What are you listening to now?

[North Star]

Sibelius
Symphony no. 3
Sinfonia Lahti
Vänskä

[Brian]

BIRTHDAY PARTY

I think an overview, like:
10:30 - Kullervo (1892)*
11:30 - Symphony No. 1 (1899)
12:15 - Swanwhite (1908)*
12:45 - Night Ride and Sunrise (1909)
1:15 - Voces intimae (1909)
1:45 - Luonnotar (1913)
2:00 - Symphony No. 5 (1915-19)
2:45 - Andante festivo, quartet version (1922)*
3:00 - Symphony No. 6 (1923)
3:30 - Symphony No. 7 (1924)
encore - Andante festivo, orchestra version (1938)
*will be first-ever listens for me, and Voces intimae will be a first-listen-since-college

BIRTHDAY PARTY

Inspired by Karlo, I squeezed in a listen to "Malinconia" (Isserlis/Mustonen). Of the chamber music I've heard today, I think I like "Malinconia" by far the best.

Almost no piece, by anybody, begins as enchantingly as "Luonnotar". And yeah, venturing outside my Isokoski zone here was worth the risk - Gibson's version with Phyllis Bryn-Julson is pretty freakin' awesome. Gibson is in general one of the most underrated Sibelius interpreters ever...

And now, the big one!



The desert island performance of the Fifth!!!

[North Star]

Inspired by Karlo, I squeezed in a listen to "Malinconia" (Isserlis/Mustonen). Of the chamber music I've heard today, I think I like "Malinconia" by far the best.

Almost no piece, by anybody, begins as enchantingly as "Luonnotar". And yeah, venturing outside my Isokoski zone here was worth the risk - Gibson's version with Phyllis Bryn-Julson is pretty freakin' awesome. Gibson is in general one of the most underrated Sibelius interpreters ever...

Malinconia certainly is a top shelf chamber work.

I see the Gibson / Bryn-Johnson Luonnotar is on Youtube, I need to revisit it.

[Karl Henning]

Malinconia certainly is a top shelf chamber work.

I see the Gibson / Bryn-Johnson Luonnotar is on Youtube, I need to revisit it.

Link us up, laddie!

[North Star]

Link us up, laddie!

Was just about to post it, as I just finished listening to it. 
The orchestra and conductor do their job splendidly, and so does PBJ (sorry...), apart from some pronunciation issues, like the occasional excessive rolling of r's.

https://www.youtube.com/v/9g_zyAGsW74

[Sergeant Rock]

I'll be a sheep; join the flock  Gibson/Phyllis Bryn-Julson Luonnotar ...and follow it with The Bard.




Sarge

[North Star]

And now, the big one!



The desert island performance of the Fifth!!!

This for me now as well.

[Karl Henning]

Was just about to post it, as I just finished listening to it. 
The orchestra and conductor do their job splendidly, and so does PBJ (sorry...), apart from some pronunciation issues, like the occasional excessive rolling of r's.

https://www.youtube.com/v/9g_zyAGsW74

Thanks!  This is actually the first music I've had a chance to sit and listen to . . . it's been that kind of day 

[not edward]

Almost no piece, by anybody, begins as enchantingly as "Luonnotar".

I think if you replace Luonnotar with the Sixth Symphony, you can get rid of the word "almost."

Would listen to both right now if I had recordings of them at work. Instead I'm listening to other music that fits "enchanting" perfectly... Elizabeth Soderstrom singing Dallapiccola (I found these LP transfers on some blog a few years ago and don't know if it is commercially available, but I really hope it is).

[Brian]

I think if you replace Luonnotar with the Sixth Symphony, you can get rid of the word "almost."

Listening to it now. You may well be right. Ahhh, this music feels good.



It's been far, far too long since I listened to this last, but the result of that respite is, the music is now working its fullest magic.

[Sergeant Rock]

Sibelius Scènes Historiques Suites 1 & 2, Gibson conducting the SNO




Sarge

[Mandryka]

Blue Heron sing Nicholas Ludford's Missa Regnum Mundi. This is almost as beautiful as Ludford's Missa Christi Virgo Dilectissima, as beautiful as the Manchicourt Requiem without being so sensual. Better than Manchicourt I think, Because there are moments in Ludford where the music really takes off, I can't explain it but I hear it. Ludford was a great great composer of masses.

The chanting's good too, this may be naïve but to me the style of the plainsong seems to complement the style of the mass.

[Brian]

BIRTHDAY PARTY

I think an overview, like:
10:30 - Kullervo (1892)*
11:30 - Symphony No. 1 (1899)
12:15 - Swanwhite (1908)*
12:45 - Night Ride and Sunrise (1909)
1:15 - Voces intimae (1909)
1:45 - Luonnotar (1913)
2:00 - Symphony No. 5 (1915-19)
2:45 - Andante festivo, quartet version (1922)*
3:00 - Symphony No. 6 (1923)
3:30 - Symphony No. 7 (1924)
encore - Andante festivo, orchestra version (1938)
*will be first-ever listens for me, and Voces intimae will be a first-listen-since-college

Pietari Inkinen's Seventh is probably the highlight of his cycle; I hated some of the other performances but this is a great one.

[Wakefield]

I find deeply provocative - and "provocative" isn't a random word - this relationship among image, sexual appeal and artistic values.

Probably, there is no place for surprise if classical music adopts the same values prevailing in pop music; after all, their owners and executives are the same, at least if we talk about corporations like Sony.

About my previous message on Miss Buniatishvili's cover, I just want to add two things:

1) Take it easy, pals! I never used the word "wrong" about it. 

2) Things (covers in this case) just exist or not; but they aren't right or wrong, true or false.

Maybe her cover isn't representative of a certain prevailing mentality in the industry these days, and my assertion it's false, who knows; but I sincerely think it's true.

How many chances of being recorded for the first time today would have people like Tatiana Nikolayeva under these parameters. Well, fortunately we still have small labels and internet.

In all honesty, I can say I've never heard Miss Buniatishvili, and maybe I'm just imagining that her covers and advertising photos are openly sexual. But if I listen to some of her disks in the future, I'm sure, her sex appeal won't be the reason.

Performer's physical beauty is totally irrelevant to me in music, but it doesn't bother me at all. What strikes me is that some companies seem to consider it an essential asset to sell disks. That's all. 

[SimonNZ]

on the radio:

Elgar's Symphony No.1 - Colin Davis, cond.

[Brian]

BIRTHDAY PARTY

I think an overview, like:
10:30 - Kullervo (1892)*
11:30 - Symphony No. 1 (1899)
12:15 - Swanwhite (1908)*
12:45 - Night Ride and Sunrise (1909)
1:15 - Voces intimae (1909)
1:45 - Luonnotar (1913)
2:00 - Symphony No. 5 (1915-19)
2:45 - Andante festivo, quartet version (1922)*
3:00 - Symphony No. 6 (1923)
3:30 - Symphony No. 7 (1924)
encore - Andante festivo, orchestra version (1938)
*will be first-ever listens for me, and Voces intimae will be a first-listen-since-college

And, with a quick stop on the Finlandia label for "Andante festivo" in its string orchestra version, this disc finally ends my birthday party:



A totally masterful recital, one of my 2015 Recordings of the Year, and of course it's "HIP", played on the composer's own 1915 Steinway. Recorded in the composer's house, too. As close as you can get to being there...

[SimonNZ]

on the radio:

Brahms Piano Quintet Op.25 - Ax / Stern / Laredo / Ma



followed by:

Herz's Grande fantaisie militaire sur "La fille du régiment" - Howard Shelley, piano and cond.

[aligreto]

Schubert: Die Winterreise [Fischer-Dieskau/Moore]....

[Tsaraslondon]

Pietari Inkinen's Seventh is probably the highlight of his cycle; I hated some of the other performances but this is a great one.

I have his recording of nos 1 and 3, and find them very good indeed. I haven't heard the others.

[North Star]

Sibelius
Two Pieces for Organ, Op. 111 - Intrada, Funeral Music
Iain Quinn, organ of Coventry Cathedral
https://www.youtube.com/v/WMSYO3kX16g&list=PLOr-jB9a2bfV_rpT0o_G-w6ZOYADAa0wB