What are you listening 2 now?

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Ireland's 1st Sonata a firm favourite.

Well, I found it on youtube...yeah! 

PD

p.s.  Upload under "Tasmin Little-Topic"  Not certain whether all of the movements are there, but here is the first one (enjoying it now).

EDIT:  Alas, not.  I did enjoy the first movement...am trying to find a complete recording there that I can listen to.
EDIT 2:  I found one with Lydia Mordkovitch!

[71 dB]

Haydn - "Sturm und Drang" Symphonies Nos. 44, 45 & 49

Kölner Kammerorchester
Helmut Müller-Brühl
Naxos 8.551072

[DavidW]

[Mapman]

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.4 in G major. Rafael Kubelík, Bavarian RSO, Elsie Morison

First listen. Main thing I'm noting about this recording is that Kubelík seems to have strongly brought out a certain bass clarinet (?) line that I never noticed before in the second subject of the first movement. (Right around the 2 minute mark if anyone wants to hear what I'm talking about.) Otherwise all I can say is that it's a strong performance of one of my favorite Mahler symphonies.

That line is actually for 3 regular clarinets (in A). I compared several recordings of that passage, and the line is most prominent in Kubelik's. I'm not sure that I like the tone of the clarinets there. Gielen's recording also brings out the clarinets, but with a purer tone.

[Henk]

Damn! Great find.

For me:



Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.4 in G major. Rafael Kubelík, Bavarian RSO, Elsie Morison

First listen. Main thing I'm noting about this recording is that Kubelík seems to have strongly brought out a certain bass clarinet (?) line that I never noticed before in the second subject of the first movement. (Right around the 2 minute mark if anyone wants to hear what I'm talking about.) Otherwise all I can say is that it's a strong performance of one of my favorite Mahler symphonies.

I have a recording of the 4th S. in front of me, conducted by Wit on the Naxos label. Will try to notice the bass clarinet. I have to choose between the 4th and the 6th since I'm not planning to purchase any more Mahler.

[Lisztianwagner]

Bohuslav Martinů
Oboe Concerto

Heinz Holliger (oboe)
Sir Neville Marriner & Academy of St Martin in the Fields

[vers la flamme]

I have a recording of the 4th S. in front of me, conducted by Wit on the Naxos label. Will try to notice the bass clarinet. I have to choose between the 4th and the 6th since I'm not planning to purchase any more Mahler.

If the 4th and 6th are the only two you have, you made some great choices; those are two of his best! That part, which Mapman points out is actually for A clarinets, is extremely subtle in most recordings, but it's very close to the beginning. I haven't heard Wit's so couldn't tell you if he brings it out or not. (Would love to hear that recording though. Wit's Mahler 8th is incredible.)

Edit: Quickly looking at the score, it appears that the two-bar clarinet line in question is indeed marked mp where everything else is p, so maybe Kubelík's emphasis of it where everyone else buries it is not entirely wrong-headed.

[DavidW]

[Iota]

Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 26

What a beauty this one is. Given an empathetic performance here.

[Linz]

Beethoven Piano Concertos No. 2 op. 19 and Piano Concerto No. 1 op. 15, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Ernest Bloch: Concerto Symphonique; Scherzo Fantasque; Hiver-Printemps. Halida Dinova, St. Petersburg State Academic Capella Symphony Orchestra/Alexander Tchernushenko.

[Mapman]

Brahms: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24
Katchen (1949)

Great music!

[Daverz]

Roussel: String Quartet.



A good one. Stamp of originality within a traditional four movement framework - a symphony for small forces.
Possibly a caveat in that I enjoyed Loewenguth's measured approach very much indeed. Not so a second recording by the Novak SQ on Supraphon.

The Quatuor Via Nova is pretty good.  Sonics are a bit dry.

That Turnabout recording did make it to CD:

There is also a recording by a saxophone quartet:

[Brian]

If the 4th and 6th are the only two you have, you made some great choices; those are two of his best! That part, which Mapman points out is actually for A clarinets, is extremely subtle in most recordings, but it's very close to the beginning. I haven't heard Wit's so couldn't tell you if he brings it out or not. (Would love to hear that recording though. Wit's Mahler 8th is incredible.)

Edit: Quickly looking at the score, it appears that the two-bar clarinet line in question is indeed marked mp where everything else is p, so maybe Kubelík's emphasis of it where everyone else buries it is not entirely wrong-headed.

I saw Wit and Warsaw do 3 live and it was the concert of my life (so far). That orchestra in its old school shoebox hall is so extraordinary - it sounded like one instrument, almost organ-like richness and unity.

Wit only *visibly* conducts to count time. Right hand goes 1-2-3-4 (or whatever) with baton until the finale, when he put the baton down. Left hand just marks downbeats. No pointing for entrances, no turning at different sections, nothing else but those two movements. The exception was he turned to conduct the children directly with a big smile. Seeing that stage demeanor made me think how much preparation (and maybe bossiness) he shows in rehearsal.

[Linz]

Gounod Requiem, Messe Chorale, Michel Corboz & Ensemble Vocal et Instrumental de Lausanne

[classicalgeek]

Schumann
Piano sonatas in F-sharp minor, G minor
*Piano sonata in F minor
Klara Wurtz, *Vincenzo Maltempo, piano
(on Spotify)

[Symphonic Addict]

Favorably impressed by the string quartets and string trio by the Canadian composer Jean Papineau-Couture (1916-2000) (a new composer to me). Modern music that does have something to say. The SQ 2 and the String Trio 'Slanò' were the highlights.

[Mapman]

Edit: Quickly looking at the score, it appears that the two-bar clarinet line in question is indeed marked mp where everything else is p, so maybe Kubelík's emphasis of it where everyone else buries it is not entirely wrong-headed.

Well, this discussion made me want to hear Mahler's 4th again! I chose Gielen's recording since I hadn't listened to it yet, and it also brings out the clarinet part as marked in the score.

The detail that I noticed was how at rehearsal 6 in the 4th movement (about 2:30 into the movement) the text is about slaughtering oxen, and you can hear the oxen (low horns and bass clarinet). I found Gielen's performance of that passage particularly humorous.

[Mapman]

Beethoven: Violin Sonata #5 "Spring", Op. 24
Capuçon, Braley

The 2nd movement's theme is beautiful, and it has a moving appearance in minor.

[atardecer]

I find the keyboard music performances on this set generally excellent and I've been listening to various things from it lately.



Today:

Sonata in A minor BWV 965
Fugue in D minor BWV 948
Suite in F minor BWV 823
Prelude in A minor BWV 922
Prelude and Partita BWV 833
Fugue in B flat BWV 954
Fantasy in G minor BWV 917
Sonata in D BWV 963
Fugue in A minor BWV 947
Fugue in A minor BWV 958

Christiane Wuyts - Harpsichord

Some of the above pieces are adaptations of works by other composers for example the BWV 965 which is an adaptation of the Sonata No.1 for strings and continuo from "Hortus Musicus" by Johann Adam Reincken, written circa 1705:

"Curious about all forms of music, Bach did not merely seek to acquaint himself with them. He wanted to understand, to penetrate the thought behind them, making copies, and even transcriptions of Vivaldi, Couperin, Handel, Telemann, Frescobaldi, Pergolesi and many others; there are numerous examples, all more or less well-known.

Less well-known is the adaptation he made of a work by Reincken. While still a young man studying at the Lüneburg Gymnasium, "[Bach] would sometimes go to Hamburg to listen to the then celebrated organist, Johann Adam Reincken, in the church of Saint Catherine" if we are to believe his second son, Carl Philipp Emanuel. The music of the Great Man of Hamburg was thus an early focus for the young musician's admiration, and it was no doubt during this period that he came to know Reincken's "Hortus musicus" (Musical Garden), published in 1687. This was a group of six sonatas in four parts, for two violins, viola and basso continuo.

Bach appreciated them sufficiently to have made copies and then transcriptions for solo harpsichord of two of them and a fugue of a third. But as was his wont, in reducing the instrumentation to a single harpsichord, he also enriched his model, adding here a new voice, there new developments, and a level of overall ornamentation lacking in the original: re-creations in the purest sense of the word.

This attitude was characteristic of him, as can be seen in the adaptation of the first sonata in the collection, making it his A minor sonata (BWV 965) with its considerably amplified fugue and gigue, compensating with density what the work lost in diversity of colour."

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