What are you listening to now?

[Todd]

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Listening to a real gem - Farrenc Symphony No. 2.
[asin]B00029CXBS[/asin]

I don't know why, but this is the Farrenc symphony that I feel as if I couldn't like as quickly as the other ones....but still, a marvellous symphony from one of the greatest melodists who ever lived

[SonicMan46]

This is classical music redefined! It's on my list of Best Buys orchestral 2015.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2015/12/ravel-maurice-1875-1937-orchestral-works.html?spref=tw

Harry - did not even know that Immerseel and his period instrument band were recording this music; except for Berlioz, these other composers are more in the era of maybe almost 'modern instruments' - so you're liking these performances?  You now how I love PIs, so might just have to add to my 'wish list' - thanks for any comments.  Dave

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Crussel Clarinet Concertos - Per Billman, clarinet, Gérard Korsten, cond.

Have you heard Martin Fröst's recording? Love these concertos!

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Symphonies 1 and 2 (Tonhalle/Zinman). Trying to get the most I can out of these earlier symphonies. Such wonderful music and performances!

[mc ukrneal]

I don't know why, but this is the Farrenc symphony that I feel as if I couldn't like as quickly as the other ones....but still, a marvellous symphony from one of the greatest melodists who ever lived

I love pretty much everything of hers that I have heard. This was the first disc - the one that started it all - so has a special place for me.

[SimonNZ]

Have you heard Martin Fröst's recording? Love these concertos!

The ones on the Bis label? Haven't heard them but I'll keep an eye out, thanks.

I see there's also a set from Ondine, which I've also yet to hear:

[king ubu]

the last disc for starters (Beethoven's Octet, Rondino and Septet):

[asin]B00E6F12B6[/asin]
could be a tag livelier, I think, but it's nice for sure!

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Symphonies 1 and 2 (Tonhalle/Zinman). Trying to get the most I can out of these earlier symphonies. Such wonderful music and performances!

Now I am listening to no. 5, which here is played with great gusto and energy and power like I have never heard

[Madiel]

Arguably Holmboe's first masterpiece, the 2nd Symphony.

[asin]B0000016P9[/asin]

Not that much of his music written before this has actually been recorded, but stylistically it does represent an advance in complexity on the 1st Symphony.

And with the competition he won, it was a watershed moment in his career any way you look at it.

[Gurn Blanston]

It's nice, when you get a weird compulsion to listen to something off-the-beaten-path (the path I have beaten, of course) to have such a considerable library of oddball stuff. This one here is really very good, if you hadn't heard of it before.

[Green Destiny]

Listening to the Op. 31 Quartets from this box-set:

[kishnevi]

CDs 84/85:   Gustav Leonhardt playing Renaissance and Baroque organs from North Italy (although the music performed reaches to the 18th century and beyond, to Hummel)
[asin]B00KXJD58M[/asin]
The last pair of discs from an outstanding box (although not being keen about organs, I can't say I am as enthused about these last ones as others).  Some performance duds, but generally high quality throughout.  Two sequences of recordings stand out:
Couperin performed by an ensemble led by the Kuijkens, and a series of Bach for keyboard performed by Leonhardt.  Some of the latter has been budget-boxed here
[asin]B005TLWO6S[/asin]
Although that leaves out two discs of organ works and the English Suites.  The Couperin series is more problematic: some is available cheaply used, and the same performers went on to record more Couperin for Accent, but some seems unavailable except as part of this box.

I would anyone interested in the music of 1300-1800 to consider getting this box.

[SimonNZ]

Franz Limmer's Piano Quintet Op.13 - Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27. Ashkenazy's performance still leaves me on the edge of my seat anticipating each turn of phrase. Truly exciting. My favorite performance of this masterpiece.

(Other favorites: Rozhdestvensky/LSO, Svetlanov/Russian State SO)

[mc ukrneal]

Thanks again to listener for bringing attention to the Tirol Site sale. I started with a cd I really didn't have much expectations for, and here I am quite satisfied. Matthaus Nagiller  - Symphony No. 1 and Festmesse.

[Green Destiny]

Mendelssohn: String Quintet #1, Op. 18:



Performed by Petra Vahle & Sharon Quartet

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Now:



Listening to Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27. Ashkenazy's performance still leaves me on the edge of my seat anticipating each turn of phrase. Truly exciting. My favorite performance of this masterpiece.

(Other favorites: Rozhdestvensky/LSO, Svetlanov/Russian State SO)

I should check these out in the future....Rachmaninov is a composer I am slowly coming around to finally enjoy! For many years I used to have a rather 1950s-Darmstadt-Boulez view on music from the 20th century (eg '20th century tonality? 20th century romanticism? crap crap crap crap crap!') but since discovering Sibelius I have been on a journey discovering many works I had dismissed in my prejudice. Rachmaninov being one of these composers. When Ashkenazy was principal conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra a few years ago he conducted quite a bit of Elgar which I occasionally tuned into on the radio but didn't really think too much of it...how well does he do 20th century Romanticism in your opinion?

[SimonNZ]

Erich Zeisl's Pierrot in der Flasche - Johannes Wildner, cond.

[Mirror Image]

I should check these out in the future....Rachmaninov is a composer I am slowly coming around to finally enjoy! For many years I used to have a rather 1950s-Darmstadt-Boulez view on music from the 20th century (eg '20th century tonality? 20th century romanticism? crap crap crap crap crap!') but since discovering Sibelius I have been on a journey discovering many works I had dismissed in my prejudice. Rachmaninov being one of these composers. When Ashkenazy was principal conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra a few years ago he conducted quite a bit of Elgar which I occasionally tuned into on the radio but didn't really think too much of it...how well does he do 20th century Romanticism in your opinion?

I think you should just drop everything you're doing and buy this Rachmaninov Ashkenazy set and find out for yourself. A friend of mine here on GMG (North Star) said Rachmaninov is the most nostalgic composer he's ever heard. What's remarkable, and completely human, is his music truly sounds like it's yearning for something that had been lost in the past but never can be regained. What that something is could mean different things to different listeners, but, for me, having read about his own life and so forth, this man longed for the past and was in personal exile from his homeland for largely political reasons. He's a composer I didn't really pay much attention to initially (for whatever reason), but I now love unequivocally. I believe you will, too, if you give the music a chance to pull on your heartstrings.

It's good to hear you're coming around to these 20th Century Late Romantics as, for me, this is the most incredible period in classical music history. Many of these composers were saying goodbye to the past but not necessarily letting go of it. I'm thankful I never subscribed to any school of thought and just followed where my heart and mind were wanting me to go. I've heard pretty much every style that has come out of the 20th Century and most of these styles did little for me as so much music just sounded like experimentation for its own sake, but I have to say I love the Late Romantics, Impressionists, and Neoclassicists the most and this early 20th Century period accounts for 99% of my own collection.