What are you listening 2 now?

[vers la flamme]

Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, op.21. Yvonne Minton, Daniel Barenboim, Michel Debost, Anthony Pay, Pinchas Zukerman, and Lynn Harrell. Directed by Pierre Boulez, I guess. (Not sure to what extent a Pierrot ensemble needs a conductor, but it's his name that's big on the cover). Anyway, this is my favorite recording by far. Most in the Sprechstimme role on other recordings are just too silly for me to take seriously in any way, spoiling the music for me. The instrumental soloists are all fantastic here, they paint a rich and vivid portrait, a dark, explosive expressionistic canvas. I like it so much that I'm tempted to check out the later Boulez recording with Christine Schäfer.

[Roasted Swan]

No, I'm very happy with Popp herself in the Tilson Thomas recording. As I said: top notch, maybe less lyrical & silvery, but beautiful none the less.
As you mentioned yourself though, Tennstedt is a much better partner in these songs than Tilson Thomas.

"Die Kluge" OMG yes... just listen to this, this is Popp at her very best IMHO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRaMmy03vds

I have to say though, that, now that I've grown old and wise, I do not believe in guilty pleasures anymore. A pleasure is a pleasure and just has to be enjoyed. So enjoy Emma Kirkby AND Lucia Popp, when they both are able move you and give you pleasure, without those feelings of 'guilt'. That's a serious advice from a severe old man to you, my young friend.

Great link to the Die Kluge recording.  I saw the opera staged in Stuttgart around 1980 and it was my first encounter with Non-Carmina Orff.  And I loved it - well worth staging and in non-German speaking countries too although you'd need a work-around for the "Bavarian" character.  It was only quite a bit later that I realised just how influenced by The Comedian Harmonists and other Weimar Republic groups Orff was.  Ironic given their cultural background and his political leanings!  But back to Popp - just PERFECTION in this music.

NO guilty pleasures for me in anything - as you so rightly say "A pleasure is a pleasure and just has to be enjoyed". 

[Sergeant Rock]

Ravel Ma Mère l'oye ballet, Boulez conducting the New York




Sarge

[San Antone]

Listening to Mozart operas and sacred music this morning.

 

[Traverso]

Mozart

Piano Concertos 25 & 20

[Mirror Image]

Britten
Les illuminations, Op. 18
Felicity Lott (soprano)
English Chamber Orchestra
Steuart Bedford

[Sergeant Rock]

Walton Symphony No. 1 B flat minor, Haitink conducting the Philharmonia




Sarge

[André]

This youtube clip of an antiwar song sung by Marlene Dietrich in Cologne, 1962. The short spoken intro shows her great fluency in French and English as well as her native German. What a great diseuse. Her command of every verbal expression, even when just speaking, is incredible.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AybZIw8BRIM

[Sergeant Rock]

Britten Passacaglia from "Peter Grimes" and Sinfonia da Requiem, Previn conducting the LSO




Sarge

[André]

[JBS]

Good question. Had a lot going for him with superb technique, young and a good looking feller. Perhaps it is the Sibelius that finds them out.

The information is not entirely up to date, but apparently he still gives concerts, and teaches at Maastricht.  Janine Jansen was one of his students.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Belkin

[Ratliff]

Bloch, with Jenny Lin



From the Concerto Sinfonique I conclude that Jenny Lin is a towering virtuoso. The piece is too bombastic for my taste. The concerto gross No 1 is a lovely piece and this is a superb performance.

[vandermolen]

I was listening to some Copland today - this old CBS/Sony disc;



mainly for Previn's St.Louis/Red Pony Suite - his first "classical" recording I seem to remember and its very good indeed.  Ormandy's "Fanfare" is quite dull and likewise Louis Lane's "Rodeo" quite routine.  I'd quite forgotten the disc was completed by "A Lincoln Portrait".  Not a work I listen to much and not one that has the resonance for non-Americans I suspect.  BUT, today I listened to it through and was struck all over again by the power of Lincoln's words and how they resonate for us today.  Here's part of "this is what he said";

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility." [Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862]

He was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived in Illinois. And this is what he said. This is what Abe Lincoln said.

