What are you listening 2 now?

[Traverso]

Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No.8 in B-flat major, op.84. Sviatoslav Richter. Not unlike a few other towering B-flat major sonatas in its gravitas and immense power. And yes, there are moments throughout the first movement where time comes to a standstill. Devastating performance.

Have you ever seen the two DVD documentairy?

   

[SimonNZ]

[vers la flamme]

Have you ever seen the two DVD documentairy?

   

No, but this looks like a great way to spend the night with my girlfriend (she's also a big Richter fan, and a great pianist herself  ) – thanks.

Current listening:



Béla Bartók: Hungarian Pictures, Sz.97. Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Bartók at his "easy listening" best... 

[vers la flamme]

Well, it just ended... short piece... moving onto something entirely different:



Camille Saint-Saëns: Symphony No.2 in A minor, op.55. Jean Martinon, Orchestre National de l'ORTF.

[vers la flamme]

Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No.2 in A major, op.68. Pacifica Quartet. Listening to this on the good word of hvbias, who in another thread described it as "the story of someone traveling across the country side". With that in mind, what I'm picturing is the events of Doctor Zhivago playing out as this music unfolds. Very very good stuff. I've had this set for months but still have not heard the whole thing, and thus this is my first time with the 2nd string quartet. One of these days I will listen to the whole cycle in consecutive order (I still need to do that with Beethoven's quartets too, and Bartók's – the latter will be the easiest and I should probably start there!)

[Traverso]

No, but this looks like a great way to spend the night with my girlfriend (she's also a big Richter fan, and a great pianist herself  ) – thanks.

Current listening:



Béla Bartók: Hungarian Pictures, Sz.97. Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Bartók at his "easy listening" best... 

His memory was a real burden for him,it is very fine documentairy,enjoy

[SimonNZ]

[Carlo Gesualdo]

Thomas Weelkes best madrigals hey and hymns... on various Label, I'm stock in limbo in a comfort bubble of English renaissance era, like I'm here.

All these English madrigalists nee to be revisited tonight, the utter finest guess it for yourself.

Once again, William Cornysn on Tallis scholars a great favorite, I'm categorical & affirmative.

Have a good night

[Symphonic Addict]

Am I alone in feeling that melodically speaking this ballet is not on the same level as the other two?

No, you're not. It's my same perception. A riveting score, for sure, but Swan Lake and The Nutcracker are finer and more memorable, IMO of course.

[Florestan]

No, you're not. It's my same perception. A riveting score, for sure, but Swan Lake and The Nutcracker are finer and more memorable, IMO of course.

I feel relieved, Cesar! I really do. Thanks.

[SimonNZ]

[Florestan]

Hey, that's great! Love it.

[SimonNZ]

Hey, that's great! Love it.

Yeah!. I've liked all of the "Les chants de la terre" series. Its a real shame they gave up on it at some point.

[ChopinBroccoli]

Have you ever seen the two DVD documentairy?

   

I enjoyed that ... fascinating character

[andolink]

[staxomega]

The first historical instance of a musical work that I'm aware of in which the time seems to stand still is Schubert's Notturno in E-flat major, Op. 148 (D. 897) for violin, celo and piano. 1827.

Which performance?

Some of my earlier listening this Stravinsky disc:

[Traverso]

I like the Praetorius recording

[Todd]

Does Arcadi Volodos have a rival in the softer-than-soft, more beautiful than it should be, or even by human standards could be pianistic sweepstakes?  Evgeni Bozhanov is not new to me, so I already know the answer to my silly query: just about.  Bozhanov, whom I first heard as musical partner to Suyoen Kim on her disc Mozartiana, and then on two other mixed rep discs, is one of those Russian School pianists of seemingly limitless ability who mixes overtly virtuosic playing with something much more rarified, and in this disc he focuses on the more rarified aspects.  In some ways, he reminds me of fellow Bulgarian Julian Gorus in his approach.  Meaning, of course, that Volodos has two near-peers.

The recording opens with Max Reger's transcription of Richard Strauss' Morgen, Op 27, No 4.  The music sounds stupid beautiful, too languid by half, and positively dreamy, the very embodiment of German Romanticsim heavily informed by Impressionism, not of the Debussyan sort, but of the pure aural equivalent of Monet.  Next up is something new in my listening experience, another Reger transcription, this time of the Poco Allegretto from Brahms' Third.  Bozhanov's languid (nearly) to a fault approach, and his tendency to make every note, chord, and phrase equally important ends up almost distracting the listener as the familiar music emerges with a new textural clarity, but one ends up ravenously devouring the delicate melodies and both intricate yet, at least at times, simple accompaniment.  The piece emerges nearly triumphant, albeit in a very small-scaled and almost entirely pianissimo to mezzo-piano way. 

