What are you listening 2 now?

[Wanderer]

.

[Que]

On Spotify:



Well sung and largely OVPP.
On the downside: rather slow, languid, and the inevitable instrumental accompaniment although nothing crazy.

Streaming music is a great invention: you can enjoy a recording for a listen, and then move on...

Q

[Mandryka]

Back to this John Tilbury interpretation of a Cornelius Cardew text score. I love it!

[Papy Oli]

Good morning all,

Listening to that one again :

Bizet - Symphony in C

[pi2000]

Enesco Oedipe from here:https://www.operapassion.com/cd1094000.html

Franck Ferrari, baryton Oedipe Sylvie Brunet, mezzo-soprano Jocaste Arutjun Kotchinian, basse Tiresias Marie-Nicole Lemieux, contralto La Sphinge Andrew Schroeder, baryton Thésée Amel Brahim-Jelloul, soprano Antigone Léonard Pezzino, tenor Laios Maria José Montiel, contralto Merope Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, tenor Le berger Enzo Capuano, basse Le grand-prêtre Harry Peeters, basse Phorbas Jérôme Varnier, basse Le veilleur Vincent Le Texier, baryton Créon

Maîtrise du Capitole (David Godfroid, chef de choeur) Chœur du Capitole (Patrick Marie Aubert, chef de chœur) Chœur de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux (Jacques Blanc, chef de chœur) Patrick Marie Aubert, Préparation chorale, Orchestre National du Capitole

Pinchas Steinberg, direction musicale oct 2008

[Que]

On Spotify:

[Biffo]

Nielsen Symphony No.5 but I consider this a great CD in all respects:

Me too. The Sibelius items came from an album that also had En Saga. For some reason it doesn't seem to have made it to CD.

[Traverso]

Bach

[aligreto]

Handel: Concerti grossi Op. 3 [Egarr]





I have not listened to any Handel in quite a long time and it was like meeting up with an old friend again. Wonderful sound and sonorities, especially the woodwinds. Tempi are brisk but steady and nothing is rushed.

[aligreto]

I'm going to have to listen to it again, as it has been awhile. Seeing your posts makes me want to ditch my other listening projects and go to Myaskovsky. 

The weight of the burden of responsibility weighs heavily on my shoulders 

[aligreto]

Hi Fergus,I did the same,probably next week I will have mine.

   

Jan, I hope that my enthusiastic descriptions of my new discovery has not led you to a hasty purchase. I doubt it because I really do like what I have heard. There has not been a substandard work so far.
Enjoy your purchase my friend.

[aligreto]

I'm not ashamed to claim that this is one of my all-time favorite compositions. I feel fully involved in its epic journey. This performance is so clean, convincing and detailed. Everything went quite well here.

A work for a desert island.

I have not heard that particular version but I would humbly endorse the sentiments with regard to the work itself.

[Biffo]

Sibelius: Scenes historiques I & II - Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste

[Traverso]

Jan, I hope that my enthusiastic descriptions of my new discovery has not led you to a hasty purchase. I doubt it because I really do like what I have heard. There has not been a substandard work so far.
Enjoy your purchase my friend.

Thank you Fergus.I'm not sure but it seems that given the prices at some sellers the set is already OOP.
There are quite a few composers who have not received any attention from me, I feel I have to make an exception for this set.
You cannot listen to everything, there would be no time left for Bach.

[aligreto]

Thank you Fergus.I'm not sure but it seems that given the prices at some sellers the set is already OOP.
There are quite a few composers who have not received any attention from me, I feel I have to make an exception for this set.
You cannot listen to everything, there would be no time left for Bach.

Indeed so, Jan, but there is always room for Bach I think 

[Mandryka]

I've had a couple of good experiences with mainstream music played in an old fashioned way this past 24 hours, I thought I was too grown up for this sort of thing, but I must still have some inner child left.

The first was with a really obscure recording of the Mozart D major string quintet , K 593, by an East German quartet called Ulbrich, someone's transferred it and put it onto symphonyshare



There's really a sense of home and journey in the adagio, and  surely I'm too sophisticated for that! But Mozart knows how to do it, and he takes you so very very far from home and then brings you back at the end quickly, but with so much class that there isn't a jolt at all. It is wonderful stuff - Mozart's king (along with Elvis and Kong.)


The second was with a live recording of the Chopin 3rd sonata by the ubiquitous Bolet, on this old CD



Bolet  uses every trick in the book to make the music catch your attention and string you along - but it's effective. It's not so much that romantic music like this is about feelings, I think. It's more that it's about being shepherded up and down by the music, tension and release, like a narrative with multiple cliffhangers. And a great performer, like Bolet could be when he was in the mood, does it so that you feel as though you're going along voluntarily, even though in fact you're being manipulated. Music is deception.

[Iota]

Strauss: The Four Last Songs sung by Soile Isokoski





Beim Schlafengehen is one of my all time favourite pieces of music ever, in any genre, and Isokoski nails it. Wonderful stuff.

Isokoski has that wonderful type of soprano voice that Strauss apparently preferred; not too "light" and not too "heavy". Mid-toned but still with body is how I would probably ignorantly and unflatteringly call it. It has the strength to deliver but retains the lighter quality that helps transcend the music into the ether. Nothing ever feels forced or unnatural in her easy flow of delivery.
The Orchestra performs wonderfully well throughout and Janowski is a fine interpreter and presenter of this music. A superb disc overall and an unhesitating recommendation.

I totally agree she's an excellent (and very lithe) singer. Hers is my favourite version of Sibelius' Luonnotar. I shall endeavour to hear that Strauss.

I'm not ashamed to claim that this is one of my all-time favorite compositions. I feel fully involved in its epic journey. This performance is so clean, convincing and detailed. Everything went quite well here.

A work for a desert island.

I was once on a forum where another member was named after Eine Alpensinfonie, a work which he was obsessed by and had about 50 recordings of I think. The slightly surprising thing was that he didn't really listen to much other Strauss, it was only that one work that really appealed to him.


Playing here:



Tippett: Symphony No.2

A symphony I find highly appealing. Hickox is excellent. Tippett really did pen some of the most lush, beautiful moments in British music I think (here and elsewhere), not something that seems to get mentioned often, in my hearing anyway. Sometimes brief, but absolutely jaw-dropping passages that speak of a very intense heart behind all the complex, cerebral language he uses when writing about his music.

[Que]

 

A pioneering HIP recording from 1979, which sounds rather antiquated...

[Traverso]

Delius

Sea Drift
Florida Suite

[Irons]

Arguably the finest Brahms Piano Quintet, Op. 34, I have ever heard.  Both driven and sensitive.  An extraordinary performance, IMO.

My favourite string quartet ensemble. As well as DG the Janacek Quartet made recordings for Decca and of course Supraphon.