What are you listening 2 now?

[Madiel]

Decided to whack this on. Not sure if I'll listen to the entirety, bed soonish.

[Tsaraslondon]

The Morton Gould works remind me of Copland, particularly the Copland of his ballet scores. Recorded in 1959 and 1960, the sound is remarkably good and the performances of the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra under Howard Hanson are excellent.

[Traverso]

Handel

The wind sonatas ,Recorder and Traverso

[pjme]

https://www.youtube.com/v/FXUMA-ynEpc

For a moment I read "...Jesu, corona: Virus, honor..."

[Biffo]

It certainly is a particularly 'yummy' album PD.
The recordings come from 1946-56 and, I think, pre-date some of the releases that you mean although I think that Bax's 'The Garden of Fand' and the John Ireland works are the same as on 'Great EMI Recordings'. Elgar's Enigma Variations from 1947 has never been released in any format before! This is its first appearance. I find this extraordinary as I have never heard a better or more moving performance. I only heard it as I let the CD run on after the VW works as I was writing school reports. However, very soon I was concentrating exclusively on the performance, which in many ways has restored my enthusiasm for the work. I know that it is great music but it was so familiar to me from my late teens that I had become rather bored with it, terrible as that is to say. I can't understand why this performance was never released before. The booklet note author said it is a mystery. It was Barbirolli's first recording of it although he re-recorded it later the same year in a version that has been previously issued. The two VW works from 1946 and 48 have never been released on CD before. It is indeed a fine collection and brilliantly re-mastered.

This posting prompted me to the Enigma Variations  - a fine performance and excellent sound for 1947. I usually listen to JB's 1963 recording with the Philharmonia but greatly enjoyed returning to this performance. I also have a 1956 recording with the Halle that I haven't listened to for quite some time - will have to refresh my memory.

[Traverso]

Debussy


Suite bergamasque


Suite for Piano "Pour le piano": no 2, Sarabande

La plus que lente
Valse romantique

[Karl Henning]

Great recording!

Aye!

[vandermolen]

The Morton Gould works remind me of Copland, particularly the Copland of his ballet scores. Recorded in 1959 and 1960, the sound is remarkably good and the performances of the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra under Howard Hanson are excellent.

I love that old series. Medea is a favourite of mine on that excellent CD.

[vandermolen]

For the first time in years I was gripped by the Enigma Variations in Barbirolli's 1947 recording - there is something very special about it.

[Karl Henning]

Shostakovich
Symphonies # 1, 5, 9 & 12
Prague Symphony
Maxim Shostakovich

[SonicMan46]

Brahms, Johannes - Solo Piano Works w/ Geoffroy Couteau - new arrival (replaced an older box set) - recorded in 2015 w/ works appearing on the 6 CDs in chronological order (booklet HERE).  Dave

   

[aligreto]

Vaughan-Williams: Symphony No. 9 [Boult]





Boult delivers a very fine presentation of this wonderful work. One feels that he is almost messaging the music his presentation is so well rounded.

[aligreto]

Monteux conducting the following:


Scriabin: Symphony No. 4: Le Poème de l'extase

Gounod: Faust - Ballet Music


from the box set

[Traverso]

Beethoven

Symphony No.4

[aligreto]

Handel: Dixit Dominus [Fasolis]





This is a buoyant and jubilant live version.

[staxomega]

I have Schuch's recording in fact. You know there are records of Horowitz doing at least  3 and 4, the 4 is unusual

https://www.youtube.com/v/33I3M943i08

Indeed an unusual performance, I can't remember if I ever heard it or not, there is too much inconsistencies after a certain point in his career for me. I have a hard time believing he'd have played it like that in his prime, it's as if he is trying to remember what music is coming ahead of him. I pulled out the Unreleased box that these are taken from and he recorded Op. 23 third and fourth three or four times, unfortunately all from the 1980s. I'll see if any of them are better.

[aligreto]

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade [Monteux]





The opening sequence is magical and that sense of magic continues to prevail throughout the performance but is also well augmented by wonderful sound painting, drama and tension. It has quite a lyrical quality about it as well as those other requisite qualities already mentioned.

[Kontrapunctus]

[André]

What a great painting !

Marianne von Werefkin, 1860-1938. Never heard of her before.

[Symphonic Addict]

https://www.youtube.com/v/5ChHR8tT8cQ&t=2113s

In spite of some agitated moments and apparent passion, this work sounds too cold and unexpressive. It's like music for one of those boring silent movies. A mere succession of notes without shape.




I found much entertainment on these symphonies. The most compeling ones, in my opinion, are 1 to 3. No. 4 sounds like a transition work towards a slightly more aggresive and dissonant idiom found in symphonies 5 and 6. Well worth revisiting.