What are you listening 2 now?

[Mandryka]

Is it Double Dutch to you or  can you follow it a bit? 

Subtitles in English. I was keen to see it because I've met people who know him and they all say the same thing: a lovely person. I've only seen him once, in the 1980s, in a free Bach concert in the Amsterdam Nieuwe Kerk -- Brandenburgs -- very cool, the audience was young and cool. Will I ever go to Holland again  for a concert?  . . . .  In a mask! 

[Brahmsian]

NP:

Strauss
Don Quixote, Op. 35
Paul Tortelier, cello
Staatskapelle Dresden
Kempe

From this set:

How many discs are in this set, John?  I have the EMI boxset of Strauss/Kempe orchestral works (9 discs) - the deep green box set.  This set somehow looks bigger?  I've seen other reissues of what I have (Warner Classics), but not in this form?

I'm curious as to what this box set includes?  I can't seem to find the exact one like yours when searching.

[Mirror Image]

Great choice!

Yeah, it's a good one, Jeffrey.

[Harry]

Nino Rota.
Cello Concertos 1 & 2.
Il Gattopardo.

Philharmonisches Orchester, Augsburg, Dirk Kaftan.
Friedrich Kleinhapl, Cello.

Beautifully composed Cello concertos, and as a dessert Il Gattopardo, a dreamy piece, a tiny work of art so to say.
It is well performed and recorded.

[Traverso]

Subtitles in English. I was keen to see it because I've met people who know him and they all say the same thing: a lovely person. I've only seen him once, in the 1980s, in a free Bach concert in the Amsterdam Nieuwe Kerk -- Brandenburgs -- very cool, the audience was young and cool. Will I ever go to Holland again  for a concert?  . . . .  In a mask! 

He sure is,a friend of mine was a student of his for a while,  unfortunately the pub life was more interesting to him at that time and so it happened that Ton Koopman traveled to him to get him out of bed. 

[Karl Henning]

Yeah, it's a good one, Jeffrey.

When Järvi's Prokofiev is good, it's very good.

[Traverso]

Messiaen

Starting to listening to these recordings of Cataloque D'Oiseaux

 

[Mirror Image]

How many discs are in this set, John?  I have the EMI boxset of Strauss/Kempe orchestral works (9 discs) - the deep green box set.  This set somehow looks bigger?  I've seen other reissues of what I have (Warner Classics), but not in this form?

I'm curious as to what this box set includes?  I can't seem to find the exact one like yours when searching.

This hybrid SACD box set, which is a Tower Records exclusive in conjunction with Warner Classics, has been completely remastered. If I'm not mistaken, the remastering was done by a well-known Japanese mastering engineer. Like the older green set, it's 9 discs, so there aren't any new performances added as you have the same content in the EMI set. But the difference here is the fidelity, which, to these ears, blows away all iterations of this box set. Also, the cardboard outer box and each 'set' within the box are made of a cardboard material that is hard as a rock. I'm not joking...I don't know what the material is they used, but I love it.

Here's the set on Tower Records Japan website:

https://tower.jp/item/5135342/R-シュトラウス：-管弦楽作品全集(シリアルナンバー無再発盤)＜タワーレコード限定＞

I owned the green set (gifted it to my dad), but I still own this set, which sounds fantastic as well:



My reasoning for purchasing this Tower Records/Warner set is because I had previously bought the Sibelius symphony set with Berglund conducting Bournemouth and I was so floored by the fidelity and presentation of the set that I had to get my hands on the Strauss set. It was rather expensive (both sets), but it was worth every penny, IMHO.

The Berglund/Bournemouth Tower Records set:



Edit:

You may want to consider getting the newly reissued Kempe set from Warner that uses the original LP artwork (w/ some alterations I'm sure to the actual content of each disc). I hear that the remastering in this set is top-drawer.

[Brahmsian]

This hybrid SACD box set, which is a Tower Records exclusive in conjunction with Warner Classics, has been completely remastered. If I'm not mistaken, the remastering was done by a well-known Japanese mastering engineer. Like the older green set, it's 9 discs, so there aren't any new performances added as you have the same content in the EMI set. But the difference here is the fidelity, which, to these ears, blows away all iterations of this box set. Also, the cardboard outer box and each 'set' within the box are made of a cardboard material that is hard as a rock. I'm not joking...I don't know what the material is they used, but I love it.

Here's the set on Tower Records Japan website:

https://tower.jp/item/5135342/R-シュトラウス：-管弦楽作品全集(シリアルナンバー無再発盤)＜タワーレコード限定＞

I owned the green set (gifted it to my dad), but I still own this set, which sounds fantastic as well:



My reasoning for purchasing this Tower Records/Warner set is because I had previously bought the Sibelius symphony set with Berglund conducting Bournemouth and I was so floored by the fidelity and presentation of the set that I had to get my hands on the Strauss set. It was rather expensive (both sets), but it was worth every penny, IMHO.

