What are you listening 2 now?

[Mapman]

d'Indy: Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français
Ciccolini; Baudo: Orchestre de Paris

The music is attractive, but for some reason I don't like it very much.

[Brian]

Today's playlist...

Haydn: Symphony No 102. Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner
Brahms: Alto Rhapsody. Mildred Miller, Columbia SO, Bruno Walter
Brahms: Schicksalslied. Occidental College Choir, Columbia SO, Bruno Walter
Holst: The Planets. Boston SO, William Steinberg (in the car)
Mahler: Songs of a Wayfarer. Mildred Miller, Columbia SO, Bruno Walter
Bruckner: Symphony No 4. Columbia SO, Bruno Walter
Prokofiev (arr. Babayan): Eleven Pieces from Romeo and Juliet. Sergei Babayan & Martha Argerich

Yes, the scherzo of Borodin's 2nd is in 1/1. I didn't find it particularly confusing. (That movement is mostly quarter notes, especially in the woodwind parts. So for the most part it's just like playing 16th notes. It's not that different from the 3rd movement of Beethoven's 6th, which is a fast 3/4 counted in 1.) However, the syncopation in that movement is tricky, and was one of the most challenging parts of the symphony for our orchestra.

The choice of tempo for that scherzo was also a challenge: there is a range of otherwise reasonable tempos that are not practical. There is (at least for student horn players) a maximum speed that they can single-tongue, and a (faster) minimum speed that they can double-tongue. (We chose fast single-tonguing.)

Thanks for this. If you are a horn player I'd especially enjoy your reaction to the Batiz recording and a description of what, exactly, they are doing differently in the scherzo. 

[kyjo]

Lyatoshynsky: Symphony No. 2

Intensity and lushness galore: a gripping combination. My favorite Lyatoshynsky disc.

This work has an almost nightmarish intensity to it at times which I find utterly compelling. All 5 of his symphonies are fine works, but the 2nd is likely my favorite.

[Mapman]

Thanks for this. If you are a horn player I'd especially enjoy your reaction to the Batiz recording and a description of what, exactly, they are doing differently in the scherzo. 

I play clarinet, not horn.

But, I listened to several recordings of the scherzo of Borodin's 2nd. The Batiz recording is interesting. It is the fastest (although Tjeknavorian is close). The horns seem to accent the first note of each measure, and almost sound stopped. (I'm sure someone else could say more about that horn sound.) In comparison, Schwarz seems very slow.

(My orchestra took almost the exact same tempo as Kubelik/Vienna, but considerably less cleanly.)

[kyjo]

I first listened to Einar Englund and his piano concertos about a decade ago. They haven't come up a lot since, so it's time to revisit. The First reminds me of a shorter, lighter, more facetious version of Prokofiev 2.

I'm particularly fond of the atmospheric, imaginatively orchestrated, and often rather mysterious PC No. 2. No. 1 has a particularly catchy finale with a tongue-in-cheek coda.

[kyjo]

Ulvi Cemal Erkin: Symphony No. 2.

Fun piece! Did you notice the direct quotation (plaigarism?!) of the opening of Roussel's 3rd Symphony a few minutes into the first movement of the Erkin?  

[Roasted Swan]

(and @Karl Henning )
My first recording of the Second was also Tjeknavorian and I got it as a teenager so have a sentimental attachment to both recording and symphony. Schwarz is good, but Enrique Batiz finds a new trick to get even more excitement out of the scherzo: he has the French horns accent their repeated notes so they sound like a rhythmic accompaniment rather than simply playing buh-buh-buh forever.

Mapman, isn't the scherzo in 1/1 time? Is that confusing to play?

That 1/1 time signature is very unusual and really does not help players keep the piece neat and together.  There is also something counter-intuitive when the music uses relatively longer note values (crochet/quarter note) but the feel/sound of the music is fast.  In that same movement Borodin has this melodic motif where a minim/half note followed by a crochet plays after a crochet rest on the first beat of the bar.  It is SO EASY for the mimim to get a fraction late and ensemble to go ragged.  One of those instances where the same aural effect could have been achieved with far less "risk"!  Also for conductors endlessly beating "downbeat" 1,1,1,1 is hard to achieve any expressive input.....

The Tjeknavorian was the first version I knew well too - it remains a thrilling version - the National PO trombones ripping their way through things.  It was part of a 3 LP set of "complete Borodin Orchestral Music" including a couple of genuine rarities.  The symphonies and most of the other stuff has made it to CD but a couple of things from that set hasn't and it never made it com,plete to CD anyway.  Clearly someone at RCA didn't like Tjeknavorian (ask Jeffrey about his Khatchaturian Symphony 1 performance!)

[img=350x350]https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0657/8937/products/P1011401_96329f53-0e15-4518-a79c-ec243af63763_1024x1024.jpg?v=1677841388[/img]

[Que]

[Madiel]

1/1 makes no sense as a time signature. Anything with a 1 as the first number is blatantly refusing to provide the grouping that is the whole point of having a time signature.

[Papy Oli]

Good morning all,

John Adams - The Dharma at Big Sur

[Que]

Trying one on these by Tetsuro Hanai and his ensemble:



Thnx Mandryka, for pointing these out!

[Florestan]

[Mandryka]

Trying one on these by Tetsuro Hanai and his ensemble:



Thnx Mandryka, for pointing these out!

In fact I came here to say that I'm listening to Vol 2 - the mass La sol fa re mi. It strikes me that that music making is very expressive indeed. 

I don't know their Ad fugam - what I can say with some confidence is that the earlier recordings are very much in the style of singing which I appreciate most in Renaissance church music. Remember they were recorded over a very long period of time - more than 10 years. I don't know if the ensemble remained constant or how their ideas about the music changed in that time.

[Papy Oli]

Bernstein - Symphony No.3 "Kaddish"

[Papy Oli]

John Adams - Harmonium

[Lisztianwagner]

Granville Bantock
Celtic Symphony

Vernon Handley & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

[Florestan]

Rondo in D major KV 382 (Sandor Vegh / Camerata Academica Salzburg)

[Que]

Disc 2 of three discs with repertoire for four hands, played by Bart van Oort and Ursula Dütschler on a fortepiano after Walter (ca 1795).

[VonStupp]

Karol Szymanowski
Symphony 4 'Symphonie Concertante', op. 60

Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
City of Birmingham SO - Simon Rattle

For this morning:
VS


From this set:

[Florestan]