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[Symphonic Addict]

Brahms | Schumann : The String Quartets
Melos Quartett

It is wonderful to have the Brahms and Schumann quartets together in excellent performances by the Melos Quartett.

This set is simply extraordinary. My reference recording for the Brahms.

[Symphonic Addict]

I never cared for Bax, but I need to get back into Alwyn --- he's very good. I particularly like his 2nd and 3rd symphonies. Also, that other work on that recording, Lyra Angelica is especially gorgeous. I remember hearing this work during one of Michelle Kwan's figure skating events many years ago, but, of course, I didn't know what that work was at the time.

Let's see if I can find the video...

https://www.youtube.com/v/XObfIoPbFf8

Wow, the music suits the skating wonderfully. Thanks for sharing it, John. I really enjoyed it. Lyra Angelica never ceases to amaze me.

As you point out, symphonies 2 and 3 contain terrific music. My cup of tea undoubtedly.

[Mirror Image]

Wow, the music suits the skating wonderfully. Thanks for sharing it, John. I really enjoyed it. Lyra Angelica never ceases to amaze me.

As you point out, symphonies 2 and 3 contain terrific music. My cup of tea undoubtedly.

You're welcome. I own a good bit of his music (all three symphony cycles). One area I'm not familiar with would be his chamber music. I read his string quartets are good --- any thoughts on these works? I might explore those whenever I get back into the composer.

[Mirror Image]

Tabakova
Cello Concerto
Kristina Blaumane (cello)
Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra
Maxim Rysanov

[Mirror Image]

One final work for the night:

Tippett
Concerto for Double String Orchestra
Hickox
City of London Sinfonia

[vandermolen]

Alwyn: Symphony No.3


I'm playing the CD but the LP below, conducted by the composer, was my first contact with this fine work. Both couplings are excellent. The inexplicably neglected Violin Concerto and the Symphonic Prelude 'The Magic Island' (after Shakespeare's The Tempest).

[vandermolen]

One final work for the night:

Tippett
Concerto for Double String Orchestra
Hickox
City of London Sinfonia

And a very great one IMO. My favourite work by Tippett, especially for its slow movement.

[vandermolen]

Tabakova
Cello Concerto
Kristina Blaumane (cello)
Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra
Maxim Rysanov

A marvellous CD which I have thanks to you.

[vandermolen]

Also this:



Symphony No. 1

Wow! Spicy, violent, turbulent but tonal. Impressive work, the use of the orchestra is remarkable.

I'm very fond of this stormy work as well Cesar, composed in hiding in occupied Belgium.

[Tsaraslondon]

SCHUMANN

Piano Quintet in E flat - Martha Argerich, Dora Schwarzberg, Lucy Hall, Nobuko Imai, Mischa Maisky
Andante and Variations -Martha Argerich, Alexandre Rabinovitch, Natalie Gutman, Mischa Maisky, Marie-Luise Neunecker
Fantasiestücke - Natalie Gutman, Martha Argerich
Märchenbilder - Nobuko Imai, Martha Argerich

Recorded live in 1994, these are all fabulous performances with the wonderful Martha Argerich their common denominator. Such joy in the act of making music.

[vandermolen]

Bernstein: Jeremiah Symphony (Slatkin, BBC SO)
Seemed appropriate listening for Holocaust Day and 75th Anniversary of Liberation of Auschwitz.
BBC Radio 3 have been playing appropriately themed music this morning:

[Florestan]

An interesting looking set. I will check if the contents are incorporated into the big Oistrakh box.
When you get a moment could you please tell me what the reference "Tchaikovsky A.O." refers to.

A. O. (And Others) refers to Glinka, Taneyev, Rimsky-Korsakov and Hummel.

[Florestan]

D850.

I find nothing objectionable. A relaxed, unbuttoned performance, with just the right tinge of melancholy and passion. Echt Schubertian spirit, I'd say. A great performance imho. The sound is not the best but didn't spoil my enjoyment.

[Harry]

NEW ARRIVAL.

Luca Marenzio.
Quinto libro di Madrigali, -1591- A sei Voci.
La Compagnia del Madrigale.

I could quite easily write again in equally positive terms as I did with the first book I played some days ago, but that would be repetitive. It is really simple, if you like the voices, you like this interpretations. Not for nothing do they belong to the most praised ensemble in the repertoire throughout the world.
As always, the sound is topnotch, I can find not fault in all they do.

[vandermolen]

Bernstein Symphony No.2 'The Age of Anxiety' BBC SO Slatkin. A very fine performance:

[SimonNZ]

followed by:

[ritter]

Found the parcel with this CD at my desk in the office this morning, , and into the computer it went:


Aurora Ienei plays with enthusiasm, but not with much nuance. The sound of these 1981 AAD recordings is good, if a tad reverberant when the music is f or stronger.

I had forgotten how seducing Enesco's Piano Suite No. 1  in G minor, "dans le style ancien", op. 3, in its Bachian purity, is. And how groundbreaking it must have been, in 1897, to "go back to the source" so resolutely.

The Suite No. 2, op. 10, from some 6 years later, is less attractive to my ears. But then in the Suite No. 3, "pièces impromptus" op. 18 (where even the "romantic" movement titles--"Voix de la steppe", "Mazurka mélancolique" indicate we're moving away from the baroque) we enter a world which is much nearer to the mature Enesco, with his personal blending of all sorts of influences to produce a soundscape unmistakably by him. A very, very appealing work.

[steve ridgway]

Schnittke : Symphony No. 3. This was fun; all sorts of classical music emerged from the mists of time and vied for their five minutes of fame before eventually fading away again.

[asin] B000027EDR[/asin]

[Tsaraslondon]

Disc 7

Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana - Intermezzo
Mascagni: L'Amico Fritz - Intermezzo
Puccini: Manon Lescaut  - Intermezzo
Leoncavallo: Pagliacci - Intermezzo
Ponchielli: La Gioconda - Dance of the Hours
Verdi: La Traviata - Prelude Act III
Verdi: Aida - Ballet Music Act II
Verdi: Don Carlo - Ella giammai m'amo with Boris Christoff - bass
Gounod: Faust - Vous qui faites l'endormie with Boris Christoff - bass
Roussel: Symphony no 4

Philharmonia Orchestra - Herbert von Karajan

Recordings from 1949 and 1954.

[Traverso]

Schumann    Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44

Cello – Mischa Maisky  – Michael SheadyPiano – Martha Argerich Viola – Nobuko ImaiViolin Dora Schwarzberg, Lucia Hall

Schumann    Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121

Michael SheadyPiano – Martha Argerich Violin – Dora Schwarzber
   
Schumann    Fantasiestücke Op. 73
Cello – Natalia Gutman  Michael SheadyPiano – Martha Argerich