Pieces that have blown you away recently

Started by arpeggio, September 09, 2016, 02:36:58 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 6 Guests are viewing this topic.

Mirror Image

#160
Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande has most definitely cast its' spell on me at the moment. I'm in complete awe.

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Quote from: Thatfabulousalien on January 02, 2017, 03:13:46 PM
Ben Johnston - String Quartets 5 & 6 and his "Quintet For Groups"  :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

So glad you've discovered this composer! I like his string quartets very much :)

Florestan

Henri Herz - Ballade op. 117 No.1, Trois nocturnes caractéristiques Op 45

Sigismond Thalberg - Fantaisie sur des thèmes de l'opéra Moïse de G. Rossini op. 33, Grande Caprice sur des motifs de La Sonnambula, Opus 46

Gaetano Fusella - Suite campestre per violino e pianoforte
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Maestro267

Circus Maximus by John Corigliano. First of all, I love how the piece calls for different ensembles dotted around the hall (Corigliano likes doing that). But what I'm really here for is the moment after the marching band leaves the stage (having come in from one side, marched across the stage and gone back up the other side). HO. LEE. COW!!! Probably the loudest and most crushing fortississississ...issimo anyone has ever conjured up!

ComposerOfAvantGarde

I was recently blown away by how humorous Chopin's Scherzo no. 2 is when I heard it being performed this evening by a pianist friend of mine. I hadn't really paid much attention to the piece before.....but it is terrific!

Todd




Okay, I'll 'fess up: I bought this disc for the pianist and not the violinist.  Michail Lifits needs to be more widely recorded.  This disc reinforces that.

Ms Frang ends up being an equal draw.  Her playing is splendid and lovely throughout, and she seems to play everything with ease.  The duo make a delectable treat out of Grieg's first Violin Sonata, Op 8.  It is bouyant and playful and energetic, and when they play the lullaby-esque music in the final movement (Lifits, especially), it is just wonderful.  They rather trounce Dumay/Pires, who sound small and restrained and bland in comparison.

The middle of the disc is given over to Ms Frang's take on Bartok's Sonata for Violin.  She handles it extremely well, and if she doesn't play with, say, Tetzlaff's cooler, intense precision from his second recording, or Zsigmondy's colorful Hungarian abandon, she very much makes the piece her own, and generates more than satisfying excitement levels.

The disc ends with the Strauss Violin Sonata, and here Frang and Lifits are, if anything, even more at home than in the Grieg.  The playing is unabashedly romantic and both players deliver tonal luxuriance and command in perfect measure.  Prior to this disc, the Chung/Zimerman was probably the best version I'd heard (out of only maybe three), but this is the new standard-bearer for me.  Frang's tone and playing is much more to my liking than Chung's, and Lifits matches the mighty Krystian Zimerman in ivory tickling.  I actually really enjoy the piece in this recording.

It looks like Ms Frang and Mr Lifits are regular performance partners.  I will certainly snap up any future recordings they may make together with no little alacrity, and I would not mind one bit if they covered the core rep.  I mean, there is a Beethoven anniversary year not too far in the future.  Just sayin'. 

I now regret not having bought this when it came out six years ago; that's six years I could have been enjoying this disc.  It's very early in the year, I know, but this is an early contender for a purchase of the year.  An outstanding chamber music disc in every way. 

SOTA sound.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

North Star

I've certainly liked what (little) I've heard from Frang so far.

Quote from: Todd on January 07, 2017, 01:11:28 PMI mean, there is a Beethoven anniversary year not too far in the future.  Just sayin'.
And it's 190 years since his death in a couple of months. ;)
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Mirror Image

Quote from: North Star on January 07, 2017, 01:19:30 PM
I've certainly liked what (little) I've heard from Frang so far.

Her Nielsen VC recording is quite fine.

some guy

I recently heard Ferrari's Histoire de plaisir et de la desolation for the first time. That was pretty cool. Back in the day, some friends and I were in a constant competition as to who would get the next Ferrari LP, then CD. This was one I'd never run across. But here I am at my oldest son's house, and here is this Ferrari. It's not like any other Ferrari I've ever heard. And I've heard a lot of them. I defy anyone who has heard any Ferrari to identify this by simply listening to it.

So that was pretty fun. I suppose it "blew me away." Certainly the "recently" part is OK.

