What are you listening to now?

[NikF]

Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs - Sass/Lukacs/Hungarian State Orchestra.

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I have a few other recordings of this work that I like, however I return to this one most often. There are moments when her voice seems to fly - and I mean that in a good way. 

[pjme]

Hungarian soprano! I went back to this : Emil Petrovics' early and mesmerising first cantata.

https://www.youtube.com/v/BuGBmhv5x4I

And then on YT there was his pianoconcerto - loved it! Bold, muscular, quite uneasy, not unlike Bartok and it made me also think of Peter Mennin's mighty concerto....

The soloist might be Balázs Fülei or Gergely Bogányi . If not Ilona Prunyi, the dedicatee....

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

P.

[Wakefield]

A first play of this recent purchase ~

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Lives up to the GMG hype too!   

Beautiful oboe playing throughout.  Any further recommendations from this group?

I don't recall if I own any other disk with this same lineup; but, IMHO, Bernardini is the man to follow. All disks by his Ensemble Zefiro are nothing less than excellent (Grazzi is part of this project too). 

[NikF]

And then on YT there was his pianoconcerto - loved it! Bold, muscular, quite uneasy, not unlike Bartok and it made me also think of Peter Mennin's mighty concerto....

The soloist might be Balázs Fülei or Gergely Bogányi . If not Ilona Prunyi, the dedicatee....

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

P.

I've had a quick listen on the YouTube link you provided and it sounds interesting indeed. Can't find a CD, although I've only looked at Amazon so far.

[Karl Henning]

Schoenberg's Die Gluckliche Hand - Robert Craft, cond.



Martinu's Field Mass - Charles Mackerras, cond.

Double whammy!

[Madiel]

First full, proper listen to Shostakovich's 5th.

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I'm actually using the box set, and it's unclear whether the quotes from Petrenko appeared in the individual releases, because it says they are from an interview with BBC Music Magazine. They're often very interesting quotes. Part of what he says on the Fifth is:

The problems of the Fourth Symphony are the problems of contemporary music today: there are just too many thoughts happening at the same time. They cannot all be heard. In the Fifth he crystallised his thoughts. It's ambivalent, yes, but stark, and you can clearly hear two different ideas going on at the same time.

[Madiel]

About 45 minutes later...

Okay. Wow. So that is what all the fuss is about.

[Karl Henning]

First full, proper listen to Shostakovich's 5th.

[asin]B002N5KEF6[/asin]

I'm actually using the box set, and it's unclear whether the quotes from Petrenko appeared in the individual releases, because it says they are from an interview with BBC Music Magazine. They're often very interesting quotes. Part of what he says on the Fifth is:

The problems of the Fourth Symphony are the problems of contemporary music today: there are just too many thoughts happening at the same time. They cannot all be heard. In the Fifth he crystallised his thoughts. It's ambivalent, yes, but stark, and you can clearly hear two different ideas going on at the same time.

I understand that I do not have the tools to unpack his phrase, The problems of the Fourth Symphony;  not knowing just what he means there, I leave it be.

When, in preparation for the long-delayed première of the Fourth Symphony, the composer had the opportunity to "repair" anything he considered unseaworthy in the piece, he did not change a note.  (Where, famously, he extensively revised Ledi Makbet.)

[Karl Henning]

About 45 minutes later...

Okay. Wow. So that is what all the fuss is about.

Could write a book just about the "distance" between the Opp. 43 & 47! 

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I am listening to this recording for the first time....I feel I will be listening to this much more in the future.

[Madiel]

I understand that I do not have the tools to unpack his phrase, The problems of the Fourth Symphony;  not knowing just what he means there, I leave it be.

When, in preparation for the long-delayed première of the Fourth Symphony, the composer had the opportunity to "repair" anything he considered unseaworthy in the piece, he did not change a note.  (Where, famously, he extensively revised Ledi Makbet.)

He does actually cite the Fourth as a masterpiece and one of the two best symphonies, so it's ambiguous to say the least. I don't think having difficulties, or being a difficult experience, is the same as being bad.

[Madiel]

Could write a book just about the "distance" between the Opp. 43 & 47! 

At some point I'm going to hear two Shostakovich symphonies that vaguely resemble each other, and it may be something of a disappointment given what the first five have been like.

[Karl Henning]

He does actually cite the Fourth as a masterpiece and one of the two best symphonies, so it's ambiguous to say the least. I don't think having difficulties, or being a difficult experience, is the same as being bad.

Exactly.

I refuse to think any less of the Fifth, I feel it would be terribly disloyal.  In comparison to the Fourth, it is certainly "tidy" and "classical" in a way which circumstances demanded;  but the composer wrote into those "limitations" so brilliantly, they are no limitation at all.

[Madiel]

I refuse to think any less of the Fifth, I feel it would be terribly disloyal.  In comparison to the Fourth, it is certainly "tidy" and "classical" in a way which circumstances demanded;  but the composer wrote into those "limitations" so brilliantly, they are no limitation at all.

On first listen it's gone through "classical" and almost out the other side. It is so stark, so minimalist, showing the bare bones of the music. It's got the economy of a Mozart piano sonata, but with an entire orchestra available.

It's funny timing, because I was listening to a favourite similarly minimalist pop album today... and thinking about Bach's cello suites as a consequence. It's always interesting when a composer can almost make you 'hear' more than what is actually there.

[pjme]

I've had a quick listen on the YouTube link you provided and it sounds interesting indeed. Can't find a CD, although I've only looked at Amazon so far.

I'm afraid there is no CD yet.

This seems to be a good recording : http://classical-music-online.net/en/production/60480


Peter

[jlaurson]

R. Schumann, The Symphonies
Simon Gaudenz / Odense SO
cpo
German link - UK link


NOICE! That's some of the best Schumann I've heard in a long time. Reminds me of listening to Paavo's Beethoven.

[amw]

Op. 118

certified 100% nostalgia free, partially hydrogenated Brahms, zero trans fats

Op. 118 is almost a single work in six movements, rather than a set of piano pieces—in a good performance (this is one) the movements naturally lead into one another like a great narrative arc, inexorably bound for the great cataclysm of the e-flat minor intermezzo. I doubt it was conceived that way, but certainly the final ordering of the pieces lends itself to that interpretation: from the initial disturbed passion of the first two, to the mounting intensity of the middle two, to the extraordinary suspended arcadia of the fifth and the final dissolution in tragedy. (Also the descending key scheme: A -> G -> F -> Eb.)

[NikF]

This seems to be a good recording : http://classical-music-online.net/en/production/60480


Peter

That's great. I look forward to listening. Thank you.

[Brahmsian]

At some point I'm going to hear two Shostakovich symphonies that vaguely resemble each other, and it may be something of a disappointment given what the first five have been like.

I don't think that is going to happen. 

[Karl Henning]

Дмитрий Дмитриевич [ Dmitri Dmitriyevich (Shostakovich) ]
Симфония № 4 до минор, соч. 43 [ Symphony № 4 in c minor, Opus 43 ] (1935-36)
Royal Liverpool Phil
Василий Эдуардович [ Vasily Eduardovich (Petrenko) ]

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