What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

I'm finding the juxtaposition of these poses quite interesting

Hmmm....I really don't know what to say.

[André]

I've listened to this recording 3 times this week. This is intriguing and obviously very well crafted music. Barati (born Gyorgy Braunstein in 1913) studied with Kodály and Weiner in Budapest. His music has an enigmatic, elliptic feel to it. Musical cells rather than themes are developed succinctly, various avenues are explored but not necessarily in depth, giving the music an exploratory feel. Despite a powerful ending for all three works, there is little sense of destination.

The symphony is from 1963 and is in 3 movements. It lasts 25 minutes. The two Chants are from 1993 and 1995. They are quite imposing in format and musical utterance - mostly slow and austere but brilliantly orchestrated.

I was bothered by the overall brightness of the sound here. The symphony and the two Orchestral pieces are performed by different orchestras recorded in different venues by different sound engineers, so I think the effect is borne out of the composer's music, specifically the orchestration - piccolo, trumpets, high violins in the first movement of the symphony for example. Very tiring to the ear.

No doubt very interesting, but I had the feeling of being subjected to an intense session of musical tough love.

[Opus Magnum]

I've listened to this recording 3 times this week. This is intriguing and obviously very well crafted music. Barati (born Gyorgy Braunstein in 1913) studied with Kodály and Weiner in Budapest. His music has an enigmatic, elliptic feel to it. Musical cells rather than themes are developed succinctly, various avenues are explored but not necessarily in depth, giving the music an exploratory feel. Despite a powerful ending for all three works, there is little sense of destination.

The symphony is from 1963 and is in 3 movements. It lasts 25 minutes. The two Chants are from 1993 and 1995. They are quite imposing in format and musical utterance - mostly slow and austere but brilliantly orchestrated.

I was bothered by the overall brightness of the sound here. The symphony and the two Orchestral pieces are performed by different orchestras recorded in different venues by different sound engineers, so I think the effect is borne out of the composer's music, specifically the orchestration - piccolo, trumpets, high violins in the first movement of the symphony for example. Very tiring to the ear.

No doubt very interesting, but I had the feeling of being subjected to an intense session of musical tough love.

Taken from the thread 'Composers who wrote only one symphony'

A few that come to mind:

Barati (Alpine Symphony-much better than that by Strauss )

Kyle likes to see the world burn!!!!!

[SymphonicAddict]

I've listened to this recording 3 times this week. This is intriguing and obviously very well crafted music. Barati (born Gyorgy Braunstein in 1913) studied with Kodály and Weiner in Budapest. His music has an enigmatic, elliptic feel to it. Musical cells rather than themes are developed succinctly, various avenues are explored but not necessarily in depth, giving the music an exploratory feel. Despite a powerful ending for all three works, there is little sense of destination.

The symphony is from 1963 and is in 3 movements. It lasts 25 minutes. The two Chants are from 1993 and 1995. They are quite imposing in format and musical utterance - mostly slow and austere but brilliantly orchestrated.

I was bothered by the overall brightness of the sound here. The symphony and the two Orchestral pieces are performed by different orchestras recorded in different venues by different sound engineers, so I think the effect is borne out of the composer's music, specifically the orchestration - piccolo, trumpets, high violins in the first movement of the symphony for example. Very tiring to the ear.

No doubt very interesting, but I had the feeling of being subjected to an intense session of musical tough love.

Taken from the thread 'Composers who wrote only one symphony'

A few that come to mind:

Barati (Alpine Symphony-much better than that by Strauss )

Kyle likes to see the world burn!!!!!

[André]

Taken from the thread 'Composers who wrote only one symphony'

Kyle likes to see the world burn!!!!!

I know. I had researched the site before and read his comment  . There is also a GMG Barati thread, but aside from the initial posts by Scion7 it has not been visited  .

[SimonNZ]

[JBS]

Sibelius: Four Legends from the "Kalevala" [Groves]





These performances are filled with atmosphere, drama and tension. The Orchestra is full sounding and tightly conducted in a very fine, absorbing and compelling presentation.

Love the cover art on that.
TD
Rachmaninoff PCs 1 and 3
Trifonov's newest release. Supplemented by transcriptions for solo piano by the Trifonov of the first movement of The Bells and Vocalise.

[André]

And nw, for something completely different...



