What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

The 4th:

[Traverso]

Prokofiev

Happy birthday !

[Todd]

Disc 2.  Has the Kuss already displaced the recently enthroned Ebene as cycle of the century?  No, but it's very good, if rather different from what the French musicians do.

[Mirror Image]

The First is very premature, a better & still very 'early' place to start would perhaps be with No. 3 - if you allow me to interfere again with your businesses. 

I recall really enjoying Holmboe's 3rd as it had a lot of that folk influence.

[Christo]

I wonder what it was with the first chords of Tubin's 4th Symphony that caused you to jump of the chair?

The similarity - 'connectedness' - to Moeran and Vaughan Williams, though stemming from the use of completely different sources.

The 4th:

[Mirror Image]

This recording:

[Florestan]

D 894.

Two poets have quickly come to my mind when listening to this supremely autumnal (take that, Johannes!) sonata.

Nerval (le Soleil noir de la Mélancolie) and Trakl (passim).

Time and again, after a few mostly insipid and uninspiring listening sessions, Schubert charms my ear and moves, nay, stirs my soul like no others, Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff excepted.

[kyjo]

I'm not so impressed with Stanford's recommendation. Stanford, in my opinion, composed some of the most boring music ever heard. I can imagine Stanford's criticism of Vaughan Williams, "how can anyone nod off with all that racket?"

Before you write Stanford off completely, I'd suggest the wonderfully poignant slow movement of his 6th Symphony if you haven't heard it already: https://youtu.be/ajLREiDvEPQ

Also the Irish Rhapsody no. 4, which is one of his most colorful and imaginative works: https://youtu.be/VOrkiLpqKWI

An uneven composer, sure, but when he's at the top of his game I find his music to be very satisfying.

[kyjo]

Yes I do. For me as a listener surprise is the highest compliment. Beside the piano pieces all performed by himself the three Alan Bush works I have sampled, Violin Concerto, Concert Studies and Dialectic could not be more different but each I find endlessly interesting. Which other English composer would use Bulgarian folk music as inspiration?
The Dialectic for SQ starts at a level and steadily rises similar, I think, in the manner of Beethoven's Grosse Fuge.

Very interesting; thanks. I was able to find the Dialectic on YT but not the Violin Concerto. There's a glowing review of that album (in its CD incarnation) on Musicweb: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Sept02/Bush_Violin_concerto.htm

[Harry]

Before you write Stanford off completely, I'd suggest the wonderfully poignant slow movement of his 6th Symphony if you haven't heard it already: https://youtu.be/ajLREiDvEPQ

An uneven composer, sure, but when he's at the top of his game I find his music to be very satisfying.

Your quite right, Stanford is a fine composer, but some are not able to appreciate beauty even if it is right in front of them.

[kyjo]

Earlier : Bliss Meditations on a theme by John Blow, Music for strings, Prayer to the infant Jesus.

Most probably another future purchase.



Now : Tubin - 6th symphony



no idea on the background of this work, it sounds like I am in a 70's suspense movie soundtrack...in a very good way... 

edit: that second mvt is just plain bonkers, would love to hear that live !!

Excellent choices!

[Crudblud]

Géza Anda's 1966 studio recording of the Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6 by Robert Schumann.

[Florestan]

Géza Anda's 1966 studio recording of the Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6 by Robert Schumann.

You mean this?

[vandermolen]

Really? I always feel other people think Sibelius is a God above all other Nordic composers. 

Exploring a composer is not an easy task. You need to study the composers at least briefly to understand what he/she is about (I was a bit shocked to learn Atterberg seems to have been a right-winger nazi a little bit  ), have an understanding of his/her works (what kind of works, how many, etc,) and then make a plan of exploring (Symphonies? Chamber works? Solo instrument? What?) having some sort of picture of what are the strong and weak parts. It's a lot of work and time invested and if it turns out the composer just isn't for you it's all wasted except the knowledge it's not your cup of tea. If you like the composer then you need to walk to your wallet! That's why I hesitate so often.

