What are you listening to now?

[Roasted Swan]

Bought the most recent [in the US] BBC Music Magazine, Vol 27 No 11 [August 2019]
Just finished listening to it.
Contents
Ravel Sheherazade  Sarah Connolly, BBC Natl Orch Wales, Thomas Sondergard conductor
Debussy Nocturnes BBC Natl Orch Wales, Pascal Rophe conductor
Boulanger  Faust et Helene BBC Symph Orch, James Gaffigan conductor Vocalists: Katarina Dalayman (Helene), Samuel Sakker (Faust), Benedict Nelson (Mephistopheles)

Anyone interested in Boulanger will probably want this CD. Faust et Helene was her winning entry for the Prix de Rome in 1913. Half an hour long, based on an episode in Goethe's Faust Part II, seems much better than the Prix de Rome entries I have heard from Debussy and Ravel.

The Boulanger is a stunning work.  Sadly of its 2 recordings - one (with a superb tenor Andre Mallabrera and specialist Boulanger conductor Igor Markevitch) has never made it to CD and the other - much lauded on Chandos is actually about as unidiomatic as it could be,  The tenor there the straining Italianate Bonaventura Bottone is about as wrong as it is possible to be.......

[Karl Henning]

"Papa"
Op. 50 string quartets
The Nomos Quartet

[Madiel]

This one divides opinions. I know one person who claims it's a major high point of the music on record, another who claims there's no music in it because Beroff is just playing the notes.

When I listened to it with Spendor/Krell it before lunch it sounded totally uninteresting; now I'm listening to it with JR149/Quad 306 after lunch and it sounds much much more like music. Involving poetry in fact.

Go figure. But I think that different play back systems suit different recordings and no one should ever write a review of any music unless they've played it on at least four top quality hifis. And no-one should draw any conclusions on an empty stomach.

How many people, even professional reviewers, do you think have access to four top quality hifis?

And why are you giving an opinion after only two?

Frankly you're putting the onus in the wrong place. It's part of the job of the technical people creating the recording to make it sound good on as many systems as possible. Not the job of the listener to listen on as many systems as possible.

[André]

I don't think Mozart would have liked these interpretations. They sound hyper-objective, over-articulated, obsessed with clarity at the expense of feeling and emotion. Dynamics feel compressed, the result of orchestra cruise-controlling at mf most of the time. Everything is spic and span and I hear details that normally do not come through, whether they're in PI or MI interpretations. Wand's Mozart is not without interest, but it lacks affection and grandeur.

[Karl Henning]

Listening to Adrienne Krausz's excellent The Twilight of Liszt album

[JBS]

The Boulanger is a stunning work.  Sadly of its 2 recordings - one (with a superb tenor Andre Mallabrera and specialist Boulanger conductor Igor Markevitch) has never made it to CD and the other - much lauded on Chandos is actually about as unidiomatic as it could be,  The tenor there the straining Italianate Bonaventura Bottone is about as wrong as it is possible to be.......

Then by all means get this  CD before it disappears from the newstands!
[BBB Music Magazine for August 2019]

TD

[SymphonicAddict]

Prokofiev - Symphony No. 6



First listen to this work. So far, so good.

Very nice! What other Prokofiev symphonies are you familiar with?

[SymphonicAddict]

Villa-Lobos

string quartets 3-8-14

Good to see you are listening to these quartets. His cycle seems underrated comparing it with others from the 20th century. The first quartets are folksy and catchy.

[SymphonicAddict]

Pizzetti - Violin concerto in A minor: A first listen. Really great, with the right dose of passion and lyricism, it didn't disappoint at all. The 2nd movement is sublime, the heart of the work. I don't have any complaint about both the work and the performance (including the recording quality). Mirrorimage alerted me of this concerto when he was still active on the forum.

[kyjo]

Salonen: Cello Concerto

[asin]B07N3PGCMD[/asin]
I really enjoyed the shimmering, neo-impressionistic first movement of this concerto. However, the second movement was too "sound effect-y" for my tastes and the third, despite some interesting percussion writing, didn't really convince me either. Yo-Yo Ma, of course, makes a very good case for the work, but I do wish he would turn his attention to lesser-known works of the past. But alas, that's not where the money is...


Martinů: Cello Concerto no. 1

[asin]B01IWW2HKI[/asin]
Two kinetically active, folksy outer movements enclose a calm, benevolent slow movement. It's great to see a cellist of the status of Sol Gabetta championing this work (she also played the Weinberg concerto at the Proms this year), but I wonder if her interpretation could've benefitted from a bit more expansiveness - the outer movements in particular felt a bit breathless. I recall slightly preferring Raphael Wallfisch's more humane recording on Chandos.


