What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Stravinsky
Orpheus
Danses concertantes
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

[Symphonic Addict]

Bekku: Symphony No. 1

This is sensational, let me tell you, somewhat close to Prokofiev in style. Yet another of the most remarkable Naxos Japanese releases, along with other by Teizo Matsumura, Saburo Moroi, Akira Ifukube, etc.

[Mirror Image]

Another first-listen

Schoeck
Elegie, Op. 36
Andreas Schmidt, baritone
Winterthur Musikkollegium
Werner Andreas Albert

[Symphonic Addict]

The whole thing:



I need to hear the whole Ring with Solti and the Vienna!

[Mirror Image]

The whole thing:



I need to hear the whole Ring with Solti and the Vienna!

Solti is good, but Karajan remains my desert island Ring (plus his Parsifal).

[Traverso]

Love that box, Jan!

It is wonderful Karl,I love these recordings too ,the playing is so sensitive and intimate,it gets under my skin.

[Klavier1]

[SonicMan46]

Sorry--I just saw this. Mmm...it has its moments, but the low notes lack definition, and the guitarist who plays the upper voices has rather weak slur technique, so several of the ornaments lack articulation. Also, a few variations are rather slow, which isn't necessarily bad. Good effort, though!

EDIT: It's nominated for an International Classical Music Awards for 2022, so perhaps I'm being too harsh.

Hi Bachtoven - just listened to that recording on Spotify and completely agree w/ your comments - often 'muffled' sounds of the two guitars and much extraneous noises from their finger movement - will not be a purchase for me.  Thanks for the comments.  Dave

[Symphonic Addict]

Solti is good, but Karajan remains my desert island Ring (plus his Parsifal).

As in Bruckner, Karajan and the BP are more than reliable in this repertoire. Tristan und Isolde is not half bad either.

[Symphonic Addict]

Martin: Symphonie

An endlessly fascinating work this, like nothing else. He doesn't seem to be imitating others musical tendencies with this only symphony.

[Symphonic Addict]

NP:

Beethoven
String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132
Quatuor Ebène



Beethoven's late SQs have been a huge source of inspiration for me.

Good to know this! Which is your favorite of them?

[Symphonic Addict]

Glazunov: Symphony No. 8
Russian State SO/Polyansky

Bax: Symphony No. 4
Ulster Orchestra/Thomson

Nice combination of works.

[Mirror Image]

Good to know this! Which is your favorite of them?

All of them.

[Mirror Image]

Martin: Symphonie

An endlessly fascinating work this, like nothing else. He doesn't seem to be imitating others musical tendencies with this only symphony.

I certainly agree. For me, Martin always manages to find something unique and completely of his own to say, especially in the later works.

[Karl Henning]

Maiden-Listen Monday!

"Wolferl" (Age: 11)
Pf Cto № 1 in F, K.37
Géza Anda
Camerata Academica des Salzburger Mozarteums
Well, live and learn: [Concertos Nos. 1–4 (K. 37, 39, 40 and 41) are orchestral and keyboard arrangements of sonata movements by other composers.]

[kyjo]

Suk: Symphony in E major, Op. 14

Even though it has some traces of Dvorak, Suk's harmonic language points to have more piquancy and in a more late-Romantic affair. So beautiful and life-enhancing.

Pounds the table! I like to affectionately refer to this symphony as "Dvorak's 10th", though as you say, Suk has his own voice. He proves himself to be just as supremely talented a melodist and orchestrator as his teacher in this work!

[kyjo]

Music based on places or nature:

Delius: Paris - The Song of a Great City
d'Indy: Jour d'été à la montagne
Hausegger: Natursymphonie
Nielsen: The Tower of Babel

Fantastic and inspired selection, Cesar!

[kyjo]

Ethel Smyth couldn't carry Lili Boulanger's lunchbox. I've heard several of Smyth's works over the past 13 years or so and none of them were memorable or musically striking in any way.

Her earlier works that I've heard are rather derivative and unremarkable, but I heard part of her much more mature and individual vocal symphony The Prison on the radio and was very impressed. I need to hear the whole work:

[kyjo]

Good news: the Authenticity Police can stand down about this recording of "Le Tombeau," which includes the Fugue and Toccata as orchestrated in 2013 by Kenneth Hesketh. The Hesketh versions are absolutely bang-on accurate evocations of Ravel's soundworld, with glowing impressionist strings, bubbling winds, tiny instrumental details inspired by/quoting from other Ravel works, and the same modest orchestral forces as the other four movements. It's absolutely superb work, more satisfying than the four-movement Ravel version (though of course it still isn't as good as the original piano suite). The only complaint I have concerns a tiny detail of the performance - trumpet not prominent enough in the first bars of the Rigaudon.

Of course, there is a previous orchestration of these two movements by Zoltan Kocsis. And of course the Kocsis version is good too. Kocsis' vision of the toccata is more toccat-ish, in that the strings like the winds are treated like staccato repeated-note spinners. Kocsis, however, adds considerable percussion - snare drum, celesta, tambourine, maracas, chimes, and that wind machine type thing that goes weeeeeeeooooo - which makes his orchestra different from the Ravel original. I also don't remember the Ravel movements having so many trombones in them.

I will now be looking up Kenneth Hesketh's original compositions. He's clearly very, very good.

Yeah, I sampled Hesketh's orchestration of the Toccata and was really impressed by its authentic Ravelian-ness! I love Kocsis' more OTT orchestration as well.

[kyjo]

Bekku: Symphony No. 1

This is sensational, let me tell you, somewhat close to Prokofiev in style. Yet another of the most remarkable Naxos Japanese releases, along with other by Teizo Matsumura, Saburo Moroi, Akira Ifukube, etc.

Oh yes, a tremendously fun, colorful work! I especially love the exciting finale with its catchy, indeed Prokofiev-like, main theme.