Interesting posts here today. I think that people may be making up for the temporary disappearance of the forum. Your Atterberg/Nazi comment is interesting. I have always thought highly of some of his music, especially symphonies 2,3,5,6 and 8. However, the fact that Symphony No.8, as far as I recall, was premiered in somewhere like Frankfurt in c.1943 is a bit of a problem for me (especially as I am of Jewish background). Should that matter in appreciating his music? Probably not and yet I'm always aware of it. I'm not sure that Atterberg was a 'Nazi' and I gather that a tribunal after the war could neither incriminate or excuse him. Certainly he was no Karl Amadeus Hartmann (Do I over-value his music because he was an opponent of the regime?) Atterberg was at least anti-Semitic. But, as George Orwell said 'before the Nazis who wasn't anti-Semitic?' Stanford certainly was, telling his student Arthur Benjamin at the Royal College of Music (who greatly looked up to his teacher) 'of course you Jews can't write tunes'. Of course this is a kind of snobbish right-wing anti-semitism which was, and probably still is, ubiquitous and not to be compared with the Nazis - but I don't think it should be ignored either.

TD

Tippett: Symphony 1 and 2
Tippett has kind of 'gone off the radar' since his death, but today I felt that I wanted to listen to his music again. It greatly amuses me that Tippett discovered a friend/colleague of mine asleep in a wheelbarrow when he was supposed to be gardening at Tippett's mother's house (in fairness to my friend Mrs Tippett had told him to go for a break). Pristine Audio has recently released the premiere performance of Tippett's Second Symphony. The Symphony, notoriously, broke down after the first few minutes and the conductor (Boult) had to apologise to the audience ('entirely  my mistake ladies and gentlemen'). This sounds of exceptional interest like the CD I have of Svetlanov conducted Shostakovich's 10th Symphony at the Proms with a soviet orchestra on the day that the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968. The symphony, at the start  is interrupted by jeers and shouting from the prom audience ('Go Home' etc) but the way that the symphony emerges from the disruption is quite extraordinary. Some say that it was the circumstances of the performance which was exceptional rather than the performance itself, but I don't agree and think that the performance is exceptional as well.

[vers la flamme]

Pierre Boulez: Rituel in memoriam Maderna. Pierre Boulez, BBC Symphony Orchestra

An interesting piece, one that I really ought to spend more time with.

[André]

A mixed bag, at least sonically. The boiling cauldron, sulfurous Macbeth performance is nearly ruined by poor sound. The RVW Dives and Lazarus otoh is excellent in all respects. A lovely performance. The 1961 LSO Shostakovich 5th, from London's RFH is in good but average sound. The performance is very intense. I like Stoki's snappy way with the scherzo (no lumbering Bydlo oxcart imitation, this). I can't say I find the tempo of the finale to my taste (too fast), but the performance certainly builds up to a terrific climax.

[Iota]

Enjoyed every minute of this one yesterday ... particularly Variations [on a Swedish Air] ..

I enjoyed that too! Then I enjoyed it again. An open-hearted and very likeable piece!

Boy he died young! : (

[Florestan]

as George Orwell said 'before the Nazis who wasn't anti-Semitic?' Stanford certainly was, telling his student Arthur Benjamin at the Royal College of Music (who greatly looked up to his teacher) 'of course you Jews can't write tunes'.

Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Offenbach, Mahler, Moszkowski --- all give a big lie to Stanford's claim.

I am reminded of a splendid bon mot of Moritz Moszkowski. When he heard von Buelow's remark "Bach, Beethoven and Brahms --- tous les autres sont des cretins", he retorted "Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer and Moszkowski -- tous les autres sont des Chretiens".

[André]

Complete performances of Appalachian Spring and Billy the Kid, plus the Suite from Rodeo. The performances (from 1999) are superb. The disc layout has a single track for Billy the Kid and Appalachian Spring. The 4 familiar numbers (out of 5) from Rodeo are separately indexed. The SFSO under MTT is a most refined band. They certainly are a match for any of the major american orchestras.

[vandermolen]

A mixed bag, at least sonically. The boiling cauldron, sulfurous Macbeth performance is nearly ruined by poor sound. The RVW Dives and Lazarus otoh is excellent in all respects. A lovely performance. The 1961 LSO Shostakovich 5th, from London's RFH is in good but average sound. The performance is very intense. I like Stoki's snappy way with the scherzo (no lumbering Bydlo oxcart imitation, this). I can't say I find the tempo of the finale to my taste (too fast), but the performance certainly builds up to a terrific climax.

I like those Guild CDs and that is a very nice one. I like the VW performance as well. Stokowski was a fellow student with VW at the RCM and they remained friend. Stokowski conducted some exceptional VW performances including the premiere recording of Symphony No.6 and a magnificent No.9 on the Cala label.