What are you listening 2 now?

[Traverso]

François Couperin
Messe Propre Pour Les Convents De Religieux & Religieuses (Extraits)

Abraham van den Kerckhoven
Fantasia

Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer
Chaconne

Georg Muffat
Toccata Prima

Louis Marchand
Duo
Récit & Dialogue

John Blow
Voluntary IV ,VIII &XVIII

Georg Muffat
Toccata Quinta



part of this set



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[aligreto]

Beethoven: Lieder nach Johann Wolfgang Goethe [Schreier/Olbertz]





This completes 2 of 3 CDs in this set.
I am surprised at how much I have liked listening to this set [in small bite sized morsels]. Lieder is not a genre that I pay much attention to, to be honest, but these have impressed me.

[Todd]

[aligreto]

Used as soundtrack in this beautiful movie.

Thank you for that.

[aligreto]

Brahms: Symphony No. 2 [Sanderling]





This is a fine presentation of the wonderfully lyrical music in the opening movement.
The slow movement is very earnest in tone and it feels a tad weighed down by this to me. It can, however, also sound quite expansive and certainly powerful towards the end of the movement.
The third movement is lithe in nature and execution here.
Sanderling delivers another assertive and powerful presentation in the final movement with a thrilling conclusion.
The strings sound wonderfully full and lush throughout the recording.

[Traverso]

Prokofiev


Sonatas 1,2,3,4 & 5 (original version)

[Todd]

I've never really gotten on with Stephen Hough's solo piano recordings.  The chamber pairings I've heard are top notch, but his solo recordings, while undeniably well played and polished to the Nth degree, lack something for me.  There's a coolness verging on coldness in some of the playing.  That should not provide any barrier to enjoying his take on Mompou's Música callada, arguably the greatest large-scale collection of solo piano works of the post-war era.  And it doesn't.  Mostly.  First of all, though, the playing sounds pristine, precise, and almost always beautiful.  The few times it does not sound beautiful it is meant to sound ugly.  The slightly quick overall take has a forward moving feel to the extent it can and should, and Hough expertly uses pauses, silences, and dynamic shifts to drive home points.  The sound is largely bright and clear.  But ultimately there's still that something that holds the playing back for me.  Two back-to-back movements demonstrate why.  Tranquilo - trés calme, the thirteenth piece, starts off lovely and subdued but slightly rushed and entirely unexpressive.  This then moves on to some gnarly, almost brittle and ugly playing in the louder passages that works supremely well, so in one short movement, one hears the ho-hum and the wow.  The Severo - serieux does the same thing, in reverse.  Really, at no point throughout the work do I get a sense in the most serene, potentially introspective music that Hough delivers more than coolly precise and beautiful surface playing.  The brief, modernist flashes come to life, though.  To be sure, this is a good version of the work, and probably the best solo recording I've heard from Hough, though the late Brahms recording is in the to-hear pile and the Chopin Nocturnes on the to-buy list.  It does not really come close to matching my triumvirate of pianists - Colom (either recording), Attenelle, and Small - and the sound quality is good, but even in 24/96 it can't be said to offer anything beyond Colom II or Henck.

[Brian]

This morning: Pinnock's Handel Fireworks music (original version without strings) and concertos arranged from the Water and Fireworks suites.

A very good point and one that I will pay more attention to in future listening sessions.

The remarkable thing about Dvorak's Eighth Symphony is that it is so coherent, it is even built on a motto theme, but he deliberately hides this as much as possible. It is like an attempt to show how rhapsodic, capricious, light-hearted, and fun one can be in a symphony while still having the same classical rigor.

The theme is announced at the beginning by the cellos, but it is not the full melody. It is just the four-note rhythmic cell of long-short-short-long (and the second "long" is usually longer than the first). If you listen to the beginning cello tune and the finale's beginning trumpet tune, the rhythmic similarity will stand out and then you can find it in many other places in the symphony, for example the trio of the scherzo and the faster bits of the slow movement.

(Personally I love this symphony because it so closely expresses my own personality, but I don't expect anyone else to like it for that reason!)

