What are you listening 2 now?

[T. D.]

First-Listen Friday

Borodin
String Quartet No. 2 in D major
Borodin Quartet

Almost a cliche (it's a really popular composition), but SQ #2 is a personal favorite and one of the pieces that turned me into a classical enthusiast. I have a recording by the eponymous quartet on EMI, too lazy to check whether it's the same performance reissued on Alto.

[Irons]

Absolutely!  A justly famous In the South and Tallis Fantasia for starters!

Cards on table and against perceived opinion Silvestri's "In the South" leaves me cold.

[Roasted Swan]

Almost a cliche (it's a really popular composition), but SQ #2 is a personal favorite and one of the pieces that turned me into a classical enthusiast. I have a recording by the eponymous quartet on EMI, too lazy to check whether it's the same performance reissued on Alto.

Borodin 2nd Quartet is just gorgeous - a joy to listen to and just as delightful to play.  If I'd been able to write one of those tunes let alone a work stuffed full of them all as good as each other I'd be very happy!

[Roasted Swan]

Cards on table and against perceived opinion Silvestri's "In the South" leaves me cold.

pounds the table with jaw dropping - why?  Its positively firey I find!

[Irons]

Saygun: Viola Concerto.
Elgar: "In the South".

The Saygun Viola Concerto exceeding all expectations. I love rhythmic music and this work has rhythm in abundance. Plenty of percussive effects which is reminiscent of Lajtha. I thank posters for pointing me in the direction of this most interesting of composers.

The odd coupling can be explained by the late Turkish violaist Rusen Gunes served for eight years as principle viola for the LPO. Elgar would have become well known to him and would not have been too difficult to sell the Mediterranean inspired "In the South" to his fellow Turkish conductor Gurer Aykal. I enjoyed the rendition very much.   

[vandermolen]

Cards on table and against perceived opinion Silvestri's "In the South" leaves me cold.

But I think that his VW Tallis Fantasia, in a cathedral acoustic, is best of all.

[SonicMan46]

At the bottom, part of a post from yesterday about Joseph Woelfl - today listening to the rest of my small collection of this composer - Dave

     

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)

   

[Irons]

pounds the table with jaw dropping - why?  Its positively firey I find!

Firey it is but not sun on your back Alassio Elgar. Goes without saying IMO. My favourite recording is not the usual suspects, Adrian Boult et al but Sir Alexander Gibson - there is no accounting for taste.

[Mirror Image]

Almost a cliche (it's a really popular composition), but SQ #2 is a personal favorite and one of the pieces that turned me into a classical enthusiast. I have a recording by the eponymous quartet on EMI, too lazy to check whether it's the same performance reissued on Alto.

It certainly sounds quite good so far, but I didn't have time to finish it. I'll probably replay it over again when I get home tonight.

[Traverso]

Stravinsky/B]

Orphée

[vandermolen]

Saygun: Viola Concerto.
Elgar: "In the South".

The Saygun Viola Concerto exceeding all expectations. I love rhythmic music and this work has rhythm in abundance. Plenty of percussive effects which is reminiscent of Lajtha. I thank posters for pointing me in the direction of this most interesting of composers.

The odd coupling can be explained by the late Turkish violaist Rusen Gunes served for eight years as principle viola for the LPO. Elgar would have become well known to him and would not have been too difficult to sell the Mediterranean inspired "In the South" to his fellow Turkish conductor Gurer Aykal. I enjoyed the rendition very much.   

Most interesting.

[ritter]

Revisiting Ernst Krenek's extraordinary Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae, in the recording by the RIAS Chamber Choir led by Marcus Creed.

[VonStupp]

Firey it is but not sun on your back Alassio Elgar. Goes without saying IMO. My favourite recording is not the usual suspects, Adrian Boult et al but Sir Alexander Gibson - there is no accounting for taste.

I have been on an Elgar binge the last few days, and was considering pulling out Gibson's Elgar Overtures. They are mighty under Sir Alexander.

[VonStupp]

Listening to a podcast of "Desert Island Discs" last week thought it interesting that Yo-Yo Ma picked Jackie's famous recording of the Elgar concerto. He also chose Dame Janet in the famous eight, not Elgar but Richard Strauss and "Morgen".

Interesting...

[foxandpeng]

Such an unbelievably great cycle. Vänskä has the full measure of this music and he brought a unique sound to Sibelius that even Colin Davis' three cycles couldn't match: the haunting and crushing sound of silence. This, of course, isn't to say that Vänskä ignores those big climatic moments, but he brought out those eerie silences better than any other conductor. Other favorite Sibelians in no particular order: Segerstam, Berglund, Bernstein, Saraste and lately I've been rather taken by Maazel (on Decca with the Wiener Philharmoniker).

Ah, this is great, thank you! I am up to #6 now  and had a great day with them so far. I need to hear the rest of these cycles - Sibelius is one of the few composers who I've listened to in lots of versions. I've often listen to the Segerstam, and I have also enjoyed Rattle and Oramo and the Jarvis. Do you have thoughts on the Sakari and Inkinen cycles? I know there are so many cycles out there .

[aukhawk]

If you only listen to cycles you will never hear Karajan

[VonStupp]

Edward Elgar
Enigma Variations, op. 36
Alassio Overture, op. 50
Introduction and Allegro, op. 47
Sospiri, op. 70
Vienna PO - Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Spinning now:

I was always mystified by Vienna's series of recordings with Gardiner. Their Lehár collaboration was well received, but his recordings of Mendelssohn, Chabrier, Bruckner, and this Elgar, a rather 'dark' rendering of Enigma, were a strange assortment to me.

These, I think, were around the time of his Beethoven with the ORR and another collaboration with the NDR.

[Roasted Swan]

Edward Elgar
Enigma Variations, op. 36
Alassio Overture, op. 50
Introduction and Allegro, op. 47
Sospiri, op. 70
Vienna PO - Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Spinning now:

I was always mystified by Vienna's series of recordings with Gardiner. Their Lehár collaboration was well received, but his recordings of Mendelssohn, Chabrier, Bruckner, and this Elgar, a rather 'dark' rendering of Enigma, were a strange assortment to me.

These, I think, were around the time of his Beethoven with the ORR and another collaboration with the NDR.

Is the Enigma "dark-interesting" or "dark-to-be-cast-into-forever".  he's such a chilly personality Gardiner (I know that from friends and colleagues who work in the HIP world a lot) that I just don't hear him engaging with Elgar.  His Lehar was OK because it was the VPO who can't play Lehar badly.

[VonStupp]

Is the Enigma "dark-interesting" or "dark-to-be-cast-into-forever".  he's such a chilly personality Gardiner (I know that from friends and colleagues who work in the HIP world a lot) that I just don't hear him engaging with Elgar.  His Lehar was OK because it was the VPO who can't play Lehar badly.

Dark, I think, because he has the VPO strings on hand. I could probably level the same effect on Enigma from James Levine and the Berlin PO from around the same time, oddly paired with Debussy's Images. Interesting mostly for their differences from the standards, rather than versions to live with.

[SonicMan46]

Well, a small package from BRO w/ an assortment of bargain CDs, first two up:

Bortkiewicz, Sergei (1877-1952) - Piano Concertos 2 & 3 w/ Stefan Doniga and David Porcelijn/Janacek PO; don't own much by this composer (PC No. 1, Piano Music, & Symphony 1/2) but the attached reviews and the price were hard to resist!

Shostakovich, Dmitri (1906-1975) - Violin Concertos w/ Alina Ibragimova and a Russian conductor/orchestra - great reviews also attached; just have one other older recording of these works with Lydia Mordkovitch and Jarvi/Scottish NO.  Dave