What are you listening 2 now?

[mc ukrneal]

Yes, Argerich's performance of the Liszt B Minor is one of the best, only slightly bettered by Krystian Zimerman, IMO.

TD



I think Jens Larsen spoke highly of this recording; if so, I agree with him - first rate Bach, IMO.

I agree.

[Maestro267]

Lloyd: A Symphonic Mass
Brighton Festival Chorus
Bournemouth SO/Lloyd

[Mandryka]

Can anyone share a scan of the booklet (assuming it's interesting and says more than what's on the Megadisc site) of this outstanding CD?

https://megadisc-classics.com/album/pierre-boulez/

[André]

This super interesting disc contains Haas' Scherzo triste (a quite wonderful piece), the suite he extracted from his opera Charlatan and his unfinished Symphony from 1941, composed in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. The first movement, the scherzo and a portion of the slow movement, some 27 minutes of music have been saved before Haas stopped composing. He never finished it before being sent to his death in Auschwitz. There's a lot of jewishness in it (harmonic and melodic elements from synagogue rites, the notes tell us) - some folk elements as well (czech chorales), bizarre quotes like the distorted Horst Wessel lied, the quotation from Chopin's Funeral March or the zany ivesian march that concludes the scherzo. It is a powerful statement. It's anybody's guess what the completed work would sound like, but it's easy to figure it would have been quite big in scope, probably over 40 minutes. The abundance of thematic material suggests the work meant a lot to him.

Thanks to Vandermolen for letting me in on this fascinating program ! 

[vandermolen]

This super interesting disc contains Haas' Scherzo triste (a quite wonderful piece), the suite he extracted from his opera Charlatan and his unfinished Symphony from 1941, composed in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. The first movement, the scherzo and a portion of the slow movement, some 27 minutes of music have been saved before Haas stopped composing. He never finished it before being sent to his death in Auschwitz. There's a lot of jewishness in it (harmonic and melodic elements from synagogue rites, the notes tell us) - some folk elements as well (czech chorales), bizarre quotes like the distorted Horst Wessel lied, the quotation from Chopin's Funeral March or the zany ivesian march that concludes the scherzo. It is a powerful statement. It's anybody's guess what the completed work would sound like, but it's easy to figure it would have been quite big in scope, probably over 40 minutes. The abundance of thematic material suggests the work meant a lot to him.

Thanks to Vandermolen for letting me in on this fascinating program ! 

So glad you enjoyed it André. His story is a very tragic one.

[Papy Oli]

From me too 

Cheers Jeffrey.

Loved the Rootham as you know but was really pleasantly surprised with the Bantock and Holbrooke "fillers" too. After the Celtic symphony already in my collection and the Pagan symphony CD I discovered this week, It looks like I really need to get more Bantock. Holbrooke needs a proper look at too. 

[Harry]

This super interesting disc contains Haas' Scherzo triste (a quite wonderful piece), the suite he extracted from his opera Charlatan and his unfinished Symphony from 1941, composed in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. The first movement, the scherzo and a portion of the slow movement, some 27 minutes of music have been saved before Haas stopped composing. He never finished it before being sent to his death in Auschwitz. There's a lot of jewishness in it (harmonic and melodic elements from synagogue rites, the notes tell us) - some folk elements as well (czech chorales), bizarre quotes like the distorted Horst Wessel lied, the quotation from Chopin's Funeral March or the zany ivesian march that concludes the scherzo. It is a powerful statement. It's anybody's guess what the completed work would sound like, but it's easy to figure it would have been quite big in scope, probably over 40 minutes. The abundance of thematic material suggests the work meant a lot to him.

Thanks to Vandermolen for letting me in on this fascinating program ! 

I have almost all what is recorded of him, love this composer.

[Daverz]

A highlight of recent listening, Brahms String Sextet No. 1:

[asin] B06WWFMD5Q[/asin]

Beautifully done.

