What are you listening 2 now?

Started by Gurn Blanston, September 23, 2019, 05:45:22 AM

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VonStupp, Leo K. and 10 Guests are viewing this topic.

foxandpeng

Quote from: Mirror Image on October 11, 2021, 06:25:24 AM
What do you do think of Berg?

Ah, another fresh and complete mystery yet to be discovered :)
"A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people ... then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbour — such is my idea of happiness"

Tolstoy

Mirror Image

NP:

Milhaud
Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 40
Mauro Tortorelli - violin, Angela Meluso - piano



Traverso


Mirror Image

NP:

Popov
Symphony No. 2, Op. 39 "Motherland"
USSR Radio & TV SO
Gennady Provatorov



Traverso

Quote from: Mirror Image on October 11, 2021, 06:55:23 AM
NP:

Popov
Symphony No. 2, Op. 39 "Motherland"
USSR Radio & TV SO
Gennady Provatorov








SonicMan46

What Korngold CD collection is 'complete' without some of his film music? - just own the two below; the first one produced by his younger son George Korngold (1928-1987).  Dave :)

 

Brian

#51368
Quote from: Brian on October 11, 2021, 06:21:39 AM


Yes, it's a 45-minute "Grand Concerto" for harp and orchestra in G minor! You know, exactly the thing you were expecting!

It's actually not bad! It sounds a little bit like a Paganini violin concerto or a Chopin piano concerto, but with a harp. Actually, a Chopin orchestral work is a really good comparison point. The final movement is a folksy "polacca a la svedese", i.e., "Polish a la Swedish."  ;D

The backstory is very interesting. Pratté was a doubly made-up name. His family were Bohemians named Brát in the late 1700s, but his uppity father started a theater troupe and decided to make himself exotic by changing his Czech name in for the vaguely foreign-sounding Pratte. Unfortunately, said father was so abusive that young Anton ran away from home and disappeared for years, until dad died and his mom put advertisements in European newspapers begging her son to come home. When he did come home, he was a harp virtuoso, and also he had decided to banish his father's memory by adding an accent to the E.

This is apparently the first recording of anything by Pratté.

Amusingly honest comment by BIS CEO Robert von Bahr: "Whereas I feel that the solo works are a little longer than the material calls for, there is no doubt that this is a discovery for every harpist that can handle the difficulties."
Following this up with another Great Big Harp Concerto:



Absolutely no evidence of "Iron Foundry" Mosolov here. In fact, there's almost no evidence of Russianness of any stripe. A lot of it leans on very old classical forms and sounds like easygoing English or Scandinavian pastoral music. The nocturne takes a bit of Debussy's Danses as well. There are interesting percussion instruments in the battery (celesta and harp make a great combination), but used only ultra-sparingly. Absolutely not what I was expecting and in a way even less dramatic than the Pratté. Guess I'll have to put on the symphony next to see what that's like. The orchestra is eager, but the strings aren't always in the kind of practiced unison you'd get with a world-class ensemble.

EDIT: Very important context from the booklet:
"Mosolov reinvented himself so thoroughly that few, if any, of his old futurist traits survived. In a rather sad footnote to an article written in 1988 for the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Marina Frolova-Walker says 'It becomes impossible to discern the former avant-gardist in the works written from the late Thirties onward: his style had been irreversibly "corrected" by his experiences in a labour camp.' The Harp Concerto is an example of Mosolov's obediently pliant style of composition from this period.

"The world premiere of all four movements of Mosolov's concerto took place in Moscow on 26 January 2019."

Three out of the four movements had been performed in 1939. The Symphony was never performed at all in Mosolov's lifetime, and the booklet, interestingly, has almost nothing whatsoever to say about it. It's described as "colorful, but uncontroversial," with absolutely no description of any particular features, movements, etc.

