What are you listening 2 now?

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Early morning listening (with the volume turned down); MacMillan Symphony No.4. After attending the concert last night I had to hear some more MacMillan this morning!

By the way Jeffrey, I meant to say that I'm glad that you enjoyed the concert!  Were you able to speak to the composer himself afterwards?

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I do say so. There's quite a bit of music that I didn't quite get at first that I now count among my favorites. One of the joys of life for me is gaining appreciation for a piece of music over time.

Edit: This Rachmaninov opera is REALLY good! Wasn't expecting to enjoy this so much!

We all have our own journeys.  I remember being heartily recommended Kodaly's Sonata for Solo Cello (some years ago) when asking for cello music suggestions, bought a recording of it, played it; first time thinking something along the lines of "Ack!  What the 'bleep' is this?  This is horrible!"  Maybe not quite those words, but it felt very jarring to me...way too modern, etc.  Not even sure whether or not I made it the whole way through.  Something like 3-6 months later, I decided to revisit it and this time, my jaw dropped open and I was like "Wow!  This is amazing!"  For me, I suspect, it was more what kind of frame of mind/mood that I was in the first time when I listened to it.

Recently, I've been exploring some music from say the 1960's 'til recently--the kind of music some of which made me shudder in the past (for example, computer-generated sounds and effects mixed with natural sounds), so as the saying goes, "You never know". 

In any event, follow your own path. 

PD

[Maestro267]

Prokofiev 2, Weller

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I'm old enough to have been around when that Haydn Cello Concerto (No.1 in C) didn't exist 
It was 'discovered' around 1961 (I think) and so, at the time of the Rostropovich/Britten recording in 1964, there would not have been much of a performance tradition around the cadenzas.  The other concerto had never been lost so the cadenza would already have been well established.

Across all the recordings of the Concerto in C, you'll find a rich variety of candenzas very often supplied by the performers themselves (as it should be).  In the recording by Ludovit Kanta (on Naxos) the 1st movement candenza is totally left-field, wandering off into modernist territory and back again - I love it!  Without the booklet to hand (it's filed away somewhere inaccessible right now) I don't know the source for this version.

Thank you for pointing that out [Not your age--and you needn't have done that!  ], but the fact that it was up 'til *recently attributed to another composer (which I do recall seeing in one of those sites that I had linked to but didn't play the closest attention as to when it was attributed to Haydn); that makes sense now.

*"Recently" has a tendency to become a much longer range back into time the older one gets!

PD

[vers la flamme]

Johannes Fresneau: Suite in A major. Charles Mouton: Suite in C minor. Toyohiko Satoh

Knowing absolutely nothing about either of these composers (I reckon they're both French, or Dutch, or something?) all I can say is that this is a phenomenal performance of Baroque lute music in the hands of a master lutenist. Satoh somehow makes this sound like the most important music in the world.

[Biffo]

Vaughan Williams: Job - A Masque for Dancing - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox - excellent performance

[vers la flamme]

Carl Nielsen: Symphony No.4, op.29, the "Inextinguishable". Herbert Blomstedt, San Francisco Symphony

Killer performance. Great symphony.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2
Sviatoslav Richter
Warsaw Phil Orch.
Wislocki

Beautiful!

PD

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Hindemith
Violin Concerto
Arabella Steinbacher, violin
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Jurowski

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

NP:

Hindemith
Violin Concerto
Arabella Steinbacher, violin
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Jurowski

Nice on sunday!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Max Reger: Blatter und Bluten.

[Mandryka]

All star team, but it's Terakado's show, and he's on top form and well caught by the sound engineers.

[vers la flamme]

Max Reger: Variations & Fugue on a Theme of Johann Sebastian Bach, op.81. Marc-André Hamelin

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Max Reger: Variations & Fugue on a Theme of Johann Sebastian Bach, op.81. Marc-André Hamelin

Nice disc!

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Shostakovich
Cello Concerto No. 1
Rostropovich
Rozhdestvensky
Moscow Phil. Orch.
live concert at the Great Hall, Moscow
1961

[Mirror Image]

Nice on sunday any day!

I fixed that for you.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I fixed that for you.

You're right. The VC is a great composition!

[Todd]

Disc 36 from the big box.  The Franck is quite possibly the best version I have heard, and the Grieg is stellar, up there with Andsnes or Schuch or Devoyon.  This disc cements my overall impression after hearing so many new to me recordings from the pianist, namely the earlier the recording, the better.  This disc illustrates that by adding in Weber and Chopin under the direction of Cziffra Jr, which does not display the nuance and touch that the earlier recordings do.

[Irons]

I didn't mean to damn Berkeley with faint praise! I really enjoy a number of his works, like the Symphonies 1 and 4, Concerto for 2 Pianos, Serenade for Strings, and SQs nos. 1 and 2. His music has a sort of inner logic that is quite satisfying, and it doesn't lack color or emotion like some may suggest.

I am not accusing you and apologise if giving the impression I was. It is a bugbear of mine that once a composer, performer or orchestra gets saddled with an impression or view it is repeated infinitum by critics.

[Irons]

And I'm not keen on the Violin Concerto, but I do agree about the brilliance of the Piano Concerto.

It is strange. I listen to the Bliss VC and the Hindemith VC and enjoy them, but afterwards I can't recall anything from either works.