What are you listening to now?

[Mookalafalas]

I had associated this fellow with over-the-top exhibitions of virtuosity. 
   However, this is very, very fine.

[asin]B007RV4BF0[/asin]

[Que]

Huguette Grémy Chauliac plays Pachelbel's Hexachordum Appollinis. I think she's a very fine musician, with a distinctive dry sound - somehow simultaneously poetic and analytic. She makes it sound like the masterpiece it is.

I'd wish it would be available in CD format....

Q

[Que]

200 Ans de musique a Versailles

cd1 from
[asin] B001HBX90O[/asin]

I'm surprised that there was still a copy circulating, or comes this from your shelves?

Q

[Wanderer]

.[asin]B00H287OOS[/asin][asin]B00BX8687C[/asin]

[RebLem]

Since my last report, I have been listening to the following:

helios CD CDH 55470  Villa-Lobos (1887-1959): 10 sacred choral works, all but the last unaccompanied--Matthew Best, cond. Corydon Singers, and Corydon Orch+ rec. 13-15 November 1992 & 9 January 1993 *Ansy Boothroyd, mezzo soprano, and +Elizabeth McCormack, mezzo-soprano.

Tr. 1-6....... Missa Sao Sebastiao for 3 voices (1937) (33'59)
Tr. 7-12......Benedita Sabedoria for 6 voices (1958) (11'30)
Tr. 13.........Praesepe for 4 voices (1952) (4'51)*
Tr. 15.........Cor dulce, cor amabile for 4 voices (1952) (5'01)
Tr. 16.........Sub tuum praesidium for 4 voices (1952) (1'38)
Tr. 17.........Ave Maria for 5 voices (1938) (2'13)
Tr. 18.........Ave Maria for 6 voices (1948) (3'29)
Tr. 19.........Pater noster for 4 voices (1950) (2'57)
Tr. 20.........Magnificat-Alleluia for mezzo-soprano, chorus & orchestra (1958) (7'29)+

All of these works are written in a very conservative idiom; not much of the experimentalism to be found elsewhere in Villa Lobos's oeuvre is to be found here..  The last work was commissioned by Pope Pius XII.


From a 6 CD set from Warner Classics, licensed from EMI, of Otto Klemperer and the New Philharmonia Orch. performing the Bruckner Symphony 5, all recorded in Kingsway Hall, London.

CD 2--Tr. 1-4 of 4.....Sym. 5 in B Flat Major (1878 vers., ed by Nowak) (79'29")--rec. 9, 11, 14-15 March 1967.

Right from the start, you know, you feel in your bones, that this performance is in the hands of a conductor who knows the score intimately, and knows how to get what he wants from the musicians he faces from the podium.  Confidence--that is the overwhelming impression one gets from this performance.  It is masterful; I have heard other performances, including Furtwangler's, conducted on the day of my birth, Oct 25, 1942, but I have never heard a performance as great as this one.  Highly and urgently recommended.

Brian, Havergal (1876-1972): The Complete Piano Music--Raymond Clarke, piano (all), Esther King, mezzo-soprano*, Tessa Spong, speaker +--rec. 19-20 June 1997, Potton Hall, Dunwich--Minerva Athena CD 12

Tr. 1..........Prelude-John Dowland's Fancy (3'09)
Tr. 2..........Double Fugue in E Flat (15'08)
Tr. 3-6.......Four Miniatures  (12'29)
Tr. 7-8.......Prelude & Fufue in C Minor (12'06)
Tr. 9..........The Land of Dreams* (4'03)
Tr. 10........The Birds * (3'30)
Tr. 11........The Defiled Sanctuary* (2'06)
Tr. 12-13....Prelude & Fufue in D Minor/D Major (9'34)
Three Illuminations for speaker & piano with Brian's spoken programmes & commentaries
Tr. 14-15...The Boys & the Pastille+ (2'14)
Tr. 16-17...The Butterfly's Waltz+ (1'58)
Tr. 18-19...Venus & a Bobby+ (4'32)
Tr. 20-22...Three Illuminations for solo piano (4'55)

You have to hand it to Havergal Brian.  Throughout his 96 year and 10 month life, he always stuck to his Muse.  Never a concession to practicality or what might be popular among any audience, whether the general, conservative public or the avant garde.  His idiom os quirkily conservative.  He left school at the age of 12, but his musical journalism, with which he mostly supported himself, was often more sophisticated and knowledgeable than the university graduates with whom he was competing.  But such is the British class system that few were willing to base their opinions of him on the obvious quality of his work; their awareness of his low level of formal education made him unacceptable in many quarters.  If he had been a mathematical genius instead of a musical one, it might have been different (read up on a fellow named Srinivasa Ramanujan sometime).

