What are you listening 2 now?

[JBS]

Tonight's listen:


An epigone of Beethoven? Perhaps. But certainly more interesting than Schubert's early or middle symphonies.


At barely 3/4 of an hour much too short. Last track is the movement from Ysaye's solo sonatas that quotes Bach.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Now playing Brahms Piano Pieces, Op. 76

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Last work for the night --- two back-to-back performances of Bax Tintagel from these recordings:

[Que]

[vandermolen]

Me too, Jeffrey. I think Mackerras gets inside this music better than say Haitink who I know only recorded the 1st symphony, but when EMI (Warner) were compiling their Walton Collector's Edition, they should've just used Mackerras for both symphonies instead of splitting it between Haitink and Previn. I think a Walton box set from Warner could be done so much better now since they bought out the EMI catalog and have been issuing those beautiful sets like Debussy The Complete Works and the Igor Stravinsky Edition for example. Oh well, looks like Walton will continue to get the shaft. I'm not even sure how popular his music is in the UK or elsewhere nowadays, but he's such a fantastic composer and I've loved his music.

Very much agree John. I like Walton's music very much, especially the 1st Symphony, Viola Concerto (which I prefer to the Violin Concerto) and the Henry V film score.

[Que]

Do you happen to know the name of cover art?

According to the backcover is a painting by Johann Christian Clausen Dahl. It doesn't mention the name of the painting, but it is a view of historical Dresden by the looks of it. (Before it was bombed flat for no military objective whatsoever).

[AnotherSpin]

Alois Hába's piano works drift elegantly between the currents of Central European modernism — Schoenberg and Schreker gently flickering at the edges — the lingering echoes of the Romantic tradition in Bach, Schumann, and Reger, touches of Moravian folk colour, and the curious, refined strangeness of his microtonal wanderings, drawn from both European and more distant worlds. One way or another, I listen with quiet pleasure.

[Lisztianwagner]

Johann Sebastian Bach
Easter Oratorio

Ralf Popken, David Wilson-Johnson, Monika Frimmer, Christoph Prégardien
Gustav Leonhardt & Orchestra And Choir Of The Age Of Enlightenment

[Madiel]

Now playing Brahms Piano Pieces, Op. 76

How is this? He's one of the pianists I've considered for a set of Brahms piano works (I don't have a complete series as yet).

[pjme]

Alois Hába's piano works drift elegantly between the currents of Central European modernism — Schoenberg and Schreker gently flickering at the edges — the lingering echoes of the Romantic tradition in Bach, Schumann, and Reger, touches of Moravian folk colour, and the curious, refined strangeness of his microtonal wanderings, drawn from both European and more distant worlds. One way or another, I listen with quiet pleasure.

I had -if I remember correctly- some Supraphon LPs  with Czech pianomusic, but never warmed to "microtonal wanderings". I no longer have the LPs and havent listened to any Haba in ages.
During the corona pandemic however, I discovered some of Haba' large scale orchestral works on YT and loved the (Schoenbergian?) density and the orchestration. Supraphon recordings issued for the Haba centenary (ca 1993).

To my taste this is really a knock out piece - "lyrical abstraction" that I love!

[Madiel]

Mozart: Works for piano duet

Sonata in F major, K.497
Fragmentary sonata in G major, K.357 (written about the same time despite the lower Koechel number)

[vers la flamme]

Robert Schumann: String Quartets, op.41. Eroica Quartet

Happy Easter, friends.

[ChamberNut]

👌

Very nice Henk! Love Villa-Lobos guitar works.

[Madiel]

Ravel songs

Les grands vents venus d'outremer
Sur l'herbe
Cinq mélodies populaires grecques
Noël des jouets
Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera




Ravel wrote quite a lot of vocal music around and just after his last Prix de Rome attempt (including Histoires naturelles as well which I've set aside for now).  All the performances sound pretty good to my ears, though for a couple of the Greek songs the choice of a female singer is a little odd (but then on my other recording, there's one song where a male singer is a little odd).

[ChamberNut]

Robert Schumann: String Quartets, op.41. Eroica Quartet

Happy Easter, friends.

Happy Easter Zeke!

[ritter]

Inspired by a recent post by @foxandpeng , revisiting some Henze: the Second Piano Concerto, with Christoph Eschenbach and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer.



CD 5 of the DG box:

[Florestan]

Happy Easter, friends.

To you as well.

[ritter]

Pierre-Laurent Aimard plays Messiaen's Catalogue d'oiseaux (Books 5, 6 and 7).


CD 3.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

How is this? He's one of the pianists I've considered for a set of Brahms piano works (I don't have a complete series as yet).

Absolutely first-rate. Gorgeous performances and the same goes for the audio quality.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Continuing on with the Guarnieri symphonies --- Symphony No. 4, "Brasilia"