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we will save our country." [Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862]

When standing erect he was six feet four inches tall, and this is what he said.

He said: "It is the eternal struggle between two principles, right and wrong, throughout the world. It is the same spirit that says 'you toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation, and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle." [Lincoln-Douglas debates, 15 October 1858]

Prescient/relevant today or what!?  Given that the UK has just elected its own arrogant self-serving political chancer I am NOT casting stones but goodness me I was struck by the text in a way I am not sure I have ever been before.........

I have many recordings of the 'Lincoln Portrait'. This is my favourite due to Adlai Stevenson's powerful and moving narration and Ormandy's fine accompaniment. I played the LP over and over again in my youth. I borrowed it from the High Street Kensington music library. That disc was also my introduction to Ives's magnificent 'Three Places in New England'. Happy days!

[steve ridgway]

Crumb: Otherworldly Resonances.

[asin] B0002W18OI[/asin]

[Roasted Swan]

I have many recordings of the 'Lincoln Portrait'. This is my favourite due to Adlai Stevenson's powerful and moving narration and Ormandy's fine accompaniment. I played the LP over and over again in my youth. I borrowed it from the High Street Kensington music library. That disc was also my introduction to Ives's magnificent 'Three Places in New England'. Happy days!

Yes indeed - the Ormandy/Lincoln Portrait is as powerful and impressive as the Fanfare wasn't!  And ditto the "Three Places" - I have the Ormandy version included on this disc....



these Sony "Essential Classics" are such a good (= cheap!) way of picking up these classic performances for the proverbial song.  Barenboim's early LPO/Elgar and the Szell/Ormandy/Strauss are a case in point..... actually ANY Szell!

[steve ridgway]

Penderecki : Dies Irae.

[asin] B000ZJVI6Q[/asin]

[SonicMan46]

Chabrier, Emmanuel (1841-1894) - Orchestral & Piano Music - currently own the first 3 discs below, and listening to the 1965 recordings on Vox by Rena Kyriakou (1917-1994) on Spotify.  The orchestral works are from the late 1950s, but are remastered 'Mercury Living Presence' recordings (also now available on SACD) - the sound is just fabulous (believe this replaced a Gardiner CD that I had in the past) - a keeper for me unless some strong recommendations emerge?

The solo/duet piano works are special w/ Chabrier's idiom - auditioned selections from both Hewitt & Stott this morning (mainly 'Pieces pittoresques') and still liked both w/ Stott being a bit more robust, however, these have received some 'mixed' reviews - see attached PDF, if interested.  BUT, this afternoon now listening (on headphones) to the 55 year old recordings of Kyriakou and believe that I like these the most; Vox has done an excellent remastering, i.e. I hear no hiss and the dynamics are fine - maybe a replacement for me?  Dave

     

[vandermolen]

Yes indeed - the Ormandy/Lincoln Portrait is as powerful and impressive as the Fanfare wasn't!  And ditto the "Three Places" - I have the Ormandy version included on this disc....



these Sony "Essential Classics" are such a good (= cheap!) way of picking up these classic performances for the proverbial song.  Barenboim's early LPO/Elgar and the Szell/Ormandy/Strauss are a case in point..... actually ANY Szell!

Indeed! Also Szell's Bruckner Symphony No.3 and his fine recording of Walton's Second Symphony and Hindemith Variations. Stokowski and Mitropolous VW symphonies as well.

[Sergeant Rock]

these Sony "Essential Classics" are such a good (= cheap!) way of picking up these classic performances for the proverbial song.  Barenboim's early LPO/Elgar and the Szell/Ormandy/Strauss are a case in point..... actually ANY Szell!

Sarge and the Boys

[Karl Henning]

L'enfance du Christ

This is my first time hearing it. Berlioz at his finest and most lyrical, sophistication aplenty. The whole work is enchanting, inspired, subdued, but these moments were more captivating to me: O mon cher fils, Ouverture from Part II, Les pélerins étant venus and the Trio for two flutes and harp. Parts I & II were wonderful, Part III a bit less so. Since now it's a favorite of mine.

Cool! That was the first recording I heard, as well.