What are you listening 2 now?

[vandermolen]

Before work.
Weinberg: Symphony No.5 (again! )
My thanks to Cesar (SA) whom I think first posted about this new release. It has given me much pleasure:

[aukhawk]

Ormandy ...
His Shostakovich were almost always exceptional (especially the first and the cello concerto with Rostropovich)
...
2) He was a little chubby guy with a relatively unremarkable personality by conductor standards in contrast to younger, pompadour sporting colleagues like Lenny and Karajan or intimidating or severe contemporaries like Szell or Reiner ... he also sold a lot of records... easy target

I love this image.  I also love the two recordings it represents - they are even very good sound by any standard, let alone 1960 CBS.

[Madiel]

Holmboe, Tempo variable

[Traverso]

Bach

[Mandryka]

At the level of sound it's most distinctive and most attractive. At the level of interpretation Savall seems able to steer the music professionally enough in a mainstream direction  (I've listened to 40 and 41, not the rest.), but mainstream need not mean routine, and if it were a concert there would be cheers at the end, and he would deserve it.

Can you ask anything more from a studio recording?

[Florestan]

[Madiel]

Faure, 3 songs op.85



20th century Faure can be a terribly tricky thing...

Now I'm going to hit Deezer for other versions of these songs to see if they're more enlightening. I'm perfectly happy with the Hyperion set for earlier songs, but I'm not sure with some of the later songs how much of the elusiveness is from the music and how much from Johnson & co.

EDIT: Okay, this album takes a considerably more flowing approach to a couple of these songs, and it works. Will have to listen to the rest now.



SECOND EDIT: This one also sounds promising. It's absolutely critical that the singer sound like they're singing long sentences, not choppy little phrases.



A couple of other albums actually took the songs too fast and made them sound a bit glib in comparison. 20th century Faure is a terribly tricky thing!

[San Antone]

Me too.   

[Florestan]

Me too.   

According to Mandryka, this is Chopin played like Liszt. Do you agree?

[San Antone]

According to Mandryka, this is Chopin played like Liszt. Do you agree?

That thought would never occur to me.  It sounds like Chopin played like Chopin.   

[Florestan]

It sounds like Chopin played like Chopin. 

My feeling exactly. 

[mc ukrneal]

According to Mandryka, this is Chopin played like Liszt. Do you agree?

You didn't ask me, but out of curiosity, I looked up a couple of the pieces from the disc and it sounds like Chopin to me (specifically focusing on Op 51). Can't say I'm a fan of the piano sound but no surprise there for me considering the piano being used. Anyway, I compared against Rubinstein, Ashkenazy and Perahia. Kenner reminded me least of Rubinstein, who has a very specific sound/phrasing with Chopin compared to the others.  Kenner was most similar to Ashkenazy I thought (of the three).

But perhaps Mandryka has something more specific in mind when he says that? I can't shed any light on it.

[Madiel]

Now listening to the rest of this Faure album.



The singing is extremely appealing. Even though for some of these songs I already have a version I'm happy with, there's an extremely high risk this is going in the shopping cart because Yann Beuron has a voice that I really, really want to listen to.

[Biffo]

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle - from a concert given on November 5th 2010

[Florestan]

You didn't ask me, but out of curiosity, I looked up a couple of the pieces from the disc and it sounds like Chopin to me (specifically focusing on Op 51). Can't say I'm a fan of the piano sound but no surprise there for me considering the piano being used.

Actually, to my ears the piano sounds very good. 

Anyway, I compared against Rubinstein, Ashkenazy and Perahia. Kenner reminded me least of Rubinstein, who has a very specific sound/phrasing with Chopin compared to the others.  Kenner was most similar to Ashkenazy I thought (of the three).

But perhaps Mandryka has something more specific in mind when he says that? I can't shed any light on it.

In the Purchases Today, in reply to Mirror Image who had said that he was moe of a Lisztian than a Chopinite, Mandryka wrote this:

Then you need to listen to Chopin played like Liszt. Kevin Kenner I think, and Yevgeny Sudbin too maybe.

Frankly, I too have no idea how "Chopin played like Liszt" sounds.

[Traverso]

Beethoven

Symphony No.8

Wiener Philharmoniker

[Mandryka]

My feeling exactly. 

Listen again to the way the crescendos swell in op 45, the way he indulges the resonances of the piano, and the dynamic changes, the pauses.  I can imagine Kenner flicking his head back ecstatically in a Liszty type of way.  Even more so the op 66

[Papy Oli]

Received today - first listen.

William Alwyn - Film music of "Odd Man Out"

[Madiel]

Listen again to the way the crescendos swell in op 45, the way he indulges the resonances of the piano, and the dynamic changes, the pauses.  I can imagine Kenner flicking his head back ecstatically in a Liszty type of way.  Even more so the op 66

People who play Chopin as if he belongs in a polite ladies' drawing room somewhere do him a massive disservice. Chopin is dramatic.

[Florestan]

Listen again to the way the crescendos swell in op 45, the way he indulges the resonances of the piano, and the dynamic changes, the pauses.  I can imagine Kenner flicking his head back ecstatically in a Liszty type of way.  Even more so the op 66

Ah, now I got it. You meant Chopin played like Liszt played it.

I compared Kenner in op. 45 (4:35) to Ashkenazi (4:39), Louis Lortie (5:15) and Cortot (4:01). The level of "Lisztianism" as you defined it is the same in Ashkenazi, higher in Lortie and lower in Cortot but I can imagine all three adopting Lisztian poses at this or that moment.

Actually, this reminds me of an anecdote told about Myra Hess by her page-turner. The person perused her score of a Chopin piece and saw at several points the indication LU. His puzzlement was solved when, that night during a public performance, when those moments arrived Myra Hess looked up heavenwards.