Many of these works seem strange.  The fugues, for example, contain long passages where only a single note is heard at any one time, and evidence of more than that is confined to short segments of 5-15 seconds.  A little weird and strange, but definitely interesting and intruguing.

[Sammy]

This recording is her second Froberger release, made in 2000. The first was made in 1989, using a Ruckers. It's pretty rare, I only discovered it myself a few weeks ago on symphonyshare.

Having said that, she's not a musician I really care for in Froberger. I can think of probably a dozen others I's prefer to hear.

I love Verlet's Froberger disc.  She's dark, slow and probing.  It's not the only way to approach Froberger, but I found it totally captivating.

[Harry]

Disc 2.  More superb playing from Stella.  Sound improves a bit if I listen louder than normal for organ music.

Yes that was my impression too, and it also goes for the first disc. The feel of distance vanishes.

[king ubu]

It might be worthwhile to give it another go. The first time or two I heard those pieces, I thought, "this is nice enough." Then, at some point, they became favorites. I guess that happens with me a lot but these really grew on me.

(I first got the La Gaia Scienza set but added the Beths-Bylsma-Immerseel disc later. Now I love both.)

Well, the pieces I've loved for a while ... recordings by Heifetz/Feuermann/Rubinstein, Szeryng/Fournier/Rubinstein, and yes, most recently the Gaia Szienca two-disc set, which gets the nod as far as recent/HIP goes, I guess. What would interest me though, would be if the Benvenue Fortepiano Trio tackled these!

[Green Destiny]

I received this Milhaud box (and a Dutilleux box!) in time for the weekend so very pleased about that .
Listening to a Disc with various Concerto's on it - I heard the Cello Concerto already and now listening to the Harp Concerto.
Im kind of on the fence as far as liking Milhaud goes - I find him a little cloying sometimes .
Anyway the Concerto's Disc is very nice and im enjoying it a lot - maybe this set will be the breakthrough with this Composer that I been looking for :

[asin]B00IARBXVK[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

The entire CD.

First listen to anything by Feldman.

Hmmmmmmmmmm..............

Très cool!

[Karl Henning]

Schnittke....





....exciting, challenging and rewarding.

Splendid!

[Karl Henning]

I love the First's raucous Ragtime movement and the Sixth's combination of Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Ives! ("we'll rally round the flag, boys"  )

Sarge

Oh, these are perilous times for me on GMG ....

[Karl Henning]

I kilogram the chart!

Well played!

[ritter]

Last night, from the big Martinon / CSO / RCA box...


Carl Maria von Weber: Clarinet concerto No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 73 & No.2 in E-Flat, Op. 74 - Benny Goodman (clarinet), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Jean Martinon (cond.)    Nice! 

...and this morning, on the way to work:

[asin]B0000AKPNX[/asin]
Giacinto Scelsi: Quattro Pezzi (su una nota sola), for 25 musicians - Radio-Television Orchestra of Krakow, Jürg Wyttenbach (cond.)           Not my cup of tea 

[Karl Henning]

Sarge

Okay, okay, I need to listen to this one, at last, already . . . .

[Moonfish]

I'm surprised that there was still a copy circulating, or comes this from your shelves?

Q

It is from the layers behind the layers on the shelves...   It is a sign of time passing as it was not residing in the growing towers on the floor.  I was actually surprised to see that this particular box still is in circulation. Plenty of both new and used copies at Amazon.com.  It has been seven or eight years since it was released (was this re-issued?) if I recall correctly. Regardless, it is a good thing for the muse of music that it is still available. A delightful compilation of live concerts from Versailles as you probably already are aware.  Have you "journeyed" through these performances in the past? It has been too long for me, so the box tempted me earlier today....

[San Antone]

I love Verlet's Froberger disc.  She's dark, slow and probing.  It's not the only way to approach Froberger, but I found it totally captivating.

My response as well.

[Karl Henning]

First-Listen Fridays!

Rubbra
Symphony № 11, Op.153 « for Collette » (1980)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Hickox

[Wanderer]

.[asin]B00585QLX2[/asin][asin]B007X98S28[/asin]

[San Antone]

The entire CD.

First listen to anything by Feldman.

Hmmmmmmmmmm..............

He's not for everyone. 

In any event, I am glad you listened.