What are you listening 2 now?

[Todd]

4.

[Linz]

Allan Pettersson Symphony No. 6
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Manfred Trojahn

[hopefullytrusting]

Another new composer for me, this one I found by accident: Robert Ward, and the piece is his Symphony No. 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9LGGHfZckA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmphPxQZCfA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_SpjM7hpm4

And, I actually heard the second movement first, as that was the one that showed on YouTube for me.

This work (21 minutes) is paired with two smaller works: Douglas Moore's In memoriam (another composer I've never heard of) and Ruggles's Organum (I know the composer but not the work), and that is quite a disc - I would love to have been a fly on the wall during that contract negotiation. I am not complaining, as this is a symphony that I have affection for. It is very American, in its eclecticism, and you will hear (or at least I hear) many sounds that sound similar to other American composers, specifically Copland, in fact, I just confirmed it, but I was thinking that he definitely studied under him - he did. It is improvisational and jazzy - in the first movement.

As we move into the second, in sneaks Samuel Barber's slow strings, but they are definitely his own - the mood is somber, but the melodicism isn't stripped bare - it is layered densely, ensconced, and while there is a shrillness - it doesn't come from the straining of the strings but from the high winds, so the message is not one of fear and pain, but a recognition of loss stained, tainted by the ever-present, unironic, moral uplift - the dominant narrative of nearly all the war tales involving the United States - it is sickly sweet - corny, sappy - somehow both insincere and sincere at the the same time aka "American irony".

The last movement now gives a feeling of Shostakovich, and it is funny, as Ward becomes more progressive as he moves through each of his movements (not that Copland or Barber were current-traditionalists, they weren't - they were also quite bold). It is vivacious, but the weakest played, and I think that is because, at least to my ears, he is asking all of the instruments to play to their utmost, and that can only be done for so long before strain sets in.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this. It is a wide-ranging swatch of American technique, plus it sounds great.

[André]

OMO the best vocal release ever of this composer. Unmatched beauty.




Two different takes on this popular work. The Genuin disc has a consort of just 5 voices, so we get a transparent sound, with nicely pointed diction. The small instrumental ensemble is excellent. The Carus release has the excellent Dresdner Kammerchor under Rademann, a master of german baroque vocal music. The sound achieved by singers and instrumentists is a fuller, more rounded yet never heavy - beautifully clean vocal emission, spare vibrato. An intimate, emotional interpretation (Musica Lingua) vs a devotional, communal one. I love both.



This second disc of Buxtehude cantatas from Musica Lingua is simply perfect. The refinement of the small vocal ensemble is even more perfect than on their first release (Membra Jesu nostri). I particularly liked how the bass voice underpins the vocal harmonies. Beautiful interpretation, beautiful music.

[André]

Original versions of The Hebrides overture and the Scottish symphony. Compared to the familiar definitive version of the overture, the 1830 version is more discursive, even scattered (lots of stuff that didn't make it into the final version) as well as more loosely constructed. The revision is a huge improvement.

The difference is less marked between the 1842 version of the Scottish symphony recorded here, but it's easy to spot the extra material when it appears (almost all in the last third of the first movement and the second part of the finale. At first the extra material sounded a tad disruptive, but the more I listened to it (3 times) the less it appeared 'strange'. In the end I could definitely accept that the original is almost as good as the revised version. Mendelssohn was right to tidy things up, but the improvement is not as drastic as in the overture.

The 3rd concerto is 2/3 Mendelssohn and 1/3 à la Mendelssohn. The first two movements are more or less echt Mendelssohn, the composer having almost completed them. The finale is another matter. Only a few opening bars are from the composer's hand, the rest a reconstruction from one Marcello Bufalini. Mendelssohn's idiom is so immediately recognizable that I suppose it was not very hard for the arranger to compose a workable, reasonably idiomatic finale.

All the performances are very fine, that of the symphony particularly enjoyable - dramatic, jubilant and fiery as required -  one of the best I've heard, actually.

