What are you listening 2 now?

[Karl Henning]

CD 7:

Schuman
String Quartet № 4

Ingolf Dahl
Concerto a tre
Mitchell Lurie, cl
Eudice Shapiro, vn
Victor Gottlieb, vc

The Dahl is excellent, too. And although Lurie's name was known to me from early clarinet lesson days, this is the first I heard him in action. Beautiful tone!

[listener]

a pair of discs of keyboard music
PADEREWSKI: Piano Sonata in e-flat, Variations and Fugue in e-flat, Variations and Fugue in a
Jonathan Plowright, piano
e-flat minor (six flats in the key signature) looks formidable but fits the hands nicely
J.S. BACH: Toccatas  BWV913-916, English Suite 6 BWV 811
Joao Carlos Martin, piano

[Karl Henning]

CD 8:

Schoenberg
String Quartet № 1 in d minor, Op. 7

[SonicMan46]

Haydn, Joseph - Baryton Octets w/ Manfred Huss & Haydn Sinfonietta Wien from a 6-CD double jewel box (w/ a lot of extra storage inside!), including the Concerti a Due Lire and Notturni (for the King of Naples) - have a number of versions of these works - a LOT of discussion in Gurn's Haydn related threads and in his blog, for those interested.  Dave

 

[vers la flamme]

Well maybe I should try again. Apparently there is a live Tennstedt on the LPO's own label, which is absolutely superb, but I haven't heard that one. Maybe the piece does need an audience. It certainly seems to.

I have that one too, it's good. Quite slow if I recall correctly.

[classicalgeek]

I need some "comfort listening" today... not that I don't love more challenging works, but...

Mozart
Symphonies nos. 25, 28, 29, 35
Columbia Symphony Orchestra
New York Philharmonic
Bruno Walter
(on Spotify)



I can see why some would like Walter's Mozart, but I'm not so sure - I think I like my Mozart more crisp and lean, and Walter takes a different approach. For instance, at the beginning of Symphony no. 25, I like the syncopated strings to really 'pop', and in Walter, they sound smoothed over. Maybe it's the sound - these recordings are stereo but from the early 1950s. There's a lack of tension in these recordings too, and while few would describe Mozart a full of tension, it's still there. I really like Muti and Bernstein in the late symphonies, and Pinnock for HIP.

[ritter]

Revisiting Antoine Mariotte's piano music, played by Daniel Blumenthal (a CD that our fellow GMGer Mandryka recommended at the beginning of this year, and which still sounds great in this second hearing).



,,Das war sehr gut, Mandryka..." 

[Karl Henning]

I need some "comfort listening" today... not that I don't love more challenging works, but...

Mozart
Symphonies nos. 25, 28, 29, 35
Columbia Symphony Orchestra
New York Philharmonic
Bruno Walter
(on Spotify)



I can see why some would like Walter's Mozart, but I'm not so sure - I think I like my Mozart more crisp and lean, and Walter takes a different approach. For instance, at the beginning of Symphony no. 25, I like the syncopated strings to really 'pop', and in Walter, they sound smoothed over. Maybe it's the sound - these recordings are stereo but from the early 1950s. There's a lack of tension in these recordings too, and while few would describe Mozart a full of tension, it's still there. I really like Muti and Bernstein in the late symphonies, and Pinnock for HIP.

Nothing wrong with hangin' with "Wolferl"

[Florestan]

,,Das war sehr gut, Mandryka..." 

Strange words to utter to an Englishman... 

Good evening, Rafael!

[Iota]

Lionel Salter in his notes mentions which is possibly the same visit Jeffrey on the occasion of Sibelius 90th birthday. As you say Sibelius specifically requested Beecham to record "that very strange work" The Oceanides. Salter's last sentence summing up "The Oceamides" I think fits Sibelius perfectly not just this tone poem - It is a work which, slightly enigmatic at first hearing, comes on acquaintance to make a deep impression by reason of its unusual colouration and terse under-statement. [/i]

Nice quote. As you say it fits Sibelius really well generally, not just inThe Oceanides .

I read somewhere on the web someone describing having the image of the half-buried Statue of Liberty in the Planet of the Apes movie in their head when thinking about Sibelius' music, phrases not ending so much as breaking off, torsos of music. Which rang very true for me also.


Spun here:



Sibelius: Symphony No.4

Helsinki Philharmonic, Segerstam


I'm always awed by the boldness and intense bleakness of the Fourth, darkness that burns somewhere deep. An excellent performance.

[ritter]

Strange words to utter to an Englishman... 

Good evening, Rafael!

It's a quote from R. Strauss' Arabella, Andrei...and a good evening to you as well! 

[Linz]

I am having a Strauss day now I am listening to Metamorphosen with Gundula Janowitz and Richard Stamp

[Florestan]

It's a quote from R. Strauss' Arabella, Andrei

My bad for not listening to second rate composers's second rate operas... 

[JBS]

CDs 4 and 5 of this set

DG did a cut and paste job laying out the contents.
CD 4 is the Schumann from this (the Grieg is on CD 3, coupled with the recording Anda made with Karajan of the Brahms Second Concerto)

Together with


CD 5 consists of the concerto recordings from these two


Plus the Franck from this


The Adagio Religioso of the Bartok sounds rather Mozartian, at least in this performance.

[bhodges]

An excellent performance and recording. I'm currently reading Richard Powers' novel Orfeo, and this work plays a large part in it, so I was inspired to listen to it again.

Thanks for posting, and not only for the superb-looking recording. Last year, a friend sent me the Powers novel -- but with no name or note! -- and no one has stepped forward to claim the deed. Now that I know the Messiaen has a role, that helps narrow down the donor pool a little!

--Bruce

[Karl Henning]

Nothing wrong with hangin' with "Wolferl"

And, a token of my earnest—

CD 2:
"Wolferl"
Quartet in G, K. 387
Quartet in d minor, K. 421

[ritter]

My bad for not listening to second rate composers's second rate operas... 

Yes, yes...but Arabella has this duet 

https://www.youtube.com/v/bMyeUkxL2b8
Lisa della Casa and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, under Joesph Keilberth in Munich in 1963.

Few composers wrote for the female voice like R. Strauss, and few sopranos sang him as perfectly as della Casa...

[classicalgeek]

Nothing wrong with hangin' with "Wolferl"

Indeed! Sometimes you just need some Mozart in your life!

Continuing on that theme:

Mozart
Symphonies nos. 29, 31, 33
Philharmonia Orchestra
Otto Klemperer
(on Spotify)

from this set:


With all due respect to Bruno Walter, this is more like it! Klemperer may be slow in spots, of course (his first movement of no. 29 is heavy on the 'moderato', not so much on the 'allegro'), but there's a clarity there that's not so present in Walter's performances.

[Iota]

An excellent performance and recording. I'm currently reading Richard Powers' novel Orfeo, and this work plays a large part in it, so I was inspired to listen to it again.

That novel had me getting out all sorts of things for a relisten! Really enjoyed it.

[aukhawk]

Shostakovich  Piano Trio No.2
Trio Con Brio Copenhagen


Shostakovich, Arensky Piano Trios; Trio Con Brio Copenhagen

I really enjoyed this recently released recording of Shostakovich Piano Trio No.2 - right at the top of his oeuvre - as good as any I've heard and kinda overdoing it in the final 'Jewish' movement but is that really a problem, I don't think so.  Very well recorded too.