What are you listening 2 now?

[Irons]

Moeran: Symphony in G Minor (English Sinfonia/Dilkes)
The CD manifestation of my first encounter with this great symphony in the days of LP:

Cracking CD, Jeffrey. I would not be without Boult or Dilkes in the Symphony as they are quite different but prefer the lighter approach of Dilkes.

Sally Beamish: The King's Alchemist.

I can't think of many works by English contemporary composers I like but this I very much do, a gem. The subject of the work is a true historical figure, John Damian, who Beamish casts in the mould of Elgar's Falstaff and Richard Strauss' Don Quixote. Damian is a nutcase. My only criticism, at only 10.45 I wish the Trio was longer.

[foxandpeng]

Hilding Rosenberg
Symphony 3
Gothenburg SO

Shostakovich
SQ 12
BorodinQuartet

I connected to Rosenberg some years ago and was a bit stuck with YouTube until I found these. Nice start to Saturday along with some more Shostakovich SQ 12, which is now finding a place in my head. Zoo with adult offspring and their tribes, soon.

[Traverso]

 Ravel

CD5

I have a preference for Martinon and Haitink in these works.Dutoit is in comparison a bit cold.

[Que]

[Papy Oli]

Starting the full Gardiner Cantata cycle in earnest

Planning one volume a week, not more. maybe less  0:)

Vol.1

[steve ridgway]

Scelsi - Chukrum and Xenakis - Hibiki Hana Ma while doing exercises earlier.

[Traverso]

Bartók

String Quartet No.4

[vers la flamme]

Stefan Wolpe: String Quartet. The Group for Contemporary Music

A fascinating atonal/serial work from the late 1960s, near the end of the composer's life. Dedicated to the Juilliard Quartet. I've heard very little from Wolpe, but I do find him an intriguing composer. A student of Anton Webern, and a teacher to Morton Feldman, among others. Though this is part of the "American Classics" series of Naxos, I'm not sure whether it's really fair of us Americans to claim Wolpe, an Austrian German national, as one of our own, but maybe others can weigh in here. I believe he was based out of New York for much of his career.

[Traverso]

Ligeti

Some of Ligeti's music is like a veil behind which you can hear the music of the past.

[Karl Henning]

I yet have to finish this cycle. Thus far No. 4 has been the least appealing to me.

Yesterday I revisited the Toch pf quintet, which is a beauty!

TD:

CD 9

Bartók Contrasts, Sz. 111

Skalkottas, Octet

Skalkottas, Vars on a Greek Theme

Khatchaturian, Trio cl/vn/pf

Prokofiev

Ov on Hebrew Themes, Op.34

[steve ridgway]

Ligeti

Plenty of music I like on there. I'm glad he managed to emigrate to a country that would let him use notes outside of the standard keys.

[vers la flamme]

George Frederick McKay: From a Moonlit Ceremony. John McLaughlin Williams, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine

Inspired by another poster's listening to this disc the other day I ordered a copy (for something like $4 shipping included). So far so good. Very melodic music in an early modern/post-Romantic, early 20th century vein. As I may have mentioned, American composers from this generation and style don't always click with me, but I am enjoying this.

[Mirror Image]

I imagined you might have fingers in most of the Sibelius pies  . Good to hear your perspective. Some years ago, I acquired the Sibelius Edition for the very reason that so much wonderful Sibelius exists outside his symphonies. I remember being introduced to King Kristian and Swanwhite Suites, Oceanides, Tapiola, Wood Nymph, the VC ... as a new father to help me pace the floors in the small hours. Having it all in one place in more recent years has been great.

I enjoy Nielsen too, although I'm less familiar with his non-symphonic output. I think Sibelius is more embedded in the British unconscious because of works like Finlandia, which have tended to appear as TV theme tunes. I particularly like Nielsen 5 and 2, but as is my perennial reality, I have much catching up to do!

I have to say that BIS's The Sibelius Edition is one of the most remarkable documents in recorded history. The box set that surprised me the most was the Songs set and this is because I wasn't expecting his songs to be as good as they are, but they are damn good. His chamber music is pretty good, but I still say that the Voces intimae, Op. 56 is the must-hear work in this part of his oeuvre. By the way, congratulations on becoming a father!

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Copland
Music for a Great City
LSO
Copland

[Brian]

As for Oramo and Inkinen, I find them to be below average.

I agree on the whole but must put in a kind word for Inkinen's Seventh, one of the verrrry few recordings to get the final 10 seconds correctly balanced so you can hear that the strings are playing four notes, not two.

[Mirror Image]

I agree on the whole but must put in a kind word for Inkinen's Seventh, one of the verrrry few recordings to get the final 10 seconds correctly balanced so you can hear that the strings are playing four notes, not two.

Hmmm...Inkinen recorded the symphonies twice, but I'm assuming you're referring to the New Zealand cycle on Naxos. Anyway, I've got to do some comparative listening of this Inkinen performance and another performance to hear what you mean.

[Harry]

Tuomas Kantelinen.

The Snow Queen.
A Ballet Suite.

Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Tuomas Kantelinen.
World Premiere at the Finnish National Ballet on 23-11-2012.

I must have played this disc at least 12 times or more in just a couple of months. It shows how much I like this disc. It ranks supreme at the top of my fav list this year.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Martinů
Musique de Chambre No. 1, H. 376
Holst Sinfonietta
Klaus Simon

[Harry]

Sparre Olsen.
Complete Piano Music.
Oyvind Aase, Piano.




Another disc that haunts me too. I really cannot get away to long from this music. It simple appeals to all my senses, and gives me something unique, tangible and yet not. It draws me in and keeps me firmly on track, no deviations at all, no attraction can lure me away, when I am in I am in. What a kaleidoscope of colours it is.

[VonStupp]

Edward Elgar
The Music Makers, op. 69
Froissart Overture, op. 19
Dream Children, op. 43

Johann Sebastian Bach
Fantasia & Fugue in c minor, BWV 537
  orch. Elgar, op. 86

Jane Irwin, soprano
Hallé Orchestra & Choir - Sir Mark Elder

Ha ha! What a gas Elgar's orchestration to BWV 537 is! If you are a Bach purist stay far away, but it is an orchestral riot!

I am unfamiliar with The Music Makers, a sort-of Elgar 'Greatest Hits' morphed into a choral cantata with soloist. Very interesting at its least and the Hallé Choir is excellent.

I also realized I didn't have Froissart anymore (I am unsure what happened to my cherished Sir Alexander Gibson that I was looking for yesterday). Elgar's symphonic voice is so spontaneous, and that is what I love about his orchestral music.