What are you listening 2 now?

[Karl Henning]

Morten Lauridsen: O Magnum Mysterium (Kings College Choir, Cambridge, 2009) - This composer's most famous work, and for good reason. Among many fine versions, recorded and online, this one ranks with the best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KvrbYZB2vY

--Bruce

It's a fine piece (He says (free of any resentment for the fact that there is still not much oxygen in the room for his own choral music.)

[Karl Henning]

Dvořák
String Quartet № 1 in A, Op. 2 / B. 8
Stamitz Quartet

Symphony № 1 in c minor, B. 9 « Zlonické zvony »
Cz Phil
Neumann

I've not listened to The Bells of Zlonice in a long time. Without meaning any slight to Maestro Kertész (whose rec is the only other I have listened to) I enjoyed it thoroughly, this go. No reason at all for the composer to have withheld it from publication (or did a publisher turn it down?)

[aligreto]

Victoria: Missa Pro Defunctis [Noone/Ensemble Plus Ultra]





This is a full sounding delivery in a very good recording.

[Karl Henning]

Victoria: Missa Pro Defunctis [Noone/Ensemble Plus Ultra]





This is a full sounding delivery in a very good recording.

Gorgeous!

[aligreto]

Tchaikovsky, Peter (1840-1893) - String Quartets & String Sextet w/ Quatuor Danel - a new acquisition and recording (2014/15) - now I already own the older Borodin Quartet shown below (from 1993) and will keep, but this new set received some excellent reviews, which are attached for those interested.  Dave

 

Cheers Dave,
I own and enjoy the Borodin set but I have not heard the Danel set.

[aligreto]

Gorgeous!

Verily 

[VonStupp]

Sir William Walton
Symphony 2
&
Constant Lambert
Rio Grande
Christina Ortiz-piano
LSO - André Previn (1973)

Concerto for Piano & 9 Players
English Sinfonia - Neville Dilkes (1975)
&
Elegiac Blues, Elegy, Old Sir Faulk (arr. Bennett)
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett - piano

Why don't I listen to Walton's 2nd Symphony more? Most captivating are his orchestrations for the more relaxed, atmospheric portions; all sorts of fun textures and sounds. I know Szell is the reference recording, but Previn sounds great too!

I am not too familiar with the music of Constant Lambert; he sounds a bit like Darius Milhaud. Rio Grande is odd - a piano concertante piece with chorus singing to the poetry of Sacheverell Sitwell? I will be interested in revisiting the Concerto, which seems to lie towards Stravinsky.

[Karl Henning]

Dvořák
Symphonic Variations, Op. 78 / B. 70
Cz Phil
Neumann

[Symphonic Addict]

The whole CD once again. The word fun falls short of how completely entertaining these works are.

[Symphonic Addict]

Delighted that you also think highly of Diamond's First Symphony Cesar. It is a fabulous work and I also like 'The Enormous Room'.

Of course, Jeffrey. I really enjoy the first four symphonies which are more approachable than the next ones.

[Daverz]

Sir William Walton
Symphony 1 in b-flat minor

Ralph Vaughan Williams
The Wasps: Overture

LSO - André Previn (1966 & 1971)

A world beater, for sure.

There have been some pretty good recordings since (e.g. Karabits, Ashkenazy, Litton are pretty good), but Previn/RCA is still tops. 

TD: Schubert Symphonies 5 & 8

[André]

Symphonies 4-8. A big letdown after a highly controversial but most interesting Eroica. There's little of interest here, save perhaps the slow movements of 4 and 7. Thielemann manages to make the 5th sound utterly ordinary and vulgar (in the last movement). His previous recording of 5 and 7 (Philharmonia Orchestra, DG) was far bolder and more convincing than these mannered, listless performances. The countless agogic and rythmic liberties in all movements are eyebrow-raising to be sure, but to what end ? Maybe the 9th will respond better to this treatment (tomorrow's listening). Be that as it may, it won't be enough to salvage this set from being swiftly culled.

[Karl Henning]

Dvořák
String Quartet № 2 in B^b, Op. 4 / B. 17
Stamitz Quartet

[Carlo Gesualdo]

Hello, ya wanna know what I'm listening don't ya boy, well what about my morbid fascination (joking) for everything Alphonso X El Sabio, I download a cheap version mp3  on presto of Alphonso X El Sabio, the label is apex, yet ,What a sound , it has a blueprint of marcel pérès or Bjorn Smeltzer and his ensemble: graindelavoix,, it remind me of Mozarabic chants, even if it's cantiguas de Santa-Maria.

cool 

[JBS]

Currently


First listen.
I don't ever remember hearing the Britten played with this much of an emotional charge.  The Bliss as well (although I have heard the Bliss only a couple of times before this, possibly never before).

Or it might just be my mood, of course.
Recorded in London in January 2020, so before the Lockdowns.

[Symphonic Addict]

Simpson: Symphony No. 6
Henze: Symphony No. 8

The Simpson is quite something, and this performance confirmed the quality of the work. Powerful, cohesive, intense.

I don't listen to Henze that often, but when I pick the right work, I get astounded by his acerbic-but-approachable sound world, as in this case.

[Mirror Image]

Dvořák
String Quartet № 1 in A, Op. 2 / B. 8
Stamitz Quartet

Symphony № 1 in c minor, B. 9 « Zlonické zvony »
Cz Phil
Neumann

I've not listened to The Bells of Zlonice in a long time. Without meaning any slight to Maestro Kertész (whose rec is the only other I have listened to) I enjoyed it thoroughly, this go. No reason at all for the composer to have withheld it from publication (or did a publisher turn it down?)

Fantastic, Karl! To answer your question, you may find it here:

http://www.antonin-dvorak.cz/en/symphony1

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Glazunov
Symphony No. 2 in F-sharp, Op. 16
USSR Ministry of Culture SO
Rozhdestvensky

[Mirror Image]

Last work of the night:

Arnold
Concerto for Two Pianos (3 Hands), Op. 104
David Nettle, Richard Markham (pianos)
Royal PO
Handley

From this set -

[Madiel]

I'm with you there.  And that is why - although I do like those 3rd and 4th Concertos as performed and recorded by Perahia and Haitink, I was very pleased to discover this recent recording of the 'Emperor' by Bezuidenhout with Heras-Casado and the Freiburger Barockorchester, which deflates the music of much of its pomposity and makes it almost sound like something that Haydn could have written in his last years.  (Haydn died, in Vienna, in 1809, the same year that Beethoven started work on this Concerto - in Vienna.)


Beethoven, Piano Concerrtos 2 & 5; Bezuidenhout, Heras-Casado

I will check it out. Although a fortepiano makes me wary.