What are you listening 2 now?

[Mandryka]

https://www.youtube.com/v/BlKqhkbw3h4&ab_channel=MarioNotaristefano

Bach/Sciarrino D minor Toccata and Fugue, played brilliantly here I think.

[Mirror Image]

I agree John, and I've heard it live - a once in a lifetime experience I suspect.

Indeed, Jeffrey. You're lucky to have seen in concert. Yes, I suspect it'll never happen again.

[Mirror Image]

Continuing on with a similar theme...

Weinberg
String Quartet No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 27
Quatuor Danel

[Mirror Image]

First-Listen Tuesday

Strauss
Intermezzo
Lucia Popp, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau et. al.
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Sawallisch

[Mountain Goat]

Bax: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
BBC Philharmonic/Vernon Handley

[steve ridgway]

Xenakis - Anaktoria.

[SonicMan46]

Milhaud, Darius (1892-1974) - Chamber Works w/ performers on the cover art - a rarity for me, i.e. returning to the 20th century!  But that recording with Nicolet, Holliger, Brunner, & Maisenberg has been in my collection for decades - Dave

 

[steve ridgway]

Rainer Riehn - Chants De Maldoror.

[steve ridgway]

Maderna - Concerto Per Violino E Orchestra. A contrast to my previous listening due to its use of musical instruments and notes.

[Karl Henning]

Taneyev
Symphony № 3 in d minor
Russian State Symphony
Polyansky

[Karl Henning]

NP:

Weinberg
Symphony No. 3, Op. 45
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Thord Svedlund



I'm seriously surprised that Kondrashin never conducted this symphony. I wish he did, but this performance from Svedlund and the Gothenburgers is excellent.

Continuing on with a similar theme...

Weinberg
String Quartet No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 27
Quatuor Danel

(* pounds the table *)

[Karl Henning]

I agree John, and I've heard it live - a once in a lifetime experience I suspect.

That's wonderful, Jeffrey!

[André]

2 versions of Camille Saint-Saens' 3rd symphony (and the attendant fillers):




The Analekta disc is disappointing. Nagano is in anal retentive, score dissecting mood, quite at odds with Saint-Saens' luxurious, generously romantic sound world. Furthermore, this composer was one of the most direct, uncomplicated, audience-pleasing musicians ever. No need to look for stones unturned, for hidden harmonic subtleties if the result impedes the melodic flow and emasculates its thrilling rythmic drive. Very refined, yes. Exciting, not at all.

The fillers are creations by composers Sam Moussa (a 10 minute tone poem for organ and orchestra) and a 3-movement piece by the renowned finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Why she is renowned is beyond me. Nothing I've heard of her music made me feel more than a tepid 'nice' comment for some of her icy harmonies. She does have a knack for orchestration, but where is the musical material? It's like she is working very hard on the orchestration without the actual music notes. Maybe she forgot about them. The piece ends quietly, petering out into nothingness. The Moussa work is quite the best thing on the disc, a genuinely interesting and beautiful work.

Nagano can be an inspired, and inspiring conductor, capable of shedding new light on familiar material (his Beethoven symphonies are awesome in their combination of sonic power and rythmic fastidiousness), but he can also be plain boring when just poring through a score without attempting to communicate with the audience. The wrong kind of intellectualism, I say.

The Nézet-Séguin version was taped in London upon the inauguration of the refurbished Royal Festival Hall organ. He made another version of the work some 10 years before. He shaves off some 2 minutes from that earlier effort, possibly on account of a more vivid (less reverberant) acoustic, possibly also because he has a firmer grip on the music. I have both and definitely prefer the London performance both for its cunning alternation of moods - excitingly driven in the allegros, romantically effusive in the slow portions - and for its flair for the spectacle Saint-Saens obviously was after. The final chord lets the organ roar gloriously seemingly forever, a superb culmination.

Munch (Boston) is still the recording of choice, but there's no doubt NS is the more affectionate, romantically inclined conductor. The disc opens with that other evergreen musical showstopper, the Poulenc concerto for organ, strings and timpani. What an absolute musical gem this is. It is whatever one will make of it: a sonic spectacular, a hugely dramatic discourse, an intensely mystic one - all of the above, actually. A truly exciting and beautiful version of the work. The recording in both pieces is excellent, less analytic, more immediate than in Montreal.

All the above performances were taped in concert. Not a peep to be heard except at the end of the pieces.

[Karl Henning]

TD:

Gershwin

Rhapsody in Blue
Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Lenny, conductor & pianist

An American in Paris

Grofé

Grand Canyon Suite
NY Phil
Jn Corigliano, vn (Grofé)
Lenny

[steve ridgway]

Roland Kayn – Cybernetics III. A drifting electronic limbo of distorted voices.

[ritter]

Cristóbal Halffter in memoriam....



Siete cantos de España. María Orán (sop.), Simon Preece (bar.), Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, conducted by the composer. This is the live recording of the world première performance of the work, in Las Palmas on January 23rd, 1993 (within the Festival de Música de Canarias).

This was one of the first CDs of C. Halffter's music I bought, I was immediately hooked, and it still remains a favourite. The texts are from 15th to 17th Century Castilian poetry (even numbered songs), or of Mozarabic or Sephardic origin (odd numbered ones). The huge orchestra (100 musicians) is used to great effect, with stunning crescendi and sound tapestries (the composer was an absolute master in this), and the—mostly lyrical—vocal lines are very well integrated into this vast canvas. A beautiful work, and an absolute masterpiece IMHO.

¡Grande, Don Cristóbal, grande!

[ritter]

Maderna - Concerto Per Violino E Orchestra. A contrast to my previous listening due to its use of musical instruments and notes.

A great work. One of my favourites by the composer (who is also one of my favourites  ).

[Mirror Image]

Milhaud, Darius (1892-1974) - Chamber Works w/ performers on the cover art - a rarity for me, i.e. returning to the 20th century!  But that recording with Nicolet, Holliger, Brunner, & Maisenberg has been in my collection for decades - Dave

 

You should listen to more 20th Century music more often, Dave. Nice choices with the Milhaud.

[ritter]

More Cristóbal Halffter:



Antiphonismoi (1967, for 7 instruments), Oda para felicitar a un amigo (1969, for 6 players—the piece was part of A Garland for Dr. K., to which Boulez, Stockhausen, Berio and many more also contributed), and Concerto for Flute and String Sextet (1982). José Luis Temes leads the Grupo Ciírculo.

[SonicMan46]

You should listen to more 20th Century music more often, Dave. Nice choices with the Milhaud.

+1 John!  Some more Milhaud for the afternoon.  Dave