What are you listening 2 now?

[Todd]

I enjoyed Jordi Maso's Severac so much that I decided to buy Aldo Ciccolini's.  Ciccolini's playing is moderately preferable in both works on the disc, though Maso's is in better sound.  In Cerdana, Albert Attenelle's recording strikes me as better in every regard, but he only recorded one disc's worth of music.

[vandermolen]

(* pounds the table *)

TD:
Silvestri conducting RVW's Tallis Fantasia

One of the greatest performances of the Tallis Fantasia in my opinion, aided (IMO) by the cathedral acoustic.

TD
Rautavaara Symphony No. 8 'The Journey'

My favourite work by Rautavaara:

[vandermolen]

Jeffrey listening to Brahms/Schoenberg! 
What next? 71dB enjoying Sibelius? 

It was a present from my brother who is a great Brahms (and Bruckner) admirer. I told him that I liked the work with Schoenberg's orchestration when I heard it on the radio.

[T. D.]

Finally listening to the final 2 discs (12, 13) of this recent purchase. As good as it is, I nevertheless had to take a couple of days off and listen to some things other than cello music.

[Mirror Image]

The 9th:

[T. D.]

Interesting. Love the ensemble! [La Colombina]

Q

+1

I ended up cancelling my Riley order. I guess I'm not really into that whole American Minimalist scene as I thought I was as I prefer those mid-20th Century Americans like Copland, Diamond, Schuman, Bernstein, etc. To be honest, I mainly stick with Russian/Soviet, Czech, Polish, Nordic, British, American, Italian and Latin American composers. Exploring these composers is enough for a lifetime and it seems I'm the happiest when I can hear music from each other these countries. I do like a lot of French music as well, but it's become less important to me over the past year or so.

I agree with that decision. When you originally posted, I scratched my head, not thinking that TR would be much to your liking.
FWIW, I own basically only token recordings by the various American Minimalists. Never really got into Adams, though I enjoy Phrygian Gates on an ancient Ursula Oppens anthology (American Piano Music of our Time iirc).

[Mirror Image]

I agree with that decision. When you originally posted, I scratched my head, not thinking that TR would be much to your liking.

FWIW, I own basically only token recordings by the various American Minimalists. Never really got into Adams, though I enjoy Phrygian Gates on an ancient Ursula Oppens anthology (American Piano Music of our Time iirc).

Well, I do like some of Adams' works and think he's quite a good composer, but I'm more interested in mid-20th Century American composers, especially ones that composed symphonies, when comes down to my own preferences and what I'm interested in. I think this was a golden time in American music history that seems to be largely ignored or simply passed over for whatever reason.

[Karl Henning]

Malipiero
Second String Quartet

[Mahlerian]

Well, I do like some of Adams' works and think he's quite a good composer, but I'm more interested in mid-20th Century American composers, especially ones that composed symphonies, when comes down to my own preferences and what I'm interested in. I think this was a golden time in American music history that seems to be largely ignored or simply passed over for whatever reason.

There was a writer named Nicholas Tawa who agrees with you and wrote a few books on American music to that effect. I read or skimmed a number of his books on mid-century American concert music last year when doing research for a paper. Tawa thinks that the 30s-60s or thereabouts was a golden age that was fallen away from, first by the evil serialists, and second by the evil minimalists.

Needless to say I don't find his polemical stance very attractive, but my point is simply that you're not the only one who feels that the mid-century American symphony was a high point for orchestral music in the US.

[Mirror Image]

There was a writer named Nicholas Tawa who agrees with you and wrote a few books on American music to that effect. I read or skimmed a number of his books on mid-century American concert music last year when doing research for a paper.

Very nice. I'll have to check out that book. Thanks for the mentioning it.

Here it is:

[asin]025335305X[/asin]

[Mahlerian]

Very nice. I'll have to check out that book. Thanks for the mentioning it.

I'd recommend "The Great American Symphony" first.

[Mirror Image]

I'd recommend "The Great American Symphony" first.

Thanks, I just linked it above.

[Mirror Image]

3rd PC:

[Karl Henning]

Now playing - Lou Harrison Symphony No.2 'Elegiac' - I find this a very moving work:

I'm in, Jeffrey! It was high time I revisited this.

[André]

Melcher Melchers (real name: Henrik Melcher Svensson) lived from 1882 to 1961. He lived in Paris for a while, returned to Sweden in 1919 and became a teacher at the Stockholm Conservatory (Erland von Koch was one of his pupils). The symphony is from 1925 and is modelled on the 3-movement franckian cyclic form. The concerto is from 1931. Both works last over half an hour.

The concerto is much in the same vein as those by Rosenberg and Wiklund, with the shadows of Grieg, Scharwenka and Rachmaninov looming large. Not a problem for me, since all four composers wrote truly memorable works in the genre. Melchers' melodic vein is not as fecund as the others I mentioned, but certainly as good as (and better than) a lot of the offerings in the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concertos series. Very nice.

The symphony is even better. Melchers lived in Paris from 1905 to 1919, was friends with Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani, as well as with Germaine Tailleferre and Erik Satie. Although his major works were written after his return to Sweden, his music shows he had absorbed a lot of the parisian musical influence. His symphony has character, is tuneful, brilliantly orchestrated and certainly worthy of repeated listening. Apart from the franckian structure, the language reminds me of Vincent d'Indy, Chausson (the B flat symphony) and Stenhammar.

I'm very happy with this purchase.

[JBS]

From the Chandos set

[vandermolen]

I'm in, Jeffrey! It was high time I revisited this.

Good to know Karl. I've listened to it several times in the past few days, always with much pleasure. It does go a bit 'Carl Ruggles' in the penultimate movement 'Praises for Michael the Archangel' but that makes the final movement 'The Sweetness of Epicurus' even more touching by contrast.

Now playing
Schnittke: Symphony No.8 (first listen):
This is a deeply impressive and deeply sombre work. I was, at times, reminded of Mahler (end of 9th Symphony), late Shostakovich and Ligeti. I shall need to hear it several times to get my head round it but I certainly do want to hear it again:

[Mirror Image]

Now playing
Schnittke: Symphony No.8 (first listen):
This is a deeply impressive and deeply sombre work. I was, at times, reminded of Mahler (end of 9th Symphony), late Shostakovich and Ligeti. I shall need to hear it several times to get my head round it but I certainly do want to hear it again:

Pounds the table! Not only is this one of my favorite works from Schnittke but it's one of my favorite symphonies of all-time. A truly special listening experience from start to finish. The centerpiece of the symphony, the 17-minute Lento, is devastating. I'm going to speak figuratively but I personally feel this entire symphony is like 'a walk with death' and reading about Schnittke's own life, it does feel this way as, in reality, this is exactly what happened.

[Papy Oli]

Mahler 4 (Dohnanyi - Cleveland) to wrap up the night.

Not sure about the last mvt with Dawn Upshaw 

[prémont]

Mahler 4 (Dohnanyi - Cleveland) to wrap up the night.

Not sure about the last mvt with Dawn Upshaw 

Sounds reasonable, because you don't know the night before dawn has shown up.