What are you listening 2 now?

[Florestan]

First listen



Colorful orchestration and some interesting ideas, but without one single memorable or even hummable tune this is ultimately music one forgets the moment after the last chord fades. Furthermore, the Piano Concerto is even lethargic all throughout. I liked Neptune best, a tone poem about the tragedy of the Titanic.

Meh.

[Mirror Image]

First listen



Colorful orchestration and some interesting ideas, but without one single memorable or even hummable tune this is ultimately music one forgets the moment after the last chord fades. Furthermore, the Piano Concerto is even lethargic all throughout. I liked Neptune best, a tone poem about the tragedy of the Titanic.

Meh.

That would sum up my reaction to all of Scott's music. Completely unimaginative music in every way possible.

[Irons]

That would sum up my reaction to all of Scott's music. Completely unimaginative music in every way possible.

Debussy rated Scott highly - England's greatest composer (Debussy's opinion not mine I hasten to add. )

[San Antone]

On random play.

[aukhawk]

I doubt any serious classical music fan buys individual movements.

[raises hand] I certainly do - if it makes financial sense which very often it doesn't, the retailers make sure of that.  When it doesn't, of course I'll buy a whole CD (used) and only listen to the bit(s) that interest me.
But I'd be hard-pressed to think of any multi-movement musical work where all the movements have equal appeal for me - and that being the case, and my time being precious, I will usually edit what I listen to - either listening to the one or two most worthwhile movements only, or just skipping the least worthwhile one.  It's very liberating.

On another tack - if I never see another CD cover featuring angel wings it will be too soon ... 

[Mirror Image]

Debussy rated Scott highly - England's greatest composer (Debussy's opinion not mine I hasten to add. )

Not surprised since Scott was influenced by Impressionism, but it's not like England had many great composers at this particular period of time anyway. Vaughan Williams hadn't exactly won over audiences yet and he still had more maturing to do. Elgar definitely wouldn't have appealed to Debussy's tastes. The same could be said of Holst. Debussy did admire Delius, though, and I don't believe he had heard any of Bax's music or John Ireland. But we must remember that Debussy died in 1918 and there has to be much doubt of what he heard of English music, especially since the composer himself loathed traveling. Much of what he had heard came through Paris like Stravinsky and his Le sacre du printemps, which no doubt made a huge impression on all that heard it at that ballet's premiere.

[Symphonic Addict]

First listen



Colorful orchestration and some interesting ideas, but without one single memorable or even hummable tune this is ultimately music one forgets the moment after the last chord fades. Furthermore, the Piano Concerto is even lethargic all throughout. I liked Neptune best, a tone poem about the tragedy of the Titanic.

Meh.

Very true. This composer's music lacks much memorability. I've never cared for his works.

[Traverso]

Troubadours

This is my first LP with Studio der Frühen Musik

[Florestan]

That would sum up my reaction to all of Scott's music. Completely unimaginative music in every way possible.

Very true. This composer's music lacks much memorability. I've never cared for his works.

I have all 4 volumes of his orchestral music but after hearing the first I'm not much inclined to follow through the series. Maybe his piano music is more interesting?

[SonicMan46]

Beethoven, LV - Wind Chamber Music w/ Dieter Klöcker (1936-2011) and the Consortium Classicum - Dave

 

[staxomega]

Art of Fugue and Schubert's String Quartet 13 (Quartetto Italiano)

[Christo]

I'm not much inclined to follow through the series. Maybe?

Please do, if you ever have an opportunity (mine are an accidental outcome of my job, worked often day & night in St. Peterburg, avoiding the traffic in order to walk 1,5 hours to my Deparment, at one time located in Smolniy Sobor, a real punishment ;-). With a steady eye on so many cities I saw and learnt to love - among them Rome, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Tblisi, Cracow, Lisbon, Lviv, Venice, Erbil, London, Durban, Florence, Budapest, Stockholm, Iași, Dublin, Munich, Tallinn, Barcelona, Brno, Erfurt, Almaty, New York, Caïro, Amsterdam, Trabzon, Antakya and dozens of smaller ones, I can honestly say that the brand-new (1703) Saint Petersburg made the most lasting impression, especially in the midst of Winter, the Neva frozen and snow abounding.        

Smolny sobor ('Convent'), Governor & Sociology Department including:

[Maestro267]

Part 2 of my 2019 Review listening, and it's Soviet night tonight.

Popov: Symphony No. 1
London SO/Botstein

Schnittke: Cello Concerto No. 2
Ivashkin (cello)/Russian State SO/Polyansky

Prokofiev: Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC SO/Elder

[André]

Mozart symphonies 31, 33 and 34, Mendelssohn symphonies 1, 2 and 5.

Highlights are Mozart 34 and Mendelssohn 5, as good as any I've heard. Mozart 31 and 33 are audibly from Wolfie's bag of tricks and not on the same level as he would attain from no 34 onward (or going backward, nos 25 and 29).

As for Mendelssohn's first symphony it, too, is audibly from his bag of tricks but with weak tunes and much dutiful note-spinning. The second, Hymn of Praise is an interesting, tuneful and very confident work that just misses musical excellence for want of tidiness. Mendelssohn couldn't decide between a symphony or a cantata, so he offered us both. In good hands it almost works.

[San Antone]

[ritter]

Boulez - Pli Selon Pli. Wow! It was having an effect on me last night so this morning I laid on my back in bed and listened to it again through earbuds. It was such an absorbing and utterly alien experience, like suddenly being transported to another planet, a dream or other dimension, trying in vain to comprehend a hypnotically singing spirit glimpsed in the midst of a cloud of ever changing mist, sounds and coloured lights. It was a very 3D vision, the sounds seeming to rotate around the voice, and by the end I was starting to identify with that figure, feeling I was myself at the centre of this whirlwind. I needed that final blast to snap me out of it and back to the material world.

[asin] B00002538Z[/asin]

Wonderful post, 2dogs. It's great to see Pli selon pli's rarified, intense beauty having such a strong effect on a listener. One of my favourite compositions by anyone ever! I'll have to revisit it soon...

[San Antone]

[Madiel]

Pounds the table! My favorite recording of Schumann's violin sonatas.

Yeah it's excellent. I'm pretty sure it was people on this forum that put me onto this recording.

[kyjo]

We really need new recordings of the Bloch quartets.

+1 Couldn't agree more.

[SimonNZ]