[ritter]

Composer : Alfredo Casella
Recording : Suite in C major (La Vecchia - 2011)
Performers : Francesco La Vecchia, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma

Nice! I ordered this CD over the weekend, and it arrived yesterday. Still have not opened it, but will probably listen to it in the near term.

[aligreto]

Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 [Kertesz]





There is not much more that can be added to the pantheon of analysis and praise for this work.

Kertesz, for me, is excellent in the delivery of all of the tonal colours, power, palpable excitement and lyricism that is in the music of the opening movement. The almost carefree playing and this gives a great sense of energy and excitement. The conclusion to the movement is terrific!
The opening theme of the Largo is well paced and has all of the requisite poignancy and yearning. It is wonderfully and sensitively handled with kid gloves. Wonderful!
Kertesz fills the Scherzo with power, drama and excitement. He delivers a performance which gives full vent to the inherent forward momentum in the music in a very vibrant presentation with a lovely contrasting Trio section.
The final movement is also a very vibrant and assertive affair but yes, Kertesz does handle the lyrical passages with great sensitivity.  The conclusion is intense and thrilling!

[aligreto]

This morning: Pinnock's Handel Fireworks music (original version without strings) and concertos arranged from the Water and Fireworks suites.
The remarkable thing about Dvorak's Eighth Symphony is that it is so coherent, it is even built on a motto theme, but he deliberately hides this as much as possible. It is like an attempt to show how rhapsodic, capricious, light-hearted, and fun one can be in a symphony while still having the same classical rigor.

The theme is announced at the beginning by the cellos, but it is not the full melody. It is just the four-note rhythmic cell of long-short-short-long (and the second "long" is usually longer than the first). If you listen to the beginning cello tune and the finale's beginning trumpet tune, the rhythmic similarity will stand out and then you can find it in many other places in the symphony, for example the trio of the scherzo and the faster bits of the slow movement.

(Personally I love this symphony because it so closely expresses my own personality, but I don't expect anyone else to like it for that reason!)

Thank you for the contribution and the enlightenment. This is another aspect I will watch out for in the future. It all helps. Much appreciated.

[Todd]

Disc one equivalent.

[Maestro267]

Finally nearing the end of my traversal of the Brahms chamber music

Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1
Joseph Kalichstein (piano), Jaime Laredo (violin), Sharon Robinson (cello)

[Lisztianwagner]

Live from the Arnold Schönberg Center:

Arnold Schönberg
String Quartet No. 1 in D minor Op. 7

Erich Wolfgang Korngold
String Quartet No. 3 in D major Op. 34

[Symphonic Addict]

Composer : Ottorino Respighi
Recording : La Sensitiva (Adriano - 1991)
Performers : Adriano, Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava), Faridah Subrata (mezzo-soprano)

I think Respighi would have to be top of my top 5 picks for 'most chronically under-rated composer'. At least for those who actually listen to him, it's clear he was a superb musical talent, I think.

Agreed and I love that work. Respighi's orchestration is nothing but magical and glittering. This recording might be of your interest as it features the outstanding Janet Baker as the vocal soloist:

[Symphonic Addict]

Finally nearing the end of my traversal of the Brahms chamber music

Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1
Joseph Kalichstein (piano), Jaime Laredo (violin), Sharon Robinson (cello)

I was listening to that very work the other day and I couldn't help being moved by the intense beauty of the melodies, mostly the one that appears on the Scherzo's Trio. The whole section is tenderness to the extreme.

[DavidW]

Really good recording, but my favorite is Nagano.



I love the Mahler quartet, I feel that the early Schoenberg feels too Dvorak-esque and it is good but Schoenberg hasn't found his voice.  The string trio is an exceptional masterpiece and the highlight of the album.

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphomy No. 5 in B Flat Major, 1878 Version Ed. Leopold Nowak, Bernard Haitink, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

[Brahmsian]

Finally nearing the end of my traversal of the Brahms chamber music

Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1
Joseph Kalichstein (piano), Jaime Laredo (violin), Sharon Robinson (cello)

Interested in knowing what are some of the standout works on your first run through this magical world. 

[Traverso]

Bruckner
String Quintet

Schmidt
Piano Quintet