What are you listening 2 now?

[hopefullytrusting]

What recordings have you been listening to? My impression is that early Mozart reveals its secrets best in PI performances. Pinnock does them nicely.

I've listened to Pinnock.

I have this set:

[Roasted Swan]

Picked this up yesterday, fully cognizant of owning six or seven recordings of it already (inc. Daniel Hope's, the first to perform and record Berg's corrected and revised score in 2004), so this recording, from 2000, predates that one, my fave.  Still, of interest and really superb notes by Stephen Johnson, a name I recognized from his work at BBC, Gramophone, Guardian, and the Independent and a composer himself: https://www.stephen-johnson.co.uk/

I often say it - those BBC Music Mag discs are almost always really good - often better than that.  I can't think of a "poor" one ever.

[ritter]

First listen to this recent purchase: Volume 3 of Martin Jones' traversal of Elisabeth Lutyens' solo piano music. The pianist also acts as reciter in Holiday Diary.

[brewski]

Glinka: Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla (Cristian Măcelaru / WDR Symphony Orchestra, live recording from June 27, 2025). Nothing like hearing an old favorite done with panache, in 21st-century sound. Between the energy, precision of the playing, and general high spirits (this was an encore), it's going to be on the repeat list.

[Madiel]

Vivaldi arias.



Starting on this volume, which is one of several in the edition that are going to musicologically interesting because they are recordings (often world firsts I think) of alternate arias from one of the folders in Vivaldi's personal library. One theory, partly based on which operas are represented, is that this was a set of music he took with him in a period when he was unable to put operas on in Venice and travelled extensively.

In some cases these alternates are all that survives (and on this disc, there's an aria where they couldn't even work out which opera it comes from). In other cases, including arias from La verita in cimento, I can compare them at some point to the versions that were preserved in the full score. Mostly they're different musical settings to the same text, but one of the ones for La verita has totally different words as well.

The liner notes in this particular volume are a bit of a pain because they jump all over the place (they're not sorted either by track number or by opera), but it also tells you how some of this music was reused by Vivaldi 2 or 3 times in different operas. If the mood and metrical pattern were right (and da capo arias do tend to have a fairly standard pattern to them) a composer could easily reuse and recycle.

There's certainly nothing wrong with the musical substance of the first half dozen tracks here.

[JBS]

The third and final installment of my Ysaye foray

[Spotted Horses]

Listened to Concerto per archi and Divertimento per Fulvia from this release



Wonderfully droll and entertaining.

I also listened to the chamber ensemble version off the Serenata, which I also found to be very engaging, except I miss the wonderful writing for horns in the chamber orchestra version.


(Thanks for suggestion by Ritter.)

Finally I realized that the concerto per archi is a transcription of Casella's piece for string quartet, and found a recording of the original



I find the original version more satisfying than the transcription. As is often  the case transcribing a string quartet for string orchestra, the transcriber decided to cast some parts for string orchestra and others for solo instruments, creating a distinction between repieno and concertino which does not exist in the original.

Another great find is the piece Cinque Pezzi (for string quartet) by Casella. Casella's use of other voicings of the string quartet is delightfully weird.

[Karl Henning]

As I recall, Igor Stravinsky thought the Symphony #4 was the best of the symphonies.

This was decidedly Igor Fyodorovich being true to his coy contrarian self. Not that I dispute the excellence of the Op. 60!

Let's not forget, no less a figure than Jean-Paul Sartre considered the 7th the best.  Gets my vote, as well.

To borrow a phrase from Jeeves, I believe the Opp. 67 & 92 have given general satisfaction.

With our friends who have grown weary of the c minor and A Major symphonies, I do sympathize: they are apt to be programmed more often than most of us need to hear them. Doesn't alter the fact of their greatness.

