What are you listening 2 now?

Started by Gurn Blanston, September 23, 2019, 05:45:22 AM

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Mirror Image

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on July 31, 2021, 07:47:42 PM
Symphony No. 1

Ultra-romantic approach to this masterpiece. I feel the first three movements like unmistakably Sibelian, but the 4th does have something of Tchaikovsky. I can't get enough of this work.



Pounds the table! And Barbirolli's interpretation is superb.

Madiel

Quote from: Mirror Image on July 31, 2021, 07:25:26 PM
I did, indeed, but looking back on it --- I shouldn't have wrote it. :)

I agree with your current incarnation rather than your previous one...

It's interesting that you connect with Holmboe's string quartets more than his symphonies, because for a lot of people it seems to be the other way around (can we talk about "a lot of people" when referring to a not-that-well-known Danish 20th century composer?).

My sympathies swing a bit. I still find with Holmboe that I frequently have to listen to a piece a couple of times when I return to it before I remember what I got out of it previously. He is such a tricky composer to grasp in my view.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

bhodges

Respighi: Feste Romane (Antonio Pappano / Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, live Jan. 23, 2007) - Just uploaded in December 2020, a live performance that captures all the exuberance. I love all three of the composer's great tone poems, but as the years go by, this one has claimed the top spot, for its orchestration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xss9poiICXQ

--Bruce

Mirror Image

Quote from: Madiel on July 31, 2021, 08:01:30 PM
I agree with your current incarnation rather than your previous one...

It's interesting that you connect with Holmboe's string quartets more than his symphonies, because for a lot of people it seems to be the other way around (can we talk about "a lot of people" when referring to a not-that-well-known Danish 20th century composer?).

My sympathies swing a bit. I still find with Holmboe that I frequently have to listen to a piece a couple of times when I return to it before I remember what I got out of it previously. He is such a tricky composer to grasp in my view.

Well, I enjoyed the later SQs, I don't remember much about the earlier ones. Yes, repeat listenings is definitely beneficial I think for Holmboe, although, sometimes, they don't always help, which is where I'm at with the symphonies right now. He's just not a composer I 'reach for' when I want to hear some Nordic music. Sibelius and Nielsen, on the other hand, are my go-to Nordic composers, although I do quite like Atterberg and enjoy a good bit of Stenhammar, Nystroem and Rangström that I've heard. In terms of more contemporary music from the northlands, Aho is becoming a favorite.

Symphonic Addict

#46144
Quote from: Mirror Image on July 31, 2021, 07:58:03 PM
Pounds the table! And Barbirolli's interpretation is superb.

Certainly. I hadn't heard the harp as prominent as in this glorious rendition and recording.
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Mirror Image

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on July 31, 2021, 08:33:14 PM
Certainly. I haven't heard the harp as prominent as in this glorious rendition and recording.

Damn, you're making me want to revisit his entire cycle!

(I'll probably end up doing this when off next week along with revisiting Tennstedt's Mahler recordings, which are a scattered mess in terms of his discography.)

Symphonic Addict

Symphony No. 9

Yet another symphony in E minor tonight. Sounds very late-Romantic in Stokowski's hands, and the kind-of-old sound provides a raw atmosphere that suits the mysterious nature of the piece. Impressive. My favorite VW symphony.

Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Mirror Image

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on July 31, 2021, 08:50:00 PM
Symphony No. 9

Yet another symphony in E minor tonight. Sounds very late-Romantic in Stokowski's hands, and the kind-of-old sound provides a raw atmosphere that suits the mysterious nature of the piece. Impressive. My favorite VW symphony.



The 9th is your favorite RVW symphony? Wow...I'll have to give it another listen. I do enjoy it, but I never listen to it for whatever reason.

Mirror Image

Last work of the night:

Vaughan Williams
Variations for Brass Band
Royal College of Music Brass Band
Brabbins



Symphonic Addict

Quote from: Mirror Image on July 31, 2021, 08:52:49 PM
The 9th is your favorite RVW symphony? Wow...I'll have to give it another listen. I do enjoy it, but I never listen to it for whatever reason.