[San Antone]

Songs of Kurt Weill
Dagmar Peckova, Epoque Quartet

"We cannot approach opera from the position of snobbish dismissal. We cannot write operas while at the same time lamenting the deficiencies of the genre. We must fulfil our own ideal by making use of that which the stage has to offer," so wrote Kurt Weill in 1926. At the time, he had just begun seeking a new musical genre, one that would supersede the conventional opera. The resounding success of Die Greigroschenoper proved that the path he had taken was the right one; the new genre emerged at an appropriate time, and it seemed that the audience had been waiting for opera's resurgence too. The adventurous journey Weill pursued for half a century, led from Germany to Paris and finally to New York City. The result of his efforts were considerable simplification of the musical idiom, inspiration by pop and jazz, and the assignment of the vocal parts to actors without traditional professional voice training. It was a true revolution. And that represented a challenge for the mezzo-soprano Dagmar Pecková, who throughout her illustrious career has appeared on the world's most prominent stages as an artist acclaimed as a refined performer of music by Mozart, Mahler, Bizet ... An artist who, however, never contents herself with academism and empty form. One of her dreams, to make an album of Kurt Weill's songs, has now come true, 25 years after she portrayed at the Stuttgart Opera the lead female role in the opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. The singular poetics of Weill's songs, a fabulous orchestra and splendid arrangements blending classical music and jazz - and, of course, Dagmar Pecková, who has never been "just" a diva, but a singer who makes her dreams come true and does everything with great enthusiasm.

Kurt Weill according to Dagmar Pecková. Songs that touch the very centre of the heart.

[ritter]

Can anyone share a scan of the booklet (assuming it's interesting and says more than what's on the Megadisc site) of this outstanding CD?

https://megadisc-classics.com/album/pierre-boulez/

I've sent you a PM.

THREAD DUTY:

Revisiting parts of this set:



Tonight, only the Beethoven Septet, op. 20 and the Ravel Introduction et allegro (as I've mentioned before, the violin sonata with piano accompaniment is a genre I tend to avoid).  Of the musicians playing along Enesco, only the name of a Fernand Oubradous (on the bassoon in the Septet) is one I had encountered before. Be that as it may, these are lovely performances (despite the congested sound at some points).

[ritter]

Dinu Lipatti plays his charming Concertino dans le style classique, op. 3, for piano and chamber orchestra. Hans von Benda conducts the a Berlin Chamber Orchestra he had founded in 1932.

[San Antone]

Love this series on Naxos.

[vers la flamme]

https://www.youtube.com/v/6mymWYonUUs

Solemn and sentimental, with some pointless and ugly dynamic variation.  JSB must be spinning in his grave. If he has one.

I hated it too.

@Tsaraslondon, I love that Argerich debut recital disc too. I have it as disc 1 of a box set. Great performances all, but I especially loved Ravel's Jeux d'eau and Prokofiev's Toccata.

[T. D.]

Happy Birthday Traverso ! from a fellow 16th Jan Oldie 

We share our birthday with Gavin Bryars and Brian Ferneyhough. Maybe I should sample their music today  0:)

Happy birthday! I see nobody's gotten round to Ferneyhough yet, so:

Just La Chute d'Icare...I'm not really enamored of "New Complexity" and that's the only Ferneyhough piece I ever enjoyed; once heard a live solo piano piece (Lemma-Icon-Epigram?) that was interesting, but never pursued a recording.

[San Antone]

https://www.youtube.com/v/6mymWYonUUs

Solemn and sentimental, with some pointless and ugly dynamic variation.  JSB must be spinning in his grave. If he has one.

Can't but agree.

I hated it too.

Obviously it is a subjective response.  There have been some critical raves, which normally don't figure into my appraisal of a recording, but since you three have been so quickly dismssive, I wanted to check my own reaction against some other sources.

For example:

Ólafsson, who's acclaimed for his performances of contemporary repertoire, including the music of Philip Glass, has chosen a diverse collection of keyboard pieces of J.S. Bach to feature on this album, from the familiar to the rarely heard.

On the familiar side, we hear some Two-Part Inventions, Sinfonias, and Preludes and Fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier, which have formed part of the keyboard student's canon ever since the days Bach's own students sweat over them. In Vikingur's hands, these familiar pieces sound transformed, into works of contrapuntal virtuosity.

The seldom heard Aria variata (alla maniera Italiana) in A minor, BWV 989, shines with a quiet expressiveness in the aria theme, followed by variations that are alternately playful, sprightly, determined, and dancing.   (Classical Album of the Week: Icelandic Pianist Vikingur Olafsson's J.S. Bach
By Debra Lew Harder • Jan 14, 2019 WRTI, Classical radio of L.A.)

