What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

Two highly attractive works, maybe I prefer the String Quartet No. 1 by a small margin, but both pieces don't disappoint at all. I know John bought this disc recently, so he will surely enjoy it as well.

Very good to read, Cesar. Ben-Haim has really become a favorite of mine over the last few weeks.

Thread duty -

Sculthorpe tone poems: Kakadu, Earth Cry & Mangrove



Scintillating music and performances. I wish that Stuart Challender could've lived longer. He was a great champion of Australian music and, in particular, of Sculthorpe.

[Karl Henning]

Nielsen
Symphony # 1
Janáček Phil
Kuchar

[Mirror Image]

Symphony No. 11, Op. 114, "In Memoriam D. Shostakovich"



Hurwitz called this symphony 'dreary' and something else, but I have to say this is a fitting tribute to his friend and having Maxim Shostakovich conduct it makes it that much more special.

[André]

Irving Fine - Symphony

Seriously speaking, this is a very engaging, succinct, somewhat dramatic, impressive and fine symphony (pun intended). It was written by using serialist techniques according to what I read about it. I would rank it among the best American symphonies.

Moreover, this orchestra play incredibly wonderful.

+ 1

I certainly concur with your assessment. I haven't heard that particular recording, but I have 2 others, both very fine (pun again  ).

[André]

In the years since I last heard Tomasi's Requiem pour la paix, I have become acquainted with Britten's War Requiem - and have come to love the piece. This has served me well while listening to the Tomasi work (composed in 1946). Both works share a very bleak, doleful, sullen view of the subject. There's little here to lift the spirit. The landscape is limitless and there is no consolation in sight. Grim as this may seem, the work (Tomasi's) is beautiful in a way, if only because it is true to the composer's state of mind - he totally lost his faith in God after WWII, the nuclear holocaust having shaken it to its foundations. The Requiem is powerful but pithy and almost laconic. The closest musical kinship I can think of is Britten, but Tomasi has a quite unique voice.

Fanfares liturgiques is like a symphony for brass and percussion. There's a soprano solo in the 4th and last piece singing a lament over betrayal and dereliction. It's really quite unique - stunning both musically and emotionally. The short last piece is for bass trombone and brass. It's based on Hamlet's soliloquy, with the bass trombone taking the 'role' of reciter. That, too is quite special. It should have been placed before one of the other works, though.

Tomasi is known to all trumpet players as the writer of a famous concerto (over a dozen recordings exist). Like Arnold and Hindemith, he composed for just about every instrument of the orchestra. The works on this disc show him in a much more serious, reflective mood. Recommended.

[JBS]

 Last CD of this set


Boccaccio says in the notes he wanted to give the impression of a concert, so there's no order to the pieces and organ is interspersed with harpsichord.  I'm not terribly familiar with Sweelinck's music, but the set works for me.

Harpsichord is by Sebastiano Cali, 2017, after Joannes Couchet 1697.
There are three organs
Johanneskirche, Oederquart, 1678 Arp Schnitger
Marienkirche, Lemgo, 1612/13 Fritz Scherer
Andreaskirche, Ostoennen (Soest) around 1550
All three organs have been "recently restored/reconstructed by the organ builder  Rowan West"

[Carlo Gesualdo]

The great Claudio Monteverdi L'Orfeo on APEX, I first said thinking, It APEX , it most be cheap, I was wrong, It's a pretty good rendition, glorious & triumphant, a good recording. It's the first time I heard it never had it in m Library. I'm really please, great work, state of the art crafted, bravo  APEX!!!

[Mirror Image]

Act II

[Madiel]

Having faked Schubert yesterday, doing the real thing with Piano Trio No.2



And currently thoroughly enjoying the first movement. Susan Tomes is just a wonderful chamber pianist.

[Madiel]

Schumann, 7 piano pieces in fugue form, op.126



I think this is the first time I've heard Ugorskaja's playing, and in the very first piece I'm already liking it.

[Que]

Last CD of this set


Boccaccio says in the notes he wanted to give the impression of a concert, so there's no order to the pieces and organ is interspersed with harpsichord.  I'm not terribly familiar with Sweelinck's music, but the set works for me.

