What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

TD: Vaughan Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem. I've been playing this fine performance a lot recently:

This is a fine work from RVW, Jeffrey. I especially like Boult's performance of it. I should revisit the Hickox performance I own (coupled with an excellent Sancta Civitas).

[Pohjolas Daughter]

You've inspired me to listen to Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve! 🙂

Loris Tjeknavorian conducting the Armenian Philharmonic.

*The Christmas Eve Suite includes perhaps my favourite Polonaise of any composer (apologies to Chopin and Tchaikovsky) 

Nice!  Hope that you enjoy it!

Excellent PD. Our cat tends to attack the Christmas tree baubles which go flying around the room and then attacks the Christmas tree lights, which I then have to disconnect to prevent him being electrocuted. I'd strongly recommend 'The Complete Karelia Music' on Ondine which IMO is not to be missed. I'm sure that you would enjoy it.

From a cat's perspective (looking at the baubles and lights):  "All those toys for me?!!"  "And fancy string for me too?!"

On a somewhat sadder note:  When I had my (few) cats euthanized, my vets' practice very sweetly provided an impression of one of their paw prints into some type of clay/bakeable material (rather like a kid making a handprint in kindergarten for their parents), wrote their name on it along with a sweet heart and then baked them.  They're about 3 inches in diameter and are different pastel colors.  After pondering over the years what to do with them, I bought some narrow satin ribbon, formed a decent-sized loop (something that would fit easily over a  Christmas tree branch) and hot-glued the ribbon in a couple of places on the back.

Off to look at music collection and ponder what is on next. 

PD

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Elgar
The Spirit Of England, Op. 80
Teresa Cahill, soprano
Scottish NSO
Gibson



The greatest performance of this masterpiece on record. The introduction of this work never fails to just pull me in --- it reminds me of the undertow of the ocean. That kind of force you feel underneath your feet.

[André]

+ 1.

I bought the lp some 40 years ago. Long gone of course, so I had to have it on cd  0:).

[Mirror Image]

+ 1.

I bought the lp some 40 years ago. Long gone of course, so I had to have it on cd  0:).

Very nice. Have you heard any other performances of this work? I need to revisit the one with Elder and there's one with Hickox that was decent, but none of them have matched the kind of magic that Cahill/Gibson were able to conjure.

[André]

Listened to on youtube while playing scrabble on line:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY4w4_W30aQ

Rimsky-Korsakov's Schéhérazade conducted by Santa Claus Leif Segerstam. Advance the tape to about 43 minutes in to hear something really special. You'll never experience the shipwreck moment like that. The audience seems to have appreciated.

[Harry]

Fini Henriques.
Orchestral Works.

Christina Astrand, Violin.
Max Artved, Oboe.
Helsingborg SO, Giordano Bellincampi.

Really delightful music, and well performed. the recording is a bit bright in the violin part, but otherwise kuddos.

[Mirror Image]

Elgar
The Wand of Youth Suites Nos. 1 & 2, Op. 1
Hallé
Elder

[André]

Very nice. Have you heard any other performances of this work? I need to revisit the one with Elder and there's one with Hickox that was decent, but none of them have matched the kind of magic that Cahill/Gibson were able to conjure.

The Hickox version. I traded it when I bought the Gibson on cd.

[Mirror Image]

The Hickox version. I traded it when I bought the Gibson on cd.

Ah, I guess you knew a reference recording when you heard one.

[Traverso]

Richard Strauss

[Mirror Image]

Richard Strauss

Lovely!

[vandermolen]

This is a fine work from RVW, Jeffrey. I especially like Boult's performance of it. I should revisit the Hickox performance I own (coupled with an excellent Sancta Civitas).

I think that DNP is a great work and has been well-served on disc. Yes, the combination of DNP and Sancta Civitas on a single CD is magical. I read a negative review of the Spano recording but I like it very much. Boult is great and I also like Thomson and VW's own recording has tremendous atmosphere, despite the sonics.

TD
Bliss: 'March of Honour' (in Memory of Churchill) - a fine, short and moving tribute to Churchill (it was performed just before Churchill's funeral - see below). It is rather Elgarian and echoes the final section of 'Morning Heroes' (Bliss's greatest work IMO). This was a fine release from the much-missed Unicorn label. I owned the LP as well:

[vandermolen]

Bernard Herrmann:
'Whitman' - Radio Drama by Norman Corwin:

[Karl Henning]

Two magnificent works by the Russian Nikolai Roslavets. This Chamber Symphony (which employs nine solo woodwind, two horns, trumpet, piano, string quartet and double bass) would come being his second one, and quite possibly the title chamber symphony might be misleading as this is a meaty work lasting almost 56 minutes. An impressive piece with attractive pathos and dissonances. The another work In den Stunden des Neumonds (In the hours of the New Moon) is not a mere filler. It's a haunting, evocative and alluring piece tinged with certain "dark" impressionist gestures. It reminded me of Bax, Debussy and Scriabin at their most somber. A winning CD all-around.

Most interesting.

[vandermolen]

I remember being especially impressed by 'In the Hours of the New Moon'.

[André]

Symphonies 1 and 3. Live performances by a youth orchestra under its then 31 year old conductor. Not surprisingly, these are fresh, vital, urgent performances. Textures are lean and transparent, with 36 strings deployed with an ear toward a good bass end (9-10-6-6-5). Violins are placed antiphonally, vibrato varied according to the affect sought by the conductor. The clarity achieved is impressive, allowing for minute articulation details to register. I immediately repeated the Eroica's Marcia funebre. Analekta has secured very good sound for these 2009 performances. The audience is very quiet. The conductor moans and groans a little but it's noticeable only with earphones. Frankly surprising.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

[Florestan]

Quite possibly the best Christmas album I've ever heard. Superb in every respect: selection*, arrangements, performance, sonics.

* beside the usual suspects, some unknown (to me) German and French Christmas songs that brought tears  of joy to my eyes.

Highly recommended with Florestan's Stamp of Approval.

[Carlo Gesualdo]

Josquin Des Pres: Miserere / Pierre de Manchicourt: Messe quo abiit dilectus tuus.
Direction R.P Emile Martin de l'oratoire
On BAM record France, disque française de musique sacrée de l'année- i quote what written on it.

Josquin miserere thee killer 20 minutes Motet is here, this make the LP more enjoyable than on same side side A, we get an anonymous XVI Emendemous. So in the end we get a solid  slab of sacred music. On the B-side we get Pierre de Manchicourt, quite elaborated masse, whom would not see the day again on CD format.Any comment on this offering?