So how is Ólafsson's Bach then? This is Bach distilled. Not romantic but not sterile either. On the contrary, there's plenty of emotion. The difference here is that while many pianists' emotional interpretation stems mainly from a lyrical approach, careful pedalling or plenty of rubato, Ólafsson's emotional gravitas is a result of his refined rhythmic precision. This precision could have resulted in a mechanical effect under a different pianist but Ólafsson knows how to adjust the tempo according to the thematic relations and the crystalline-quality of his playing is far from calculated. Indeed, listen to the slow movements or the quieter pieces in this album and you will witness an almost spiritual approach to Bach with no trace of sentimentality. In a way, his playing reminds me of the great director Robert Bresson who, by using an ascetic method of direction and staying detached from his characters, managed to deliver a purer sort of emotional punch, devoid of affectations.

But it's not all about Bach with feeling. Ólafsson can show off his virtuosity when the piece demands it such as the Bach Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g'mein transcription by Kempff. Compared to Kempff's own performance, Ólafsson's version sounds quicker and livelier. This is Bach re-imagined then, not just for the sake of something new, but by taking into account, filtering and re-filtering and carefully applying different schools of Bach interpretation.  (Víkingur Ólafsson, Bach & Philip Glass, High Arts Magazine)

The Bach, though, really caught on. It streamed like hotcakes (if that analogy still holds) and this month was stunningly named recording of the year by BBC Music Magazine. With a careful listen, this time on good headphones, there could be no mistaking exquisite playing.  Los Angeles Times

Ólafsson's notes tell of his discovery of Bach pianists as different as Edwin Fischer, Rosalyn Tureck, Dinu Lipatti, Glenn Gould and Martha Argerich. From this, he has found his own way with Bach – highly individual but never mannered. His account of Kempff's transcription of the chorale prelude Nun freut euch is less anchored by the chorale tune itself and more flighty in effect than Kempff's own performances (Eloquence). I like the way that Ólafsson alternates original Bach with the transcriptions, so that Stradal's take on the middle movement of Bach's Fourth Organ Sonata (given here with generous use of sustaining pedal to create a poetic ambience) is followed by a refreshingly airborne account of the D major Prelude from Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier, while its Fugue melds clarity with nobility. After this comes the Busoni version of another chorale prelude, Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, which unfolds more naturally than in Demidenko's hands (Hyperion). We then get another dash of cold water in the C minor Prelude and Fugue from Book 1. The Prelude is judged to perfection, combining energy and brilliance, the Fugue a model of crisp detail.

And so it continues: almost as if Ólafsson is offering different angles on the statue of Bach that he keeps by his piano – one that 'looks like wisdom incarnate, stern-faced and majestic in its wig'. He brings considerable character to the theme of the Aria variata, tending to choose faster tempos than Angela Hewitt (Hyperion, 10/04), to thrilling effect in Variations 2, 7 and 9, while Var 6 has a limpid beauty. Even an outwardly simple piece such as the A major Invention, BWV783, is full of interest, the energy infectiously joyous, the trills razor-sharp.  Gramophone

I am not posting these reviews as an appeal to "authority," but to show that there appears to be plenty of room for an opinion different than Mandryka, premont and vers la flamme.

[Symphonic Addict]

CD 1, comprising Silhouettes Op. 8, Two Minuets Op. 28, Dumka Op. 35, Theme and variations op. 36, Scottish Dances Op. 41 and Two Furiants Op. 42

Absolutely beautiful music. All the works possess charm in important amounts. The Minuet in A-flat major is a real gem. Loved it. The Theme and variations are wondrous too, expertly written. The Furiant in D major was another highlight. I admire Dvorak much more now. This music does move me. And 3 CDs more are awaiting for me!




String quartets 1 & 2

Gubaidulina is a relatively new composer to me. Previously I had only heard her symphony Stimmen... Verstummen, which was quite interesting. Now these quartets left me amazed. This is unnerving music, but stimulating at once. The 1St SQ reminded me of that by Lutoslawski. Fabulous pieces overall.

[Symphonic Addict]

Happy birthday, Olivier and Traverso!

[Daverz]

Ginastera: Variaciones Concertantes

[asin] B07WQ1NCKY[/asin]

Both this and the Harp Concerto performance are real knockouts.

[Karl Henning]

Playing this yet again:

Bernstein
Symphony No. 2, "The Age of Anxiety"
Zimerman
Rattle
Berliners

One of my favorite pieces of his!

[Mirror Image]

One of my favorite pieces of his!

You definitely need to hear this performance, Karl.