What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

I have that set and Yes there is a click right at the end of the last movement, a couple of seconds after everything - including the hall ambience - has faded to silence.

Thank you very much! I appreciate it. As I mentioned, I'm glad it came at the end of everything.

[North Star]

Strauss
Deutsche Motette, Op. 62
Jane Archibald (soprano), Dagmar Pecková (alto), Eric Soklossa (tenor), Robert Gleadow (baritone)
Accentus Chamber Choir, Latvian Radio Choir
Laurence Equilbey

[bhodges]

Strauss
Deutsche Motette, Op. 62
Jane Archibald (soprano), Dagmar Pecková (alto), Eric Soklossa (tenor), Robert Gleadow (baritone)
Accentus Chamber Choir, Latvian Radio Choir
Laurence Equilbey

Ooooh, they are so good. I was just listening to them in Ligeti's Lux Aeterna earlier today.

I am guessing this is at least "not bad"? [/joke]

--Bruce

[Mirror Image]

If you look at the last couple of seconds of the sound file in Audacity, you can see the click right there at the end:

Yes, indeed.

[North Star]

Ooooh, they are so good. I was just listening to them in Ligeti's Lux Aeterna earlier today.

I am guessing this is at least "not bad"? [/joke]

--Bruce

It's utterly wonderful, Bruce, I'd urge you to hear it sooner rather than later. Unsurprisingly, listening to the Zwei gesänge Op. 34 that conclude this short but sweet album.

[Mirror Image]

First-Listen Tuesday

Strauss
Ariadne auf Naxos, Op. 60
Ian Thompson (tenor), Michael Howard (tenor), Albert Dohmen (baritone), Sami Luttinen (bass), Christoph Genz (tenor), Eva Kirchner (soprano), Andris Liepa (contralto), Stephan Genz (baritone), Romuald Pekny (speaker), Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano), Jürgen Commichau (bass), Christiane Hossfeld (mezzo-soprano), Ben Heppner (tenor), Natalie Dessay (soprano), Deborah Voigt (soprano)
Staatskapelle Dresden
Sinopoli

[bhodges]

It's utterly wonderful, Bruce, I'd urge you to hear it sooner rather than later. Unsurprisingly, listening to the Zwei gesänge Op. 34 that conclude this short but sweet album.

Mmm, thank you. I'm a big Strauss fan, but don't think I've heard any of these pieces, certainly no more than once. (And sorry, didn't mean to overlook Accentus! I was noticing the Latvians.)

Most people I know are relieved at the Chauvin verdict, announced just now. I don't exactly feel like breaking out champagne (it doesn't feel like a moment for "celebration"), but some choral music might do the trick.

--Bruce

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

Recommends for Gesualdo's Books IV-VI earnestly solicited and greatly appreciated :

[North Star]

Recommends for Gesualdo's Books IV-VI earnestly solicited and greatly appreciated :

La Venexiana and La Compagnia del Madrigale.
     

[JBS]

Landed this afternoon, now a first listen


This was recorded in 2014 but only released now for no reason I can detect.
The liner notes mention a recording with the Royal Philharmonic made in 2017 that seems to be unreleased, with works by Poulenc, Shostakovich, Martin, and Aryeh Levanon.

[North Star]

Schulhoff
Cinq études de jazz, WV 81
Second Suite for piano, WV 71
Elf Inventionen, WV 57
Hot music: Zehn synkopierte Etüden, WV 92
Kathryn Stott

[Mirror Image]

Schulhoff
Cinq études de jazz, WV 81
Second Suite for piano, WV 71
Elf Inventionen, WV 57
Hot music: Zehn synkopierte Etüden, WV 92
Kathryn Stott

"Hot Music" indeed. A great disc.

[Mirror Image]

I'm still listening to Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos (w/ Sinopoli et. al.) and enjoying it immensely sans the narration in the Prologue, but this isn't why I'm making this post...

I want to post my review of the new Berg Tilson Thomas recording:



