What are you listening 2 now?

[Que]

Morning listening  (via Spotify):

[Mandryka]

Do you know this twofer?

I have the two recordings separately, the Jansen is the only Louis Couperin organ music I've enjoyed, apart from an extraordinary CD by Laurent Beyhurst. I can't remember the Asperen, it all gets muddled up in my mind with his later recordings.

[vandermolen]

Bliss: Metamorphic Variations

[Brass Hole]

[Madiel]

Earlier today: Haydn, Mass no.12

[Irons]

Interesting, thanks for that. I have the 4th already, but not the 9th. In the basket it goes !

Chalk and cheese.

[Harry]

This week I listened to the 4 symphonies of norwegian composer Fartein Valen (1887-1952). Harald Saeverud was practically of the same generation (1897-1992). And yet they are utterly different. Valen is in a sense quite predictable in his compositional processes: he follows a system (atonality) and works through well established classical forms or techniques (sonata, fugue, counterpoint, etc). Valen otoh is utterly unpredictable and no two of his symphonies are alike. I have them all from the BIS series, plus an extra 5th. Sometimes his music is easily approachable, if quirky and unconventional (symphony no 2). At other times it seems aimless, maddeningly so (where is he going ??) like in the 4th symphony. Although short at 22 minutes it seems interminable - you just want it to get somewhere, anywhere (it does, in the last 30 seconds). The 3 short orchestral pieces here are inconsequential. Now that I've started I'll probably listen to another disc or two later this week, just to check if I'm fair to him or just frustrated.

Your steps ahead of me André, I could never stomach Fartein Valen, and neither Harald Saeverud. they simply venture out to far of my comfort zone.

[Irons]

The 9th is a stunning masterpiece!

It is! I'm having a good week.

[Harry]

Johann Sebastian Bach.
Complete Organ Works, Volume III.
Choräle der Ruddorf Sammlung.

Bernard Foccroulle plays on a Johann Caspar Rommel organ, 1778/79.
Restored in 1988-1990 by Schuke, Potsdam.
Pitch: a' = 488 Hz at 15 degrees, after Georg Andreas Sorge.
Wind pressure 70 mm, WS.

Still very happy with this interpretation. Recordings can be a little forward, but that' s Jerome Lejeune all over. who recorded it in 1996.

[Irons]

Bliss: Metamorphic Variations

Bliss for me too: Quintet or Clarinet and Strings.

The top British based musicians of their day - Gervase de Peyer, clarinet. Emanuel Hurwitz, Ivor McMahon, violins. Cecil Aronowitz, viola. Terence Weil, cello. 

[not edward]

eclassical's album of the day at a very reasonable $4.15 for a lossless download: some good stuff here with the pieces by Wuorinen and Corbett meriting an immediate second listen.

[Harry]

Dmitri Kabalevsky.
Complete Symphonies.

No. 1 in C sharp Minor.
No. 2 in C minor.

NDR Radiophilharmonie, Eiji Que.

I am very content with these interpretations.

[Biffo]

Haydn: Symphonies No 43 in E flat major & No 44 in F minor Trauersymphonie - Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra conducted by Adam Fischer

[Madiel]

Haydn symphonies in C... look, I'm on a bit of a roll now.

Symphony no.82, the 'Bear'.

[Mandryka]

The approach reminds me of Tilney's Scarlatti.  It's somehow prosaic. There's no mystery, there's no ineffability, no irony or ambiguity. You can get away with that in Scarlatti.

[Madiel]

To be honest, Kuijken's 'Bear' always strikes me as just a little tame.

Giving an alternative Symphony no.82 a go. Early signs are very good.



EDIT: But the 2nd movement... Kuijken was a bit too careful, now this feels a bit too driven.

[Maestro267]

Schnittke: Concerto for piano and strings
Postnikova (piano)/London Sinfonietta/Rozhdestvensky

Schnittke: Symphony No. 7
BBC NOW/Otaka

[Que]

The approach reminds me of Tilney's Scarlatti.  It's somehow prosaic. There's no mystery, there's no ineffability, no irony or ambiguity. You can get away with that in Scarlatti.

I liked Moroney's L. Couperin on organ so much, but this set was indeed a downer....

Q

[Harry]

Paul Graener.
Orchestral Works Volume II.

Symphonie opus 39 in D minor "Schmied Schmerz".
Aus dem Reiche des Pan, opus 22.
Prinz Eugen, der edle Ritter,-Variationen, opus 108-

NDR Radiophilharmonie, Werner Andreas Albert.

He is one of my favourite composers. A fine disc. The first movement of the opus 39 is devastatingly beautiful. I am so lucky that is lasts almost 17 minutes full of bliss.

[Brass Hole]

No 100: