What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

I really like the The Miraculous Mandarin.I remember   vividly a television broadcast of this ballet with Antal Dorati, it was very impressive.

This ballet is so outrageous and over-the-top, but it's always been a favorite of mine. I bet that Dorati performance was impressive, indeed.

[Irons]

What a bizarre combination of works!

Relieved not just me thought that although I'm intrigued. The CD did indeed arrive so soon to find out!

[Harry]

Sergei Bortkiewicz.

Piano Music.
Volume III.

Quatre Morceaux, opus 65.
Impressions, opus 4.
Dix Etudes, opus 14.
Sonata No. 1, opus 9.

Klaas Trapman, Piano.

As a composer Bortkiewicz has risen very high with me already. Started with his Violin concerto towards his Symphonies, and now his piano music which crowns it all. What a visionary man he was. His piano music is comparable with Chopin, and he walks on roads Chopin never did, but with the same fantastic results. No matter which piece you take, its full of charm, intellect, and a talent for shaping well balanced melodies. Klaas Trapman is a master in displaying Bortkiewicz's art, and he does so with great care and insight. I hope he will record the considerable rest of his piano works too. I would even sponsor it if the question came.
Very well recorded too.

[Papy Oli]

Bach - Trio Sonatas for Organ No.4, No.5, No.6 (M-C Alain)

[Sergeant Rock]

Continuing with op.87, disc 2 (11-17)




Sarge

[Traverso]

Shostakovich & Tchaikovsky

Saw this one pass by

[Karl Henning]

Boulez directing the CSO in Bartók, this morning and afternoon.

[Brian]

The GMG album of the week, apparently:



Very very cool. In a way, Kastalsky uses the orchestra the way that many orchestral composers use the percussion: as a series of gentle color effects and touches in the background of the main music. The chorus is very much in charge, but there are vibrant little bits of harp, celesta, piano, organ, oboe, etc. solos alongside them. The "Interludium" is a fascinating little piece with no singing and probably the all time record holder for Quietest Cymbal Crashes.

Overall, the Requiem is nowhere near as gloomy or dramatic as comparable works by Rachmaninov, Verdi, etc. It's not full of unforgettable tunes or moments, either. But it is spectacularly beautiful and full of fascinating things and wow am I glad I gave it a try. Heck of a piece. Maybe the cheesy Calibri cover typeface scared away mainstream critics. Totally worthy of repeated listening.

EDIT: There are not-so-subtle quotes of both the "Dies Irae" and Chopin's funeral march.
EDIT 2: Wow, that ending 

[Symphonic Addict]

The GMG album of the week, apparently:



Very very cool. In a way, Kastalsky uses the orchestra the way that many orchestral composers use the percussion: as a series of gentle color effects and touches in the background of the main music. The chorus is very much in charge, but there are vibrant little bits of harp, celesta, piano, organ, oboe, etc. solos alongside them. The "Interludium" is a fascinating little piece with no singing and probably the all time record holder for Quietest Cymbal Crashes.

Overall, the Requiem is nowhere near as gloomy or dramatic as comparable works by Rachmaninov, Verdi, etc. It's not full of unforgettable tunes or moments, either. But it is spectacularly beautiful and full of fascinating things and wow am I glad I gave it a try. Heck of a piece. Maybe the cheesy Calibri cover typeface scared away mainstream critics. Totally worthy of repeated listening.

EDIT: There are not-so-subtle quotes of both the "Dies Irae" and Chopin's funeral march.
EDIT 2: Wow, that ending 

Good to see you have enjoyed it very much too. Yes, the ending is majestic. A most inspiring way to finish a heavenly work. Another striking discovery in this year to me.

[André]

I didn't care much for the concerto. Rouse's own notes point to the aleatoric nature of its composition (he even rolled dice repeatedly to decide on if and when to change the work's character as he went along - really bizarre). The other two works though are darkly impressive, post-romantic, post-bergian stuff that demanded (and got) repeated hearings.

