What are you listening to now?

[Florestan]

I was going to end my feast of unsung SQs with one of Stenhammar's, but I couldn't. Tchaikovsky 2nd SQ drained me out emotionally; to happily and carelessly float around in the second movement, only to be flayed alive, without prior notice in the third, was too much for me. I quit.

[TheGSMoeller]

This, all day. I'm very happy with it. 

[Karl Henning]

Nielsen
Prelude, Theme and Variations, Op.48 [FS 104] per violino solo (1923)
Tue Lautrup

At the time when I was at work on Plotting, I had not listened to this at all recently;  but revisiting it now, it feels as if it was the single strongest subconscious influence.  What a great, great piece.  And another reason why, when this box was available for the super-duper cheap price of $14.50, it was The Mother of All No-Brainers:

[asin]B007N0SVDS[/asin]

[North Star]

Prokofiev
Piano Sonatas nos. 6, 7 & 8
Raekallio

[Karl Henning]

Entirely predictable, of course:

Nielsen
Preludio e Presto, Op.52 [FS 128] per violino solo (1927-28)
Tue Lautrup

Also not surprisingly, Nielsen "upped his game" with this unaccompanied violin work begun four years after the Op.48.  Those who gauge Nielsen only by the symphonies (which are excellent, but not all the general public, nor many musicians, appreciate them) are applying (and mis-applying, as I say) a too-easy filter.  This fiery chamber music is work which compels a view of Nielsen as a Grade-A composer.

[asin]B007N0SVDS[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Prokofiev
Piano Sonatas nos. 6, 7 & 8
Raekallio

Cheers, Karlo! Great listening, of course!

[North Star]

Cheers, Karlo! Great listening, of course!

Good day, Karl! Yes indeed.

That Nielsen box is something I'd certainly like to get, and should have bought when it was that cheap. 

[SonicMan46]

Mozart, WA - Piano Concertos w/ Andras Schiff and the superb Sándor Végh - past few days listening - Dave

[Karl Henning]

I blame Dave . . .

First-Listen Fridays!

Владимир Александрович [ Vladimir Aleksandrovich (Dukelsky) ]
Piano Concerto in C (1923; orch. by Scott Dunn, 1998)
Scott Dunn, pf
Russian Phil
Дмитрий Альбертович [ Dmitri Albertovich (Yablonsky) ]

This is a small-scale gem of a concerto, composed when Dukelsky was a scant 20 years of age (though already a refugee in the West from the Russian Civil War (nothing civil about that).  It is thus somewhat comparable to the Prokofiev Op.10: an assured, well-wrought concertante work by a precocious young Russian (meaning not necessarily of Russian ethnicity, but educated in the cultural world of Imperial Russia) composer.

In fact, I got a jump on First-Listen Fridays! by first listening to this last night, on the way home from choir rehearsal, and I thought I heard definite echoes of Prokofiev in the orchestral accompaniment — but of course, I was listening before I had read the liner notes, and learnt that, for various reasons, Dukelsky left the piece unorchestrated, and this orchestration was done by the pianist on the present recording (and so, of course, benefiting from Prokofiev's example to a much greater degree than Dukelsky would have, in 1923).   But it is sound judgement:  it is a fine piece, related in character to the Prokofiev, good composition on its own merits, and the orchestration serves the piece well.

[asin]B000WPJ630[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Thanks for the link to the review, Dave!

[listener]

SHCHEDRIN:  Symphony no.1  in eb (1958)
Moscow Philharmonic Society Symphony Orch.,  N. Anosov , cond.,
and another disc of English organ music, GREENE, PURCELL, NARES, BYRD,  BULL etc.
Thurston Dart on 4 different organs: St. Lawrence, Appleby, Westmorland`Holy Trinity Chapel, Staunton Harold, Leicesterhire; St. John, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, and All Saints, Rotherham, Yorkshire
and staying British  ELGAR: Coronation Ode and PARRY: I Was Glad
King's College Choir, Cambridge  New Philharmonia Orch.    Philip Ledger, cond.

[Karl Henning]

First-Listen Fridays!

Владимир Александрович [ Vladimir Aleksandrovich (Dukelsky) ]

Cello Concerto (1945)
Sam Magill, vc
Russian Phil
Дмитрий Альбертович [ Dmitri Albertovich (Yablonsky) ]

Homage to Boston (1945)
Scott Dunn

[asin]B000WPJ630[/asin]

[king ubu]

First spin - new release, it seems ... fell in love deeply with her Micaëla on the Callas "Carmen" (which I love, warps and all, don't think it can get any crazier and I like that!) and went hunting for some more, but there isn't all that much alas ... now there's this, a rough compilation of sides with the Paris opera (I guess), crappy annotation, some tracks are dated ("Radio 1959", "Radio 1963"), others located ("Live Avignon", "Live Strasbourg" - not sure what "Albert Wolff 1959" means). You get plenty of photos in the 8 page booklet, one page text (engl/fr), but hardly any info about the content. Anyways, the singing is gorgeous just as I'd hoped! In a fair world, she'd be a big star (yup, she still *is*, but she retired and seems to be living on the farm in southern France where she was born).

[Karl Henning]

The Frescobaldi disc from this wonderful, wonderful box:

[asin]B00EO7XQ2E[/asin]

[North Star]

Bach
Tharaud, pf
[asin]B00070FTM2[/asin]

[Moonfish]

Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 1-6      Berliner Philharmoniker/Karajan

Errr....interesting.......

[kishnevi]

Yes, Der Herbert's  approach to Bach was distinctive, I am told.    His approach to Mozart was also distinctive but very fruitful to my ears.
Meanwhile,  extending the Bach run


from the Sony Great Choral Works box
The opening of the Kyrie seemed to be much slower paced than I remember from other recordings,  but after that tempos returned to normal and excellence results.

[ritter]

... not sure what "Albert Wolff 1959" means....

Albert Wolff was a French conductor, quite active at the Opéra Comique up to his death in 1970... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Wolff_(conductor)

Time for a tragédie lyrique chez Ritter:

[asin]B000002AR4[/asin]

[Brian]

Miroirs

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Miroirs

Oh, wow, an El Bacha sighting. What are your thoughts on this one, Brian?