What are you listening 2 now?

[foxandpeng]

L V Beethoven
Symphony #5
Complete Symphonies
Christian Thielemann
Wiener Philharmoniker

[vandermolen]

🙂

Good to know, Jeffrey, thank you. I will look out the Bernstein/Jarvi to get a better handle on the #3, in that case! I hope to slowly acquaint myself far better with Harris alongside other listening projects.

Happy listening with the Cohn. I like him 🙂

Different place for the thread duty...

Giya Kancheli
Liturgy (Mourned by the Wind)
Djansung Khakhidze
Tbilisi SO
Cugate Classics

'Mourned by the Wind' is excellent - great title too.

[VonStupp]

In many respects, I have to say that I prefer Penderecki's chamber music to his more well-known orchestral and choral works.

I haven't actively sought out Penderecki's symphonic choral music in some time, so I thought I would take out his Credo later today for a refresh. I know Antoni Wit has done quite a survey on Naxos.

Krzysztof Penderecki
Credo

Marietta Simpson, Thomas Quasthoff, et al.
Oregon Bach Festival Orch. & Choir - Helmuth Rilling

[Mandryka]

I started to listen to Bach's first keyboard partita, I've not heard it in a long time, it's a sort of warhorse. And it suddenly occurred to me that this of all the partitas owes most to Kuhnau. All those piano players who enjoy having a go at the B flat major partita on their instrument should investigate the Neuer Clavier Übung.

[Traverso]

Messiaen & Boulez   

Trois petites liturgies de la Présence divine

Rituel

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Thoroughly enjoyed this CD!  I allowed myself the time to sit down on my sofa and listen to it through my 'good system'.  Truthfully, I didn't think that I would be in the mood to listen to the Haro-Janos Suite so soon after listening to another version of it, but, thankfully, I was wrong.    I had made the mistake of watching too much CNN lately (particularly re Afghanistan) and was feeling a bit overwhelmed.  This did the trick.  Amazing to hear the cimbalom coming through so clearly, and yes, as André had said earlier, the acoustics and performances were wonderful.

Psalmus Hungaricus was new to me.  These days, I don't often listen to choral works, but I did enjoy it and found it to be really wells sung (in German with Ernst Haefliger, tenor and the Chorus der St. Hedwigs Kathedrale).  The stereo work (HJS) sounded surpurb (fun to be able to hear the instruments so distinctly including the cimbalom), but the mono works sounded great too.  The Dances of Marosszek was lush and full-sounding (making me think of Ravel's Sheherazade whilst listening to it).

Oh, and I had forgotten that in the DG Original's series that DG included photos and other information next to them in their booklet (which I had missed earlier).  All of the recordings were made at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in either the 1950's or 1960's.

Very nice liner notes about Fricsay and the importance of not just his recordings but in him also exposing these works to others through his performances of them, the importance of where he had studied (The Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest where Kodaly had taught composition for more than three decades), etc.  The one thing which they didn't do however was to discuss the works themselves--which I would have loved for them to have done.

In any event:  an excellent CD.  If you don't already own it, go for it! 

PD

[Traverso]

Thoroughly enjoyed this CD!  I allowed myself the time to sit down on my sofa and listen to it through my 'good system'.  Truthfully, I didn't think that I would be in the mood to listen to the Haro-Janos Suite so soon after listening to another version of it, but, thankfully, I was wrong.    I had made the mistake of watching too much CNN lately (particularly re Afghanistan) and was feeling a bit overwhelmed.  This did the trick.  Amazing to hear the cimbalom coming through so clearly, and yes, as André had said earlier, the acoustics and performances were wonderful.

Psalmus Hungaricus was new to me.  These days, I don't often listen to choral works, but I did enjoy it and found it to be really wells sung (in German with Ernst Haefliger, tenor and the Chorus der St. Hedwigs Kathedrale).  The stereo work (HJS) sounded surpurb (fun to be able to hear the instruments so distinctly including the cimbalom), but the mono works sounded great too.  The Dances of Marosszek was lush and full-sounding (making me think of Ravel's Sheherazade whilst listening to it).

Oh, and I had forgotten that in the DG Original's series that DG included photos and other information next to them in their booklet (which I had missed earlier).  All of the recordings were made at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in either the 1950's or 1960's.

Very nice liner notes about Fricsay and the importance of not just his recordings but in him also exposing these works to others through his performances of them, the importance of where he had studied (The Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest where Kodaly had taught composition for more than three decades), etc.  The one thing which they didn't do however was to discuss the works themselves--which I would have loved for them to have done.

In any event:  an excellent CD.  If you don't already own it, go for it! 