[Daverz]

Lukaszewski: Requiem

A beautiful Requiem of the comforting type; think Faure, but with a more Eastern European intensity.

[JBS]

Followed by


CDs 8 and 9 of this set

[Symphonic Addict]

Suk: Piano Quartet in A minor

One of the most remarkable opus 1 by any composer. Tremendous stuff.

Impassioned Music + Riveting Performance + Great Sound Quality = Excellent Service!

[JBS]

String Quintets 1 and 2 (out of a total of seven, all for two violins, two violas, and one cello)
Number 1 in E Flat major
Number 2 in G major
Both works are listed as Opus 33.

[Symphonic Addict]

Alfano: Symphony No. 1 in E major 'Classica'
Alwyn: Symphony No. 3

There are interesting parallelisms between these two symphonies whose styles are pretty different each other: both are in three movements; they last practically the same on these renditions (32 min. long); no memorable melodies/tunes, but what you get is propulsive energy and lots of forward momentum instead; a rather ominous mood; arresting use of the orchestral forces.

[AnotherSpin]

OMO the best vocal release ever of this composer. Unmatched beauty.

[...]

Can you say a bit more? Why is the Ricercar Consort's recording of Buxtehude the best vocal release of his music ever? I'm asking sincerely, just curious about your view to help me understand. I only recently started listening to a lot of this music. Qobuz has many Buxtehude vocal recordings; I'd love your take and those of other colleagues -- which ones stand out and why?

[Que]

My 2 discs with the original issue (on Musica Oscura) look different, but this is what it looks like streaming.

[Que]

Excellent!

[AnotherSpin]

Hans Knappertsbusch's live Parsifal from Bayreuth in glorious mono, with a magnificent cast of soloists. Wagnerian nirvana in the absolute sense.

Somehow, the Telefunken logo in the lower left corner feels anything but accidental. This recording must have been captured using the company's magnificent tube equipment. And even though I'm listening on ultra-modern audio gear as far removed from tube technology as it gets, I swear I can hear that signature deep, natural sound that, for me, was the gold standard back in the days of tube amplifiers and Telefunken valves.

[Iota]

Franz Schmidt: Notre Dame (Act I: Introduction - Intermezzo - Carnival Music)
Budapest Symphony Orchestra
Michael Halász

After a number of Schmidt postings recently by @ritter my curiosity was piqued, so plumped for this concert suite from his opera Notre Dame this morning as a first foray. And it was pretty much immediately a hit. Lavishly romantic with a luminous orchestration that allows the music to take flight, a very lovely thing indeed,I shall be seeking out more (The Book with Seven Seals and Fourth Symphony seem the main contenders).

(Wiki tells me that he wrote the orchestral music for the opera before he wrote the vocal lines, a highly unusual/intriguing way of doing things. Certainly an indication of where his priorities lay you'd think. I may dip in a toe out of curiosity as to the results of his methodology.)

[Cato]

The Piano Concerto by Sergei Taneyev: this performance just popped up on YouTube 2 weeks ago!

This also popped up in relation to Taneyev and his opera The Oresteia, one of my favorite operas!

"The Architecture of Music"

[Que]

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Feb/Krieger-sonatas-5553332.htm

[Traverso]

Froberger

Leonhardt at his best, can you even say that?
Almost everything was of such a high standard; his recordings  usually had a calming effect on me.
Here was someone who communicated something, expressiveness in modesty; it was a joy every time a new recording came out.
In Leonhardt you hear music with a courteous flourish that has become his hallmark.



 

[Todd]

5.

[San Antone]

Bach - Cantata Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben BWV 8
- Sato | Netherlands Bach Society

Although the words of this cantata  - recorded here for All of Bach with Shunske Sato on the occasion of his farewell as artistic leader of the Netherlands Bach Society - never literally refer to a bell, the music is still permeated with the ringing of bells. For Bach, there was nothing unusual about this in texts about death and dying. The clocks, bells and clockwork in this cantata portray the certainties and uncertainties of death: "When shall I die?" versus "Time always goes on".