What are you listening to now?

[Mirror Image]

Now:





Listening to Symphony No. 2. Incredible piece of music and the best recorded performance I know of this symphony.

[Mirror Image]

Now playing from the Boulez Columbia mega box:





Listening to Sheherazade. Absolutely gorgeous.

[Mirror Image]

Too dark for me. I'm glad I listened, for sure, but I have trouble relating to so much cold despair in music (which likely explains why my favorite Shostakovich symphony is his 9th). It isn't that I don't ever listen to 'sad' music, but I like warmer 'sad' music (i.e the adagio-finale of Mahler's 9th would be a perfect example). Of course, I partially understand why the circumstances he was in would lead him to write something like this (Ii read a little bit about his later work while I was listening last night).

Is there a 'lighter' work by Schnittke that you might recommend?

I'm glad you tried the symphony, Nate. Do listen to the Rozhdestvensky performance I suggested, though. It's much better than that BIS one. Anyway, I understand what you're saying. Late Schnittke is certainly an acquired taste. For 'lighter' fare, try Gogol Suite, (K)ein Sommernachtstraum, Sketches, or Four Hymns for chamber ensemble.

[The new erato]

There are two discs out there that can give an impresion of Schmitt as a great composer. This is one, and the other is the Martinon disc of the powerful Psalm XLVII and Tragédie de Salomé. http://florentschmitt.com/2014/07/03/powerful-sounds-the-seven-commercial-recordings-of-florent-schmitts-psaume-47-1904/

I've been extremely impressed by this:

[asin]B001C58MCU[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

I've been extremely impressed by this:

[asin]B001C58MCU[/asin]

A great disc indeed.

[Que]

Q freaked out when someone suggested this in re other recordings, but I think it makes a difference that Suzuki is a beliving, devout Christian.
Being a superb musician who trained with the best doesn't hurt either. 

Q "freaked out" when someone (in an Amazon review) suggested that from listening to a performance he could pass judgement whether the performers were "true" believers... Which is quite another matter...

Does it make a difference in a performance of religious music whether the performers are religious or not, what religion they have and how "devout" they are...? Does it make a difference when listening?  And how would you able to know the difference? 

For your information: Gustav Leonhardt was religious, as is Koopman. Honestly, I think all you can and should pass judgement on  is whether a performance enables you to connect to the music in the way you like best...

My morning listening happens to be wonderful religious music:

[asin]B005UU06D6[/asin]

The Capilla Flamenca under Dirk Snellings performs Pierre de la Rue

[Florestan]

[mahler10th]

Rautavaara - Symphony 5

[asin]B001OBBSR8[/asin]

Oh the profundity of it!   

[amw]

Alvin Curran - Inner Cities (currently a bit over 1 1/2 hours in)

I'm finding this music very appropriate to my emotional state at the moment, whether as mirror or contrast. Really long, minimalist piano works seem to be becoming a weakness of mine.

Update: I listened right through to the end. Was not expecting that. (It's 2:30 AM.) Though the concluding 'blues' is very much on the slow/meditative side, I feel oddly energised by the experience. The music seems to have 'recharged' me somehow. Don't have anything more substantive to say.

Definitely recommended.
[asin]B000852G3G[/asin]

[EigenUser]

Listening to Symphony No. 2. Incredible piece of music and the best recorded performance I know of this symphony.

Out of spite (for Ken)?

I'm glad you tried the symphony, Nate. Do listen to the Rozhdestvensky performance I suggested, though. It's much better than that BIS one. Anyway, I understand what you're saying. Late Schnittke is certainly an acquired taste. For 'lighter' fare, try Gogol Suite, (K)ein Sommernachtstraum, Sketches, or Four Hymns for chamber ensemble.

Thanks!

I listened to the BIS one because I recognized the "abstract art" cover Schnittke cycle from your posts when I was looking on Spotify.

[Florestan]

CD 1

[PaulR]

Morning!

[asin]B000095IUM[/asin]
Symphony #7

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Recommendable performance from '63, though it can't touch Beecham, Stokowski or Gardiner or Lenny's own 68 redo.  His talk on the SF is worth the price of admission alone and vintage Lenny (and vintage 60s) : "Berlioz tells it like it is. You take a trip, you wind up screaming at your own funeral."

[asin]B00000J27R[/asin]

[Que]

CD 1

That looks like a rarity!

Q

[Florestan]

That looks like a rarity!

Q

It is, but Youtube comes to the rescue: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=duphly+livre+de+clavecin

[Harry]

CD 2 of this rather surprising set. It holds many gems. One of them is Louis Claude Daquin's, Noel X, for Organ from  a composer that lived from 1694-1722, played wonderfully by Wayne Marshall. The organ is not named but sounds very Baroque and old!

[Florestan]

CD 2 of this rather surprising set. It holds many gems. One of them is Louis Claude Daquin's, Noel X, for Organ from  a composer that lived from 1694-1722, played wonderfully by Wayne Marshall. The organ is not named but sounds very Baroque and old!

You can find all the 12 Noels for organ Daquin composed in the 2nd CD of this set:

[Karl Henning]

Britten
A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, or, Variations & Fugue on a Theme of Purcell (1946)
LSO
Bedford

[Florestan]

[PaulR]

.[asin]B0044ZQ8QC[/asin]
Concerto Grosso #8 in G minor