What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

Pardon me...I must pound the table.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Berg
String Quartet, Op. 3
Schoenberg Quartet

[pjme]

Only very recently I discovered this gem from Gloriana:

https://www.youtube.com/v/7Ztau64J91I

[Mirror Image]

Arnie's in the house...

Schoenberg
String Quartet No. 2
Susan Narucki (soprano)
Schoenberg Quartet

[André]

Pardon me...I must pound the table.

Indeed. A great opera and a deluxe production !

[André]

A real find. Sinding is a very fine composer, closer in technique to Wagner than Grieg. His lyricism is made up of short melodic fragments, but they are found in great abundance and treated as orchestral material first, under the form of leitmotivs freely developed, repeated and interwoven, with the voices picking them up in free recitative-arioso fashion. Lasting 80 minutes its format is closer to that of verismo one-acters than that of Wagner's logorrheic confections. The vocal distribution, like that of many a Wagner opera, favours bass voices of the Sachs/Gurnemanz/Wotan type. Its luxuriant music and compact format makes for a very satisfying repast.

This sumptuously played and sung production dates from 1986 (excellent sound). The booklet has some good but short essays and a full libretto in German - alas, no translation. I found a very detailed synopsis online, in German only. Google translate gave me a very good idea of what was going on. One more thing this has in common with Wagner's operas is the total silliness of the plot. A boy abducted by his father and placed in the custody of a monk in a monastery on a sacred mountain (hence the title) where no woman is allowed to set foot, which of course is what happens  . The boy has never seen a woman before (hello Siegfried!), falls in love with her, but she happens to be his sister (hello Walküre!).

Anyhow, the music is gorgeous and on a single disc it's an excellent deal. Recommended.

[Karl Henning]

No, I haven't done as yet, I started my classical listening with Varèse then discovered all this 60s/70s stuff and was blown away by just how experimental it was.

Cool.

[Karl Henning]

NP:

Berg
String Quartet, Op. 3
Schoenberg Quartet

Beauty!

[Daverz]

Emanuel Moór: Concerto for 2 Cellos (1908).  Written for Casals and "the young Portuguese cello prodigy Guilhermina Suggia."





Quite nice.  There is a bit of Mediterranean flavor.

[Mirror Image]

Beauty!

Indeed. A great opera and a deluxe production !

Yes, indeed.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Mahler
Symphony No. 4 in G major
Frederica von Stade (mezzo-soprano)
Wiener Philharmoniker
Abbado



A beautiful account of a gorgeous symphony. Some people aren't fans of Abbado's Mahler, but I've always loved his way with this music. I love Bernstein's Mahler, especially his DG cycle, but I have to be in the right mood for it. Abbado had a more lyrical approach to this music.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Janáček
From the House of the Dead
Ivo Zidek (tenor), Zdenek Svehla (tenor), Jiri Zahradnicek (tenor), Antonin Svorc (bass), Vladimir Krejcik (tenor), Richard Novak (bass), Dalibor Jedlicka (bass), Jaroslava Janska (soprano), Beno Blachut (tenor), Jaroslav Soucek (baritone), Zdenek Sousek (tenor), Vaclav Zitek (tenor), Eva Zigmundova (mezzo-soprano)
Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Staatsoper
Sir Charles Mackerras

[Mirror Image]

One more work before bed:

Mahler
Rückert-Lieder
Brigitte Fassbaender (contralto)
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Riccardo Chailly

[Harry]

Johann Pachelbel.
Complete Keyboard Works, Volume VIII.

Simone Stella plays on a Pinchi-Skrabl Organ, 2013.

Just listen to the Toccata in C, P.455, and you will hear why this set is special, in terms of composition and the sound of this fine organ.

[ritter]

More Milhaud (a recent purchase that landed in my office this morning  ):


I already know Scaramouche, Le Bal martiniquais and Le Boeuf sur le toit, but Les Songes, Carnaval à la Nouvelle-Orléans, La Libertadora and the two-piano version of Kentuckiana are new to me...

[Harry]

Lars-Erik Larsson.
Orchestral Works. Volume I.

Symphony No. 1, in D.
Four Vignettes to Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale"
Music for Orchestra, opus 40.
Pastoral for small Orchestra.
Lyric Fantasy for small Orchestra, opus 54.

Helsingborg SO, Andrew Manze.

[Madiel]

Shostakovich, String Quartet no.14

[Biffo]

Zemlinsky: String Quartet No 2, Op 15 - LaSalle Quartet

[Traverso]

Scarlatti

CD 9

Sonatas KK 140-155

[Biffo]

Schoenberg: Suite for 2 Clarinets, Bass Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano - Ensemble intercontemporain conducted by Pierre Boulez