What are you listening 2 now?

[Karl Henning]

It's Holmboe time


Opus 17 (1939)for piano, strings, and timpani
Opus 20 (1940) for flute, violin, strings and percussion
Opus 21 (1940-42)for clarinet and orchestra

How are you enjoying these?

[Karl Henning]

Wrong holy day. Jesus didn't fly off until the Ascension, 40 days away.

(* chortle *)

[Mapman]

Handel: Messiah, Part 3
Pinnock et al.

[JBS]

How are you enjoying these?

Enjoy might not be the verb I would use...but they satisfy me quite well.
And now time to take a stab at a German Baroque organist who wasn't Bach

CD 1
Free Organ Works
The challenge is the 9 CDs in a row of chorale settings which form the bulk of this set.

[Karl Henning]

Enjoy might not be the verb I would use...but they satisfy me quite well.

Excellent!

[Undersea]

Currently:




Ferrari: Interrupteur


Listening to this Composer for the first time - Nice piece, atmospheric/creepy, I like...

[Que]

For this morning, I was planning to listen to a Bach Passion.
From the ones I accumulated over the years - Matthäus: Harnoncourt I & II, Leonhardt/ Johannes: Harnoncourt I, Kuijken and Herreweghe II - picked:

[Papy Oli]

Wrong holy day. Jesus didn't fly off until the Ascension, 40 days away.

 

Don't get cross 

[Que]

And now time to take a stab at a German Baroque organist who wasn't Bach


CD 1
Free Organ Works
The challenge is the 9 CDs in a row of chorale settings which form the bulk of this set.

I have been on the fence on that set, because of the music. I enjoy listening to it, performances by Stella are very tasteful, but it doesn't leave much of a lasting impression. I guess we have to just take it for what it is. 

My top ranking comopsers for "German Baroque organ music not by Bach" are Dieterich Buxtehude and Johann Pachelbel. Haven't come to a verdict on Johann Ludwig Krebs yet. 

[foxandpeng]

It's Holmboe time


Opus 17 (1939)for piano, strings, and timpani
Opus 20 (1940) for flute, violin, strings and percussion
Opus 21 (1940-42)for clarinet and orchestra

Finding Holmboe satisfying is something that resonates with me.

For me, Holmboe is one of those 'hard won' composers. I'm not sure I have ever heard a piece of music by Holmboe that I have initially enjoyed, or been able to follow, or found memorable. Persevering with him, I find his music to be completely compelling. I love his symphonies and string quartets and many other of his concertos and chamber symphonies. Unless I had taken time to listen, re-listen and then re-listen again, the nuances, melodies and fascinating sound world would have been totally above my head and lost on me.

As it is, he is one of my favourite composers by a long distance.

Now playing:

Vagn Holmboe
Complete String Quartets
SQ 1
Kontra Quartet

[vandermolen]

Alwyn: Concerto for harp and string orchestra 'Lyra Angelica'

There are no enough words to express how ravishing this wonderful work is.

I wonder if Ilaria @Lisztianwagner knows this piece.

That's a fine Alwyn CD!

[vandermolen]

Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony (1920 version for piano) - one of my favourite Albion releases:

[Mandryka]

Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae - an outstanding performance. Just beautiful in every way, and it's making me realise that this is peak Josquin.

Ditto for the performance of Missa la sol fa ri me, if not the music. And now I'm wondering whether the earlier recordings from Tetsuro Hanai are the most successful ones. His releases were recorded over a period of more than 10 years I think.

[vandermolen]

Two fine Glazunov symphonies:

[Que]

Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae - an outstanding performance. Just beautiful in every way, and it's making me realise that this is peak Josquin.

Ditto for the performance of Missa la sol fa ri me, if not the music. And now I'm wondering whether the earlier recordings from Tetsuro Hanai are the most successful ones. His releases were recorded over a period of more than 10 years I think.

Amzing how you always manage to come with stuff I've never seen or heard before!
It's on Spotify, I'll definitely give it a shot.

Thread duty:

[Madiel]

Finding Holmboe satisfying is something that resonates with me.

For me, Holmboe is one of those 'hard won' composers. I'm not sure I have ever heard a piece of music by Holmboe that I have initially enjoyed, or been able to follow, or found memorable. Persevering with him, I find his music to be completely compelling. I love his symphonies and string quartets and many other of his concertos and chamber symphonies. Unless I had taken time to listen, re-listen and then re-listen again, the nuances, melodies and fascinating sound world would have been totally above my head and lost on me.

As it is, he is one of my favourite composers by a long distance.

Yes to all this. There are a few of the earlier works that are relatively accessible, but my Holmboe fandom is generally based on puzzling through pieces because I could tell there was something there of substance, and then it unlocks and I just kept being amazed.

[Madiel]

TD: Chopin, Etudes op.10

[Lisztianwagner]

Delighted to hear you enjoyed that work very much, Ilaria! It was love at first hearing when I found that lovely composition several years ago, a sublime work that never fails to move me. Alwyn has many gems in his output which is rather consistent overall.

Agreed, it is an incredibly enchanting work indeed, very graceful and lyrical, but also with expressive strenght and poetical inwardness; it immediately strikes with its voluptuous atmospheres. The fourth movement is so dazzling and intense since the crescendo at the beginning. I also love its dichotomy, which is shared with a lot of 20th Century English compositions, to sound of an ancient, yet at the same time familiar charm. I regret not to have listened to it before, but better later than never. I'm curious to listen to Alwyn's symphonies too, I've read he composed them using an alternative method to dodecaphony.

[vers la flamme]

Richard Wagner: Parsifal, WWV 111, Act III. Herbert von Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker, Chor des Deutschen Oper Berlin

It took me four days but I'm finishing Parsifal today. Again, I know this may be sacrilege but I'm listening as pure music rather than paying attention to the plot (in my defense I did try reading a summary but I couldn't make any sense of the plot whatsoever). Act III seems to be the best so far, music wise.

[pjme]

Composer : Uuno Klami
Recording : Piano Concerto No. 2 (Kangas - 1999)
Performers : Juha Kangas, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Izumi Tateno (piano)

I just recently discovered this cd and hope to find it. This "Nuit à Montmartre" is a little jazzy gem.

"Uuni Klami's piano concerto Une nuit a Montmartre occupies a special place in what is known as the 1920s Modernism in Finnish art music. Despite its jazz influences, it is scored for a traditional symphony orchestra. The three-movement structure derived from the Classical-Romantic concerto tradition is blurred through the use of attacca transitions. The first movement is a serious opening with aspirations towards nobility. The use of solo saxophones are obvious allusion to jazz - and a cause for scandal in the solemnly Sibelian musical landscape that was Finland in the 1920s. The decadent mood is contrasted by the straightforward anti-Romanticism of the last movement, Ronde. The ragtime-like piano rhythms and a dry martellato style recalling Prokofiev are set against a burst of orchestra pyrotechnics where Klami for the first time shows his chops as an orchestrator."