What are you listening to now?

[Madiel]

.[asin]B00002DEH4[/asin]

In reverse order.

Trying to find your Burghauser limit?

[king ubu]

Back from my wonderful trip to Italy (Ravenna > Ferrara > Bologna > Mantova > Verona ... twice Louis Moholo in Ravenna, the University of London Chamber Choir in a church in Mantova, and finally "Aïda" in Verona ... and now I'm looking for a job in Ferrara, most bewitching town I've ever been to), started playing this last night already:



Now into disc two (disc one has some concertos, the other two are with Martin Krause on piano)

[NikF]

Brahms: Clarinet Quintet - Juilliard Quartet/Neidich.

[asin]B0000259KJ[/asin]

[Sergeant Rock]

Cato's (yes, our Cato) Exaudi me, Domine (MIDI version).

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Liszt, Hungarian Fantasy for piano and orchestra, Bolet, Irving/Symphony of the Air. Bolet in his dynamic, hair-raising prime in 1960.

Fun piece!

[Karl Henning]

Cato's (yes, our Cato) Exaudi me, Domine (MIDI version).

Sarge

Revisiting that, myself, this morning (Chowder Time).

[Madiel]

I was planning this anyway...

[asin]B00002DEH4[/asin]

Last night I listened to quartet No.7 (op.16/B.45), which is my earliest confirmed liked quartet. Tonight I'm giving quartet no.5 (op.9/B.37) a listen for the first time in several years to see whether my greater familiarity/enthusiasm for Dvorak will help me appreciate it more.

Partly influenced by the fact that I now have, and have enjoyed, the 4th symphony which falls in between those quartets chronologically.

It's not too bad so far in the 1st movement, although it lacks the killer punch and there are points where I think it would work better if the music was Allegro rather than Moderato.

[ritter]

Some days ago, I reported (with enthusism) that I was listening to Edmon Colomer's recording of the Manuel de Falla / Ernesto Halffter Atlántida (on long OOP Audivis / Valois CDs). Well, now I have received a used copy of the first compete recording conducetd by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos  on EMI  (which only circulated breifly, is also long OOP, and which I hadn't listened to for some 30 years--I had on LPs):



Both the Colomer and the Früihbeck recordings are excellent; perhaps Colomer's forces are more enthusiastic, and his female soloists (Teresa Berganza as Queen Pirene and a young María Bayo as Queen Isabella) have a slight advantage over their counterparts on the EMI (Anna Ricci and Enriqueta Tarrès). As the narrator, Simon Estes on Audivis is good, but slightly vehement and lacking in subtelty, while Vicente Sardinero is rather more idiomatic in the EMI.

What should be noted, though, is that the Frühbeck includes some 20 minutes more of music in Part II (Alcides and Geryon the three-headed). I wouldn't go as far as saying that the Colomer is cut, since the process of completion of this fragementary work was haphazard. Still, the longer Part II is worthwhile, and gives a better picture of the destruction of Atlantis from a dramatic point of view.

It is rather surprising that Frühbeck chose to include more music form Part II (if he actually had a choice at that time), because later on he would perform excerpts pof the work in a sort of suite, omitting Part II altogether. He would invoke logistic problems (given the number of soslists required). Also, Part II is the section that apparently includes the least of original music by Falla, and is almost purely Halffter. To add insult to injury, on at least one occasion, Frühbeck perfomed this suite (sans part II) followd by Orff's Carmina Burana, of all things  .

In any case, Part II it is quite wonderful, and full of all sorts of influneces. For instance, Wagner and Puccini lurk in the background: Geryon is a creature that lies somewhere between Fafner, on one hand, and Ping, Pang and Pong from Turandot on the other, and the Pleiades are a kind of mixture of the Flowermaidesn from Parsifal and a sort of Mediterranean Rhinemaidens).

It is surprising that a new recording of this work hasn't been issued. Perhaps the Spanish National Orchetstra's own label will release the performances under Josep Pons from last year in Madrid (which were highly praised, and which I sadly missed because I was out of town at the time  ).

[Mirror Image]

Time for a little miniature concert I'm putting on in my room:

Dvorak: Serenade for Strings in E major, Op. 22
Vaughan Williams: Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus
Stravinsky: Apollo

[marvinbrown]

Thank you for that.

  Sorry I was mistaken, The 4th , 5th and 6th symphonies are played by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra with Mravinsky conducting.

  The first three symphonies by the Russian National Orchestra Pletnev conducting. 

  If you are used to the Karajan lush approach, you might well be surprised here!

 

  marvin

[NikF]

Time for a little miniature concert I'm putting on in my room:

That's the coolest idea I've heard all day. Good stuff.

[not edward]

Working from home today (a rare treat) and czeching in with some symphonies:

[asin]B00000358I[/asin]

Sejna's 7th is just extraordinary.

[asin]B000005W21[/asin]

For once, I don't think Ancerl is the best option here. I find Neumann better-paced and better-played.

[Mirror Image]

That's the coolest idea I've heard all day. Good stuff.

Thanks! Yeah, I love doing stuff like this every now and then. Mixes things up a bit.

[Todd]

Disc 20.  Brahms' sonatas 1 & 2.  Good but not even close to FFG good.

[Mirror Image]

Now playing:



Symphony #5 (Original Version)

The original version of the 5th is interesting, but I can certainly hear why Sibelius made those revisions and I'm glad he did. Granted you lose some of the atmospheric, textural music that the original version contained, but you get a leaner, dare I say 'truer' Sibelius symphony as the trade-off.

[Mandryka]

This recording of music by Louis Couperin by Laurence Cummings makes me think of something amw said about The Ebene Quartet's Schubert Quintet: a feeling of sexual repression. Well in fact, I rather appreciate this way of playing. Maybe it's very British.

[Mandryka]

FFG

One of those fs must be fuck. But what the fuck does the rest mean?

[kishnevi]

One of those fs must be fuck. But what the fuck does the rest mean?

He means

[Mandryka]

He means

Oh, how disappointing.

[SonicMan46]

Continuing my Fourth of July celebration w/ yet another American composer (who actually lived the last 50+ years of his life in Switzerland):

Strong, George Templeton (1856-1948) - own the three discs below, all orchestral music.  His father (same name; 1820-1875) was more famous as a New York City lawyer, a friend of Abraham Lincoln, and prolific diarist, especially during the Civil War.  Dave