Also on this disc is Far West News No. 1. So if you only have Far West News Nos. 2 & 3, here's the one what precedes them.

some guy

Thatfabulousalien: Sure!!

sanantonio: Yes. That's the one. And thank you for pointing out that other disc, too, which I also did not know about. A new (to me) Ferrari disc is always welcome.

nathanb

QuoteThatfabulousalien: Sure!!

I demand some sort of cabinet position in the leadership team.

DaveF

#171
Szymanowski Stabat Mater - CBSO, Simon Rattle

I s'pose there comes a time of life (late 50s) when you're thinking of Eliot's words "We shall not cease from exploration" and you say, "Yeah, but I've explored it all".  But no-one told me about Szymanowski.  I may even have shed a tear or two.  Or it may have been rain.  This is Wales.

I hesitate to ask for more recommendations, since such a request always draws down 17 pages of them from ever-helpful GMGers, but unless someone can give me a very good reason I'll be buying [asin]B0013D8JXI[/asin] in some format or other.
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

North Star

Quote from: DaveF on February 01, 2017, 12:40:12 AM
Szymanowski Stabat Mater - CBSO, Simon Rattle

I s'pose there comes a time of life (late 50s) when you're thinking of Eliot's words "We shall not cease from exploration" and you say, "Yeah, but I've explored it all".  But no-one told me about Szymanowski.  I may even have shed a tear or two.  Or it may have been rain.  This is Wales.

I hesitate to ask for more recommendations, since such a request always draws down 17 pages of them from ever-helpful GMGers, but unless someone can give me a very good reason I'll be buying [Rattle Szymanowski box] in some format or other.
That Rattle set is very good indeed.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

DaveF

Quote from: North Star on February 01, 2017, 12:46:09 AM
That Rattle set is very good indeed.

Thank you - ordered for £8.35 (free shipping) from dodax.co.uk

I also got briefly excited by https://www.dodax.co.uk/music-cds-dvds-vinyl/concerts-symphonies-orchestral-music/szymanowski-the-complete-music-for-viola-and-piano-pfvqsaxa/ until I looked at the image and saw it isn't for a proper viola but one of those squeaky miniature ones that come out of Christmas crackers or somewhere.  Won't be buying that (writes a viola player).
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

Mirror Image

#174
Quote from: DaveF on February 01, 2017, 12:40:12 AM
Szymanowski Stabat Mater - CBSO, Simon Rattle

I s'pose there comes a time of life (late 50s) when you're thinking of Eliot's words "We shall not cease from exploration" and you say, "Yeah, but I've explored it all".  But no-one told me about Szymanowski.  I may even have shed a tear or two.  Or it may have been rain.  This is Wales.

I hesitate to ask for more recommendations, since such a request always draws down 17 pages of them from ever-helpful GMGers, but unless someone can give me a very good reason I'll be buying [asin]B0013D8JXI[/asin] in some format or other.

Yep, Rattle's Szymanowski would definitely accompany me to that desert island. Everything is exquisitely performed. Some of Rattle's most inspired work actually.

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Quote from: Thatfabulousalien on February 01, 2017, 12:47:50 PM
Aperghis - Luna Park

https://youtu.be/biTGIRROgZA

....woah!  :o

A composer who has written some truly astounding music! Have you heard much else by him?

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Quote from: Thatfabulousalien on February 01, 2017, 01:11:11 PM
....see the Aperghis thread?  ;)
Ok, I will have to find it, but thanks for pointing that out ^_^

aleazk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyCfJbJ8ZSI

Beep, beep, beep.  :D

François Bayle - Toupie Dans Le Ciel (New Version 2009)

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Quote from: aleazk on February 01, 2017, 03:41:20 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyCfJbJ8ZSI

Beep, beep, beep.  :D

François Bayle - Toupie Dans Le Ciel (New Version 2009)

Ok I am going to listen to this properly once I come home from university this afternoon, but what I have heard so far is  b e a u t i f u l

Thank you for posting this! I have never heard of Bayle before. Is there also a thread for his music in the composer discussion forum?

Mirror Image

Quote from: Thatfabulousalien on February 01, 2017, 01:51:44 PM
https://youtu.be/bzPI5z1cYvc

I know it happened quickly but holy-shit, woah woah woah!!!! This piece is so exuberant and exciting, very modern yet retaining elements of romanticism. There's bits of Xenakis, Boulez and Stravinsky in there but it sounds so....unique  ???

Surprised you haven't checked out Lindberg before. He's a Contemporary composer I definitely enjoy.