What are you listening 2 now?

[aligreto]

Wow.  Just the kind of review I love to read!  It sounds like everything I want it to be.  For that reason...I must listen asap!   

I certainly found it to be thrilling. I hope that you enjoy it too 

[Traverso]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 [Schmidt-Isserstedt]

The opening to this work has almost become a cliché but this version offers something different. It has an edge; it is both robust, powerful and raw. The strings are the foundation, the woodwinds add wonderful depth and tonality and the brass adds that defining edge. In the Andante, like every movement in this presentation, there is a wonderful and powerful presence to the music making. The scoring is wonderfully presented here; I specifically note the woodwinds and the brass writing. The lower register strings also play a vital part here. The overriding power of the opening of the Scherzo is particularly wonderful. This is a wonderful, powerful and agitated presentation. The final movement is something of a tour de force with a really wonderfully and powerfully orchestral display. This is a very vital performance. Absolutely terrific stuff here!! Listen and enjoy! This has to be one of the very best of presentations of this work.

Hurray for Isserstedt ! 

[aligreto]

Hurray for Isserstedt ! 

Yes, indeed, Jan. I am really liking this cycle so far even though I did not find it too exciting first time around. How wrong I was 

[aligreto]

Varèse: Ecuatorial [Lyndon-Gee]

[VonStupp]

Felix Mendelssohn
String Symphonies 1-6

Gewandhaus - Kurt Masur (rec. 1971)

Just listened:

With these early 8-12 minute, 3-movement string symphonies, I can see where Mendelssohn's love of the Baroque comes from. Lots of whirlwind unison strings and perpetual Baroque motor rhythms with simple textures and structures. You can sense an eye twinkle every once in a while when Mendelssohn adds a distant borrowed chord. The 4th SS's slow movement begins with a 'song without words' type melody that Mendelssohn becomes known for, but he doesn't quite know what to do with it yet, and it goes nowhere.

Most interesting in listening to each of these though, is how clearly you can sense what Mendelssohn has learned between writing each symphony. You can aurally imagine his composition teacher sitting down with him and telling him to try one extra technique, and he applies it in the next symphony, and so on for the rest.

I expected Masur and the Gewandhaus to be heavy and impenetrable in these teen works, but not so. Masur moves things along, and the Gewandhaus may even be pared down. This must have been an early collaboration on their part, and a very early collection of these works after these scores appeared in print sometime in the 50's.

[Karl Henning]

CD: 33

"Wolferl"

Symphony № 40 in g minor, K. 550
Symphony № 33 in B^b K. 319
Symphony № 29 in A, K. 201 (186a)

For myself, the B^b Symphony slots into the nice but inessential Mozart category.
If I were less the composer and more the musicologist, I would research the parenthetical cataloguing of the A Major Symphony. As it is, I am content to have my curiosity tickled.

[Traverso]

Beethoven

Symphony No.5



When I look at what members put forward as their best cycle, I rarely see these recordings.
What's wrong with these recordings, the articulations are so refreshing especially when compared to the Karajan recordings from about the same period.
With Isserstedt no effect is sought, which is often the case with many available recordings, if only to stand out in all that crowd.
These recordings are often described as middle of the road, an assessment that misleads many.
It is also not a good description, everything is present in a beautiful balance, the music unfolds in all its nuances without forgetting the big picture. When I say that these are honest interpretations, a negative connotation arises again. What I mean is that optimal justice is done to the intentions contained in the score.
The symphony begins rhythmically pulsating with an eye for lyricism that is not exaggerated.
Beethoven is only more human because of this unpretentious approach.
The tempos chosen are lower than is usual in our modern times",
I would say "so what"

Since we have more time, everything has to go faster.

[Traverso]

Koechlin

La Course de Printemps

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Amadeo Roldan: Suite de La Rebambaramba.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

A Hindemithian night:

Der Schwanendreher

The peak of wit. Vintage Hindemith. And what a razor-shape performance this is. The best combination, perhaps?

Nice set!

[vers la flamme]

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.8 in E-flat major. Georg Solti, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, too many choirs and soloists to list

The only music that makes any sense to me at the moment.

[Mandryka]

The only music that makes any sense to me at the moment.

Veni, Creator Spiritus
mentes tuorum visita.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.8 in E-flat major. Georg Solti, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, too many choirs and soloists to list

The only music that makes any sense to me at the moment.

I re-read Solti's memoir a few weeks ago. He talks about various recording sessions for Decca. It was a nice read.

[vandermolen]

David Diamond, Romeo and Juliet, recording by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony



An engaging piece with some colorful, vigorous orchestral writing, poignant melodies and harmonies. Beautifully performed and recorded.

Intrigued to read in the recording notes that there was a recording released by Columbia on 78 rpm shellac discs. I wonder if it is possible to track that down on CD or download.

Romeo and Juliet and the Third Symphony make that arguably my favourite Diamond CD.

[mahler10th]

So I have had a listen!
As Traverso says, "...The tempos chosen are lower than is usual in our modern times....so what?"
I did think it half a beat slower than expected, but the symphony above is well rounded, consistent, everything is in it's place, no fancy stuff, and more solid than whizz bang 'modern times' interpretations.  It definitely has powerful undertones, never overstated, but mighty in delivery.  Thanks aligreto, it was worth the journey!   

[Karl Henning]

CD 28:

Vn Cto w/Isaac Stern
Symphony in Three Mvts

[Papy Oli]

Cantata BWV 27 / Kuijken

[aligreto]

Hindemith: Kleine Kammermusik for 5 wind instruments Op. 24/2 [13]





I particularly like the somewhat irreverent tone and whimsical nature of this work. I find it to be particularly engaging and very attractive. The scoring is very appealing and engaging in its sonorities. I also find the musical language to be very interesting. It is a different sounding, very fine and engrossing work. This would be a highly recommended listen. The musical language is intriguing.

[Karl Henning]

Hindemith: Kleine Kammermusik for 5 wind instruments Op. 24/2 [13]





I particularly like the somewhat irreverent tone and whimsical nature of this work. I find it to be particularly engaging and very attractive. The scoring is very appealing and engaging in its sonorities. I also find the musical language to be very interesting. It is a different sounding, very fine and engrossing work. This would be a highly recommended listen. The musical language is intriguing.

Great stuff!

[aligreto]

Beethoven

Symphony No.5



When I look at what members put forward as their best cycle, I rarely see these recordings.
What's wrong with these recordings, the articulations are so refreshing especially when compared to the Karajan recordings from about the same period.
With Isserstedt no effect is sought, which is often the case with many available recordings, if only to stand out in all that crowd.
These recordings are often described as middle of the road, an assessment that misleads many.
It is also not a good description, everything is present in a beautiful balance, the music unfolds in all its nuances without forgetting the big picture. When I say that these are honest interpretations, a negative connotation arises again. What I mean is that optimal justice is done to the intentions contained in the score.
The symphony begins rhythmically pulsating with an eye for lyricism that is not exaggerated.
Beethoven is only more human because of this unpretentious approach.
The tempos chosen are lower than is usual in our modern times",
I would say "so what"

Since we have more time, everything has to go faster.

Fine words, Jan, and written with conviction