PD

Thes boxes  are a must IMO

   

[vers la flamme]

C. Franck, piano trio no.4

Why did I have no idea that César Franck wrote 4 (or more?) piano trios...? They don't seem to get much love.

[Florestan]

All I know is he had to do what he had do in order to survive that environment. I mean he loved Germany and didn't think of uprooting himself as so many of his contemporaries have done. He had a family there and he loved his life, so in order to adapt to the new political environment, he did what anyone who didn't want to leave would've done. Webern could be viewed as a Nazi sympathizer as well since he stayed behind and I'm not sure what Berg would've done, but this wasn't an easy road for anyone who chose not to leave.

Amen, brother!

Life under a totalitarian regime is completely different from life under a liberal one and preserving even a modicum of decency and humanity requires a lot of mental and moral acrobatics as well as a lot of dissimulation and simulation. People who haven't experienced that themselves will never be able to fully understand the nature of totalitarianism.

And interestingly enough, it's usually famous people who chose to stay in Nazi Germany that are qualified as morally suspect or downright condemned. One seldom hears such reproaches addressed to famous people who chose to stay, or even return, to Soviet Union. Yet Richard Strauss, unlike Shostakovich or Prokofiev, never wrote one single note in praise of the regime he lived under (and I haste to add that this is not at all a criticism towards the latter composers, just a statement of fact)...

[Florestan]

TD



Hyacinthe Jadin (1769 - 1800): Piano Sonatas / Cecile Wang, piano

The probability that Jadin and Beethoven were aware of each other's existence, let alone works, is small, yet the Frenchman's sonatas are distinctly early-Beethoven-ish. 

[Madiel]

Why did I have no idea that César Franck wrote 4 (or more?) piano trios...? They don't seem to get much love.

All of Franck's famous works are late in his career, and these are considerably earlier.

[Daverz]

Greatly prefer this Serenade to the one on the Caprice disk.

My man Stig! (Conductor Stig Westerberg).   I have this on Lp and love it.

[Mirror Image]

I haven't actively sought out Penderecki's symphonic choral music in some time, so I thought I would take out his Credo later today for a refresh. I know Antoni Wit has done quite a survey on Naxos.

Krzysztof Penderecki
Credo

Marietta Simpson, Thomas Quasthoff, et al.
Oregon Bach Festival Orch. & Choir - Helmuth Rilling

Yeah, Wit's survey of Penderecki on Naxos is rather large. He might have recorded everything, but don't quite me on that. I need to give the choral works more time to grow on me. This composer's music is growing on me, though, so not all hope is lost. For years, I just couldn't bring myself to listen to Messiaen as I found nothing of enjoyment within his oeuvre, but, nowadays, it's a completely different story as I'm finding lots to love and latch onto.

[Mirror Image]

Amen, brother!

Life under a totalitarian regime is completely different from life under a liberal one and preserving even a modicum of decency and humanity requires a lot of mental and moral acrobatics as well as a lot of dissimulation and simulation. People who haven't experienced that themselves will never be able to fully understand the nature of totalitarianism.

And interestingly enough, it's usually famous people who chose to stay in Nazi Germany that are qualified as morally suspect or downright condemned. One seldom hears such reproaches addressed to famous people who chose to stay, or even return, to Soviet Union. Yet Richard Strauss, unlike Shostakovich or Prokofiev, never wrote one single note in praise of the regime he lived under (and I haste to add that this is not at all a criticism towards the latter composers, just a statement of fact)...

I think a lot the problem is people have a difficult time looking back in time and this is simply because they assume the worse and aren't empathetic. It's easy to point fingers at Strauss, Shostakovich or Weinberg, but until we've walked a mile in their shoes, we have no idea what they went through. There are cases, however, where a composer shares, and expresses, the same views as whoever the dictator is and these are actually the composers in which we should raise our eyebrows.

[Mirror Image]

First-Listen Friday:

Adès
Piano Concerto
Kirill Gerstein, piano
BSO
Adès



Wow! I might just have to hit the replay button.

[vandermolen]

Greatly prefer this Serenade to the one on the Caprice disk.

That's a fine disc - not least for the 4th Symphony, which is my favourite work by Wiren.

TD
Rubbra: Symphony No.6

[Que]

Morning listening:



A superb disc of motets by the unknown and underrated Spanish Renaissance composer  Fernando De Las Infantas.

[vandermolen]

Sauguet: Symphony No.1 'Expiatoire' Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Francaise Cond. Ernest Bour (1948)
One of my favourite 20th Century symphonies in which the composers attempts to assuage his guilt at not being able to do more to help his beleagured country men and women during the German occupation of France in World War Two. I find it to be a powerful and moving work with the best music being in the finale:

[Mandryka]

From the first couple of tracks, this is consonant and light.

[Que]

Decided to stick with Spain: