What are you listening 2 now?

[vandermolen]

What about the other 2 symphonies on the CD, Jeffrey?

Well Cesar, Symphony No.2 is rather plink-plonk-crash-bang-wallop (excuse not very technical description) and shows, I think, the influence of his teacher Ligeti. The Symphony No.3, which I preferred, shows the influence of his other teacher Kokkonen. In a way Salmenhaara's musical trajectory seems to be the opposite of composers like Lilburn and Braga-Santos, whose music (I know this is simplistic) went more from tonal to atonal. With Salmenhaara it's from atonal to tonal. It is the Fourth Symphony to which I shall be returning - it is one of my best discoveries of the year. It reminds me in some ways of composers like Nielsen, Sibelius and Copland and is not to be missed. I'd like to hear the Fifth Symphony which has been recorded but is difficult to track down.

[JBS]

Bach
Sonatas for Viola da Gamba [cello] and Keyboard [piano]
Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard [piano]
Leonard Rose cello
Jaime Laredo violin
Glenn Gould piano

[aligreto]

That's a very nice disc Fergus, especially O'Connor's 'Introspect' and the Potter work. I wonder if you know Potter's fine Sinfonia 'De Profundis'.

Cheers Jeffrey. Yes I have that CD. I also have another version of Potter's Sinfonia 'De Profundis' on LP conducted by Colman Pearce.

[aligreto]

Bach

Nice!

[Symphonic Addict]

Well Cesar, Symphony No.2 is rather plink-plonk-crash-bang-wallop (excuse not very technical description) and shows, I think, the influence of his teacher Ligeti. The Symphony No.3, which I preferred, shows the influence of his other teacher Kokkonen. In a way Salmenhaara's musical trajectory seems to be the opposite of composers like Lilburn and Braga-Santos, whose music (I know this is simplistic) went more from tonal to atonal. With Salmenhaara it's from atonal to tonal. It is the Fourth Symphony to which I shall be returning - it is one of my best discoveries of the year. It reminds me in some ways of composers like Nielsen, Sibelius and Copland and is not to be missed. I'd like to hear the Fifth Symphony which has been recorded but is difficult to track down.

Haha I get what you mean, Jeffrey. In fact, that's kind of my way to explain my impressions on music too. Thanks for the interesting description. I'm definitely interested in those works.

You can take a listen of the 5th Symphony on YouTube if you want:

https://www.youtube.com/v/MyDkYbn3-IM

[Symphonic Addict]

Piano trios by Zandonai and Granados:



Two lovely works. The Zandonai has a kind of particular development (or at least that was what I could perceive). It's not the typical piano trio. The Granados is more traditional in form.

[vers la flamme]

Bach

I've never heard of this recording—what do you think?

Now playing:



Johann Sebastian Bach: Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079. Neville Marriner, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

This is an amazing recording!! I might like it as much as the Jordi Savall—compared to it, this has more of a precise, "academic" feeling, for lack of a better descriptor, which I think fits this work very well. I wouldn't want to be without either recording, and I actually have a third Musical Offering en route to me as well, with Leonhardt & the Kuijkens. I love this work. It and BWV 1080 are twin peaks of Bach's contrapuntal art at its most developed.

[Madiel]

Started listening to Pelleas again, but this time just listening rather than following the libretto. I suspect I'll remember the plot to a fair degree as I go.



And after I've finished going through Debussy's version, I intend to rehear the incidental music by Faure and Sibelius, and Schoenberg's symphonic poem. That's one heck of a collection of composers who all did work inspired by the same source.

[Symphonic Addict]

Violin Concerto

Extraordinary playing from the soloist and orchestra. It must be one of the best recordings of this work IMO.

[T. D.]

Nice! [Bach sonatas/partitas solo violin vol. 1, Lucy van Dael, Naxos]

+1
I bought it (and vol. 2) based on recommendations from this forum, and am delighted with the recordings.

[André]

Not for casual listening, this is a program of considerable scope and merit. The disc says it's the complete works for piano. Recorded in 2002, it predates the composer's death by some years, so maybe some late opus will surface eventually. In any case it's a superb disc. The works are Two Diversions (1999), the piano sonata (1946, revised 1982), 90+ (1994), Night Fantasies (1980) and the short Retrouvailles (2000). They are played in that order on the disc.

What strikes me when listening to this hour long program is how clearly legible both music and performance sound. Despite seemingly aleatoric structures the works captivate by their sense of a journey. There is always a 'moment of arrival' in Carter's works, where things come together with an overriding feeling of finality. In his piano works, that sense of purpose is conveyed horizontally as it were, the piano developing its argument in a transparent, measured tread. I listened with intent throughout the disc.

Pianist Winston Choi specializes in modern music. He has studied with Mehnahem Pressler and Ursula Oppens. Composer Elliott Carter prefaces the recording with a charming note: « Enthusiasm for Winston Choi's fine performances of my piano works prompts me to say that he makes them sound so fresh and young, even the one that was written more than 50 years ago [the sonata] and the other about the time of his birth [Night Fantasies]. Bravo ! » Elliott Carter, September 15, 2002

The composer wrote the informative program notes.

