What are you listening 2 now?

[Irons]

Delius

Brigg Fair
In a Summer Garden
Appalachia

Delius for me too. Two of the above sans Appalachia. The Walk to the Paradise Garden is nice.

[Irons]

Wieniawski no. 2

A sad early end of a gifted artist.

[vandermolen]

Malcolm Arnold: Symphony No.9

[Mandryka]

Morning listening:



I'm generally a Cantica Symphonia sceptic, but this is quite good.   

Love mon cuer me fait tous dis penser. and La belle se siet.

[Madiel]

It's a shame it wasn't wonderful, isn't it? I'm not a fan of works like this either.

I really like A Hand of Bridge. It's the kind of length of opera I can handle!

[Tsaraslondon]

Much of the music from Khachaturian's ballet Spartacus sounds rather like a movie soundtrack, and indeed the popular Adagio for Spartacus and Phyrgia was used as the main theme for the movie Mayerling, which starred Omar Sharif, Catherine Deneuve and Ava Gardner. It was also used for the popular BBC series The Onedin Line.

When I was young I really liked Khachaturian's music, though my tastes have become a little more sophisticated now. Still, I do think the music for his two ballets, Spartacus and Gayaneh represents the best of him, and these performances by the Vienna PO under Khachaturian himself, which I once owned on LP, are absolutely splendid.

For this release, Decca have addes some exceprts from Lorin Maazel's excellent Cleveland recording of the complete ballet music for Prokoviev's Romeo and Juliet, which are also very worth having.

[Mookalafalas]

Bernard Haitink.

  Played his Mahler 3 and 6 earlier, and was blown away.

   LvB 7 now. It's very good, but there are so many great LvB 7s...not feeling the magic on this one, but only half way through, so still time.

[vers la flamme]

Malcolm Arnold: Hobson's Choice Suite. Richard Hickox, London Symphony Orchestra

Killer stuff, just like the rest of Arnold's film music that I've heard.

[Cato]

For All Souls' Day, one of the finest Requiem Masses from a (perhaps) unexpected source: Franz Von Suppe'.

Brahms thought very highly of the work!



https://www.youtube.com/v/AD8vkB4iiG0&list=OLAK5uy_mFNP11wcXs09OB8p5NNWf2Yiz5lQU70oY

[Cato]

Just came across this by chance: it popped up after the above link to Von Suppe's Requiem ended!


Ellliott Carter's Instances: a beautiful, mysterious work: the notes say it was his last composition at c. age 103.


https://www.youtube.com/v/rluoJDKVUEk

[Traverso]

Cipriano de Rore

Huelgas Ensemble
Paul van Nevel

[Florestan]

The Alyabiev A minor is a real find: a bittersweet first movement, a lyrical, dreamy slow movement and a frolicsome, lilty, fun finale. Excellent music and musicmaking --- the same going for the more turbulent, dramatic and highly-charged emotionally works of Glinka and Rubinstein (No. 2). A superbly judged and executed program and a great start to this 5-disc series.

[Spotted Horses]

A few years ago I made an exploration of Kokkenen's works and I have the notion to revisit (not hard since I have a relatively small collection). Today, String Quartet No 1, Sibelius Quartet (BIS)



A very attractive work in three movements, nominally fast, slow, fast. I enjoy the texture of free counterpoint and melodic interest, which seems to be organized around motivic development in a serial context.

[Traverso]

Guillaume Du Fay

Triste Plaisir

Again this beautiful recording that might be better listened to in parts but is undeniably of an exceptional beauty.
They are worth more to me than all of Shostakovich's symphonies put together, but this is of course my limited opinion.
Optimal expressiveness with minimal means and of great poetic beauty. Anyone who claims that contemporary music is more meaningful, richer in content and artistic value has never listened properly.. I am a musical omnivore but I do have my musical preferences and those are mainly determined by Bach and earlier music. With all due respect Boulez is more music of the head, Dufay on the other hand speaks to me on a more personal field.
Music is an abstract art form where for me, especially in early music, a richness is offered that is incomparable, in the sense that my personal being is involved and yet has a universal character.
These are just thoughts and subject to change, the fact is that early music in particular appeals to me in a fullness that I do not experience in contemporary music despite my appreciation.
Let me be clear I love Boulez but purely as an experience the early music offers me a richer experience in which I feel more fully involved.
An exception to this for me is the music of Messiaen.
Of course there are more examples, I'm just speaking in general. 

To be clear I use the term "early" in the sense of Bach and earlier.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Schmidt
Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major
Frankfurt RSO
Järvi

[Papy Oli]

Good afternoon all,


Varèse

Nocturnal
Un Grand Sommeil Noir
Un Grand Sommeil Noir (Orch. version)
Offrandes




Shostakovich

Symphony No.5 (Barshai)

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Pancho Vladigerov: Burlesque for violin and orchestra, Op 14.

[Brahmsian]

Good afternoon all,

Shostakovich

Symphony No.5 (Barshai)

A great performance of the 5th! 

[Karl Henning]

For All Souls' Day, one of the finest Requiem Masses from a (perhaps) unexpected source: Franz Von Suppe'.

Brahms thought very highly of the work!



https://www.youtube.com/v/AD8vkB4iiG0&list=OLAK5uy_mFNP11wcXs09OB8p5NNWf2Yiz5lQU70oY

Thanks for the reminder! I'm in!

[classicalgeek]

Returning to Koechlin after a few weeks:

Les Bandar-Log
Stuttgart Radio Symphony
Heinz Holliger



Unmistakably Koechlin - that weirdly exotic and evocative sound world could belong to no one else.

And then my first foray into the Jochum/EMI box:

Bruckner
Symphony no. 1
Staatskapelle Dresden
Eugen Jochum



I confess I'm not as familiar with the Bruckner symphonies prior to no. 3, though I want to be. And Jochum, for me at least, does Bruckner better than anyone else.