What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

My thought exactly. But at least we get 'The Fountain' and some famous Shakespearian extracts. I have greatly enjoyed listening to this performance:

Indeed. Interestingly enough, I think I have this recording (somewhere).

[Mirror Image]

Continuing with Tubin's symphonies: the 8th

[Todd]

[Karl Henning]

Berlioz
Les nuits d'été
La mort de Cléopatre

Sibelius
Finlandia

[Symphonic Addict]

Well Cesar, do you know the purely orchestral Symphony No.4? If not I'd suggest listening to that one first (there are two recordings to choose from and they are both excellent). Symphony No.5 has a strong vocal/choral element. Some critics found it 'a step backwards' from Symphony No.4 but others found it just as impressive and that is my view as well. I think that the concert I attended is the one recorded on the new disc. His music has a strong religious motivation, it could only have been written in the 21st Century but communicates directly with ordinary music-lovers and not just intellectuals/academics. All I can say is that I was very moved by the end of Symphony No.5 yesterday (on CD) - it lasts 50 minutes. There are quotes or influences from Thomas Tallis's music. It's very powerful and communicates directly but is not necessarily 'easy' to get hold of, at least at first hearing. After I attended the concert I immediately wanted to hear it again. The other work on the CD did not impress me so much. It was a bit like Britten's 'War Requiem' without the tunes! Symphonies 4 and 5, though, have been great new discoveries for me.
I largely agree with this review:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Jun/MacMillan_sy5_COR16179.htm
PS You can always sample it on You Tube.

Very helpful and detailed review, Jeffrey. Thank you. By MacMillan I've only heard The Confession of Isobel Gowdie thus far.

[Symphonic Addict]

Brenton Broadstock - Symphonies 1 & 2

Broadstock is an Australian composer. These symphonies are quite impressive, colourful, powerfully orchestrated. It's good to know that there are composers who still write tonal and life-enhancing music like this.

[Symphonic Addict]

Just time for something small scale, quiet and reflective........ NOT!!!  Epic stuff

+1

And looks like you haven't learnt how to resize images yet. 

[Roasted Swan]

+1

And looks like you haven't learnt how to resize images yet. 

I didn't preview the post - it was a bit of a surprise size wise! Sorry

[JBS]

Second runthrough
[asin]B088T7VJ5N[/asin]
Amazon blurb

The Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet performs works by three Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary composers: Shulamit Ran, Jennifer Higdon, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Written for the Pacifica and receiving its world-premiere recording, Rans Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory String Quartet No. 3 is a moving tribute to painter Felix Nussbaum, who perished in Auschwitz in 1944. Higdons Voices, dedicated to the Pacifica, evokes explosive energy, otherworldly calm, and spiritual serenity. In Zwilichs Quintet for Alto Saxophone and String Quartet, a lusciously singing saxophone shares the spotlight with virtuosic string playing. The Pacifica, quartet in-residence at Indiana Universitys Jacobs School of Music, partner with their IU colleague, renowned classical saxophonist Otis Murphy.

[vers la flamme]

The famous Karajan/VPO/Decca recording is early 1960's surely......?

The film 2001, not the year 

[Symphonic Addict]

Concerto for harp and string orchestra

Music for meditation, to connect with nature. Absolutely pleasant.

[vers la flamme]

Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No.4 in A major, op.90, the "Italian". Kurt Masur, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig

Good performance of this masterpiece. Mendelssohn had a great skill for counterpoint.

[Mirror Image]

Brenton Broadstock - Symphonies 1 & 2

Broadstock is an Australian composer. These symphonies are quite impressive, colourful, powerfully orchestrated. It's good to know that there are composers who still write tonal and life-enhancing music like this.

He's a very good composer, Cesar. I remember praising his music here many years ago and I believe I even started a thread on the composer. It's comforting to know that there are still composers out there that feel the symphony is a viable form of musical expression.

[Todd]

5.

[Symphonic Addict]

He's a very good composer, Cesar. I remember praising his music here many years ago and I believe I even started a thread on the composer. It's comforting to know that there are still composers out there that feel the symphony is a viable form of musical expression.

Absolutely! Even more so for me taking into account that symphony is my all-time favorite musical form.

[Mirror Image]

Absolutely! Even more so for me taking into account that symphony is my all-time favorite musical form.

It's one of mine as well.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

[TheGSMoeller]

Petrouchka - Ozawa/BSO
Stunning sound quality from a 1969 recording.

[vandermolen]

Very helpful and detailed review, Jeffrey. Thank you. By MacMillan I've only heard The Confession of Isobel Gowdie thus far.

My pleasure Cesar. If you decide to explore these symphonies I'd be very interested to hear your views. I'd tended to ignore MacMillan's music for many years but now I think he is a 'real' composer with something to say.

Now playing:
Malcolm Arnold: Symphony No.5 - arguably his greatest symphony:

[vandermolen]

I remember listening to this set of 3 LP's endlessly when it first came out.  None of the repertoire was familiar and it was great to hear major works by these composers;



I listened today to the Parry and Havergal Brian (Tigers excerpts) today and these performances still stand up well.  Not the most refined or polished but played with enthusiasm and energy.  As ever, I think Parry gets "blamed" too much for not sounding English enough.  This symphony is lovely - OK for sure it follows the Germanic 4 movement model pretty slavishly but the construction, melodic content and orchestration is the equal of many similar 19th Century works.  So enjoy it for what it is, not what it is not!

Interesting. I never owned that set but I guess that some of the recordings are reproduced on this CD. I was particularly impressed with the Foulds work 'Pasquinade Symphonique No.1' but also liked 'The Tigers'.