What are you listening 2 now?

Started by Gurn Blanston, September 23, 2019, 05:45:22 AM

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Florestan

Quote from: aligreto on October 09, 2019, 07:54:47 AM
Oh, I think that I just might investigate that set.

It's a treasure trove. Bach's complete S&Ps, concertos by Brahms, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Beethoven's romances, Schubert's complete works for violin and piano, sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven and various pieces by French composers.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

aligreto

Gliere: Concerto for Harp and Orchestra [Ellis/Bonynge]





This is a fine work particularly lyrical and beguiling slow movement.

aligreto

Quote from: Florestan on October 09, 2019, 08:07:25 AM
It's a treasure trove. Bach's complete S&Ps, concertos by Brahms, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Beethoven's romances, Schubert's complete works for violin and piano, sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven and various pieces by French composers.

Cheers. I have a very limited amount of Martzy's performances but I have enjoyed anything that I have heard. I went out some time ago to buy some of her performances on vinyl but rapidly gave up due to price constraints. I did not see this box set at that time.

Florestan

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

SymphonicAddict

Quote from: Papy Oli on October 08, 2019, 07:39:20 AM
What do you mean ??  0:) :laugh:

Stanford 3 was quite pleasant but it disappeared a bit in the background in the latter parts.

In the wish list it stays for now though... which is more than I can say for Searle 2, Arnell 4-5 (I need to revisit 3), Bush 2, Bate 3 after sampling those in the last couple of days  >:D

You appear not enjoying works that could be seen or perceived as easily or instantly appealing. That's been my impression when I see many of your posts. Maybe I'm wrong. But anyway, I do understand that tastes are so different as people exist.  :)

SymphonicAddict

Quote from: Florestan on October 09, 2019, 12:10:39 AM
First listens



Two of the most beautiful cello and violin sonatas I've ever heard, with slow movements to die for.



Splendid as well. Among the finest piano music I've ever heard.

I endorse these comments. Vibrant, poetic and mystic works. The 4 Ages Sonata is one of my favorites ever.

SymphonicAddict

Quote from: Papy Oli on October 09, 2019, 05:39:58 AM
Malcolm Arnold - symphonies 5 & 6 (Penny)

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One of my favorite Arnold discs.

SymphonicAddict

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 08, 2019, 07:12:31 PM
Erik Chisholm
Pf Concerti 1 & 2
Danny Driver


Great stuff.

Indeed. They should be better known. I'm especially fond of the Piobaireachd Concerto with its Scotch flavour.

j winter

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.

-- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

SymphonicAddict



Belfagor is not as good as I read on certain reviews. A bit disappointing. Based on the French Revolution, Marie Victoire is much better, of heroic tinges and passionate lines. Even so, Semirama has impressed me the most.

Florestan

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Iota

Quote from: SymphonicAddict on October 06, 2019, 07:41:52 PM


SQs 3-5

Incredibly I can say with conviction that this music impressed me in a very positive way. They have something of Schoenberg, but somehow I felt these quartets were even more satisfying. The 5th one reminded me of the SQ by Lutoslawski. The appeal of the music lies on the intrincacy, it's like if every note or passage was different and that makes the brain try harder to grasp the musical content, and I felt my head a bit 'dense'. As a side effect, after hearing these works, a sense of anxiety invaded my body. And I'm certainly impressed how my tolerance has grown over the years.

Very interesting to hear your and others' comments on these. I feel I have a long way to go with Carter's SQ's, I already like many passages in the later quartets, but it's as if I'm still peering in through the window in terms of my connection with them, whereas with the 1st quartet, I more or less strolled right in and pulled myself up a chair in front of the fire the first time I heard it.
It sounds like you've been on something of an odyssey yourself with them.  :)

Quote from: Wanderer on October 07, 2019, 11:29:07 PM
This is a very apt description of his general style. I was at one of his recitals in Paris a couple of years ago and all those qualities you mention shone through. He played Liszt's B minor Sonata with such inner passion and multi-layered turmoil, illuminating the main theme at each instance no matter how stormy the surroundings and giving rapt attention to slow sections, worthy of Schumann at his most visionary.

