What are you listening 2 now?

[Karl Henning]

It does not really surprise me that the Chandos Naxos sale has resulted in some Malipiero impulse purchases:

Malipiero
Armenia (1917)
Ditirambo tragico (1917)

Thessaloniki State Symphony
Amaury du Clausel

[Brian]

Another day of binge-listening through the Naxos back catalogue to see what to buy in the Chandos $2.50 per disc download sale.

Rossini - pleasant but simplistic, very well performed
Sperger - the combination of period instruments and a very recessed, reverberant acoustic came across as very harsh to me
Harty - I read reviews saying that the Chandos issue is better. I did listen to and very much enjoy the other Naxos Harty CD, with the piano concerto.
Ibert - nicely played. Will probably buy this one.
Tveitt - I've heard these works and this series several times, just deciding whether it is a stream or buy situation.
Massenet - not quite top-shelf works or playing. I have the other Naxos Massenet suite albums with Ossonce.
Elgar - rather too subtle. I like big obnoxious bombastic organ music 
English String Miniatures - lovely. Honestly, was expecting these to be more cloying and syrupy, but they are not. Might be good for a summer afternoon nap, but I mean that as a compliment. Lovely playing.
Dohnanyi - very nicely played romantic cello collection. I do already have a Starker recording of the orchestral piece.

Moving on also to a first listen to this:

[Bachtoven]

World Piano Day (the 88th day of the year) wouldn't be complete without some Sorabji. I'm enjoying the five fugues that conclude the work--about 80 minutes' worth.

[Linz]

Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor  op. 15 Cadenzas: Johannes Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major op.83 Emil Gilels piano, Berliner Philharmoniker, Eugen Jochum

[Karl Henning]

World Piano Day (the 88th day of the year) wouldn't be complete without some Sorabji. I'm enjoying the five fugues that conclude the work--about 80 minutes' worth.

I really need to spend some time with this. But now:

Vladimir Dukelsky (Vernon Duke)
Epitaphe (1931)
Residentie Orchestra The Hague
Ilma Achmadeeva, sop
Netherlands Theatre Choir
Gennady Rozhdestvensky

This is lovely.

[Karl Henning]

"Dukelsky was only 22 when Diaghilev commissioned Zephyr et Flore for his 1925 spring season in Paris and by all accounts it was well received; Prokofiev, who became a close friend of Dukelsky's, described it as 'full of superior melodies, very well designed, harmonically beautiful and not too modernist'. Well, they do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and Prokofiev is certainly the first composer that springs to mind when you hear Zephyr for the first time. To be fair, the music is attractive and engaging and has impressive moments, but ultimately there is very little individuality to be found in this relatively early work. Epitaphe, composed some six years later, is a slightly stronger work, but apart from a certain gravitas the music is stylistically very similar to the ballet, #with Prokofiev's influence still very much in evidence."

The reviewer seems determined to denigrate Dukelsky as an unimaginative composer, but from my initial listen to Epitaphe, I think what we've got is an unimaginative reviewer. I hear much more than a "Mini-Sergei Sergeyevich."

[Lisztianwagner]

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No.9

Leonard Bernstein & Concertgebouw Orchestra



Such an absolutely overwhelming symphony, so profound, intense and powerfully touching. Masterful performance by Bernstein, listening to it is always breathtaking.

[Todd]

Wrapping up the last of the current batch of Delitiæ Musicæ recordings of Monteverdi's Madrigals I purchased.  I already owned Books 6-9, so this makes my second complete set after La Venexiana.  Initially, I hesitated to even try any Delitiæ Musicæ recordings since it is an all-male group, and I'm not big on male high voices generally.  Of course, Chanticleer is out there, producing some of the most beautiful extant a capella recordings, so ultimately a while back I went for Delitiæ Musicæ, liked what I heard, and kept buying.  They sound notably different from La Venexiana, and not just because of the voices used.  Their style is even more flexible, more stylish, sort of Italianate in an almost operatic way.  The instrumental accompaniment is very fine, and the recording at times sound spatially artificial/augmented, but that ends up helping.  La Venexiana remains my first choice for the complete set overall, but for some of the earlier books, 1 and 4, especially, I prefer Delitiæ Musicæ.  Few complete sets exist, though more of the later books exist, especially the monumental eighth, so I don't have huge numbers of options to choose from. 

