What are you listening 2 now?

[Karl Henning]

Arnold Schönberg
Erwartung

Janis Martin (soprano)
Pierre Boulez & BBC Symphony Orchestra



Such tense and haunting work, beautifully overwhelming; and very atmospheric for Halloween.

Love it!

TD:

CD 14

Rakhmaninov
Symphony № 2 in e minor, Op. 27
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (Minnesota Orchestra)
Rec. 19/20 Jan 1947

[Todd]

Third spin.  Getting better each time, and it started off qualitatively competitive with Anderszewski, heretofore the best single disc of Szymanowski piano music I had heard.

[Mapman]

Maiden-Listen Monday!
Webern: String Quartet, Op. 28
Artis Quartet

According to Wikipedia, the tone row is based on the BACH motif. I don't think I would have noticed that.

[JBS]

1967 concert recording with the Wiener Symphoniker - a luminous, spirited performance that (just about!) manages to transcend the thin mono sound (quite possibly recorded off-air.)

Sometimes it takes a particular performance - more usually in concert, but sometimes a recording - to open what had previously been a closed book to me.  For Mahler's 7th it's this.  Like: now I get it.

You might be interested in Maderna's Mahler Ninth.  BBC Symphony on the BBC Legends series.  Ignore the "new" price, of course
https://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphony-No-9-Gustav/dp/B000ENC6VE/

TD

[Karl Henning]

Maiden-Listen Monday!
Webern: String Quartet, Op. 28
Artis Quartet

According to Wikipedia, the tone row is based on the BACH motif. I don't think I would have noticed that.

I never realized. Must revisit the piece tomorrow.

[JBS]

And now a completely different thing

CD 3 of this

The Dello Joio, in its world premiere recording, is one of two intriguing items that got me to get this set. The pianist was 18 at the time. (His first two albums were potpourris of popular solo works recorded when he was 13 and 14. His father was associate concertmaster under Toscanini.)

ETA
The Dello Joio was moderately interesting. Probing Amazon and Discogs, it seems this was its only recording. It would be worth another recording, but for those interested, this recording has been uploaded to Youtube by at least two users.

[Operafreak]

Mendelssohn: Violin Sonatas/ Alina Ibragimova (violin), Cédric Tiberghien (piano)

[Wanderer]

[Que]

Morning listening - The Magic of Polyphony:



I'm not a fan of the mixed programming. But these recordings are from a festival, offering a cross section of polyphonic music. Most of the selected pieces are exquisite, as are the performances. A lot of rare stuff - quite a few pieces tasted like more, but nothing more is available on record.

[Harry]

J.S. Bach.
Complete Cantatas.
Volume 33.
Leipzig 1725.
Jesu, nun sei gepreiset.
Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn.
Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir.
Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki.
Yukari Nonoshita, Robin Blaze, Jan Kobow, Dominik Woerner.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Early morning listening:

Ola Gjeilo's Sunrise Mass (via youtube).  Well, I really like the haunting and etherial opening (Spheres) and when they were singing the Kyrie, but lost interest when they were singing the Gloria.  My first impressions during the Gloria were that it seemed too commercial almost pop-like particularly with the way that the violins were playing.  The ending of the mass though was closer to how it had started in the beginning.  So, basically, mixed feelings about it at my end.  May give it another shot tomorrow.  Was listening to it very early this morning.

PD

[Harry]

Organ Works of the North German Baroque.
Volume XIII.
CD I.
Michael Praetorius & Hieronymus Praetorius III.
Complete Organ Works.
Friedhelm Flamme, Organ.
Instrument: Christoph-Treutmann organ, 1737, after Vogel et al, 1997.
Monastery Church of St. George, Grauhof Abbey, Goslar.
Pitch: 5/8 Ton over normal.
Temperament: Wohltemperiert, Bach/Kellner, 1/5 comma.

A decent performance and ditto recording. A bit to loose in expression, and at times unfocused. If the volume of this organ goes louder,  the sound gets stuffed, and the mixtures hard to define. I never liked the acoustics much, and it is a bitch to record this instrument. I have many recordings of this organ, but none of them give more than a halfway satisfaction. Even the SACD of this disc does not give any relieve. Fortunately Praetorius is one of the great composers of that time, and this is a great joy. But this organ is totally misfitted to the music by Praetorius, it blows his music totally out of proportions. And that counts for most of the other composers on disc II.
If you take all this in account, the budget price makes the blow somewhat softer, and you might add it to your collection, unless you are disgusted by the likes of Flamme, and a few do on GMG and elsewhere, walk away from it.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Thanks for the link.   You're right, I am interested in that ... at the right price.  Unfortunately the only affordable copy on Amazon US won't ship to the UK, and over here the only borderline affordable disk I've found is on the Arkadia label, which based on past experience I'm fairly sure will be an aircheck (like that 7th) rather than even a pirated copy of the BBC.  Not to worry, I'll keep an eye out, and sooner or later something will turn up. I waited a long time for an affordable copy of the Rozhdestvensky/Philharmonia Shostakovich 4th (also on BBC Legends), and eventually one dropped into my lap.

Oooh!  That sounds interesting.  Where and when is that BBC recording from and how is the sound and performance?

PD

[Operafreak]

Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Suite & The Wood-Nymph- Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä

[Lisztianwagner]

From the Karajan 60s box:

Bela Bartók
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta

Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker

[Florestan]

Three acts into it. This recording is marred by an execrable French diction from everybody, including the choir. This is a huge drawback because in grand opera the visuals are as important as the music and while listening to a recording one can use imagination to supply them ---  if and only if one understands what is being sung, that is. In this respect, the very obtrusive stage sounds are actually an asset because they give a vague idea about what is going on. Also, the vocal score is audibly taxing for Warren Mok (Robert) who not infrequently delivers shrieks and shrills instead of singing. To do full justice to this opera one needs a super-stellar cast and this is far from being the case here.

[Harry]

Jean Sibelius.
Symphony No. 2 in D major.
Romance in C major for String Orchestra.
The Gothenburg SO, Neeme Jarvi.


A fine performance all around, but I found the first movement of the Symphony "Allegretto" a bit too fast for comfort, but that also goes for the second movement "Tempo andante, ma Rubato". I can live with that, but there is a constant urgency about the music thus presented. I simply have to adjust after Kurt Sanderling's take. Stellar BIS sound.

[vers la flamme]

Sibelius' 2nd for me too—I reckon you'd find this one too fast, too, Harry.



Jean Sibelius: Symphony No.2 in D major, op.43. Lorin Maazel, Vienna Philharmonic

[Harry]

Sibelius' 2nd for me too—I reckon you'd find this one too fast, too, Harry.



Jean Sibelius: Symphony No.2 in D major, op.43. Lorin Maazel, Vienna Philharmonic

Could be my friend, I do not own this performance, but I have the Ashkenazy set also on Decca, recently played, and did not have that feel of urgency as Jarvi is displaying, for he is very fast all around.

[vers la flamme]

^I love the Ashkenazy cycle and the 2nd in that set is excellent. You recommend the Sanderling, too? I've been meaning to hear more of that conductor's work. Cheers, and enjoy.