What are you listening 2 now?

[Karl Henning]

Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 3 [Gewandhaus Quartet]





Thrilling and exciting music right out of the block and it is wonderfully attacked here. There is tremendous energy, excitement and forward momentum in the opening movement and the Gewandhaus Quartet gives it full reign. The Menuetto and the third movement Andante are both a wonderful contrast where grace and charm are bywords. I particularly like the Andante with its wonderful harmonies. It is a wonderful movement and all too short for me. In the final movement we largely return to the gusto that prevailed in the first, taking a few breaths along the way.

Sweet!

[Florestan]

basically if you like this music, you just get a bit more of the same so what's not to like

I think and believe Mendelssohn was a genius --- so I need this music.

[Karl Henning]

Igor Fyodorovich

Ballets, Vol. 3

Les noces

Renard

L'histoire du soldat

[Florestan]

One of my very favourite Caspar David Friedrich paintings.

Kudos, Jeffrey!

[ritter]

A bit late to the party, but following suit to Traverso's recent Messiaen binge with Yvonne Loriod's Erato recording (her second?) of Catalogue d'oiseaux ( only No. 1 through 6 today). CD 10 of the old Erato "Messiaen Edition".

[Traverso]

A bit late to the party, but following suit to Traverso's recent Messiaen binge with Yvonne Loriod's Erato recording (her second?) of Catalogue d'oiseaux ( only No. 1 through 6 today). CD 10 of the old Erato "Messiaen Edition".

Quality time Rafael.

[Karl Henning]

A first listen:

Weinberg
Symphony № 3 in b minor, Op. 45 (1949)

https://www.youtube.com/v/rYBMLgbK_l0

[Traverso]

Messiaen


After the post from ritter I felt the urge to listen to Livre 5-6 & 7
It is a really fine set and it is hard to imagine that this music is so dear to me.Whatever performance I listen to there is the feeling of a enchanting discovery. The result is that I give it a lot of attention and time at the expense of other music. This set with Aimard leaves no wish unfulfilled.
This music, which is already about 60 years old, will keep me busy for a while.

[Karl Henning]

Sibelius
Symphony № 1 in e minor, Op. 38
Symphony № 6 in d minor, Op. 104

NY Phil
Lenny

Not for the first time, I hear resonance with Tchaikovsky in the e minor symphony. Sure we can say that Sibelius "expresses" Finnish Nature in his music, and that Tchaikovsky "expresses" courtly Russia in his.  Whether or not (or the degree to which) either assertion is The Case doesn't change commonalities of musical language between the two composers.

The fact is, I hear quite a bit of material in the Andante (ma non troppo lento) which would feel perfectly at home in a Tchaikovsky score. Which detracts exactly nothing from Sibelius. There are other passages in the movement which are pure Sibelius, and completely alien to Tchaikovsky. Oh, and gosh, the opening of the Finale quasi una Fantasia is pure Tchaikovsky. I should almost wonder at the listener who doesn't perceive so.

Again, these resonances are elements which I enjoy, and denote (in my view) nothing to the discredit of either the composer or the piece.

The first I heard the Op. 104 was HvK, I remember the used-CD shop on Mt Hope Avenue in Rochester where I bought the disc (which also had the a minor Symphony) I brought a tape of that disc with me when I went to Tallinn as a volunteer English teacher.  I love the HvK account, but I like Lenny's even better.  If that be heresy, I don't want to be orthodox

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

The first I heard the Op. 104 was HvK, I remember the used-CD shop on Mt Hope Avenue in Rochester where I bought the disc (which also had the a minor Symphony) I brought a tape of that disc with me when I went to Tallinn as a volunteer English teacher.  I love the HvK account, but I like Lenny's even better.  If that be heresy, I don't want to be orthodox

Well Glory be, we were there in the same time period!  Record Archive or CD Exchange? 

[Karl Henning]

A first listen:

Weinberg
Symphony № 3 in b minor, Op. 45 (1949)

https://www.youtube.com/v/rYBMLgbK_l0

Well, and that was good!

Now:

Sibelius
Symphony № 2 in D, Op. 43
Symphony № 7 in C, Op. 105

NY Phil
Lenny

[Karl Henning]

Well Glory be, we were there in the same time period!  Record Archive or CD Exchange? 

CD Exchange, I think.

[bhodges]

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 (Hilary Hahn / Mariss Jansons / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, live in Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Nov. 26, 2000) - Probably my favorite violin concerto, performed by Hahn one day before her 21st birthday. Incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXDk1CoIRuY

--Bruce

[André]

Shebalin's 3rd Symphony, Gergiev conducting:

Shebalin's symphonies are superb !

[André]

Another go at this very absorbing program of choral works (with soloists/orchestra) by Hans Pfitzner. Das dunkle Reich is a requiem for his wife. Very moving work, not unlike the late ones Reger composed in the same genre.

[Alek Hidell]

Just started this one:



Speaking of Messiaen, it opens with the Turangalîla-Symphony, which is what I'm listening to.

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

CD Exchange, I think.

Back in the day, there weren't many late afternoons when I didn't stop in there on my way home from work! 

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

And IMO that's the greatest performance of it. I think that I heard a broadcast of it on the radio, probably in my late teens or early 20s, and had to dash out to buy it (HMV Concert Classics LP).
Here it is - my first encounter with Miaskovsky:

Thanks, Jeffrey.  You were - and are - considerably in advance of me; in my late teens I thought composers were all French and German, or Dvořák.  If you'd informed me there were Russian composers - and that they're really tremendous - it would have been news to me!   

[aligreto]

Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 19 Op. 46 [Svetlanov]





The opening movement is a really interesting sound world. Based on what has gone before I honestly do not recognise this as Miaskovsky. It is very different melodically and harmonically to me. I find it to be very intriguing and really interesting. I find that the Andante is a particularly interesting piece of music harmonically. The writing for wind instruments in particular is, once again, wonderful and very appealing.

[aligreto]

Don't forget the facial expression that aptly reflects the inner movement of the music. 

Yes, Jan, I did think of that also.