Thanks for this, I'll certainly seek him out in other repertoire after that description. The Scarlatti set continues delight/amaze me the more I listen.

TD:



Faure 5 Melodies de Venise
Thierry Felix (baritone), Erika Guiomar (piano)


The kind of subtly gorgeous, ambiguous Faure I love. Performed beautifully.

André



Gluck introduced a revolutionary structure in opera, dispensing with much of the baggage of previous generations' fondness for secco recitative, da capo arias, mindless coloratura, and ballet numbers.  Narrative fluidity and emotional truthfulness became the new norm with operas such as Alceste, Armide, or the two Iphigénies (1770s).

Catel's Sémiramis dates from 1802, and is based on of Voltaire's most convoluted plays (1748), replete with theatrical pomp. Catoire's refusal to get mired in the trappings of operatic convention means that the action moves swiftly, with lots of accompanied recitatives, duets and ensembles and an enormously inventive orchestration.

The performance is one of the best from that source. All the voices sound pure, freely produced and well-versed in the declamatory style of the genre. They certainly attain the dramatic veracity aimed at by Gluck and his followers. Particularly fine is the Arsace of Mathias Vidal and the elegant villain of Nicolas Courjal's Assur.

While Sémiramis is a throwback to an earlier era when compared to Cherubini's Médée premiered in Paris 5 years earlier, it is still quite an achievement in its novel use of harmony and instrumentation. I thoroughly enjoyed its short duration (105 minutes, less than half that of Charpentier's and Lully's tragédies lyriques). Recommended.

aligreto

Mozart: Symphony No. 40 [E. Kleiber]





This is a hard nosed, unsentimental and assertive presentation of this wonderful work. It is a full red blooded account that is quite invigorating.

Daverz

Franck: Symphony in D minor

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Older CD issues, including the SACD, had an electronic hum noise.  This issue -- which I assume is the same as the one in the big Monteux box -- seems to have fixed that.  Glorious performance.

SymphonicAddict



An overlooked Czech cycle (5 quartets) that has some really fine music. The 1st SQ is instantly recognizable as Dvorakian and it's a beauty. The next 2 ones are more personal and intimate, whose emotional load is rather noticeable. And the last 2 ones are even more pensive, introverted, reflecting his last phase as a composer. All in all, very interesting pieces.




Romantic Symphony

A late-Romantic affair with many passionate passages, whose material is not properly memorable. The very beginning is just outlandish (with organ included). This work is one of those that contain bad bombastic. Mildly entertaining but nothing special.

André



Szell in New York. The first work on disc 1 is the 4 movement Symphonie espagnole by Lalo (no Intermezzo). Alfredo Campoli is the superb soloist. Szell drives hard in the tutti and the NYP responds with gusto. A memorable performance.

The Brahms piano concerto no 2 also gets a memorable performance, but of the wrong kind. Sir Clifford Curzon plays so badly, it's an embarrassment. At first I thought the piano was out of tune but no, it's the soloist who hits the wrong keys. Was he drunk, or ill ? It baffles me that this was issued in a commemorative set.

Edit: I just read a critic in Musicweb where the writer notes Curzon is « in nerve-wracking form » in the Brahms concerto but that he improves and manages the finale well. At mid-point in the first movement I had almost stopped the recording.

SymphonicAddict

Quote from: Iota on October 09, 2019, 11:22:21 AM
Very interesting to hear your and others' comments on these. I feel I have a long way to go with Carter's SQ's, I already like many passages in the later quartets, but it's as if I'm still peering in through the window in terms of my connection with them, whereas with the 1st quartet, I more or less strolled right in and pulled myself up a chair in front of the fire the first time I heard it.
It sounds like you've been on something of an odyssey yourself with them.  :)

These quartets definitely require more listens to assimilate better their ideas, so take your time. And yes, they have been quite something for me lately! They are highly stimulating for my brain.

Ken B

Schubert
Early piano sonatas
Paul Badura-Skoda

San Antone

All this talk about the Carter String Quartets got me wanting to listen to them.  But I will put on the Pacifica Quartet's Naxos series instead of Julliard (not that there's anything wrong with their recording  ;) ).

No. 2



Love these works.