I used to consider A London Symphony like my overall favorite, but over the last years I've come to believe that the 9th is a greater work. For me, it's VW at the height of his creative powers, even though he was at his eighties, his creativity didn't get diminished at all. I'm quite drawn to its enigmatic and granitic soundscape.
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Madiel

Quote from: Mirror Image on July 31, 2021, 08:07:32 PM
Well, I enjoyed the later SQs, I don't remember much about the earlier ones. Yes, repeat listenings is definitely beneficial I think for Holmboe, although, sometimes, they don't always help, which is where I'm at with the symphonies right now. He's just not a composer I 'reach for' when I want to hear some Nordic music. Sibelius and Nielsen, on the other hand, are my go-to Nordic composers, although I do quite like Atterberg and enjoy a good bit of Stenhammar, Nystroem and Rangström that I've heard. In terms of more contemporary music from the northlands, Aho is becoming a favorite.

Nystroem is on my to-do list. You and others are also moving Aho into consideration.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Mirror Image

#46151
Quote from: Symphonic Addict on July 31, 2021, 09:00:34 PM
I used to consider A London Symphony like my overall favorite, but over the last years I've come to believe that the 9th is a greater work. For me, it's VW at the height of his creative powers, even though he was at his eighties, his creativity didn't get diminished at all. I'm quite drawn to its enigmatic and granitic soundscape.

Very nice. If I had to pick a favorite it most definitely would be the 5th, but, over the years, I've come to regard A Pastoral Symphony as a close runner-up. I think the Pastoral Symphony often gets overlooked and people scoff at it, but it reminds me in many ways of Sibelius' 6th in that there's a hushed intensity to the music. It's almost as if both composers were somehow terribly upset about something in their lives, although we both know Vaughan Williams was probably more than anything secretly mourning those people he's seen die in the line of duty and the loss of his friend and fellow composer, George Butterworth. Anyway, both of these symphonies from RVW resonate with me the deepest. I'm also a huge fan of the 8th --- the quirkiest and perhaps even the most misunderstood of his nine symphonies.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Madiel on July 31, 2021, 09:10:18 PM
Nystroem is on my to-do list. You and others are also moving Aho into consideration.

Very nice. There's still so much Aho I've yet to hear, but will definitely be getting around to in due course.

Symphonic Addict

Brahms: Symphony No. 4

The last symphony in E minor tonight. I definitely have to admit that this fast performance made much sense to me. The slow movement is not as rushed, though. Brahms's magnum opus as you have never heard it before.

Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Que

Morning listening:



PS This took and unprecedented two months to arrive after ordering it from Europadisc...  8)
First that had issues back ordering the items I ordered, which took over month. Then after shipping the package dissapeared off the rader for three weeks, only to appear in my mail box yesterday.

I also received a notice that Dutch customs has processed an "imported package", for which I have to go a pick up point to collect it - and pay import duties.

Welcome to Brexit... It is sufficiently clear that the initial transitional "grace period" has now ended.

Que

Quote from: SonicMan46 on July 31, 2021, 08:25:42 AM
Hi Que - well, I have to agree w/ you (probably had not come on my stereo when I posted?), but the sound was intolerable - hard to believe that Kuijken and La Petite Band would have accepted that sound - fortunately, this was a MP3 DL for me and I have other performances of most of the works on that disc.  Interestingly, there is a bonus track (last listing below) of a movement NOT using a trumpet -  :laugh:  Guess that I'll consider the dust bin and see if other recordings w/ natural horns exist?  Dave :)



You're right: natural horn recordings do not exactly grow on trees...
But the cpo wind concertos series is on period instruments. I checked, and the horn concerto TWV 51 I mentioned is on volume 7 and played by Jörg Schulteß(ss). It's pretty safe to assume that he plays the natural horn, since he teaches it.

The entire series is available on Spotity.

Que

#46156


Disc 1 with Comiençan los motetes y cançiones a seys (Motets and songs in six parts) and Comiençan discantes (Discants)

From the good old days,  when Brilliant reissued recordings from the Stradivarius catalogue!  :)

vandermolen

Barber: Symphony No.1
I enjoy every work on this CD:

"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Madiel

Saint-Saens

Romance for violin, harp and organ, op.27 - about as syrupy as you could wish for
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for violin and orchestra, op.28
Piano Concerto No.3, op.29 - a very odd beginning, and I gather this is the least played of the piano concertos.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

vandermolen

Stephen Paulus: Grand Concerto for Organ and Orchestra (2004)
I read some (not very enthusiastic) discussion of this composer on the forum but still thought it was worth giving this one a go.
I've enjoyed this work. It may indeed not be 'great' music but it is still very enjoyable and, in places, moving. I shall be returning to it again:
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).