What are you listening 2 now?

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Smetana's String Quartet No. 1 with the Pavel Haas Quartet...Ahhhh! 

PD

[MusicTurner]

Some rather festive music with good vibes, on the Alpha label:

- Pluhar's Tarantella album +
- Charpentier + Lully, Te Deums, the Dumestre recording

[VonStupp]

Howard Hanson, Volume 5
Lux Aeterna

Susan Gulkis - viola
Seattle Symphony - Gerard Schwarz

In responding to the non-concerti thread, I decided to take out this last entry in Schwarz's Hanson series. Lux Aeterna is big and bold in typical Hanson fashion, if not a bit rambling, but his nods to music's past is an interesting mix, and the large role for viola is a nice addition.

I think Seattle sounds great and I am looking forward to spending time with this volume of Howard Hanson today.

VS

[vers la flamme]

Morton Feldman: Palais de Mari. Aki Takahashi

A haunting and entrancing piece, not one that I know very well. There are some striking harmonies throughout.

[Traverso]

Scarlatti

Sonatas KK 230-243

[Traverso]

Morning listening is a return to this, since yesterday morning I was interrupted:



On the menu are the Missa Nisi dominus by Pierre de Manchicourt and on the 2nd disc the Missa Philomena praevia by Claudin de Sermisy, interspersed with hymns, chants and responsories to form a full-scale Mass celebration.

Its rewards are rich! 
In Early Music this set, The Secret Labyrinth set with the Huelgas Ensemble and the Sweelinck Edition are my most treasured possessions. 

I totally understand the attraction of the new and unknown. I am trying to find a new balance between the "thrill of the chase" and  delving into the depths of the riches I discovered sofar on my journey. Even though I'm more than another decade away from retirement...

But I have no illusions: the process of revisiting and reevaluating passions of the past will grow new ones and open new musical windows. 

Don't forget to clean the old ones   

[Karl Henning]

Scarlatti

Sonatas KK 230-243

(* pounds the table *)

[Harry]

Harry - you keep posting on this set -    Making me want to pull out mine for another listen!    BTW, do you have the 8-CD box of the Complete Wind Concertos w/ Schneider, plus Camerata Köln and La Stagione Frankfurt?  Dave

   

Yes Dave, the Windconcerto box is also in my possession and it has the same effect on me. I want to play it over and over again.

[Traverso]

(* pounds the table *)

Always a pleasure to listen to 

[VonStupp]

Howard Hanson, Volume 5
Dies Natalis (version for orchestra)

Seattle Symphony - Gerard Schwarz

Dies Natalis is really something, but very much in the Hanson, lush, Romantic vein. He does ratchet the tension up in each of the 7 variations with some mild discordance, but it makes the big tune at the finale all the more glorious.

I gave a peek at the band version, but this one seems to amp up the original. You can definitely hear its wind-laden origins though. Seattle is dynamite here.

VS

[SonicMan46]

Yes Dave, the Windconcerto box is also in my possession and it has the same effect on me. I want to play it over and over again.

Well, I assumed so, just wanted to see if you enjoyed as much as the other - GPT's output still astounds me! Dave 

[classicalgeek]

Just played this morning:

Joseph Haydn
Symphony no. 83
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Sir Colin Davis



I'm thoroughly enjoying Davis's Haydn. No. 83 has long been one of my favorites, from the 'clucking' oboe in the first movement to the rustic "barn dance" minuet to the exuberant finale in 12/8. Unfortunately Davis didn't record the complete 'Paris' symphonies (at least not for Decca/Philips), but I'm really looking forward to the 'London' set!

[VonStupp]

Listened to Kodaly's Missa Brevis from this Hyperion CD.  As much as I enjoy a number of Kodaly's works, this one did not work for me:



PD

Yes, I thought the same. It sounds like Kodaly stripped of his personal stamp, but paying homage to Palestrina and the like. I remember it all being quite clean and slightly anodyne, although there is an orchestrated version with Janos Ferencsik that has a little more meat to it and Hungarian forces. Have not heard this particular recording, but I assume it is with boy trebles?

VS

[aligreto]

Barber: Cello Concerto [Warner/Alsop]

[MusicTurner]

The Cello Concerto is a splendid work IMO, as is Barber's Cello Sonata ... some of the best of the 20th century.

[aligreto]

The Cello Concerto is a splendid work IMO,

Yes, agreed, a fine work indeed.

[VonStupp]

Howard Hanson, Volume 5
The Mystic Trumpeter

James Earl Jones, speaker
Seattle Symphony & Chorale - Gerard Schwarz

Mystic Trumpeter seems to take a cue from Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait, although maybe the similarities seem tight because Gerard Schwarz and James Earl Jones teamed up to do that one too, on another Delos album.

The chorus takes preference over any speaking though, with Jones piping up three or four times only. He really bellows out the finale dramatically, but Walt Whitman's words don't seem to suit him this time around.

This isn't great music, something I would apply to the Copland as well; and the choral music is that mid-century style from Ron Nelson and Randall Thompson that, with a few exceptions, is often meander-y without much satisfying resolution. They are all still beautiful though.

The Seattle Chorale sings loads better than the I last heard them in Mendelssohn's Lobgesang, where their output was amateurish at best. VS

[Karl Henning]

Always a pleasure to listen to 

Verily.

[DavidW]

[vandermolen]

Walton: Symphony No.1
An enjoyable but somewhat lower voltage performance.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/01/walton-symphony-no-1-review-gardner-bbcso-little