What are you listening 2 now?

[Karl Henning]

Messiaen
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Vera Beths
George Pieterson
Anner Bijlsma
Reinbert de Leeuw

[North Star]

Messiaen
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Vera Beths
George Pieterson
Anner Bijlsma
Reinbert de Leeuw

A fitting choice for these days, clearly. I listened to the Shaham, Meyer, Wang, & Chung recording on Wednesday.

[Brian]

First listen to this recording.



Holy &*!@. Not my favorite version of the Third (in that I still prefer Bruckner's first draft with the ridiculously long development section in the first movement), but this is probably one of the top...three? best Bruckner performances I've ever heard. Bruckner performances tend to fall into two camps: sacrifice energy in order to achieve a meditative beauty and cumulative power through repetition (most famously Celi but also nearly every mainstream conductor since 1980), or sacrifice beauty of tone and fullness of expression in order to zip through with maximum haste and tie Bruckner more closely to the Schubertian classical tradition (Venzago, Norrington, etc.). Why not have both?!?! For example...this!!!

Grade: A++

from the best box set ever made

[Karl Henning]

Prokofiev
Pf Concerto   5 in G, Op. 55
Richter
LSO
Maazel

Berg
Chamber Concerto for piano, violin & 13 winds
Richter
Kagan
Instrumental Ensemble of the Moscow Conservatory
Nikolayevsky

[André]

First listen to this recording.



Holy &*!@. Not my favorite version of the Third (in that I still prefer Bruckner's first draft with the ridiculously long development section in the first movement), but this is probably one of the top...three? best Bruckner performances I've ever heard. Bruckner performances tend to fall into two camps: sacrifice energy in order to achieve a meditative beauty and cumulative power through repetition (most famously Celi but also nearly every mainstream conductor since 1980), or sacrifice beauty of tone and fullness of expression in order to zip through with maximum haste and tie Bruckner more closely to the Schubertian classical tradition (Venzago, Norrington, etc.). Why not have both?!?! For example...this!!!

Grade: A++

from the best box set ever made

Very good! I agree 100% - except the last statement (I don't have that box ).

[André]

It would be easy to ignore the 4 Polish Tunes as they share a disc with the huge symphony no 21 (53 minutes). That would be a mistake. They actually prepare the ground for the epic musical retrospective that is the composer's last completed symphony. Terrific stuff.

[Kaga2]

It would be easy to ignore the 4 Polish Tunes as they share a disc with the huge symphony no 21 (53 minutes). That would be a mistake. They actually prepare the ground for the epic musical retrospective that is the composer's last completed symphony. Terrific stuff.

Isn't 27 the last?

[j winter]

First listen to this recording.



Holy &*!@. Not my favorite version of the Third (in that I still prefer Bruckner's first draft with the ridiculously long development section in the first movement), but this is probably one of the top...three? best Bruckner performances I've ever heard. Bruckner performances tend to fall into two camps: sacrifice energy in order to achieve a meditative beauty and cumulative power through repetition (most famously Celi but also nearly every mainstream conductor since 1980), or sacrifice beauty of tone and fullness of expression in order to zip through with maximum haste and tie Bruckner more closely to the Schubertian classical tradition (Venzago, Norrington, etc.). Why not have both?!?! For example...this!!!

Grade: A++

from the best box set ever made

For whatever reason I see no image in your post, but based on your comment on the best box set ever made (and that it included a Bruckner 3), I immediately assumed Szell -- and lo, checking the URL when I quoted you...   May have to give that a spin this weekend...


TD:  Sorry, listening to the Stones this afternoon, 1963-65...

[Papy Oli]

Best of luck with your Shostakovitch odyssey. It will be interesting to see whose version(s) you pick to listen to.

On the shelves, I have :

1 - Kurtz Philarmonia
5 - Previn Chicago SO
5 - Haitink Concertgebouw
9 - Haitink London Philarmonic Orch.
10 - K.Sanderling BSO (Boston ?)

and the Full Barshai cycle.

[vandermolen]

Shostakovich: Symphony 11, The Year 1905
BBC Philharmonic
John Storgards

[André]

Isn't 27 the last?

No, that would be Myaskovsky.

Weinberg wrote the 21st symphony, then 4th Chamber Symphony the following year. He died before completing symph no 22.

[San Antone]

[vers la flamme]

Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No.14 in F-sharp major, op.142. Pacifica Quartet

Beautiful slow movement. Somewhat chorale-like. And then the finale is super interesting, it appears to use a 12-tone row and has a serial feel to some of its melodies; it's angular, but quite approachable. One of the better Shostakovich quartets. I'm not sure if there is a "mythos" around the late DSCH SQs like there is with Beethoven's, but I want to hear more of them now. I've had this box set for nearly a year and I still have not heard all of the quartets.

[SimonNZ]

[Daverz]

10 - K.Sanderling BSO (Boston ?)

Berlin Symphony Orchestra, on the East side of the Berlin Wall at the time.

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

TD:

[asin] B07WSKKSLD[/asin]

Tuneful and charming music.

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1



Sounds fantastic so far.

[André]

Holidays Symphony. I think this is my favourite orchestral work by Ives.

[Karl Henning]

Holidays Symphony. I think this is my favourite orchestral work by Ives.

It's mighty good!

[Karl Henning]

Weinberg
Pf Quintet (arr. for piano, strings & percussion by Andrei Pushkarev & Gidon Kremer
Kremerata Baltica

[San Antone]

[Madiel]

Recent releases: Some excellent french mélodies in perfect diction.  The first one is dedicated to the Boulanger sisters (mostly Nadia and some Lili) sung by the wonderful tenor Cyrille Dubois.  He has a vocal technique in which he attacks the notes without any vibrato and let it grow.  It is rarely done as it require a perfect pitch right on.  This technique suits the french repertoire best.  Add to this, the delightful music of the Boulanger sisters never performed.  This is a fantastic CD not to be missed



Marc Mauillon is best known in the medieval and renaissance repertoire.  Here he sings some of the best Fauré repertoire.  His diction is just amazing, not only because you hear all the words distinctively, but also because he understand the texts ans is able to express all their pathos.  Very good.   



Of the two, I would say the Cyrille Dubois/Boulanger sister is the best: better music and a fantastic voice.

I sampled the Faure disc, and immediately disliked the singer's voice.