What are you listening to now?

[Karl Henning]

The I Fiamminghi Hovhaness album.

[ChopinBroccoli]

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben [Reiner]





There is very good story telling in this version. The music is presented with both great power and passion. It is dramatic and always very engaging and exciting. The strings reign supreme here.

Great orchestra, great conductor (and a Strauss specialist) ... can't miss

[ChopinBroccoli]

I remember finding this a touch too glossy, too lush.  Hearing it again, I still have the same reservations.  It's played well and if you like the symphony itself, it'll certainly do but I much prefer Haitink's more appropriately austere reading (my reference recording for this symphony)

[Brian]

Jumping straight in to Igor Levit's Beethoven with 11, 12, 21, 24.

[aligreto]

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 [Argerich/Dutoit]

[aligreto]

Great orchestra, great conductor (and a Strauss specialist) ... can't miss

Agreed on all counts.

[Cato]

I remember finding this a touch too glossy, too lush.  Hearing it again, I still have the same reservations.  It's played well and if you like the symphony itself, it'll certainly do but I much prefer Haitink's more appropriately austere reading (my reference recording for this symphony)

I first heard it, when it was new (late 1960's or early 1970's?) and thought it was most excellent!  I will need to refresh my memory with a long-overdue visit to it.

[Ken B]

I first heard it, when it was new (late 1960's or early 1970's?) and thought it was most excellent!  I will need to refresh my memory with a long-overdue visit to it.

I am with Cato, that's the one.

TD Bach WTC I Hewitt

[Tsaraslondon]

I first heard it, when it was new (late 1960's or early 1970's?) and thought it was most excellent!  I will need to refresh my memory with a long-overdue visit to it.

This looks like his second recording, which was digital and recorded in 1981. His earlier version, recorded in 1966, is generally regarded as being better.

[SymphonicAddict]

Today's interesting music:

Jurovski (or Jurowski): Symphony No. 5

[asin] B00UCOK09K[/asin]

This got two reviews in Fanfare, oddly by two of my least liked critics, Huntley Dent (come on, that's not a real name) and Lynne Rene Bailley.  Dent's review is a hatchet job.  He can't get over the political context.  Bailley is quite positive. 

I really enjoyed this work.  Yes, the start and end are bombastic, but it's a very fun kind of bombastic.  Good tunes and orchestration; it's quite Hollywood sounding, but not too saccharine, and it doesn't overstay its welcome.  I don't hear anything not to like.

Tippett: Symphony No. 1 - Colin Davis/LSO



I've long been a fan of Tippett's Symphony No. 2.  For some reason I just got around to No. 1, and it's a delightfully exuberant and youthful sounding work.  Wikipedia tells  that "Tippett began to think about writing a symphony while in prison in 1943"!

Great work the Jurowski. It packs a punch of powerful music.

The Tippett is a nice work indeed, though I prefer his more dissonant, mysterious and advanced 4th Symphony.

[vandermolen]

The I Fiamminghi Hovhaness album.

One of the best Hovhaness albums in my view, featuring 'Celestial Gate' if I remember correctly. I recall that you liked that one Karl.

[Karl Henning]

I remember finding this a touch too glossy, too lush.  Hearing it again, I still have the same reservations.  It's played well and if you like the symphony itself, it'll certainly do but I much prefer Haitink's more appropriately austere reading (my reference recording for this symphony)

Yes.

When a friend of mine played this recording, we reached a place where all the horns are playing. I said to my friend, the horns are marked fortissimo in the score here. Does this sound fortissimo to you?

"Nope," says he....

[Karl Henning]

One of the best Hovhaness albums in my view, featuring 'Celestial Gate' if I remember correctly. I recall that you liked that one Karl.

Correct on both points, Jeffrey.

[Karl Henning]

I remember finding this a touch too glossy, too lush.  Hearing it again, I still have the same reservations.  It's played well and if you like the symphony itself, it'll certainly do but I much prefer Haitink's more appropriately austere reading (my reference recording for this symphony)

Another excellent performance is Jansons/Phila.

[Ken B]

Yes.

When a friend of mine played this recording, we reached a place where all the horns are playing. I said to my friend, the horns are marked fortissimo in the score here. Does this sound fortissimo to you?

"Nope," says he....

So, you're saying the Berlin horns are weaklings??

[Karl Henning]

So, you're saying the Berlin horns are weaklings??

Whether the blame rests with the conductor or the mixer, the shadow of Bayreuth has leashed the brass.

[aligreto]

Vaughan Williams: A Pastoral Symphony [Previn]





I do find this to be an intriguing and enjoyable work.

[Karl Henning]

Vaughan Williams: A Pastoral Symphony [Previn]





I do find this to be an intriguing and enjoyable work.

Beauty!

[André]

Chamber music for harp and various  string and/or wind combinations.

[Karl Henning]

Barber
Overture to The School for Scandal
Symphony # 1
RSNO
Alsop

The Overture, in a transcription for band, was the first Barber work I ever came to know.