What are you listening to now?

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Haven't finished reading yet, but thanks for this, interesting indeed! There was a lengthy article in a local daily paper about him a few months ago, read it but not sure if I kept it ... might have been because of his retirement. Ha, I see he's got it on his homepage, so I'll read that again as well and then look around on his site for more:
http://www.adrianomusic.com/resources/2013-Tages-Anzeiger.pdf

If he'd graduated from conducting school, he'd have learned that most conductors "bop 'til they drop!" 

[SimonNZ]

Ibert's La Ballade de la Geôle de Reading - Adriano, cond.



Lutoslawski's Chantefleurs et Chantefables - Sorveig Kringelborn, soprano, Daniel Harding, cond.

[Madiel]

Symphony No.1

[asin]B011A8X3B8[/asin]

After two listens... is it just me, or does this sound almost like ballet music?

[Todd]

Disc 2.  Probably still the champ.

[SimonNZ]

Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, Book Two - Valery Afanassiev, piano

[listener]

MENDELSSOHN  Violin Concerto in e,  BARTOK: Violin Concerto no.2
Augustin Hadelich, violin   Norwegian Radio S.O.   Miguel Harth-Bedoya, cond.
Silky Mendelssohn, the Bartok is more lyrical than aggressive, some fans may be put off by that.  Microphone placed close to the harp in the Bartok (not a problem, adds to the colour).
FIBICH:  Spring,  The Romance of Spring (Cantata), At Twilight,  A Night in Karlstein
Prague Radio Chorus and Orch.,  František Vajnar, cond.
I refrain from reminding you of the pop tune derived from At Twilight.

[The new erato]

After two listens... is it just me, or does this sound almost like ballet music?

No 1 certainly is lightfooted.

Nice stuff:

[asin]B00QSMV30A[/asin]

[SimonNZ]

Georges Aperghis' Contretemps - Donatienne Michel-Dansac, soprano, Emilio Pomarico, cond.

[amw]

A/B/C Brahms 3

// //

I wonder why we never did a blind comparison on this Brahms symphony (my favourite of the four)—it often seems to be considered one of the hardest to get right. And it's a very ambiguous piece, in a lot of respects. Lots of subtleties. Maybe that's why 

[Que]

Since I love historical Italian organs, at the recent sale on Amazon.fr I couldn't resist picking this up together with another volume from the series:



On six historical organs from the region of Puglia an array of organ music is performed, composed by: Alessandro Scarlatti, Bernardo Storace, Giovanni de Macque, Giovanni Maria Trabaci, Franceso Lombardi, Giovanni Salvatore, Gregorio Strozzi, Giovanni Battista Fasolo, Giacomo Insanguine and Giovani Battista Pergolesi.

Q

[SimonNZ]

Ondřej Adámek's Körper und Seele for air-machine, choir and orchestra

Christoph Grund, air-machine, SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, François-Xavier Roth, cond.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_SDgJBkt-M

[Karl Henning]

After two listens... is it just me, or does this sound almost like ballet music?

Wouldn't be any surprise;  Petrushka was an early admiration for the young composer, and even the opening muted trumpet gesture would fit very comfortably in the Stravinsky scenario.

[amw]

A/B/C Brahms 3

// //

I wonder why we never did a blind comparison on this Brahms symphony (my favourite of the four)—it often seems to be considered one of the hardest to get right. And it's a very ambiguous piece, in a lot of respects. Lots of subtleties. Maybe that's why 

Finished the first movement and now A/B/Cing the second. For anyone who's curious:

• Kubelik's version is noble and expansive, with a gorgeous burnished sound from the orchestra. Perhaps on a few occasions it's a bit on the slow side, and the essential energy doesn't come through, but that's a fairly minor criticism at this point.
  
