B000059OCR[/asin]

A splendid disc of Froberger and his contemporaries.

That Froberger you have is also a nice CD. I heard not to long ago on the radio.

[Mandryka]

Hi there Harry!

That Sevilla 1560 looks very interesting. 

Now playing:

[asin]B000059OCR[/asin]

A splendid disc of Froberger and his contemporaries.

The harpsichord player there, Aline Zylberajch, is also on my favourite chamber music Purcell recording, this one

[pjme]

Noped out of this piece after "Pagans" turned out to be a xylophone and a bunch of dudes shouting "AH!"

Josip Slavenski just might be one of those wonderful mavericks, writing music that can be hard to grasp at a first hearing. Think of Varèse, Vermeulen, Ruggles, Jolivet...Symfonia Orienta (Religiophonia or the Symphony of the World Religions) I find at least very intriguing! "Pagans" is scored for male singers, male chorus and percussion - an attempt at primitivism. It's quite gentle & innocuous compared to shouting Choéphores, La mort d'un tyran, Le sacre or Les noces...

For the adventurous:

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

https://www.youtube.com/v/Soe3Ev-Dzwk

Josip Slavenski (1896–1955), a Yugoslav composer. Born Josip Štolcer to a family of bakers in the Croatian region of Međimurje, he added 'Slavenski' to his family name in 1918 and in 1939 made it his official surname.
He studied with Zoltán Kodály in Budapest between 1913 and 1915, with Vítězslav Novák in Prague from 1920 to 1923, and in Paris in 1925–26, where he came into contact with Les Six. In Paris, he signed a contract with the renowned music publishers Schott & Sons to publish his works. For a brief time, he found work in Zagreb (1923–24) as a teacher at the Music Academy's primary school of music but was then dismissed, whereupon he moved and permanently settled in Belgrade. He worked as a professor at the School of Music in Belgrade, the Second Secondary School for Boys, the Music Academy's Secondary School of Music (1937–45), which in 1955 became independent and today carries his name, and at the Music Academy in Belgrade (1945–55), where he taught composition.

Slavenski was a composer with an elementary power of expression, bold in his explorations of new possibilities of expression; in his oeuvre, he pointed toward new paths of development in the national style, approaching the folk melos from an expressionist perspective. His extensive oeuvre covers all genres of music, except opera. His forms are typically rhapsodic, free, his harmonies are radically free, stepping into the sphere of polytonality and atonality, while his instrumentation rests on laws of acoustics, to which he devoted special attention and which resulted in rather original solutions and extraordinary tone colours.

His most significant vocal-symphonic opus is Simfonija Orijenta (Symphony of the Orient; originally Religiofonija), composed for soloists, choir, and orchestra (1934). Among his symphonic works, especially noteworthy are Balkanofonija (1927) and Četiri balkanske igre (Four Balkan Dances, 1938), orchestral arrangements of his piano suites Sa Balkana (From the Balkans), Jugoslavenska svita (Yugoslav Suite), and Iz Jugoslavije (From Yugoslavia), the symphonic scene Nokturno, Muzika za orkestar (Music for Orchestra, 1936) and Muzika za kamerni orkestar (Music for Chamber Orchestra, 1938). In the domain of chamber music, he produced three string quartets (in 1923, 1928, and 1938); Pjesme moje majke (Songs of My Mother) for alto and string quartet (Fourth String Quartet, 1944); Sa sela (From the Country, 1925), a quintet; Sonata religiosa, for violin and organ (1925); and numerous piano works.

Sonata religiosa for violin and organ, Op. 7, a sonata in one movement, is a rather unusual work when it was composed (1919–25), both in terms of performing forces and the treatment of the organ. The first part contains long, extended chords (Peričić dubbed this chordal pedal point), which entails using special wedges to keep the keys down so that the performer may play on the remaining manuals. Thus the opening chord stems from a harmonic series above C, growing in a big crescendo, while a massive, declamatory theme, the main subject of the sonata, develops below, on the organ pedal. The second section brings relaxation (Misterioso – Meno mosso), with the violin introducing the tuneful second subject. The reprise unfolds with the support of a 12-tone chord.

Source: http://composers.rs/en/?page_id=2569

[jwinter]

Greetings, long time no post.  I've been enjoying some classical piano the past several days.  I thought the Gould Haydn was quite good -- while I like his Bach, I wasn't sure what to expect here, pleasantly surprised.


I think I'm switching gears to Bach WTC next, trying to decide whether to pull Schiff or Hewitt off the shelf. 


Cheers,
jwinter