TD:

Vol. 7/CD 12

Olivier Messiaen (1908-92)
Les Offrandes oubliées (1930)
Geo. Benjamin

Rob Zuidam (1964)
Adam-Interludes (2007-08)
Ingo Metzmacher

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
La mer (1903-05)
Bennie Haitink

Geert van Keulen (1943)
Fünf tragische Lieder (2007)
auf Gedichte von Anna Enquist
Detlef Roth, bar
Lothar Zagrosek

[hopefullytrusting]

Luckily, they also suggested Michael Haydn and Luigi Cherubini, so my morning will revolve around those two:

Haydn Symphony 29: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhzCBvF8y6g
Haydn Cello Concerto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku9ffFEpD1s
Haydn String Quartet in G minor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68BJTiIZ-n4

Cherubini Symphony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ooqDDYKji0
Cherubini Requiem in C minor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lLzIFdo8II
Cherubini Requiem in D minor (not Muti's bastardization): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAVmEfdEhFg

All of these pieces were of good quality - I suspect that the late symphonies of both Haydn and Mozart will sound similar to these (or better), so that's a good sign for me, I think.

At some point this afternoon (or evening):

Brahms's Rinaldo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYjyPJu9Neg
Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE7ztzj1UcY
Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j82VCzR5pyo

[Karl Henning]

Vol. 7/CD 13

"Wolferl" (1756-1791)
Symphony № 41 in C, « Iuppiter » K. 551 (1788)

Schubert (1797-1828)
Symphony № 3 in D, D. 200 (1815)

Iván Fischer

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Der Rosenkavalier Suite, Op. 59 (1909-10, suite 1911)
Mariss Jansons

[Mister Sharpe]

I often say it - those BBC Music Mag discs are almost always really good - often better than that.  I can't think of a "poor" one ever.

Early on in my listening and collecting, I regarded them as lesser cousins of the more commercial labels. But that, I soon learned, was incorrect. I suspect the engineering, alone, on the Beeb recordings probably has a better batting average than the major labels. 

[ritter]

Comments bu @Spotted Horses have prompted me to listen to more music by Casella ( not that I need much prompting, as Casella is firm favourite of mine  ).

Gianandrea Noseda conducts the BBC Philharmonic in the early Italia, op. 11 (with its fun variations on Funiculì, funiculà), and two works from the composer's maturity, Introduzione, Corale e Marcia, op. 57 and Sinfonia, op. 63 (which is actually Casella's third symphony).

[Lisztianwagner]

Johann Sebastian Bach
Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041
Violin Concerto in E major, BWV 1042

Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin)
Berliner Barock Solisten

[Symphonic Addict]

Veress: Das Glasklängespiel, for chorus and chamber orchestra

Quite an attractive work, reminiscent of Frank Martin in the austerity and daring harmonies. As far as Hungarian composers go, Veress is one of the best without a doubt.

[Symphonic Addict]

Boccherini: Stabat Mater for soprano and string orchestra

Thoroughly beautiful, heartfelt without being overtly dramatic, and quite elegant too. A winner.

[Linz]

Dimitri Shostakovitch Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93
Dresdner Philharmonie, Michael Sanderling

[Karl Henning]

Vol. 7/CD 14 (and last)

Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)
Berceuse élégiaque, Op. 42 (1909)
Ed Spanjaard

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Autumn, Op. 8 (1910, rev. 1934)
David Robertson

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Das Lied von der Erde (1908-09)
Anna Larsson, alto
Robt Dean Smith, tenor
Fabio Luisi

[AnotherSpin]

[Karl Henning]

Vol. 7/CD 14 (and last)

Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)
Berceuse élégiaque, Op. 42 (1909)
Ed Spanjaard

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Autumn, Op. 8 (1910, rev. 1934)
David Robertson

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Das Lied von der Erde (1908-09)
Anna Larsson, alto
Robt Dean Smith, tenor
Fabio Luisi

I listen to it seldom enough, I forget what a dark jewel the Busoni is!
I don't even remember how long this box has, erm, rested in my library, and although I had a notion of listing favorites, the fact is, I should listen again from CD 1 to intelligentrify such a list. Each of the 14 discs has been excellent as I listen to it, though.

[T. D.]