What are you listening 2 now?

[Madiel]

Right. I've gone through 6 discs of earlyish sonatas in quick time by my standards, only a few months. Let's get serious with op.53.



EDIT: I should have known that the 1st movement is another one of those things that really suits Goode's vocal conception of sonatas as mini-operas. Very pleasing indeed.

[Harry]

Q

Thats a fine CD Que, have to dig it up from my vaults one day.

[ritter]

First listen to this new arrival of Fauré's chamber music:

[asin]B0057JWUVG[/asin]
CD3  (Piano Trio, op. 120--a work new to me--and the SQ, op. 121) and CD 2 (Cello Sonata No. 1 & No. 2, and assorted shorter works for cello and piano--all new to me as well).

No quibbles with the sound quality (listening trough headphones at the office), and most eloquent performances.

[Que]

Thats a fine CD Que, have to dig it up from my vaults one day.

It is a very nice one. Chants in 18th c. French "Gallican revival" style, pretty! 

Q

[Harry]

French Organ Master, From Louis XIII to Louis Philippe.
CD IV. Messe et Suites. Une Symbolique sonore a la Poesie Irradiante.

Composers on this disc.

Nicolas de Grigny, Jean Adam Guilain, Pierre du Mage.
Andre Isoir & Frederic Desenclos play on the mighty Jean Boizard organ (1714) Saint-Michel en Thierache.
Les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr, Emmanuel Mandrin.

Recorded in 1992/1997/2006.

I have quite a soft spot for the works of Nicolas de Grigny which get a beautiful performance from Andre Isoir. An organ that can whisper, and put up a mighty roar.
Especially the Fugue, Duo and Basse de Trompette ou de Cromorne, from the Premier livre d'Orgue contenant une Messe et les Hymnes des Principales fetes de l'annee  is thrillingly done.
Jean Adam Guilain is a fine composer but the inserts by the Demoiselles could not really charm me.
Pierre de Mage on the other hand has some thrilling message to convey which arrived in my ears as quite essential.
The sound is superb as are the performances.

[Madiel]

Beethoven op.59/1

[Tsaraslondon]

Disc 1

Symphony in B flat major
Poème for Violin and Orchestra with Chantal Juillet - violin
Poème de l'amour et de la mer with François Le Roux - baritone

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal - Charles Dutoit

A good, rather than inspired, performance of Chausson's Wagner influenced symphony is here coupled with a styish performance of the Poème for Violin and Orechestra. Chausson did apparently sanction a male voice for his Poème de l'amour et de la mer, but I don't think it really works, the lower voice too often subsumed by the orchestra and unable to soar as women can do. Certainly it is no replacement for favourite versions of mine featuring Victoria De Los Angeles and Janet Baker, not to mention the inimitable Maggie Teyte in the outer movements.

[Traverso]

First listen to Ligeti's piano Etudes. A lot of interesting, complex rhythms and patterns going on here. I can see myself coming back to this a bit.

[asin] B07MCW81MK[/asin]

Yes ,they are very nice,especially this one.

https://www.youtube.com/v/1ZTaiDHqs5s

This one is great fun too

https://www.youtube.com/v/txMWXvD8kL4

[Traverso]

Delius

I liked what I heard yesterday so I continue with more Delius

Winter Night ( Sleigh Ride)
Marche Caprice
Over the Hills and Far Away
A Dance Rhapsody No.2
A Dance Rhapsody No.1
Paa vidderne (On the Mountains)

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Sir  Thomas Beecham

[Tsaraslondon]

At just under one hour, this version of Shostakovich's eleventh is almost fifteen minutes shorter than the Rostropovich I listened to yesterday, and I really can't decide which approach I prefer. Taped live at a concert in Moscow in 1958, the performance here is thrilling and was obviously quite an event, with Shostakovich himself appearing on the platform at the end of the concert, whilst the audience chanted "Stokowski! Stokowski! Stokowski!"

The biggest impediment to enjoyment, though, is the sound, which picks up every bronchial cough, every creak of a chair, every opening and closing of a door. I suppose it all depends on one's level of tolerance as to whether you can put up with it. I can and did.

[Biffo]

Beethoven: Music for the stage - Claudio Abbado conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra & Runfunkchor Berlin with Bryn Terfel baritone and Sylvia McNair soprano

The Consecration of the House - the familiar overture and music mostly recycled from The Ruins of Athens
Leonore Prohaska - three short pieces plus the Funeral March from Piano Sonata, Op 26 in an orchestral version

[Harry]

Donald Tovey.

Cello concerto.
Air for Strings.
Elegiac Variations.

Alice Neary, Cello.
Gretel Dowdeswell, Piano.
Ulster Orchestra, George Vass.

