What are you listening to now?

[Brahmsian]

Yes I did, Ray, and will. 

First Listen
Rakhmaninov
Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31
Alexander Ranne, Sergey Tsipcalo, Natalia Kornieva
St. Petersburg Chamber Choir
Nikolai Korniev

Oh, I certainly hope you enjoyed your first listen to this piece I love! 

[kishnevi]

The last Planets recording to really impress me was John Eliot Gardiner's. One of those discs that, for me at least, made an over-familiar work fresh and new again, while still being respectfully done.


playing now:



Telemann Overtures, Sonatas, Concertos - Musica Alta Ripa

Gardiner has a way of doing that. Did you ever hear his recording of Verdi's Requiem?
TD
Beethoven courtesy of BBC Music Magazine December 2015 issue
PC 2
John Lill piano BBC NO of Wales, Walter Weller conducting
With a cadenza I don't ever recall hearing before. No indication of who wrote the cadenza.  Followed by four overtures played by BBC Scottish SO,  Donald Runnicles conducting (Leonore 3, Coriolan, Creatures of Prometheus, Egmont).

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

The last Planets recording to really impress me was John Eliot Gardiner's. One of those discs that, for me at least, made an over-familiar work fresh and new again, while still being respectfully done.


playing now:



Telemann Overtures, Sonatas, Concertos - Musica Alta Ripa

I too love Gardiner's.....and Rattle's one is also worthwhile to hear with the new commissions.

What do you think of this Telemann recording? I  haven't heard much Telemann and I would like to get into his music a little more...perhaps it will help me to branch out into earlier styles again (I haven't listened to anything pre-Bruckner for months).

[SimonNZ]

Gardiner has a way of doing that. Did you ever hear his recording of Verdi's Requiem?

That's interesting. The Verdi Requiem is a work I've never loved as much as many others seem to. A fresh perspective might finally open that door. I'll try to track down a copy. Thanks.

I too love Gardiner's.....and Rattle's one is also worthwhile to hear with the new commissions.

What do you think of this Telemann recording? I  haven't heard much Telemann and I would like to get into his music a little more...perhaps it will help me to branch out into earlier styles again (I haven't listened to anything pre-Bruckner for months).

That series is particularly well done, but if you really want to be surprised by Telemann and hear knockout works that make you cry out "why aren't these more famous?!" then check out his Cantatas and Oratorios and Passion settings - particularly on the recordings that have been coming out on the CPO label.

[Mirror Image]

Back to Russian music...

Now playing:



Listening to Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 99. This is a performance I'm beginning to come around to as the sheer passion in Mordkovitch's playing is gripping. Also, this is some of the best conducting Jarvi's ever done period.

[kishnevi]

Back to Russian music...

Now playing:



Listening to Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 99. This is a performance I'm beginning to come around to as the sheer passion in Mordkovitch's playing is gripping. Also, this is some of the best conducting Jarvi's ever done period.

Been reissued as part of a tribute series

TD
19th century Spiderman? No, just a French caricature from 1886

Contents

The Tristan Prelude is actually by Lortie. Liszt only did the Liebestod, but Lortie felt it appropriate to play the full pairing we moderns are used to.

[Mirror Image]

Been reissued as part of a tribute series

Yep, I knew of this one. I wonder how the remastered sound is on this reissue? I'm certainly happy with my issue which came in the Chandos Milestones box set.

[kishnevi]

Yep, I knew of this one. I wonder how the remastered sound is on this reissue? I'm certainly happy with my issue which came in the Chandos Milestones box set.

Sounded fine to me, but I don't usually pay attention to sound quality unless there is an obvious flaw or obvious excellence.

[Brian]

About half of this divine (pun?) recital by Michel Block.



I've recently been kind of obsessed with "Benediction..." Blame Herbert Schuch.

[Brian]

Jansen does intensity pretty well, of course, but I'm actually most impressed by the Maintz/Thedéen combo.

With the Prazak Quartet recording of the Schubert quintet being reissued soon, have you ever gotten to listen to that? I'm very excited to.

Jens Peter Maintz, Maxim Rysanov, and Boris Brovtsyn are all on the superb new Arensky chamber music CD (Naxos) with a very starry cast - Alexander Sitkovetsky and Eldar Nebolsin are also in there...

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Stokowski's performance of Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44 yet again. Outstanding.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Now:



Listening to Job, A Masque for Dancing. Awesome work and performance.

Awesome Job.

I especially love how powerfully Hickox does "A Vision of Satan." The timpani, the horns, and the organ come in so hard that it really is like shafts of blinding light gleaming off of the pre-lapsarian Satan in all of his celestial, warrior glory.

