What are you listening to now?

[Karl Henning]

Berlioz
Symphonie fantastique, Op.14
LSO
Boulez

I anticipated that this would be delicious, and expectations are amply met.  Seems to have been recorded in October of 1967.

[Mirror Image]

Anybody familiar with Gerald, Lord Berners?

I've heard a few of Berners' works and I didn't hear a composer of much distinction nor did the music have much of an effect on me.

Now:



Listening to Daphnis et Chloe. Outstanding work of course.

[Brian]

I've heard a few of Berners' works and I didn't hear a composer of much distinction nor did the music have much of an effect on me.

I'm tiring of it pretty quickly, having now listened to "Neptune" and "Les Sirenes". It's very witty, light music, but the wit is that slightly obscure, self-congratulatory 1930s English upper-class wit. Doesn't translate too well.

There are definitely very charming/amusing moments, and Lord Berners sounds mightily French, but it's sort of like how Poulenc would have ended up if Poulenc never took composition seriously. That is to say, inferior.

[Harry]

More Gabrieli, CD 2. New acquisition.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2015/07/new-acquisition-gabrieli-andrea.html?spref=tw

[Mirror Image]

I'm tiring of it pretty quickly, having now listened to "Neptune" and "Les Sirenes". It's very witty, light music, but the wit is that slightly obscure, self-congratulatory 1930s English upper-class wit. Doesn't translate too well.

There are definitely very charming/amusing moments, and Lord Berners sounds mightily French, but it's sort of like how Poulenc would have ended up if Poulenc never took composition seriously. That is to say, inferior.

That sounds like my experience, although you read more into the music than I ever would have. Usually, when I don't like something or a piece isn't cutting it with me, I just cut it off and might return one day. There are a lot of composers that wrote light music, but if that's all that a composer is about, then I'm usually not interested.

[Karl Henning]

Berlioz
Symphonie fantastique, Op.14
LSO
Boulez

I anticipated that this would be delicious, and expectations are amply met.  Seems to have been recorded in October of 1967.

The Marche au supplice is at a touchingly stately tempo (call it a substitute for a second Menuet rather than a Scherzo).  I like it!

[Sergeant Rock]

The Marche au supplice is at a touchingly stately tempo (call it a substitute for a second Menuet rather than a Scherzo).  I like it!

Sounds good, like Norrington/LCP. That slow tempo is one of the reasons it's my favorite. I mean, who sprints to the guillotine? 

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Sounds good, like Norrington's LCP version. That slow tempo is one of the reasons it's my favorite. I mean, who sprints to the guillotine? 

Sarge

Exactement!

And in the fifth movement, the Dies irae, too, has a calmer, more cantabile character.

I did not dollar-wise "pay the price" for my hesitation, but lawd, wish I hadn't waited until this year to fetch this in!

[Karl Henning]

That was so good . . . I both do and do not want to listen to Monteux for comparison, so off to listen to this, which was the principal driver for the purchase:

Berlioz
Lélio, ou Le Retour à la Vie, Op. 14b
Jean-Louis Barrault, narrator (Lélio)
John Mitchinson, tenor (Horatio/La Voix imaginaire de Lélio)
John Shirley-Quirk, baritone (La Capitaine)
London Symphony Chorus & Orchestra
Boulez

[Mandryka]

Richard Egarr plays Froberger's capricci, some toccatas, and some suites.  I just think it's wonderful music, wonderful performance, wonderful recording (a revelation on qobuz compared with spotify.) Sometimes light, sometimes fantasticus, but often very serious in the old imitative counterpoint stile antico. Later on I'll listen to Asperen playing the capprici and toccatas,  because I think he was so good in Sweelinck's fantasies, which are similarly complex textures.

The killing thing about Egarr is that it's so gentle and apparently artless, art hiding art. I find him irresistable, he just talks me right through the music without ever pushing or demonstrating or lecturing. Great keyboard player.

[Wakefield]

This new recording on period instruments of Mozart's string quartets dedicated to Haydn:

[asin]B00QN9TIJ6[/asin]

Promotional video:

http://www.youtube.com/v/GbsthWvYR0E

[SonicMan46]

Fesca, Friedrich Ernst (1789-1826) - String Quartets Vol. 1 w/ the Diogenes Quartett; 3-CD set - although stated to be volume 1 (contains half the the 16 SQs written by FE Fesca), the recordings are from 2007-2010 and nothing is shown on the group's website to indicate a continuation of the project?  Reviews attached, if interested (3 of 4 positive w/ Jerry Dubins casting the only sour comments).  Dave

[Que]

An old favourite - rebought in a new remastering,  something I rarely do.

[asin]B00005IB59[/asin]

Q

[Karl Henning]

Berlioz
La mort de Cléopâtre (1829)
Yvonne Minton, mezzo-soprano
BBC Symphony
Boulez

[Mirror Image]

Now:



A smoldering performance of a masterpiece.

[Brian]

Charlie Chaplin's score for Modern Times, in a brand-new recording.



Like the Lord Berners I was listening to earlier, there are definitely regular hints of an amateur composer (e.g. repetition, square rhythms). Also like Lord Berners, it's basically light music.

But unlike Lord Berners, it's very skillful, appealing music, because there is real significance and depth to the music, and greater willingness to engage with dissonance & harmonic quirks. The episodes are more fully developed, and tunes link up, recur, and evolve. And Chaplin was a truly gifted melodist - like the love theme from this, which quickly transcended the movie to become a Nat King Cole song, "Smile," in fact reportedly Michael Jackson's favorite song ever.

[Brian]

Charlie Chaplin's score for Modern Times, in a brand-new recording.



Like the Lord Berners I was listening to earlier, there are definitely regular hints of an amateur composer (e.g. repetition, square rhythms). Also like Lord Berners, it's basically light music.

But unlike Lord Berners, it's very skillful, appealing music, because there is real significance and depth to the music, and greater willingness to engage with dissonance & harmonic quirks. The episodes are more fully developed, and tunes link up, recur, and evolve. And Chaplin was a truly gifted melodist - like the love theme from this, which quickly transcended the movie to become a Nat King Cole song, "Smile," in fact reportedly Michael Jackson's favorite song ever.

Oh, I forgot about the expert/uncanny/borderline plagiaristic "Petrushka" parody in track 7!

[The new erato]

Now:



A smoldering performance of a masterpiece.

One of my favorite symphonies in one of my favorite performances.

[aligreto]

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra / Solti....

[Mirror Image]

One of my favorite symphonies in one of my favorite performances.

+1 Totally awesome, erato.