What are you listening to now?

[North Star]

Peteris Vasks
Musica Adventus for string orchestra (1995-96)
Riga Sinfonietta
Normund Sne
https://www.youtube.com/v/paRg7uR8Xgc

[Brian]

Peteris Vasks
Musica Adventus for string orchestra (1995-96)
Riga Sinfonietta
Normund Sne

How do you like this? I almost gave it a first listen...but didn't 

Instead went with R. Strauss's Four Last Songs. After a Vasks overdose, it was perfect.

[North Star]

How do you like this? I almost gave it a first listen...but didn't 

Instead went with R. Strauss's Four Last Songs. After a Vasks overdose, it was perfect.

I like Musica Adventus very much indeed. As far as I recall, it's probably my favourite of the Vasks I've heard.

[ritter]

Act 1 from Jaap van Zweden's recording of Parsifal:

[asin]B0052NZXFC[/asin]
In anticipation of a performance of this I'll attend this weekend at the Teatro Real here in Madrid, conducted by Semyon Bychkov and staged by Claus Guth..I'm really looking forward to this! 

[Mandryka]

Another corker of a performance of the Bach gamba sonatas (and other things) by Bruno Cocset, Bertrand Cuiller and Richard Myron, using a bunch of unexpected instruments. Transparent, lyrical, warm. Stimulating from the point of view of interpretation, transposition, instrumentation and organisation (into three sets of three.)

My only reservation is the balance of organ and other instrument in some of 1027, but I may be wrong to be reserved about it.

[listener]

more first-listens to some cds that arrived a few weeks ago
PAGANINI: 3 Duos for Violin and Bassoon
D.W. SOLOMONS: Floreat Rosa Divina  J-R. COMBES-DAMIENS: Omaggio
Pavel Eret, violin      Franck Leblois, bassoon
Johann von HERBECK  (1831-1877): Symphony no.4 in d (Orgelsymphonie)
Symphonic Variations in F
Hamburg S.O.  Martin Haselböck, cond.   Irénée Peyrot, organ

[aligreto]

Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 [Suk + Czech Philharmonic / Ancerl]....





A great combination of forces yielding a wonderful version of this magnificent work.

[SimonNZ]

Michael Haydn's Symphonies 18 and 25 - Bohdan Warchal, cond.

[ludwigii]

 
Francis Poulenc
Movement Perpetuel No.1



http://www.youtube.com/v/pMidjL1GAw8

[aligreto]

Mozart: Flute Quartet KV 285....

[SonicMan46]

MacDowell, Edward (1860-1908) - Piano & Orchestral Music from the 4 discs shown below (one a double) - the Piano Concertos disc w/ Tanyel has widely divergent comments on Amazon, but the attached Fanfare review is much more positive - Dave

   

[André]

Symphonia Domestica. This is my third recording of a piece I had never heard before a couple of years ago. Typical Strauss, typical Karajan. Superlative playing and recording.

[mc ukrneal]

MacDowell, Edward (1860-1908) - Piano & Orchestral Music from the 4 discs shown below (one a double) - the Piano Concertos disc w/ Tanyel has widely divergent comments on Amazon, but the attached Fanfare review is much more positive - Dave

   

I like all of those. You may want to try a piano disc performed by James Barbagallo (Naxos). He does a great job on the volume (#4) I have:
[asin]B00000JMYL[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

Listening to Piano Concerto No. 5 from this recording:

[SonicMan46]

I like all of those. You may want to try a piano disc performed by James Barbagallo (Naxos). He does a great job on the volume (#4) I have:
[asin]B00000JMYL[/asin]

Hi Neal - did not get to the other 3 CDs of MacDowell's music that I own, which are Vols. 2-4 of the piano music mentioned above w/ Barbagallo - not sure why I never bought Vol. 1 but several of the solo pieces are on the double-CD that I showed previously.  Thanks for the comments - Dave

[Mirror Image]

Cycling in the rain earlier today, this started to play in my head.

Sibelius
Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52
Sinfonia Lahti
Osmo Vänskä
[asin]B000KC849W[/asin]

Definitely not a bad work to get stuck in your head.

[Mirror Image]

Now:





Listening to Love's Labours Lost Suite. Really gorgeous music.

[Todd]

Gabetta's DSCH 1 and the Rach Cello Sonata.  The concerto is just way too slow.  At over 31', it is at times sluggish, and while Gabetta and the band can't help but deliver some moments of intensity, right from the opening bars something is missing.  The Rach is something I rarely listen to, and here seems a bit lighter and less rich than I am accustomed to, but it's fine.  The main work just doesn't work for me, though.  Superb playing and sound, even in the live concerto.

[kishnevi]

I've been playing a CD a day for the last three days of this set

The works with opus numbers, in order of opus number, filled out by the orchestral version of  Five Movements for String Quartet, the orchestration of the Ricercar from BWV 1079, and the orchestration of Schubert's German Dances D 820, conducted by Webern himself (in 1939).

I guess the best way of putting it is to say Webern's music made no connection with me.  It is not as ugly as some Schoenberg (I really dislike Pierrot Lunaire and Erwartung),  but there is none of the splashes of beauty which show up from time to time throughout Schoenberg's output, and none of the lyricism which is present in Berg.  I probably will not come back to this set for quite some time.

And now to much more familiar territory, a new to me Mahler set, starting with CD 1,  Symphony 1

[Brian]

I have a great big artist-crush on Ivan Fischer. This is really hitting the spot.

[asin]B004WLUHBA[/asin]