[Linz]

Mozart Piano Concertos Alfred Brendel Concerto No.7 in F, K242 ''Lodron', Concerto No.8 in C, K246 ''Lutzow' and Concerto No.11 in F, K413, Academy of St. Martin-in-the Fields, Neville Marriner

[vers la flamme]

Franz Liszt
Hungarian Rhapsodies No. 2, 5, 9 & 15

Pianist: Artur Pizarro

Would you recommend? I'd love to have a complete set of the Hungarian Rhapsodies.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Mendelssohn Piano Music - Brigitte Meyer. I prefer the performance to that of Prosseda.

[foxandpeng]

Paul Hindemith
Complete String Quartets
SQ 2
Amar Quartet
Naxos

Feeling the need for more Hindemith SQs 🙂. I very much enjoyed getting to know these last year, but haven't often heard them since, due to other competing voices.

[Lisztianwagner]

Would you recommend? I'd love to have a complete set of the Hungarian Rhapsodies.

Sure, it's compelling and beautifully played; but if I had to recommend a set for Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, I would suggest Michele Campanella, that's superb:

[vers la flamme]

Sure, it's compelling and beautifully played; but if I had to recommend a set for Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, I would suggest Michele Campanella, that's superb:

Cool, thanks for the rec! There is quite a lot of Liszt out there that I'd love to get to know better.

[Lisztianwagner]

Cool, thanks for the rec! There is quite a lot of Liszt out there that I'd love to get to know better.

You're welcome. How amazing, great to hear that, Liszt was a genius and a composer absolutely worth exploring!

[ritter]

On a Cristóbal Halffter binge since returning home (after a week on business in Cannes, and five days in Tenerife attending a family wedding).



This recent purchase is really a find. I already knew Halfbéniz from another recording (the composer's son Pedro conducting the Spanish National Orchestra on a DG disc that had very limited distribution), but here the work is much more engaging. The work is a divertimento on Albéniz's El Albaicín from book 3 of Iberia. There are a couple of quotes from that work, but when Halfbéniz really gets going (about halfway through the 15-minute piece) is when Halffter starts working on the complex rhythmic cells of El Albaicín's opening measures, which he turns into a moto perpetuo where he displays all his orchestral abilities. A dazzling, brilliant work, which I'm not afraid to call a masterpiece. A real pity that, as @Brian has pointed out, no recording of it has been uploaded to YouTube.

The CD also contains two works new to me: a Double Concerto for Violin and Viola from 1986, an attractive two-movement piece, where the addition of a harpsichord to the string orchestra (plus percussion) produces some quite interesting effects), and the earlier (1972) Requiem por la libertad imaginada for orchestra, which sounds much closer to the arid, post-expressionistic run-of-the-mill 1970s avant-garde, and (on this first listen at least) hasn't left much of an impression.

Followed by:



I saw the Second Cello Concerto live in concert under the composer and with IIRC Boris Pergamenschikow (they had already recorded the work for Montaigne), but haven't listened to this recording with Rostropovich (who commissioned the concerto) for ages. The most interesting here is the very lyrical solo part, which contrasts beautifully with Halffter's on occasions tumultuous orchestral backdrop. The work is an homage to Federico García Lorca, and each of the three movements has a verse by the poet as title (plus there is what I think is a quite from one of Lorca's folksong arrangements in the last movement). A major piece in Halffter's catalogue, and beautifully played by Rostropovich. The CD also includes the Paráfrasis for large orchestra (an expansion of the earlier Fantasía sobre una sonoridad de Händel for string orchestra). Another brilliant and IMHO very successful work in its composer's trademark style of combining the old with the (then) very new.

[Florestan]

five days in Tenerife attending a family wedding

More truth and life and joy in that simple, anonymous, non-pretentious and non-philosophical event than in the whole Tetralogy plus Tristan plus Parsifal...

Buona sera, mio signore, buona sera, buona sera...!

[ritter]

More truth and life and joy in that simple, anonymous, non-pretentious and non-philosophical event than in the whole Tetralogy plus Tristan plus Parsifal...

Buona sera, mio signore, buona sera, buona sera...!

O ciel! Che noia! One thing does not need to exclude the other, caro amico...

Buona sera, mio signore, buona sera, buona sera...!

Pace e gioia sia con voi!

[Karl Henning]

Malipiero
Armenia (1917)
Ditirambo tragico (1917)

Thessaloniki State Symphony
Amaury du Clausel

These again, as well as:

Brahms
String Quartet № 1 in c minor, Op. 51 № 1
Takács Quartet

[Papy Oli]

Penultimate Segovia volume. What an enjoyable series that is.