What are you listening to now?

[Sergeant Rock]

Hmm, since our tastes in this work apparently run really similar, I NEED to track down that Golovanov disc.

You should hear it, Brian (to get an idea of the state of Russian music in 1945 and to hear one of the conducting legends), but whether you'll like it or not I cannot say. It's idiosyncratic and radical, in tempo fluctuation and dynamic changes, and he does like to go very fast (think Mravinsky in Tchaikovsky 4). His first movement brings out every emotional nuance in the work. And for a Soviet recording circa 1945, it's surprisingly listenable.

Sarge

[Gurn Blanston]

Thanks for posting that. I listened to that piano and it was way too pingy for my liking. Off the wishlist it goes and on to Mutter for a test listen...

You're welcome. I love pingy, so it was just right for me!  0:)

[Gurn Blanston]

I have the Podger / Cooper set, Gurn and I like it a lot, not least for being the only true complete set --- the early sonatas are every bit as good as the mature ones

Yes, true. I only wish he had done all the early ones on the harpsichord like he did on disk 8. The sound is so much more appropriate. That's a lesson I learned from Trio 1790 doing Haydn.

[Brian]

You should hear it, Brian (to get an idea of the state of Russian music in 1945 and to hear one of the conducting legends), but whether you'll like it or not I cannot say. It's idiosyncratic and radical, in tempo fluctuation and dynamic changes, and he does like to go very fast (think Mravinsky in Tchaikovsky 4). His first movement brings out every emotional nuance in the work. And for a Soviet recording circa 1945, it's surprisingly listenable.

Sarge

Someone on YouTube posted the adagio, but not the other three movements. I hate YouTube. But I'll give that a try as a sample.

Rach 2 is a very flexible piece; with the 'radio orchestra' in my head, I try to play it as fast as possible sometimes, and as slow as possible sometimes. (Once, in a really long dull meeting, I put Celibidache to sleep by getting the symphony to last for over two hours...)

[Karl Henning]

"Wolferl"
Piano Sonata in c minor, K.457
Eschenbach

[bhodges]

György Kurtág: Kafka Fragments (Komsi/Oramo and Arnold/Pogossian) - Doing a bit of A/B comparison for an article I'm working on. Probably one of the great vocal works of the late 20th century.

[asin]B00000378W[/asin]
[asin]B001QWFVKU[/asin]

--Bruce

[Mandryka]

György Kurtág: Kafka Fragments (Komsi/Oramo and Arnold/Pogossian) - Doing a bit of A/B comparison for an article I'm working on. Probably one of the great vocal works of the late 20th century.

[asin]B00000378W[/asin]
[asin]B001QWFVKU[/asin]

--Bruce

Komsi is singing it in London next year, with a different fiddle player, I can't remember who (I have my ticket!)

[bhodges]

Komsi is singing it in London next year, with a different fiddle player, I can't remember who (I have my ticket!)

Great! Who knows, I may see you there. Full disclosure: the article I'm writing is the programme notes for that very concert. 

PS, the scheduled violinist is Patricia Kopatchinskaja, who is highly regarded (I have not yet heard her). She recently suffered tendonitis that caused her to cancel her November and December concerts, so hoping she will be recovered by February.

--Bruce

[Mandryka]

Blandine Verlet plays Bach's French Suites, just the first couple of suites. These have never been off LP commercially and I got my transfer from symphonyshare, I have to say I think there's a lot to enjoy in it: colourful, lyrical, expressive. It doesn't seem as free with the music as her other Philips recordings. Even if I'm wrong about that, the performances seem to me musically satisfying and natural.

Re the discussion of Adlam, you know his harpsichord recording of the Bach partitas used to available as a free download somewhere on the web. Shame he never used a clav.

[The new erato]

--- the early sonatas are every bit as good as the mature ones

I won't try to dissuade they that they aren't, you're your own judge, but while there is no doubt that they contain arresting moments, in my ears they have far from the consistent quality of the later sonatas. Of course, coming from Mozart, they are all worth hearing.

[Brian]

How much of the Big Reiner Box can I stream in one day??



R. Strauss - Also sprach Zarathustra (later, GMG-prize-winning version)
Smetana - Bartered Bride overture
Dvorak - Carnival
Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Byron Janis)
Brahms - Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Emil Gilels)
Rachmaninov - Isle of the Dead
Mahler - Four

[The new erato]

One of the eternal glories of recorded sound:

[asin]B014YN0ME2[/asin]

op 130 by the Busch quartet. If this were the only record in existence, it alone would justify buying a quality playback system. Nay; the Cavatina alone would justify that. The most deeply felt, and rightly played, music, ever.

[jlaurson]

Thanks for this recommendation! The best disk of Mozart's violin sonatas played on modern instruments that I have heard, it's one by Mitsuko Uchida and Mark Steinberg. An utterly delightful, somber and well balanced single disk.


W.A.Mozart, Sonatas for Violin and Piano,
Mark Steinberg & Mitsuko Uchida
Philips

Fully agreed! Was my runner-up in the BEST OF 2005 list, a decade ago. [Sh*#. We're all old.]

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/12/best-recordings-of-2005.html

[Karl Henning]

Hey! Getting older is the good alternative!

[Karl Henning]

Thread Duty:

Сергей Сергеевич [ Sergei Sergeyevich (Prokofiev) ]
Waltz from «Сказ о каменном цветке», соч. 118 [ The Tale of the Stone Flower, Opus 118 ]
Miša Maiskis, vc
& the magnificent Martha Argerich

[prémont]

Re the discussion of Adlam, you know his harpsichord recording of the Bach partitas used to available as a free download somewhere on the web. Shame he never used a clav.

They can be listened to here:

http://www.baroquemusiclibrary.com/

[Brahmsian]

Indeed a beauty.

Thread duty 

Scènes de ballet
Bluebird
Le Baiser de la Fée
Stravinsky

The hits just keep on coming.    That is perhaps my favourite disc now, in that entire Sony Stravinsky box. 

[Gurn Blanston]

Re the discussion of Adlam, you know his harpsichord recording of the Bach partitas used to available as a free download somewhere on the web. Shame he never used a clav.

He did do a Bach disk with the clavichord, but it wasn't the partitas:

[asin]B00005TNZP[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

The hits just keep on coming.    That is perhaps my favourite disc now, in that entire Sony Stravinsky box. 

'Tis a beauteous disc!

[North Star]

The hits just keep on coming.    That is perhaps my favourite disc now, in that entire Sony Stravinsky box. 

Hah! Yes, good stuff.

Thread duty - First-Listen Friday

Rakhmaninov
The Miserly Knight, Op. 24
Sergei Aleksashkin, Sergei Larin, Vladimir Chernov, Ian Caley, Anatoli Kotscherga
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi
[asin]B00KZ73VDG[/asin]