[kyjo]

Much of it is not particularly 'difficult', speaking as a layman I guess one could very roughly compare it to say passages in Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks or Ebony Concertos, with some added features and a bit more variation in it. Some typical characteristics would be a strong rhythmic and even quite repetitive pulse, with passages of staccato-like effects of intensifying volume and the notes maybe getting more plentiful and shorter in the course of these staccato-like passages, like pictured fireworks or whirls; this being combined with long, slow episodes of stasis-like or processional chords and melodies by soloists in the orchestra.

"Movements" for orchestra is a good example,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3IxvYWXfrQ
likewise the Piano Concerto (won the European Rostrum Prize; notice how the fast 2nd movement at 7:35 reminds one of the 1st Movement of "Movements")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch_q3CvENLY

The Double Concerto often has a somewhat more cantabile approach, cf also the soloist instruments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDl4qy6kDvw

Thank you very much for the detailed response!

[kyjo]

Well Cesar, Symphony No.2 is rather plink-plonk-crash-bang-wallop (excuse not very technical description) and shows, I think, the influence of his teacher Ligeti. The Symphony No.3, which I preferred, shows the influence of his other teacher Kokkonen. In a way Salmenhaara's musical trajectory seems to be the opposite of composers like Lilburn and Braga-Santos, whose music (I know this is simplistic) went more from tonal to atonal. With Salmenhaara it's from atonal to tonal. It is the Fourth Symphony to which I shall be returning - it is one of my best discoveries of the year. It reminds me in some ways of composers like Nielsen, Sibelius and Copland and is not to be missed. I'd like to hear the Fifth Symphony which has been recorded but is difficult to track down.

I listened to the 4th Symphony last night and found the first movement particularly engaging in its Sibelian nature. Unfortunately, the recording seemed rather rough-and-ready to me with the horn section struggling a bit with their crucial role.

I found the 5th Symphony on YT: https://youtu.be/MyDkYbn3-IM

[Symphonic Addict]

A Hero's Life

It's refreshing to hear this work and remember how an epic journey it is. I've liked what I've heard from these discs.

[JBS]

Not for casual listening, this is a program of considerable scope and merit. The disc says it's the complete works for piano. Recorded in 2002, it predates the composer's death by some years, so maybe some late opus will surface eventually. In any case it's a superb disc. The works are Two Diversions (1999), the piano sonata (1946, revised 1982), 90+ (1994), Night Fantasies (1980) and the short Retrouvailles (2000). They are played in that order on the disc.

What strikes me when listening to this hour long program is how clearly legible both music and performance sound. Despite seemingly aleatoric structures the works captivate by their sense of a journey. There is always a 'moment of arrival' in Carter's works, where things come together with an overriding feeling of finality. In his piano works, that sense of purpose is conveyed horizontally as it were, the piano developing its argument in a transparent, measured tread. I listened with intent throughout the disc.

Pianist Winston Choi specializes in modern music. He has studied with Mehnahem Pressler and Ursula Oppens. Composer Elliott Carter prefaces the recording with a charming note: « Enthusiasm for Winston Choi's fine performances of my piano works prompts me to say that he makes them sound so fresh and young, even the one that was written more than 50 years ago [the sonata] and the other about the time of his birth [Night Fantasies]. Bravo ! » Elliott Carter, September 15, 2002

The composer wrote the informative program notes.

Thank you!
Digging through my memory, I realize Oppens herself recorded all of Carter's works for solo piano, in 2008, with one work more--composed in 2005-6.
[asin]B001F114H6[/asin]
Which I have....somewhere.

[vandermolen]

I listened to the 4th Symphony last night and found the first movement particularly engaging in its Sibelian nature. Unfortunately, the recording seemed rather rough-and-ready to me with the horn section struggling a bit with their crucial role.

I found the 5th Symphony on YT: https://youtu.be/MyDkYbn3-IM

Thanks Kyle and Cesar for posting the 5th Symphony which I hope to listen to after work today. It's the first two movement of the 4th Symphony which I especially like but actually the whole work has made a great impression on me. I find it to be inspiriting, moving and memorable music.

[Que]

Morning listening:

[ritter]

Some Poulenc this morning: Aubade, Les biches, Les animaux modèles and Bucolique, all conducted by Georges Prêtre (with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra and the Philharmonia).

[asin]B0091JQH76[/asin]
CD7

[Harry]

John Bull.
In Nomine.
Selected Keyboard Works.
Thilo Muster, plays on a Historical organ at the St. Thomas de Cantorbery, (Thomas Beckett) de Mont Saint Aignan, (Normandie)
Unequal temperament. The Pitch is not given in the booklet.
Restored and reconstruction by Pascal Quorin 2001.

Thank you Que, for alerting me to this recording, it has become one of my favourites this year.

[Christo]

Symphony No.2 is rather plink-plonk-crash-bang-wallop (excuse not very technical description)