Title: An All Berg Program From MTT But With Mixed Results

First, let me get the negatives out of the way first since no one apparently likes to read a complaint these days, but the performances of the "Violin Concerto" and "Seven Early Songs" are to be found in better performances elsewhere. I never have been a huge fan of Gil Shaham's violin playing as great technically as he may be, I think he missed the boat interpretatively in Berg's "Violin Concerto". The main problem is Shaham doesn't dig into the music enough here to devastate the listener or, at least, this listener. This concerto was "Written in memory of angel", but this doesn't come across here. Everything is pristine, well-paced, but it's not psychologically gripping as Berg should be. Anyway, Shaham isn't the violinist for the job. My two go-to performances here are Mutter/Levine on DG and Faust/Abbado on Harmonia Mundi. I think both of these performances get inside the music and leave the listener a bit uncomfortable. "Seven Early Songs" is well-enough sung here from Susanna Phillips and, again like Shaham, there's no questioning how technically superb she is, but there's more to Berg than this and I'll continue to return to Norman/Boulez on Sony and Otter/Abbado on DG. I do want to mention that Tilson Thomas' accompaniment is quite good, but it could be more edgier and responsive to what the soloist is doing rather than just beating time on the podium. I think what really stands out here are the "Three Pieces for Orchestra". Now, this is where I think Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra come alive. This is a gripping performance and it does make me question why couldn't this kind of attention and excitement be in the "Seven Early Songs" and "Violin Concerto"? Was Tilson Thomas asleep at the wheel during these performances? I don't know, but he really gets inside the "Three Pieces for Orchestra" --- all of the eeriness, Expressionistic distortion and maniacal delusion are here in all their splendor. This performance doesn't quite reach the same level as Karajan's incredible Berliner performance on DG or Boulez's performance with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on Sony (originally Columbia), but it certainly gets close.

Allow me to add that the fidelity of this recording is outstanding. Anyway, I'll give this 3-stars for the "Three Pieces for Orchestra", but the weaker performances of the "Violin Concerto" and "Seven Early Songs" keep me from giving it a full 5-star rating as I don't think Shaham and Phillips were interpretatively that interesting.

[bhodges]

Dvořák: Symphony No. 6 (Witold Rowicki / London Symphony Orchestra) - Love the piece, first time hearing this recording. Still give a slight edge to von Dohnányi and Cleveland, for sheer magnificence, but this one (from 1965) has a lot of pizzazz and charm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqx_f2yualE

--Bruce

[André]

I haven't heard Haitink's Berlin performance, but I have his Amsterdam (1966), Chicago (2009) and now Munich (2016) ones. The old RCOA Philips interpretation has always been a favourite, magnificently played and smartly conducted, in impeccable sonics. Over the years Haitink's focus seems to have shifted from a first movement-oriented performance to a last movement one. In Chicago the first movement is rather objective, even a mite staid. It's obvious both conductor and orchestra can deliver the goods, but Haitink's sights are firmly set on the last 3 movements. The finale is the thing and the chicagoans are in a trance. Magnificent, but hampered by this overly objective first movement.

In Munich Haitink seems to have developed a slightly different conception, whereas the first movement becomes a symphony unto itself and the other 5 movements gradually develop another sonic edifice that culminates with the Adagio finale. The first movement's marches and extroverted moments get their due but again Haitink makes sure everything remains tightly integrated. It's that movement's slow portions, mysterious, lambent, questing, nocturnal that acquire a new stature. Mesmerizing.

The difference in orchestral culture between Chicago and Munich is absolutely striking here. With the BRSO you not only hear the notes, but you experience a wealth of dynamic shading, a transparency and an ability to project the music's 'notes beyond the notes' that are simply magical. The solo posthorn (a real one) is lambently sounded over the orchestra, as if in a recollection. The english horn in the 4th movement (O Mensch)  has that slight upward glissando that has been introduced in performance by Berthold Goldschmidt and taken up by Rattle and a few other conductors.  It's very subtly done here, as perfectly as it possibly could (it can sound crass if overdone). The finale displays a range of dynamic shading and terracing, a transparency of textures that I have never heard before. Maybe more ardent in Chicago, more luminous, transcendent in Munich.

This may well be Haitink's most perfectly conceived and executed performance of the work, and certainly the most transparently recorded - the sound is stunning in its naturalness.

[JBS]

CD 1

[Symphonic Addict]

NP:

Shostakovich
Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43
Moscow Philharmonics Symphony Orchestra
Kondrashin



Yikes! One does have to admire the sheer visceral quality of this music. The music goes for the throat.

I thought you were done with Shostakovich these days. 

[Symphonic Addict]

Francisco Mignone



Gosh this is good stuff.

+1

Maracatu de Chico Rei is the best piece there IMO.

[Symphonic Addict]

Kalnins: Symphony No.6 (2001)
My favourite recent musical discovery:

The complete symphonies! I was waiting for that set.

[Symphonic Addict]

First-Listen Tuesday

Strauss
Ariadne auf Naxos, Op. 60
Ian Thompson (tenor), Michael Howard (tenor), Albert Dohmen (baritone), Sami Luttinen (bass), Christoph Genz (tenor), Eva Kirchner (soprano), Andris Liepa (contralto), Stephan Genz (baritone), Romuald Pekny (speaker), Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano), Jürgen Commichau (bass), Christiane Hossfeld (mezzo-soprano), Ben Heppner (tenor), Natalie Dessay (soprano), Deborah Voigt (soprano)
Staatskapelle Dresden
Sinopoli

An incredibly enchanting opera. I don't have that recording, but with Sinopoli on the podium it must be sheer decadence.