Škerjanc: Symphony no. 1

https://youtu.be/X9UphUK91p4
(very good performance and recording)

Another great work from this forgotten Slovenian composer. At just 14 and a half minutes long, perhaps it's more a tone poem than a symphony, but that hardly matters in the face of this idyllic music that reminds me of a gorgeous summer afternoon. It exudes a Mediterranean warmth comparable to the sunniest works of Debussy and Ravel.


Berlioz: Requiem

[asin]B000GYHZ6M[/asin]
Aside from his Symphonie fantastique and Roman Carnival Overture, Berlioz is a composer whose music I generally struggle to appreciate. His Requiem is a case in point. Aside from some exciting climactic moments, much of it seems rather turgid and unengaging to me. I felt the same way when attending a live performance of La Damnation de Faust recently - I enjoyed certain sections (particularly the Pandemonium), but much of the rest held little interest for me...


Fauré: Nocturnes

[asin]B07N3XXWG7[/asin]
Fauré's 13 nocturnes very effectively chart the progression of his musical style over the years - the first was written in 1875 and the last in 1921. Unsurprisingly, they start out relatively straightforward and become progressively more elusive but no less engaging. There's a welcome variety of mood across the works - some are more extroverted and virtuosic than others. Did Fauré ever write a single note that was out of place? Certainly not to me!

[Traverso]

Bach

[Traverso]

Good to see you are listening to these quartets. His cycle seems underrated comparing it with others from the 20th century. The first quartets are folksy and catchy.

They are indeed very attractice and deserved more attention.

[Roasted Swan]

Berlioz: Requiem

[asin]B000GYHZ6M[/asin]
Aside from his Symphonie fantastique and Roman Carnival Overture, Berlioz is a composer whose music I generally struggle to appreciate. His Requiem is a case in point. Aside from some exciting climactic moments, much of it seems rather turgid and unengaging to me. I felt the same way when attending a live performance of La Damnation de Faust recently - I enjoyed certain sections (particularly the Pandemonium), but much of the rest held little interest for me...

Whisper who dares ..... I agree with you about Berlioz completely.  I want to like his music more because of all the other composers whose music I love who say how important he was to their development (Arnold for one) but I really struggle not to become bored by it.  Years and years ago I helped front of house manage a performance at the City of London Festival in St. Pauls Cathedral of the Requiem.... Colin Davis/LSO.   Should have been a shoe-in for an epic life-enhancing experience.  Instead the enduring memories were a) the dreadful acoustic and b) the "beautiful moments but bad quarters of an hour" to steal the famous quote. 

Also played in Beatrice & Benedict (the complete opera) some time ago and again, it was OK.......  Its just me I know I know.. but we all have our blind spots and one of mine is definitely Berlioz.... sorry

[Traverso]

Mozart

pianoconcertos No.22 & 23

These recordings are still very enjoyable,Brendel and the Academy,the two go very well together

[Harry]

It does me great pleasure that someone enjoys this set as much as I do. 

Q

Ach but there are more Que that like this music, YOU are NOT alone. I bought the Clementi sets when they were released. Its a fabulous set.

[Mandryka]

How many people, even professional reviewers, do you think have access to four top quality hifis?

As many as are fit to make reviews

And why are you giving an opinion after only two?

I am not giving my opinion in the sense of making an evaluation of the performance. I am reporting that I had contradictory reactions depending on my lunch and the system.

Frankly you're putting the onus in the wrong place. It's part of the job of the technical people creating the recording to make it sound good on as many systems as possible. Not the job of the listener to listen on as many systems as possible.

It's the onus of the reviewer to refrain from evaluation.

There's a famous speech that Britten made where he said

For a musical experience needs three human beings at least. It requires a composer, a performer, and a listener; and unless these three take part together there is no musical experience.

And what interests me is that the hi fi system plays a role which resembles the performers' instruments and the hall; and that the listener's participation depends on the contents of his stomach.

[Irons]

I like this CD very much and prefer the performance of the Symphony to the one on Chandos, good as that one is as well.

On the subject of Dyson and Chandos. Have you heard his violin concerto, Jeffrey?

[Traverso]

España

[Traverso]

As many as are fit to make reviews

I am not giving my opinion in the sense of making an evaluation of the performance. I am reporting that I had contradictory reactions depending on my lunch and the system.

It's the onus of the reviewer to refrain from evaluation.

There's a famous speech that Britten made where he said

And what interests me is that the hi fi system plays a role which resembles the performers' instruments and the hall; and that the listener's participation depends on the contents of his stomach.

[aukhawk]

Prokofiev - Symphony No. 6

First listen to this work. So far, so good.

I think the Sixth is the highlight of Järvi's cycle.

I think the Sixth is the highlight of Prokofiev's cycle.