The organ is more powerfully-'engineered' on the EMI/Handley performance- but the ferocity of the attack on the Hickox is unrivaled.

[Mirror Image]

Awesome Job.

I especially love how powerfully Hickox does "A Vision of Satan." The timpani, the horns, and the organ come in so hard that it really is like shafts of blinding light gleaming off of the pre-lapsarian Satan in all of his celestial, warrior glory.

The organ is more powerfully-'engineered' on the EMI/Handley performance- but the ferocity of the attack on the Hickox is unrivaled.

It's certainly a magnificent performance and a favorite of mine. The first minute and a half of the movement Job's Dream remain, for me, some of the most subtle, simple yet exquisite music I've ever heard and no one can touch Hickox here IMHO. I've heard and own them all.

In other news, have you heard Stokowski's Rach 3rd? It certainly demands your attention.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Now:



Listening to Stokowski's performance of Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44 yet again. Outstanding.

Stokowski plays parts of the second movement with a much faster rubato than I'm accustomed to hearing- and Svetlanov on Warner takes it a bit slower than others- but both Stokowski and Svetlanov do it more beautifully than I've heard anywhere else, as different as they interpretatively are.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

It's certainly a magnificent performance and a favorite of mine. The first minute and a half of the movement Job's Dream remain, for me, some of the most subtle, simple yet exquisite music I've ever heard and no one can touch Hickox here IMHO. I've heard and own them all.

In other news, have you heard Stokowski's Rach 3rd? It certainly demands your attention.

Well, cheers to that: I've heard all of the RVW Jobs too- at least I believe I have; and I have quite a few of them.

For my time and aesthetic involvement though, my favorite first movement is done by Barry Wordsworth with the Philharmonia on Collins Classics. His caressing of the strings elicits some of the most beautiful sounds I've heard in Vaughan Williams.

The Hickox is my overall favorite though.

<Clink.>

[Mirror Image]

Stokowski plays parts of the second movement with a much faster rubato than I'm accustomed to hearing- and Svetlanov on Warner takes it a bit slower than others- but both Stokowski and Svetlanov do it more beautifully than I've heard anywhere else, as different as they interpretatively are.

Didn't know Svetlanov recorded Rach's 3rd on Warner. I thought it was on Melodiya? Anyway, yes, Stokowski has some quicker tempi here and there, but I don't think any less of the performance of course. This is a Rach 3rd for the ages. I wonder if others here who are fans of this symphony have heard Stokowski's performance? Would definitely like to hear from some others here feel as strongly about this performance as I do.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Didn't know Svetlanov recorded Rach's 3rd on Warner. I thought it was on Melodiya? Anyway, yes, Stokowski has some quicker tempi here and there, but I don't think any less of the performance of course. This is a Rach 3rd for the ages. I wonder if others here who are fans of this symphony have heard Stokowski's performance? Would definitely like to hear from some others here feel as strongly about this performance as I do.

Svetlanov the Slayer did both a Melodiya Rachmaninov Third Symphony and an outstandingly-engineered Canyon Classics one (now subsumed to Warner Classics).

[Mirror Image]

Well, cheers to that: I've heard all of the RVW Jobs too- at least I believe I have; and I have quite a few of them.

For my time and aesthetic involvement though, my favorite first movement is done by Barry Wordsworth with the Philharmonia on Collins Classics. His caressing of the strings elicits some of the most beautiful sounds I've heard in Vaughan Williams.

The Hickox is my overall favorite though.

<Clink.>

Yes, Wordsworth is pretty good, but Hickox really nails the work for me and I have a hard time shaking impressions of his Job, but Hickox's wasn't the first Job I heard that honor goes to Boult's last recording of the work on EMI (another solid performance).

Just for fun, what are your 'Top 5 Favorite RVW Works'?

[Mirror Image]

Svetlanov the Slayer did both a Melodiya Rachmaninov Third Symphony and an outstandingly-engineered Canyon Classics one (now subsumed to Warner Classics).

Thanks, I didn't know about the Canyon Classics recording. I'll look into this.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Yes, Wordsworth is pretty good, but Hickox really nails the work for me and I have a hard time shaking impressions of his Job, but Hickox's wasn't the first Job I heard that honor goes to Boult's last recording of the work on EMI (another solid performance).

Just for fun, what are your 'Top 5 Favorite RVW Works'?

You know how terrible I am at these tests, John.

Well, I'll try my blonde-best to come up with 'only five'- and in no particular order, since the works are emotionally so incommensurate to me:

- A Sea Symphony

- A London Symphony

-  Fifth Symphony

- Sinfonia Antarctica

- Hodie and Epithalamion cantadas

(See, I counted to six and you told me to count to five.)

And you?