What are you listening 2 now?

[Papy Oli]

Didn't go beyond the SQ1 yesterday, replaying the whole album from scratch.

[Irons]

Lol, Johan,
Thank you both for checking. I do not have enough familiarity or knowledge on Shostakovich as a whole so wouldn't know on that angle. I'll check Beni Mora. I am just surprised as to how familiar that snippet sounded to me. I do not own Rubbra SQ's in my collection, I may have sampled some briefly on YT last year but not to the extent that it would have created such a familiar impact yesterday. 

Not much use to you Olivier but thanks for introducing such an impressive piece of music. Like Jeffrey I have also ordered a copy of the 1st Quartet.

[Papy Oli]

Not much use to you Olivier but thanks for introducing such an impressive piece of music. Like Jeffrey I have also ordered a copy of the 1st Quartet.

Credit where it's due, you Brits know how to do a Lento 

SQ1 will definitely be a purchase for me later on. I'll have a listen to the Dutton version as well to see which I'll get ultimately.

Listening to SQ3 now, definitely a bit harsher.

[Biffo]

Vaughan Williams: Piano Concerto in C major - Howard Shelley piano with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bryden Thomson

[Mahlerian]

Gubaidulina: Pro et contra
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, cond. Otaka

[Papy Oli]

Checking out Rubbra SQ2 as well.

[Madiel]

Decided to keep "Domus" and "Piano Quartet No.2", but switch from Brahms to Dvorak

[Mirror Image]

It does indeed. I remember my ears pricking up when, by chance, I heard 'Evocation' on the car radio. That lead me to that fine CD. I also like the Bloch CD (Poems of the Sea etc) that you posted earlier.

Yeah, Jeffrey. I've enjoyed all of the Ben-Haim I have on disc so far. I ordered the Toccata Classics recording with his SQ and String Quintet, so I'm looking forward to hearing those works.

[Mahlerian]

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 9 in C Op. 59 No. 3
Alban Berg Quartet

[Mirror Image]

String Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 26





I'm really enjoying these SQs from Korngold. Beautiful works.

[ritter]

A short Straussian interlude chez ritter, with the a capella choral piece An den Baum Daphne.



This is a curious piece. Joseph Gregor, the much-maligned librettist of Strauss's opera Daphne (whom I must admit I find perfectly serviceable) envisaged to close that one-acter with a choral comment on the lead's transformation into a laurel tree, but the composer wisely opted for an orchestral piece (with vocalises by the soprano) instead—and giving us, as a result, one of those beautiful scenes for soprano and orchestra in which he excelled. Several years later, he decided to set Gregor's text for unaccompanied chorus, as a sort of epilogue to the opera, and using some of the musical themes of the original work. The result is attractive, and listening to the familiar tunes in a completely different sound world is quite interesting, but (lasting 15 minutes) it outstays its welcome a bit.

EDIT:

Well, the Straussian diversion won't be that short. I followed An den Baum Daphne with the closing scene of the opera, in the classic 1964 live recording from Vienna recording with Hilde Güden under the work's dedicatee Karl Böhm. Daphne is a favourite of mine, and this recording has been on my shelves—in one or another incarnation—for almost 40 years now.



And now, the Strauss soprano-fest continues with this beautiful recital disc:

[asin]B0084MD3NW[/asin]
Anne Schwanewilms is IMHO a straussian soprano of the highest rank, with a fragile but well projected, nuanced  and expressive voice. The whole program here showcases her abilities.

I had the chance to see Schwanewilms live in the Four Last Songs; she regrettably announced that she was indisposed, and after September I noticed conductor David Afkham indicate "four" with his fingers to the orchestra, which meant that Beim Schlafengehen was skipped and we only had "Three Last Songs"  . Still, what we got was very good (followed by an excellent rendition of Bruckner's Seventh).

[Papy Oli]

Tubin - No.4

[vandermolen]

Symphony No.5

Fabulous performance which, I think, brings out the sibelian influences (it is dedicated to Sibelius):

[Mirror Image]

Now playing the Clarinet Concerto:

[Madiel]

Debussy: that Faun-Prelude thingy.

[Traverso]

Beethoven

Dear Martha....I wish that she recorded more Beethoven

Choral Fantasy
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana/Diego Fasolis
Coro della Radiotelevione Svizzera

[Papy Oli]

Beethoven - piano sonatas No.1 & 2 Op.2 (Lucchesini)

[ritter]

Beethoven

Dear Martha....I wish that she recorded more Beethoven
....

...but not another recording (the 200th?) of PCs 1 and/or 2, please...

[Irons]

Symphony No.5

Fabulous performance which, I think, brings out the sibelian influences (it is dedicated to Sibelius):

In the event of a hypothetical fire the one recording I would grab first. 

[vandermolen]

Yeah, Jeffrey. I've enjoyed all of the Ben-Haim I have on disc so far. I ordered the Toccata Classics recording with his SQ and String Quintet, so I'm looking forward to hearing those works.

Very nice John (as you would say )

Now playing: Vaughan Williams: Three Portraits from 'The England of Elizabeth'. I've always had a soft spot for this atmospheric and poetic work:

In the Previn boxed set it's coupled with Symphony No.5 and the Tuba Concerto, making a great programme.