What are you listening to now?

[NikF]

Embarrassing that I still don't own a recording of these works. How do you find the performances here?

Well, they're the only performances I have heard and so I've nothing to compare them with. Having said that, I find them honest, straightforward and suitably robust, which I think is an approach which particularly suits the more darker in tone Quintet.

[North Star]

Well, they're the only performances I have heard and so I've nothing to compare them with. Having said that, I find them honest, straightforward and suitably robust, which I think is an approach which particularly suits the more darker in tone Quintet.

Thanks for the report.

All you need to know about the Prokofiev quartets is, there's a Pavel Haas Quartet CD.

Actually I already knew that - and its reputation. The price has put me off so far, though.

[Henk]

Some Henning on Soundcloud. I like it much, Karl!

https://soundcloud.com/karlhenning-1

[Brian]

Actually I already knew that - and its reputation. The price has put me off so far, though.

Man, the European GMGers make America sound better and better. I got it for $12 from Presto...

[aligreto]

Bruckner: two very short chamber works - Intermezzo in D minor & Rondo in C minor for String Quartet....

[North Star]

Man, the European GMGers make America sound better and better. I got it for $12 from Presto...

That is a good price indeed.

Fauré
Fantasie for flute & piano, Op. 79
Michel Debost
Jean-Philippe Collard

[Todd]

https://www.youtube.com/v/QrQAvKpu6s8

[ritter]

The recordings in this box were made in the 1960es and were stereo recordings and released on LP in stereo and in mono on the French Discophiles label and later in stereo by Nonesuch. About ten years ago they were finally released on CD by Accord. In my item of this Accord box the version of the Brandenburg concertos is unfortunately the mono version. What about yours?

The booklet says nothing about this. They sound stereo to me. I've read a similar complaint about the Suites in some amazon customer review...

THREAD DUTY:

A historical curiosity: Rameau conducted by Boulez....

[aligreto]

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1....





....a wonderful work, particularly the slow movement.

[Monsieur Croche]

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1....
....a wonderful work, particularly the slow movement.

These concerti get relatively 'orphaned' or neglected by many pianists because they are not 'enough' of a technical display, while they're both fine pieces.

The middle [or slow] movement of the Piano Concerto No. 1 is Dmitri in that mode I think he did better than just about anyone, i.e. strongly Rus-flavored Slava-triste. 

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

These concerti get relatively 'orphaned' or neglected by many pianists because they are not 'enough' of a technical display, while they're both fine pieces.

The middle [or slow] movement of the Piano Concerto No. 1 is Dmitri in that mode I think he did better than just about anyone, i.e. strongly Rus-flavored Slava-triste. 

Not enough to technical display?! A few years ago one pianist at my old school (aged 15 at the time) had to learn no. 1 for one concert because all of the older pianists had declined due to its technical difficulty.

[Monsieur Croche]

Not enough to technical display?! A few years ago one pianist at my old school (aged 15 at the time) had to learn no. 1 for one concert because all of the older pianists had declined due to its technical difficulty.

A group of precocious teens are not [yet] in the same pool as 'career concert performer,' and that 'not enough technical display' is more relative to, say, [keeping it Russian] the Prokofiev or Rachmaninov concerti.

At a music camp I attended, where everyone was 'advanced,' one of the concerto competition winners that summer was an eight year-old; he won with the Mendelssohn Capriccio Brillante. Students there who were 'advanced' yet twice his age weren't up to that... everything is relative 

[Mirror Image]

Now:





Medea's Dance of Vengeance
Adagio for Strings
Overture to The School for Scandal
Second Essay for Orchestra
Intermezzo from Vanessa
Andromache's Farewell

The best all Barber recording I've heard. Stunning performances.

[Mirror Image]

Wow. This goes in the shortlist of Top Five Saint-Saens Recordings for me.

Why don't I work up the list!

- Organ Symphony + stuff. Daniel Barenboim (DG)
- Piano Concertos. Anna Malikova (Audite)
- the final sonatas for woodwinds. Canada's National Arts Centre (Naxos)
- hmmmm...probably need the cello concertos and Carnival of the Animals here...?

I haven't heard Barenboim performance of Saint-Saens' 3rd, but, and this is a massive BUT, I have doubts that it would top Levine's performance. Would be interesting to do some comparisons, though.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Some really stunning and dissonant music

[kishnevi]

Earlier

First listen to these works. Viola concerto might be one of the great concertos of the 20th century.  Cello concerto impressed me less.
MI, do you have these performances?
They were originally on Melodiya, and recorded soon after the world premieres of each concerto--Bashmet and Gutman being the dedicatees--so these were probably the very first recordings.

[Mirror Image]

Earlier

First listen to these works. Viola concerto might be one of the great concertos of the 20th century.  Cello concerto impressed me less.
MI, do you have these performances?
They were originally on Melodiya, and recorded soon after the world premieres of each concerto--Bashmet and Gutman being the dedicatees--so these were probably the very first recordings.

I do own them indeed, Jeffrey. For me, the greatest performance of the Viola Concerto is with Bashmet but with Rostropovich on RCA (w/ the LSO). Bashmet brings more nuance and, of course, experience to his later performance. That performance of Cello Concerto No. 1, to be brutally honest, is atrocious. The Ivashkin/Polyansky on Chandos is the performance you should hear. Ivashkin bleeds this music and you can hear how he tears into every note with passion and raw intensity.

[kishnevi]

I do own them indeed, Jeffrey. For me, the greatest performance of the Viola Concerto is with Bashmet but with Rostropovich on RCA (w/ the LSO). Bashmet brings more nuance and, of course, experience to his later performance. That performance of Cello Concerto No. 1, to be brutally honest, is atrocious. The Ivashkin/Polyansky on Chandos is the performance you should hear. Ivashkin bleeds this music and you can hear how he tears into every note with passion and raw intensity.

Wishlisted both.

[Mirror Image]

Wishlisted both.

[Mirror Image]

Well, in the moment of listening to it I was feeling that there was nothing better than this that I could have been listening to at that time. I also love Adès's and Ligeti's and Pateras's violin concertos, but The Lost Art of Letter Writing ticked all the boxes for me for what I wanted to listen to right then.

Have you heard Berg's Violin Concerto? This one of my favorite VCs of all-time. It's bizarre, downright eerie, but altogether gorgeous. I love this concerto so much that I even bought a small book on it: