What are you listening 2 now?

[Cato]

The fine liner notes also shed light on facts not otherwise available, either from the Wikipedia entry or the CPO liner notes and that are definitely worth noticing: although Graener was a member of the Nazi party and vice-president of the Reichsmusikkammer , he steadfastly kept commercial and personal relationships with jewish business relations (like the editor Eulenburg) and befriended and protected jewish musicians. In 1944 another jewish music publisher, Wilhelm Zimmermann (whose firm had been banned 4 years before) commissioned a flute concerto (the one on this disc) from Graener, the Reichsmusikkammer (!). The two men had been corresponding actively, damned be the ban. When the concerto was finished, Graner wrote Zimmermann « The Flute concerto is ready; the last movement - just imagine, at a time like this! - is a rondo on 'Freut euch des lebens'. I am very happy with the piece ». It was Graener's last completed work. He died  shortly after.

Here it is: Paul Graener - Flute Concerto

...and a work which Toscanini conducted: The Flute of Sans-Souci

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NP:

Adams (John Luther)
Strange Birds Passing
New England Conservatory Contemporary Music Ensemble
John Heiss

[André]

Symphonies 6, 9, 10 (Adagio).

Dave Hurwitz writes that this set can be easily dispensed with. As usual when Hurwitz goes out of his way to use trash epithets ('Lousy', 'mediocre', 'bad', 'mannered' 'strange'. 'weak' - ok Dave, we get it !), I muster the Advocate in me (it's a psychological test I toyed with and that's how it described me) and try to point out the good things in it - the half-full glass view as it were.

The Philharmonia's playing - the brass in particular - is resplendent. The recorded sound is wide-ranging and resonant, the conducting sympathetic. I guess that's about it. I enjoyed some fine moments in the 9th (a beautifully sculpted performance, redolent of golden, Klimt-like viennese decadence), the Rondo-Burleske and Adagio particularly.

In the 6th Sinopoli adopts Barbirollian tempi, except in the exceptionally slow Andante (a full 4 minutes slower than Barbi, 6 minutes slower than Abbado/Berlin). At 93 minutes it's 11 minutes slower (6 if you take off the first movement exposition repeat omitted by Barbirolli), a whopping 20 minutes slower than Szell's electrifying Cleveland performance. Barbirolli adopts very slow but crisp phrasing and biting string tone. Sinopoli's almost identical tempi produce lush, laden results.

Not alien to Mahler's idiom though: the 6th's orchestration is unusually oriented toward the bass end of the spectrum, so I guess Sinopoli took good note of the doom and gloom sonic opportunities Mahler threw at the conductor. Not disappointing then, but definitely one for the odd occasion when one wants to wallow in misery and self-pity.

The same approach yields unusual results in the Adagio of the 10th. It is extremely slow and, while not being portentous, it mercilessly exploits the decadent sonorities Mahler's mind imagined as he was nearing the end of his life.

Great playing and sound, a definite affinity for the darker aspects of the composer's orchestration, but ultimately a slightly depressing view of Mahler's work.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

NP:

Chin
Violin Concerto
Viviane Hagner (violin)
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Kent Nagano



Truly a splendid work. I don't know or have heard the Christian Tetzlaff performance of this concerto from Chin Berliner Philharmoniker box set, but I'm content with this one.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

NP:

Sallinen
A Solemn Overture (King Lear), Op. 75
Symphony No. 1, Op. 24
Chorali
Symphony No. 7, Op. 71, "The Dreams of Gandalf"
Rheinland-Pfalz State Philharmonic Orchestra
Ari Rasilainen

From this set -




It's been about 14 years or so since I've listened to Sallinen's music and, honestly, I don't know why I neglected him for so long. A truly fascinating composer with a sound-world all of his own, which is no easy feat.

[Symphonic Addict]

Welcome home!

Thank you, Karl!

[Symphonic Addict]

Daniel Jones: Symphony No. 1

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NP:

Schoenberg
Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5
Variations, Op. 31
CSO
Boulez

[Mapman]

Casella: Symphony #2
La Vecchia: Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma

It's been about 7 years since I listened to this. It's a very dramatic symphony, clearly inspired by Mahler.

[Symphonic Addict]

NP:

Sallinen
A Solemn Overture (King Lear), Op. 75
Symphony No. 1, Op. 24
Chorali
Symphony No. 7, Op. 71, "The Dreams of Gandalf"
Rheinland-Pfalz State Philharmonic Orchestra
Ari Rasilainen

From this set -




It's been about 14 years or so since I've listened to Sallinen's music and, honestly, I don't know why I neglected him for so long. A truly fascinating composer with a sound-world all of his own, which is no easy feat.

Yes, a singular and fascinating figure amongst Nordic composers.

I imagine that you have this excellent disc of chamber works:



And the string quartets are not to be missed either.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Yes, a singular and fascinating figure amongst Nordic composers.

I imagine that you have this excellent disc of chamber works:



And the string quartets are not to be missed either.

I do not own that CPO chamber music disc, but I do own the SQs (on Ondine w/ the Jean Sibelius Quartet) and the 2-CD set of Chamber Music I-VIII (also on Ondine).

[Symphonic Addict]

I do not own that CPO chamber music disc, but I do own the SQs (on Ondine w/ the Jean Sibelius Quartet) and the 2-CD set of Chamber Music I-VIII (also on Ondine).

I have yet to explore that Chamber Music series.

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I have yet to explore that Chamber Music series.

That makes two of us. My copy is still sealed.

[Symphonic Addict]

Norgard: Sonata determinata, Sonata capricciosa and Piano Sonata in one movement

I've been exploring piano sonatas/sonatinas by different composers, finding many of them to be real revelations. These three sonatas belong to that select group. Very imaginative and stimulating music.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Closing the night out with three choral works from more contemporaneous composers:

MacMillan
Stabat Mater
The Sixteen, Britten Sinfonia
Christophers



Gubaidulina
Alleluia
Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir
Dmitri Kitajenko



Penderecki
Canticum Canticorum Salomonis
Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, Krakow Philharmonic Chorus
Penderecki

[steve ridgway]

Schoenberg - Kammersymphony No. 2

[steve ridgway]

Maderna - Notturno

[AnotherSpin]

More String Quintets today.

[hopefullytrusting]

This morning's listening was led by my typing. I logged into YouTube, and typed between quotation marks - "Variations on a theme by Brahms" which led me to Leone Sinigaglia's Variations on a theme by Brahms:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZUPJVyUSyM
A piece which just radiates with delight (I mean it is based around the music of Brahms). Importantly, for those of you with excellent ears, I cannot comment on the variations themselves, as my ears are not good enough to hear the distinctions between them. All I hear is pleasant music piled upon pleasant music, and I am left more than satisfied.

According to Wikipedia, Sinigaglia was friends with Dvorak (a nice Brahms connection), technically killed by the Nazis (according to Wikipedia, when they came to take him to the Concentration Camp, he had a fatal heart attack then and there).

This then led to me type in the composer's name into YouTube and use the over 20 minutes function, and that spat out his Violin Sonata. This is a genre which I used to abhor, but has quickly become the one I cast as my bog standard, my measuring stick, and this one is no disappointment - again, not surprising, given his penchants (Brahms, Dvorak, Schubert), and this feels like all of them rolled-up into one. It is light, but dense (Schubert), free but constricted (Dvorak), serious, but always comically so (Brahms). I mean it feels like a wonderfully composed romantic violin sonata because it is. If that is your thing, then this is your thing.

High recommendation on both pieces.

[Que]

Missa Gaudeamus
Magnifcat octavi toni
Missa Ave maris stella