VonStupp

#51369
Samuel Barber
Twelfth Night, op. 42 no. 1
To Be Sung On Water, op. 42 no. 2
The Virgin Martyrs, op. 8 no. 1
Let Down the Bars, O Death, op. 8 no. 2

Conspirare - Craig Hella Johnson


I don't want to speak too early, but this is shaping up to be the best collection of Barber choral music I have. His choral voice is melancholy, but there is plenty of variety here.

Twelfth Night is full of tightly-torqued tension, yet its duology partner To Be Sung On Water is absolutely beautiful. Virgin and Emily Dickinson's O Death have never done as much for me, but still well sung, nonetheless.

All are characterfully sung by the 36-member, Texas-based choir Conspirare. I look forward to the bigger portions on this recording, later today.

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff. - Frank Zappa

My Musical Musings

vandermolen

John Adams: Fearful Symmetries for Orchestra.
I bought this CD for the Sumera 2nd Symphony but the Adams works are most enjoyable as well:
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

Quote from: Brian on October 11, 2021, 07:40:42 AM
Following this up with another Great Big Harp Concerto:



Absolutely no evidence of "Iron Foundry" Mosolov here. In fact, there's almost no evidence of Russianness of any stripe. A lot of it leans on very old classical forms and sounds like easygoing English or Scandinavian pastoral music. The nocturne takes a bit of Debussy's Danses as well. There are interesting percussion instruments in the battery (celesta and harp make a great combination), but used only ultra-sparingly. Absolutely not what I was expecting and in a way even less dramatic than the Pratté. Guess I'll have to put on the symphony next to see what that's like. The orchestra is eager, but the strings aren't always in the kind of practiced unison you'd get with a world-class ensemble.

EDIT: Very important context from the booklet:
"Mosolov reinvented himself so thoroughly that few, if any, of his old futurist traits survived. In a rather sad footnote to an article written in 1988 for the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Marina Frolova-Walker says 'It becomes impossible to discern the former avant-gardist in the works written from the late Thirties onward: his style had been irreversibly "corrected" by his experiences in a labour camp.' The Harp Concerto is an example of Mosolov's obediently pliant style of composition from this period.

"The world premiere of all four movements of Mosolov's concerto took place in Moscow on 26 January 2019."

Three out of the four movements had been performed in 1939. The Symphony was never performed at all in Mosolov's lifetime, and the booklet, interestingly, has almost nothing whatsoever to say about it. It's described as "colorful, but uncontroversial," with absolutely no description of any particular features, movements, etc.
Thumbs up for Mosolov's 5th Symphony.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Karl Henning

Maiden-Listen Monday: Mennin, Sinfonia (1970)

https://www.youtube.com/v/dpPcjbYdrYI



I sure am curious about the photo in the Soviet Union
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Traverso


DavidW

Ah this is more like it.  Sublime.


Mirror Image


VonStupp

#51376
Samuel Barber
Reincarnations, op. 16 no. 1-3

Conspirare - Craig Hella Johnson


Barber's short triptych Reincarnations is considered a minor masterpiece, at least in the choral world, and I urge anyone unfamiliar with Barber's choral music to explore these.

Unfortunately, for my tastes, Craig Hella Johnson is just too slow in this music. A quick comparison to Paul Spicer and his Birmingham College singers on Somm, and the differences are palpable. Still, the impassioned elegy to Anthony O'Daly is top-notch, and nothing is less than outstanding from the singing throughout so far.

Too bad, especially after an impressive start to this album. Still, I look forward moving on to the others yet to follow, later today.

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff. - Frank Zappa

My Musical Musings

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

André

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on October 10, 2021, 09:20:05 PM
Röntgen: Symphony No. 11 in G minor "Wirbel"

As usual with this composer, he manages to make these "conservative" works sound fresh, with purpose. A very short symphony, but certainly attractive too. I'm glad CPO is getting closer to finish this quite appealing symphonic cycle.



Good to know. I look forward to hearing this set. It's in the pile somewhere  ::)