The big work is Schubert's D960, a work I should tire of soon.  (JK.)  Bozhanov does a few things differently.  First, he drops the repeat in the opening Molto Moderato.  Second, as is usually the case in such situations, the Andante sostenuto very much becomes the center of the work, sounding slower, just a bit darker, more moving.  Third, and what distinguishes Bozhanov, he tinkers with everything on a small scale.  Taking an obvious instance, his first bass trill is played slowly and fairly quietly, and then with obvious accenting as it comes to a close.  The pianist's absurdly good independence of hands, and some world class microphone placement and mixing board work, allows the listener to hear a purposely unsteady accompaniment possessed of micro-dynamic variation and teeny-tiny shifts in tempo, and a melody with some of the same traits, plus an unerring surface beauty that beguiles the defenseless pianophile.  True, the purposely constrained louder dynamics and more than occasional overemphasis on individual notes and arpeggios - each note more important than the immediate antecedent - does draw attention to the player and playing more than the music, but when it's this well done, that's OK.  Especially when Bozhanov partly drops the act and plays the opening material again in the middle of the Molto moderato with such affecting touch and concentration.  While the Andante does become the center of the work for Bozhanov, it remains constrained, ranging mostly from sad whispers to morose murmurs, never really rising to anything forceful, yet some of the playing sounds so beautiful that one cannot but agree with what the pianist aims to do.  Bozhanov dispatches the Scherzo with fleet lightness in the outer sections and a somewhat elevated but not weighed-down middle section.  It's really quite superb.  Similarly, the pianist dispatches the Allegro ma non troppo with no little energy and panache, and a rather copious amount of surface beauty.  He also cannot help but emphasize a variety of small details, especially in the left hand playing, and he loves to emphasize each note in some arpeggios a bit more than he should, but no more than the listener will enjoy.  He also ups the ante a bit in terms of volume, though he never unloads.  No need for that.  In terms of pianism, this is some high grade Schubert.  To more fully address the opening rhetorical question, Arcadi Volodos aims for something different, something more perfect, something more elevated in his Schubert recordings, and he achieves them.  While both Bozhanov and Volodos can be said to focus more on the playing than the music, with Volodos, the effects are less self-conscious, the delivery more flawless, the overall conception more, well, pure.  Bozhanov plays for the moment; Volodos plays for eternity.

How better to end a disc so consumed with beauty and hypnotic musical languidness than another Reger transcription, this time of the Andante sostenuto from Brahms' First?  Bozhanov adds more heft to his interpretive arsenal in this piece, though it remains mostly a quiet, languid, gorgeous piece, one demonstrating how beautifully he can play, and one allowing one to appreciate Brahms' craft - and Reger's, too! - all the more.  Really, the two Brahms/Reger pieces make me want to hear what Bozhanov could do if he recorded entire symphony transcriptions.  A Beethoven year is just about here.  Maybe he could record Beethoven's Fourth and Sixth in Liszt's transcriptions.  I'd be down for that.

Sound is superb, and one gets to hear how much Bozhanov likes using the una corda pedal to achieve his effects.

[staxomega]

Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No.2 in A major, op.68. Pacifica Quartet. Listening to this on the good word of hvbias, who in another thread described it as "the story of someone traveling across the country side". With that in mind, what I'm picturing is the events of Doctor Zhivago playing out as this music unfolds. Very very good stuff. I've had this set for months but still have not heard the whole thing, and thus this is my first time with the 2nd string quartet. One of these days I will listen to the whole cycle in consecutive order (I still need to do that with Beethoven's quartets too, and Bartók's – the latter will be the easiest and I should probably start there!)

Great to hear that, enjoy it! I am slightly let down by the third, to me it feels a bit meandering compared to how great the second is. Beethoven and Bartok in order is a great way to hear them, especially if you haven't heard many of them before.

[vers la flamme]

Great to hear that, enjoy it! I am slightly let down by the third, to me it feels a bit meandering compared to how great the second is. Beethoven and Bartok in order is a great way to hear them, especially if you haven't heard many of them before.

Well, I've heard all of the Beethoven and Bartók quartets, but never consecutively over a short span of time, it'll be one or two here and there. I want to hear the complete cycle over a couple days and trace the development of the music. I did this recently with all of the Mahler symphonies and it was incredibly enlightening.