If you want to start with Tovey's music at the best possible angle, this is the CD to go for. I was less than enthusiastic about a previous disc with the Symphony in D, but the present CD beats any negative feeling I might have had, about Tovey's anemic and academic stance, in his Symphony, despite some very beautiful moments.
So, I am really happy that I can put away that impression, and change it for a far better opinion!
The performers are top notch, as is the superb recording, it all seems to come together in a excellent way. The almost longest Cello Concerto I ever heard, more than 54 minutes, is a musical marvel every inch of the way. Cohesive, and clear headed, the emotional side of Tovey's reigns supreme. I feel the warmth and the  emotional impact in the beautiful melodies Tovey has created.  An absolute stunning work. And it goes on in this way with the rest of the CD. Frankly I could not believe my ears, but here it is, simply gorgeous. And what is important too, no densely scored works, well it is all good.

[San Antone]

I've hesitated to approach the Mass all this while, your thumbnail has me curious to try it out at last.

Though I haven't heard the Alsop recording (which based on her other work and comments here, is likely excellent), I have heard Mass live, and it's definitely worth at least one outing.

Yes, imperfect, and sprawling -- not to mention, very much a snapshot of its time -- but still filled with exuberance and moving sequences.

--Bruce

I don't wish to oversell it, I like it a lot and always have, but scores of others consider it a hyperbolic sinkhole of Bernstein's worst excesses.

TD

WUORINEN : Second String Trio (YouTube)

https://www.youtube.com/v/01ve9y04o6E

The video begins with a short (not short enough) interview that is not very enlightening.  The music starts around 9 minutes in.

It is an excellent work, from what I can tell at this early stage.

[San Antone]

WUORINEN : Second String Trio (YouTube)

https://www.youtube.com/v/01ve9y04o6E

The video begins with a short (not short enough) interview that is not very enlightening.  The music starts around 9 minutes in.

It is an excellent work, from what I can tell at this early stage.

This YouTube video has both string trios separated by another interview section including the cellist.  The performance of the earlier string trio begins at 44:55

String Trio no. 1

https://www.youtube.com/v/01ve9y04o6E?start=2695

[Harry]

Charles Ives.
Symphony No. 1&4.
Central Park in the Dark.

Dallas SO, Andrew Litton.

I think the first Symphony extremely beautiful, so well orchestrated and brimful with novel ideas. The melodies are haunting and well laid out in the score. Every note as tight as a nail in wood. I had me bowled over totally, and my wish would have been, hopefully the Fourth is in the same vein, but of course I knew that was not the case. Well then the first, second, and fourth movement, are totally unpalatable  for me. For me this is modernistic chaos of the worst kind. The third movement however was a hauntingly beautiful Fugue, which astounded me, simply gorgeous. Why he choose to vex me like this is beyond my understanding, but there it is. Central Park, is for me a wayward chaotic narrative of nothingness., so I cut those movements as indicated short. At least I have one symphony and one movement to live on
It is a State of the Art recording, one of the very best I heard so far from Hyperion. The orchestra is first rate too, what I enjoyed, I enjoyed thoroughly.

[Florestan]

Schumann + Mendelssohn + Satie = el Bacha. Me likes.

[Traverso]

Scott Joplin

with Joshua Rifkin

[San Antone]

Scott Joplin

with Joshua Rifkin

I like Joshua Rifkin's earlier piano recording of Joplin.  Not sure about "Digital Joplin"

TD

Debussy : La Damoiselle élue (The Blessed Damozel), L. 62

[André]

My pleasure. It's more of a subdued, psychological opera, Andre. If you like the broodiness and eeriness of The Turn of the Screw, then Death in Venice will be awaiting your rediscovery. Yes, while I agree the opera is slow moving, it still is profoundly affecting to me. The exotic percussion effects add to the atmosphere and that's one thing I can say is this opera is oozing atmosphere. I'm not an opera fan like some listeners are here (I prefer more song cycles, cantatas, oratorios, etc.), but I will proudly admit that there are several Britten operas that make my top rank and Death in Venice is certainly among them --- The Turn of the Screw and Peter Grimes being two others I think highly of. Noye's Fludde is another Britten opera I think deserves more recognition.

I can readily imagine the psychological and musical connections between The Turn of the Screw and Death in Venice. It is a bizarre coincidence that I saw both works on TV when I was in my early twenties. At the time the music made next to no impression on me. What I knew and expected from « real » opera was sung in Italian, featured treason, elopement, love duets, vengence arias, suicide or murder (or both), and lots of high Cs.  . So, no: at the time Britten operas flew way above my head and quickly disappeared in the ether...

[Traverso]

I like Joshua Rifkin's earlier piano recording of Joplin.  Not sure about "Digital Joplin"

It is from this LP,nothing wrong,just fine like his Nonesuch recordings.