What are you listening 2 now?

[Symphonic Addict]

[Brian]

Been a long time since I listened to this symphony.



What good cover art! However, the squiggly writing doesn't fit with the other text or the artwork.

[Florestan]

Schmidt's Symphony No. 3 should be right up your ally, Andrei!

Good evening!

Good evening, Rafael, and duly noted.

Honestly, I have a love/hate relationship with Late Romanticism. Sometimes I am enthralled by a work, only to find me the next day, after re-listening, asking myself "what the heck did I find so enjoyable in all these bloated and turgid longueurs"? (my reaction and after-reaction to Langgaard's First Symphony, for instance). 

I suspect, though, that Schmidt's First might withstand a second listen. 

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, ed. Robert Haas, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

[aligreto]

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 12 Op. 127 [Quatuor Végh]





This performance grabs you from the opening chords of the first movement. One can sense immediately that a special performance lies ahead. The music flows freely yet there is great tension and drama on display. The music making is intense and focused. I find it to be captivating.
Have no fear that this intensity will detract in any way from the allure of the music in the slow movement. To me, the music is simply enhanced by this presentation. Its performance has wonderful grace, poise and integrity to it along with a fine sense of poignancy and longing.
There is a wonderful conversational element going on in the third movement with all voices playing an equal part. The playing is particularly fine here.
The playing in the final movement is very fluid but also very focused with a fine sense of excitement to it. One can feel the music going in a certain direction and one is very pleased with the final destination achieved after such an enjoyable journey.
There is great  balance and presence on the recording throughout in excellent recorded sound.

[Todd]

[ritter]

The "Casella-thon" chez ritter continues...



Vintage late Casella: the Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin, Cello and Orchestra, op. 56 (from 1956), played —quite convincingly— by a Spanish regional orchestra—, and the Sonata a tre, op. 62 (dedicated to Petrassi, and a work the composer was particularly proud of).

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

This is an interesting disc, which pits Schoenberg;s orchestral version of Verklärte Nacht against Oskar Fried's quasi operatic setting of the poem that inspired it. Fried's setting is for mezzo-soprano, tenor and orchestra. Also on the disc are Korngold's Lieder des Abschieds for tenor and orchestra and Lehár's Tone Poem for tenor and large orchestra, Fieber. I doubt anyone would suspect that this was by the same composer who gave us The Merry Widow.

The orchestra play superbly under Edward Gardiner, though both singers suffer a little from that modern malaise of a bit too much vibrato. I found myself wondering what the music might have sounded like in the voices of Christa Ludwig and Jon Vickers.

The cover art is nice too. I imagine Edvard Munch.

[aligreto]

Verdi: Othello Act IV [Von Karajan]




 
I have listened to no other version of this work to make any direct comparisons but this presentation does sound quite powerful and suitably dramatic and impressive to me.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Bach Organ Works - Stockmeier.

[Brian]

First listen to this particular recording. Wow, everyone jumps out guns blazing in the first movement of the concerto, at a thrilling tempo.

[Spotted Horses]

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 12 Op. 127 [Quatuor Végh]





This performance grabs you from the opening chords of the first movement. One can sense immediately that a special performance lies ahead. The music flows freely yet there is great tension and drama on display. The music making is intense and focused. I find it to be captivating.
Have no fear that this intensity will detract in any way from the allure of the music in the slow movement. To me, the music is simply enhanced by this presentation. Its performance has wonderful grace, poise and integrity to it along with a fine sense of poignancy and longing.
There is a wonderful conversational element going on in the third movement with all voices playing an equal part. The playing is particularly fine here.
The playing in the final movement is very fluid but also very focused with a fine sense of excitement to it. One can feel the music going in a certain direction and one is very pleased with the final destination achieved after such an enjoyable journey.
There is great  balance and presence on the recording throughout in excellent recorded sound.

Whenever that set is mentioned I kick myself. I had it, and sold it off. Now it can only be had for a king's ransom.

[ritter]

Ravel's String Quartet in F major, played by the LaSalle Quartet.



In the memoirs of Casella I'm currently reading, he recounts how he stumbled upon Ravel sitting on a park bench (both men lived just a couple of numbers away on the same Boulevard Pereire), reading a musical manuscript. Asked what it was, Ravel answered: "It's a quartet I've just finished, and of which I'm rather satisfied" 

[Symphonic Addict]

Even though it doesn't reach the top-tier category, it took me by surprise how good the performance was. A most enjoyable ballet.

[Lisztianwagner]

Arnold Schönberg
String Trio Op. 45

Trio Zimmermann

[Karl Henning]

"Wolferl"
Cto in E^b, K. 271
Maria Bergmann. pf
Hans Rosbaud
Baden-Baden Southwest Radio Orchestra

[Karl Henning]

"Wolferl"
Cto in A, K. 488
Friedrich Gulda, pf
Hans Rosbaud
Baden-Baden Southwest Radio Orchestra

[Symphonic Addict]

Strauss: Violin Sonata

[Symphonic Addict]

Beautiful music, if less impressive than his Piano Quintet or Piano Quartet.

[Bachtoven]