• Wand is extremely driven and powerful, sometimes to a fault (the coda of the first movement, for instance, is somewhat rushed). It captures the essentially passionate nature of the symphony pretty well, I think, though I'm not sure how much his recording will add to my mainstay (Jochum/LPO) which also takes a highly driven and passionate approach, but not to a fault, if you see what I mean. I am very curious to hear how he takes the last movement, undoubtedly the apotheosis of the symphony's passion, which is the only place he seems to slow down (9:17 vs Jochum's 8:45).
• Kertész, despite slower tempi than Wand throughout, delivers an even more exciting and passionate interpretation that's highly moving at times. Partly it's that he pulls the tempo around a bit more to suit the music, though never in a noticeable manner à la Furtwrangler, but it's also phrasing, I think. At the same time, it's weirdly out of tune, and the Vienna strings are surprisingly sloppy intonation wise—wasn't this supposed to be the world's best orchestra back in the sixties? Anyway.

[Wanderer]

.[asin]B00Q72PT1U[/asin][asin]B00HZMRZTA[/asin]

[Henk]

Georges Aperghis' Contretemps - Donatienne Michel-Dansac, soprano, Emilio Pomarico, cond.

What do you think of it?

[SimonNZ]

What do you think of it?

First time I'd heard it, but: recommended. More conventional (by his standards - its still quite frantic and jagged) than some of his other works, which can take a few minutes of acclimatising.

[amw]

Finished the first movement and now A/B/Cing the second. For anyone who's curious:

• Kubelik's version is noble and expansive, with a gorgeous burnished sound from the orchestra. Perhaps on a few occasions it's a bit on the slow side, and the essential energy doesn't come through, but that's a fairly minor criticism at this point.
  
• Wand is extremely driven and powerful, sometimes to a fault (the coda of the first movement, for instance, is somewhat rushed). It captures the essentially passionate nature of the symphony pretty well, I think, though I'm not sure how much his recording will add to my mainstay (Jochum/LPO) which also takes a highly driven and passionate approach, but not to a fault, if you see what I mean. I am very curious to hear how he takes the last movement, undoubtedly the apotheosis of the symphony's passion, which is the only place he seems to slow down (9:17 vs Jochum's 8:45).
• Kertész, despite slower tempi than Wand throughout, delivers an even more exciting and passionate interpretation that's highly moving at times. Partly it's that he pulls the tempo around a bit more to suit the music, though never in a noticeable manner à la Furtwrangler, but it's also phrasing, I think. At the same time, it's weirdly out of tune, and the Vienna strings are surprisingly sloppy intonation wise—wasn't this supposed to be the world's best orchestra back in the sixties? Anyway.

Finished now.

Further thoughts:

• It's not really possible for me to listen to the 3rd movement multiple times in a row. I don't think there's a bad interpretation of it (maybe one of the really slow/lethargic ones like Giulini), but also, it just gets boring. I know everyone else loves this movement, so it might still make a good round in a blind comparison, but not for me as a listener. Unless I decided to run the blind comparison *ponders*
• My impression of Kubelik held up. It's a very nice, somewhat relaxed performance.
• Wand's finale was broader and more "epic", presenting an opening out of space, which surprised me. I think it is the strongest finale I've heard apart from the Jochum, whose performance of the movement is close to ideal for me in every respect. This follows Wand's usual pattern of weaker first movements and stronger finales >_>
• Of the three, the Kertész is the most well-balanced recording interpretively, and in the finale presents the most natural relaxation towards the coda and its final transfiguration. Missing, perhaps, is the last drop of transcendence, but a more "inevitable" sounding performance would be hard to find.

If anyone has suggestions for other Brahms 3s to investigate, let me know.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Young's amazing Bruckner 3



Not many recordings around of the original version (before Bruckner ruined it). This is my favourite, but Nezet-Seguin's is also great.

[Henk]

~
[asin]B00D2PB36U[/asin]

[North Star]

A few first-listens

Nielsen
Symphonic Suite, Op. 8
Theme and Variations Op. 40, FS 81
Chaconne Op. 32
Piano Suite, The Luciferian, Op. 45   (Luciferian meaning 'light-bringing')
Herman Koppel
[asin]B007N0SVDS[/asin]

Bartók
Solo Violin Sonata, Sz. 117
Sonatas for violin & piano no. 1 Sz. 75* & no. 2 Sz. 76
Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 56
Isabelle Faust
Florent Boffard / Ewa Kupiec*
[asin]B0031B7ESG[/asin]