What are you listening to now?

[San Antone]

Via Crucis

[Todd]

[Brian]

Wow.

All that, eh?

Where did you find a copy? It's so hard to find I figure I'll download the Amazon MP3s.

[Mirror Image]

Really enjoying the 5th from this:

Pounds the table! Yeah, I love Bernstein's Nielsen. He really brings out the menacing qualities in that onslaught of snare drum!

[Florestan]

Last night spent some very pleasant time with these:



Cimarosa seem to have delighted in unexpected twists and turns, tunes coming out from nowhere and rapidly disappearing back where they came from, crazy rythm and tempo changes and all kind of surprises that sometimes surpass even Haydn. 

Now playing

[San Antone]

All that, eh?

Where did you find a copy? It's so hard to find I figure I'll download the Amazon MP3s.

That's what I did.  I haven't done any active head-to-heads, but this will probably be my initial standard bearer.

[EigenUser]

Oh, sure. But your Dad, who gave you life, who paid for your upbringing, he gets Turangalilla!



I listened to Coptic Light, sorta. It was at work with headphones, not paying much attention. I didn't like it but I'll give it a real listen next time.

That's a start! It's so beautiful. I actually didn't care for it the first time I heard it, but it really, really grew on me. One of my favorite orchestral works of all time. Last time I was in NYC, Bruce (GMG mod) told me that he was there for the NY Phil premiere in the 1980s!

One aspect of the piece that really interests me is his note on the first page of the score (which I own). He was a big Sibelian and said that Coptic Light is an elaboration on Sibelius' remark that "the difference between the orchestra and the piano is that the orchestra has no sustaining pedal". Feldman uses very clever orchestration to "create" a sustaining pedal for the orchestra and have it vary in intensity.

I guess the reason I was so adamant that you listen to it was because I was dying to know if you'd like it or not (no idea why I cared, but I was just curious). It's minimalism, sort of -- but, wait -- is it really? A lot of Feldman reminds me of Webern or Ligeti (both composers he admired) far more than Glass or Reich or Riley. In fact, nothing Feldman wrote sounds like textbook minimalism. Coptic Light has echoes of Ligeti whereas Cello and Orchestra is definitely Webernian. Both are composers you don't like, yet there is still an element of minimalism in Feldman (i.e. note the tendency toward a synchronous rhythmic ostinato that occurs in roughly the last five minutes of the work).

[Karl Henning]

From the Martinon/CSO box - Mennin: Symphony No. 7.
Well, that was incredible. I'd never heard anything quite like that before. Wonderful. And it has reminded me of how I'm finding more and more music now becoming accessible to me. My frame of reference continues to slowly expand.

Excellent!

[Karl Henning]

The price of the Holmboe string quartets box has plummeted, but that was a reissue (and Da Capo).

Yes, and I leapt at the opportunity!

[Karl Henning]

Beautiful sounding recording by Michele Campanella released during the 2011 Liszt bicentennial along with dozens of other recordings.  This one may have gotten lost in the shuffle but it is unique for a couple of reasons.  First the selections all come from the last period of Liszt's career, most of them rarely included in a Liszt program.  And second, Campanella plays a Bechstein once belonging to Liszt, and the recorded ambiance places you, as the sole Amazon reviewer says, in the room pictured on the cover.

I think it was Edward who tipped me off to this one;  exquisite!

[Karl Henning]

Via Crucis

This (is this very strange?) was one of my first Liszt discs, and it remains one of my favorites.

[Sergeant Rock]

Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3, Glenn Gould, piano, Karajan conducting the Berlin Phil




Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Wow.

Much as I enjoy (a) those samples and (b) her account of the ДШ Op.87, I must (re-)visit the Années I've already got, first 

[jlaurson]

Some chamber music:

 

 

Good choices! I can't get enough of Titz, myself. [Link is safe for work]

[Karl Henning]

[Link is safe for work]

Under the circs, well advised 

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

So looking forward to this disk et c'est presque une catastrophe.  The violist is sadly not up to the level of playing required in these works.   
Dunno if I'm gonna get through it...

[asin] B000092R3D[/asin]

[San Antone]

I like how she sandwiched the Liszt B Minor Sonata between the Berg Sonata and Bartok Romanian Folk Dances, although, the latter seem almost an afterthought after the other two.

[San Antone]

[Brian]

Mirror Image is a good influence. Or a bad influence, if this cycle stinks. I'm starting with No. 1 and moving on from there.

[Sergeant Rock]

Now:

I've been listening to this, off and on, in the car the last few days. I need to sit down with Madetoja and give him a proper listen.



Sarge