The Berglund/Bournemouth Tower Records set:



Edit:

You may want to consider getting the newly reissued Kempe set from Warner that uses the original LP artwork (w/ some alterations I'm sure to the actual content of each disc). I hear that the remastering in this set is top-drawer.

That's great John.  Thanks very much for that detailed explanation.  It really helped clarify things for me.

[Traverso]

Messiaen

The recordings in the Warner box are a bit more transparent and the performance has more authority and sound neater. Listening to Le Loriod makes me feel at one with the music that is so overwhelmingly beautiful that you are deeply moved.
When I Listen to Le merle Bleu, it's so compelling that I don't long for the Warner recordings.
You felt the love for the music she plays, I am very excited about it.
I have no choice but to continue with this captivating music, much is still hidden from me and has yet to reveal itself to me through repeated listening.

[North Star]

You won't believe what I've been doing wrong every day of my life!

I have been listening to Prokofiev WRONG for over 10 years!

First-listen Thursday

Prokofiev
Songs and Romances
Victoria Yevtodieva (soprano), Lyuba Sokolova (mezzo-soprano), Konstantin Pluzhnikov (tenor), Andrei Slavny (baritone), Sergei Aleksashkin (bass),
Yuri Serov (piano)

[Papy Oli]

Debussy - Children's corner (Ciccolini)

[Iota]

Do you think you'll be exploring much Hindemith now that you seem to have a new appreciation for his music?

Oh yes, I have been for some while now, and getting a great deal from it. 

I liked it Karl, [Stravinsky, Momentum Pro gesualdo] It did me think of a transcription Webern made of Bach das musikalische opfer bwv 1079 

A small coincidence perhaps, as about an hour before reading your post I was listening to the Requiem Canticles thinking how the brevity and magnificent economy of the writing was rather Webern-like.


NP:



Sciarrino: Lo Spazio Inverso; Let me Die before I wake; Per Mattia

Alter Ego


There's such a sense of loneliness and space in this music. I find it very affecting.

[Traverso]

A small coincidence perhaps, as about an hour before reading your post I was listening to the Requiem Canticles thinking how the brevity and magnificent economy of the writing was rather Webern-like.

Well,I have to listen to it,thank you for posting.

[Karl Henning]

You won't believe what I've been doing wrong every day of my life!

I have been listening to Prokofiev WRONG for over 10 years!

First-listen Thursday

Prokofiev
Songs and Romances
Victoria Yevtodieva (soprano), Lyuba Sokolova (mezzo-soprano), Konstantin Pluzhnikov (tenor), Andrei Slavny (baritone), Sergei Aleksashkin (bass),
Yuri Serov (piano)

Nice!

[André]

Eduard Erdmann - Schubert - D894

Erdmann takes the last movement at a clip of half note = 126, which is well out of bounds for an Allegretto in 1825. It's completely wrong and yet it works somehow, in a way that most slower performances don't. For all his pianistic faults and abandonment of any kind of lyricism, Erdmann always makes the music flow, and in ways that feel so natural that almost every other Schubert interpreter seems halting and disjointed. (András Schiff can also do this, and of course Schnabel, though it isn't his priority.)

Interesting ! I have a disc of Erdmann playing D. 960. He sails through it in just over 31 minutes. The average is more like 36-38 (without the repeat in I, which takes another 5). Not only is the basic tempo of I fastish, he keeps the incidents (left hand trills, pauses etc) integrated to the overall flow. Also, his take on the last movement is a devilish tarentella, a real course à l'abîme - about 2 minutes faster than every other pianist I know. Certainly a one-of-a-kind type of performance, but extremely convincing and musically satisfying.

Erdmann was a fine composer, too (symphonies etc).

[aukhawk]

Not exactly wrong geographically, but you might as well say Nice is east of Limoges and a long way south of Orleans! Lake Laffrey is actually a short way south of Grenoble. I've been there, it's a great place. 

You're right I've been confusing it with Lac Vassiviere. I've been to Laffrey too - much smaller lake, not such a remote location, classic statue of Napoleon, can't really imagine what Messiaen would see in it though.  Whereas I can imagine him responding to the moody shores of Lac Vassiviere.

Currently listening to: Vingt Regards (Pi-hsien Chen).

[North Star]

Nice!

Yes it was, Karl.

Thread-duty

Stravinsky
Violin Concerto
Baiba Skride
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thierry Fischer

[vandermolen]

Bloch: Symphony in C sharp minor:

What an ending!

[Daverz]

Haydn: Symphony No. 97 - Netherlands Radio, Jaap van Zweden



https://open.qobuz.com/album/zcbtlq0w0vvta

Recommended by Hurwitz in his "ideal" London Symphonies cycle. 

https://www.youtube.com/v/7Xcg581qlpo