Proceeding through this set, now listening to disc 4. All 10 discs are devoted to viennese/hungarian operetta, with many composer names I had never encountered before. Recordings are from 1950-1955, a few years before Rothenberger became a household name in germanic countries. She was really big in the sixties. For memory, she is Klemperer's Pamina in the 1964 EMI set, A fantastic Lulu in Leopold Ludwig's 1968 set on Electrola/Warner, and sings my favourite Strauss Four Last Songs with Previn, again on EMI in 1975. So what we have here is a young, firm voice, brilliant yet warm of tone, with none of the 'learned' manner of a Schwarzkopf or the diamond brightness of a Wilma Lipp - closer to Gueden, I would say. A smile in the voice is always on display, her voice like silk. The excerpts are very well chosen, all taken from complete sets, so we get plenty of contributions from assorted tenors and baritones for contrast. The sound is uniformly excellent.

[André]

And ? 

I have this set:



Very interesting.

[SimonNZ]

And ? 

I'm sure everyone involved did their best, but the opening work for guitar and harpsichord is bizarre and an ill-fitting mix, the works for solo guitar are okay but unexceptional. Just a first listen, mind.

[Mirror Image]

Spinning this one again, but not the Dvořák, which I find to be a rather uninspired concerto:

Martinů
Piano Concerto No. 4, 'Incantation', H 358
Ivo Kahánek, piano
Jakub Hrůša, conductor
Bamberger Symphoniker



I've always loved this particular Martinů concerto. Kahánek does an outstanding job in the solo part and Hrůša and the Bambergers give the music the jolt it needs. Exciting music-making.

[Madiel]

Bridge, String Sextet



First listen. To be honest I'm slightly surprised by just how lushly romantic it is. I suppose, though, that it's just early enough in Bridge's career to still be when he was a relatively traditional composer compared to what he did later.

And it's chamber music so it plays to Bridge's strengths. But a sextet definitely pushes him towards big ripe melodies.

[Madiel]

By the way, I don't often mark birthdays on here, but I think it's particularly worth remarking that today is Jens' 106th.

So says the system. And the system never lies unless, ahem, it's been misled.

[Madiel]

Shostakovich, Piano Concerto no.1



It has the early Shostakovich sense of being slightly anarchic.

[JBS]

This landed today
[asin]B075FLXZ3Z[/asin]
The premise is that while he was writing his last works, Beethoven used a Broadwood to which some sort of apparatus was attached that allowed the composer to hear, in some degree, himself play the instrument. Beghin and his associates tried to recreate the apparatus (on which information is a bit sketchy), put it on a modern replica of the Broadwood, and record the result. I am not sure whether the result is meant to be what Beethoven might have heard, or what a listener in the room would hear. The CD comes in a little book with photos and essays, and directions to a website with videos of the sonatas being played, a full length documentary, and other goodies.   The booklet provides a password (individualized for each CD, I think) that allows access to all this. (The website is Insidethehearingmachine.com) Have not read the booklet or visited the website, so I don't know yet what Beghin's intentions were.

Without that background info, the recordings seem middle of the road, non virtuosic readings recorded reasonably close, but not too close on a modern fortepiano clone, although the upper registers may be a little more "tinkly" than usual.

[SymphonicAddict]

String quintet No. 2 in C major

Taneyev is sometimes called 'the Russian Brahms', and that appellative is rather audible in this well-argued work. I'm not meaning that Taneyev sounds derivative, it's just that both the impeccable craftsmanship and solid construction is quite akin to that of the man from Hamburg. Another special feature is that it begins in C major and ends in C minor, which gives certain additional drama to the last moments of the work.

[San Antone]

String quintet No. 2 in C major

Taneyev is sometimes called 'the Russian Brahms', and that appellative is rather audible in this well-argued work. I'm not meaning that Taneyev sounds derivative, it's just that both the impeccable craftsmanship and solid construction is quite akin to that of the man from Hamburg. Another special feature is that it begins in C major and ends in C minor, which gives certain additional drama to the last moments of the work.

Fantastic works, and nice to have them all in one place, done superbly by this ensemble. 

[SymphonicAddict]

Fantastic works, and nice to have them all in one place, done superbly by this ensemble. 

Yes, superb performances, this set is my reference for the quintets. And I love Taneyev's chamber output overall.

[Daverz]

Now I'm listening to Foerster's Cyrano de Bergerac Suite as recommended by Irons. I like what I'm hearing. Pure Czech late-Romanticism, solidly inspired music. Perhaps it doesn't have striking melodies but its development is attractive, so is the orchestral colour and that's fine for me.

Edit: Stupendous work, exceeded my expectations. Thanks Irons for alerting me of it.

Hmmm, just earlier I was listening to Reizenstein's Overture 'Cyrano de Bergerac'.

[asin] B07T2GN9N9[/asin]

Nice disc.

[Madiel]

Possibly first listen to Shostakovich, Jazz Suite No.1



Fun! The Foxtrot is particularly fabulous.

And then trying this version of the Cello Sonata, op.40. Lovely so far. This is before Shostakovich's condemnation, but at times it sounds more like later works.