[ritter]

In the car, on the way back from the Fernand Léger exhibition I saw today, I revisited Arthur Honegger's Skating Rink (a ballet originally produced by Rolf de Maré's Ballets Suédois, with sets and costumes by Léger):

[asin]B000004A3T[/asin]
The favourable impression this piece made on me when I first listened to it some six years ago has not quite been repeated this time around. It's a perpetuum mobile which is enjoyable, but must only really work fully staged. The drive was too short to listen to the other works on the CD. The performance by the Orchestra della Radio Svizzera Italiana under Marc Andreae is beyond reproach.

[VonStupp]

Edward Elgar
The Black Knight, op. 25
From the Bavarian Highlands, op. 27
LSO & Chorus - Sir Richard Hickox

The Black Knight
Elgar's 'choral symphony' shows really strong choral writing for an early work, although his symphonic voice is not too shabby either. His love of storytelling, here with a dark, gruesome tale, is in full bloom.

This sounds more like a cantata to my ears, rather than a four-movement choral symphony. The LSO is great all around, but I have not heard Sir Charles Groves on EMI to compare.

From the Bavarian Highlands
A true choral work, these six orchestrated pieces sound like Elgar really knew Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms' way with a chorus.

Hickox is a little heavy compared to Norman Del Mar, but these are well worth knowing beyond the Three Bavarian Dances they are more famously known.

[Traverso]

Schönberg

[Karl Henning]

Good to see you have enjoyed it very much too. Yes, the ending is majestic. A most inspiring way to finish a heavenly work. Another striking discovery in this year to me.

I need to check that one out, apparently

[Traverso]

Arnold Bax

Symphony No.3

[SonicMan46]

Well back from a 3 day vacation in the North Carolina Mountains (Blowing Rock) and ready to hear some music! 

Woelfl, Joseph (1773-1812) - Piano Music w/ the performers on the cover art. See portion of bio quoted below - Woelfl (or Wölfl) studied with Leopold Mozart (and likely his daughter, Nannerl) and Michael Haydn in Salzburg.  He was a virtuoso pianist w/ large hands who competed w/ LvB in Vienna; also, a prolific composer w/ over 500-600 compositions, mostly unpublished and unrecorded (Source); partial list of his oeuvre HERE - reviews of these recordings attached.  Dave

Woelfl was born in Salzburg, where he studied music under Leopold Mozart and Michael Haydn. He first appeared in public as a soloist on the violin at the age of seven. Moving to Vienna in 1790 he visited Wolfgang Mozart and may have taken lessons from him. Woelfl was very tall (over 6 feet), and with an enormous finger span (his hand could strike a thirteenth, according to his contemporary Václav Tomášek); he had a 'piano duel' w/ Beethoven in the late 1790s, some saying a draw? (Source, edited)

   

[Que]

Well back from a 3 day vacation in the North Carolina Mountains (Blowing Rock) and ready to hear some music! 

Woelfl, Joseph (1773-1812) - Piano Music w/ the performers on the cover art. See portion of bio quoted below - Woelfl (or Wölfl) studied with Leopold Mozart (and likely his daughter, Nannerl) and Michael Haydn in Salzburg.  He was a virtuoso pianist w/ large hands who competed w/ LvB in Vienna; also, a prolific composer w/ over 500-600 compositions, mostly unpublished and unrecorded (Source); partial list of his oeuvre HERE - reviews of these recordings attached.  Dave

   

A nice and interesting composer that crossed my path through the fortepiano sonatas set by Colladant.
Later added the recording of the string quartets.

   

[vandermolen]

Arnold Bax

Symphony No.3

A magnificent symphony.

[vandermolen]

Each year when renewal comes up, the subscription fails to renew and you have to post in the News/Announcements board. I've learned this the hard way several years in a row. Eventually each time, Rob sees it and takes my money and restores my subscription.

Ah, OK that's helpful.
Many thanks - I thought it renewed automatically.

[Traverso]

A magnificent symphony.

It sure is, it's the first time I'm listening to this symphony and it's surprisingly enjoyable. I have this set at home for quite a while and tonight I thought that it was time to listen to one of these symphonies. I did choose  luckily .    

The performance,( I have no knowledge of others) is really very fine.