Harpsichord is by Sebastiano Cali, 2017, after Joannes Couchet 1697.
There are three organs
Johanneskirche, Oederquart, 1678 Arp Schnitger
Marienkirche, Lemgo, 1612/13 Fritz Scherer
Andreaskirche, Ostoennen (Soest) around 1550
All three organs have been "recently restored/reconstructed by the organ builder  Rowan West"

I haven't heard this new set (yet), but the value of Sweelinck's music can hardly be overestimated! 

We've seen a whole Renaissance in Sweelinck recordings in the last decade or so, of which the Dutch Sweelinck Project resulting in a complete series on Glossa was the most significant event.

For the keyboard works, I still treasure the pioneering set from 2002 on Dutch NM Classics:



Q

[Que]

Morning listening via Spotify:



Wonderful.. amazing.. perfect... One for the shopping list! 

Q

[Harry]

New arrival, First listen.

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck.
Complete Keyboard works.
CD I.

Daniele Boccaccio, Organ.

Harpsichord is by Sebastiano Cali, 2017, after Joannes Couchet 1697.
There are three organs
Johanneskirche, Oederquart, 1678 Arp Schnitger
Marienkirche, Lemgo, 1612/13 Fritz Scherer
Andreaskirche, Ostoennen (Soest) around 1550
All three organs have been "recently restored/reconstructed by the organ builder  Rowan West"


Not only did Boccaccio mix the works in no given order, he also plays on different instruments, without stating which ones, and that bothers me. Save for the Harpsichord, I can only guess which organ he is using. Mixing organs and harpsichord might from the perspective of a musician look attractive, but when listening, one has to adjust the volume constantly, and to me that is annoying. He worked from two published editions of Sweelinck's works and made a personal decision which one to use, thus I am not agreeing to that all the time. But that's the premise in this case to work from.
There is no doubt that he uses fine instruments, beautifully restored, and to be honest I find them better played as on the NM set, which I also own, but not surpassing, Leon Berben in his complete set, or for that matter Masaaki Suzuki on BIS, (Selection)
I find Boccaccio's interpretation of the "Fantasia Crommatica" riveting and spirited in just the right amount, followed by a almost spiritual "Puer nobis Nascitur", and that goes for that matter for the whole CD I am listening too. Well played, recorded and above all masterly done in terms of tempi, phrasing, the use of stops, the warmth and harmony he achieves. If this CD is anything to go by, this set will become a contender to any set for most people. I keep a preference for Berben and Suzuki. but this set is a welcome addition to my collection.
The Organs and Harpsichord all sound as they should, as if stepping back in time.

[Madiel]

Debussy, Images (oubliées)



The first piece, which never saw the light of day in Debussy's lifetime, is simply gorgeous and definitely feels like something from the same period as Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.

[ritter]

Debussy, Images (oubliées)



The first piece, which never saw the light of day in Debussy's lifetime, is simply gorgeous and definitely feels like something from the same period as Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.

Yep, those Images oubliées are quite soemthing, and it's hard to see why they were descarded by the composer. I'm particularly fond of the third piece, Quelques aspects de Nous n'irons plus au bois parce qu'il fait un temps insupportable, which is a sort of preliminary study for Jardins sous la pluie from Estampes, and has Debussy in an unexpected tongue-in-cheek vein (starting with the title, but also in the music itself--one can almost see people running around in the rain). It also is one of the several pieces that quotes the childrens's song Nous n'irons plus au bois, with which Debussy seems to have had a lifelong obsession.

Bavouzet does a splendid job in them.

[vandermolen]

Earlier: Grace Williams: Symphony No.2
Now Eklund: Symphony No.5

[Mandryka]

Dusapin Open Time. I can feel that what happened to me with Mozart is happening to me with Dusapin. For years I tried to see why people liked Mozart's quartets, the music just seemed dull at best. Gradually, slowly, I learned to appreciate some of the pieces and now he's probably the only c18 classical style composer I bother with much.

[Daverz]

Pejačević Symphony

[asin]B004R7WGR2[/asin]

Conservative late Romantic music, nothing here that would scandalize Glazunov, but very good of it's kind.

[Madiel]

Szymanowski, 6 songs op.2

Streamed a couple of versions, but again the more palatable one to my ears was this one:

[vandermolen]

Benjamin: Symphony No.1