What are you listening 2 now?

[Symphonic Addict]

Peter Benoit: Suite from 'De Pacificatie van Gent'

A very patriotic work and one I like very much.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Finishing up the Guarnieri symphonies with the 5th and 6th

[Symphonic Addict]

Thieriot: String Quintet in G major (with two cellos)

It might be deemed like too Brahmsian, perhaps. The truth about it is that it is a very fine, attractive and well-crafted work.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Last work for the night: finishing up the Rorem symphonies --- now playing the 3rd

[Que]

One more lamentations.. Will do a survey of Leçons de Ténèbres, the French variety, next year! 

[Que]

My day to sit down and listen to a Bach passion is usually Easter Monday, since I work on Good Friday and I am out on Easter Sunday to visit family.  My go to recordings are by Leonhardt, Harnoncourt and Kuijken. Those performers that closely worked together in Bach interpretations in the 9070s and 80s represent my sweet spot in Bach interpretation in the cantatas and passions. Frans** Brüggen one one of that the club but was as a conductor a bit of an outlier, prefering softer, broader strokes and calmer tempi. All of that is here, but the phrasing, accents, still sounds spot on.
But this is not edge-of-your-seat drama, like the 1965 Harnoncourt, it's (a lot) gentler. Not all the soloists are top shelf, but I'm enjoying this.

** NOT "Frantz"!

[Iota]

Boulez: Le Marteau sans maître
Hilary Summers (mezzo-soprano)
Ensemble Intercontemporain, Boulez

The clarity of the Marteau score is very hypnotic I find.

[Que]

[Madiel]

Haydn: Keyboard sonata no.41 in A, no.2 in C



No.41 is a trifle odd, in that after a full opening movement, Haydn adds a shortish menuet from one of his symphonies and then a tiny finale. As it's the last of Haydn's first intentionally published set of 6 sonatas, it does feel like he might have been in a hurry to finish!

No.2 is tiny all round, it takes less than 5 minutes. It's bright and cheerful.

[Madiel]

Mozart: Trio for piano, clarinet and viola K.498.

To which an entirely wrong nickname has been regularly applied.



Lovely music.

[Roasted Swan]

An interestingly-programmed well-played collection that seems apt for Easter Monday.....



I'm no Hovhaness fan ususally but enjoyed "Mysterious Mountain" today a lot.  The Canning is rather beautiful if just a tad too much of a RVW Tallis Fantasia rip-off.  Brubeck likewise enjoyable if not great but overall this is an attractive 'concert'

[Madiel]

Pejacevic: Phantasie concertante for piano and orchestra



A relatively late work, full-on late Romantic with some kinship to Rachmaninov, much virtuosic piano. To be honest it's got that flavour of being a showpiece, and while decent it's not striking me as one of her best pieces of music. Your mileage may vary.

[Traverso]

Bach

[Traverso]

My day to sit down and listen to a Bach passion is usually Easter Monday, since I work on Good Friday and I am out on Easter Sunday to visit family.  My go to recordings are by Leonhardt, Harnoncourt and Kuijken. Those performers that closely worked together in Bach interpretations in the 9070s and 80s represent my sweet spot in Bach interpretation in the cantatas and passions. Frans** Brüggen one one of that the club but was as a conductor a bit of an outlier, prefering softer, broader strokes and calmer tempi. All of that is here, but the phrasing, accents, still sounds spot on.
But this is not edge-of-your-seat drama, like the 1965 Harnoncourt, it's (a lot) gentler. Not all the soloists are top shelf, but I'm enjoying this.



** NOT "Frantz"!

Concerning Bach's vocal worksI have only this recording from FRANTZ !



And of course the seon recording....

[Madiel]

Poulenc
Deux poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire
Priez pour paix
La Grenouillère



He wrote quite a few songs in 1938. In just a few short minutes you can hear the different sides of Poulenc's personality. The old religious poetry in Priez pour paix (Pray for peace) gets a very different response from the mischievous streak in one of the Apollinaire songs in particular.

[Que]

[Madiel]

Last work for the night.

Stravinsky: Les Noces



Apparently a favourite work of Stravinsky himself, and also of Diaghilev. Not staged until 3 years after Pulcinella and 10 years after The Rite of Spring, but it's not hard to hear it was mostly written soon after The Rite.

This is probably only my 2nd listen to it (almost exactly a year after my first), and I have to confess I'm still processing a bit. But there's no doubt the final decision to use pianos and percussion gives the work a very bright and dynamic sound.

[pjme]

Poulenc
Priez pour paix

I found this choral version on YT - it works well, I'd say..

From Compiègne, the Imperial theatre. . Enguerrand de Hys' voice suits -to my taste - Poulenc very well.

[Madiel]

I found this choral version on YT - it works well, I'd say..

Sure. And yet Poulenc, who had already shown himself capable of writing choral works of this nature (in fact the liner notes of my recording make the explicit point that it's echoing his then-recent choral works), decided that this was for solo voice and piano.

[Traverso]

Beethoven



"Eroica" Symphony No.3





I cannot emphasize enough what a fine set this is with the symphonies of Beethoven.
As I mentioned earlier, the HIP practice has not gone unnoticed by Jansons and that has led to a stunningly beautiful Beethoven set.
Beethoven comes closer to us, more human and as a result your involvement becomes greater and you walk hand in hand with him as it were when listening to the "Pastoral".
You hear the shepherds singing and it is almost visualized and you experience the joy of creation with Beethoven.
The beautiful thing about these performances is that despite the fact that they are the result of thorough preparation, they still sound like a spontaneous event.
It is more than just beauty it is spiritual testament.



I thought about buying a big box with recordings with Jansons, I chose only this set because I am not interested in more performances of Mahler, Bruckner.
If I had been younger, who knows.....