What are you listening 2 now?

[JBS]

I've only heard this recording:



It's passable, entertaining, nice music overall, but nothing else beyond that.

I have the previous Naxos release plus a CD with her violin concertos, and felt the same. But her Piano Quintet strikes me as being quite good (on Chandos, with a quintet by Amy Beach and Barber's Dover Beach), as did a short work for violin and piano included on a recital disc by a young Chicagoan named Goolsby. [I'm tired tonight and not in the mood to track down exact names.]

So perhaps she's one of those composers who were better in chamber music than orchestral.
TD
From the Chandos Jarvi box

[Daverz]

First listen today to;



I'm struggling with this.  I understand, appreciate and applaud the struggle against adversity and oppression that this music encapsulates but strip away that context and of itself its really not that good.   The symphony has some interesting moments but in the main its overscored and not a match for the vast majority of comparable music written at the time.  Even Joplin's Treemonisha (which predates it significantly) seems more 'significant' to me in its treatment of its musical roots.  But at the moment everyone seems to be queuing up to play Florence Price!  From the Proms to the Philadelpia Orchestra.  Do they hear something I'm missing or is it just a convenient "look how inclusive CM can be" thing.......

Why so much tsuris?  How is she different from our regular GMG diet of long forgotten provincial German or English composers on labels like CPO and Toccata?  They usually also have some story to pique one's interest.

I liked Price's Symphony No. 1 (Naxos) much more than I liked, for example, Ruth Gipps's Symphony No. 2.  I really tried with the Gipps (two recordings of it), but it's a snoozer.  However, I find it worthwhile and enjoyable to give forgotten music a chance.  You sometimes find forgotten gems, like the wonderful symphonies of Louise Farrenc.

Now Playing: Symphony No. 3

[Symphonic Addict]

That set of the Rosenberg quartets is a treasure chest !

Certainly, André. I've found great pleasure in them.

[Symphonic Addict]

It's good. For me, honestly, toe-to-toe with the Thomson, I think still better of the latter.

Oh yes, Thomson has two worthwhile quartets.

[Symphonic Addict]

I have the previous Naxos release plus a CD with her violin concertos, and felt the same. But her Piano Quintet strikes me as being quite good (on Chandos, with a quintet by Amy Beach and Barber's Dover Beach), as did a short work for violin and piano included on a recital disc by a young Chicagoan named Goolsby. [I'm tired tonight and not in the mood to track down exact names.]

So perhaps she's one of those composers who were better in chamber music than orchestral.

Very good, I'll do give a listen to the Quintet for sure. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Symphonic Addict]

Symphony No. 6

Revisiting an old friend in a stirring performance. Mahler's most classical conception.

[Klavier1]

[Karl Henning]

Very good, I'll do give a listen to the Quintet for sure. Thanks for the recommendation.

+1

[SimonNZ]

[JBS]

The famous Bayreuth 9th

This was one of the first LvB recordings I owned, haven't listened to it in years.
Now playing it as the last CD of this set.


I must admit that I don't remember the recording being so obviously mono. Perhaps earlier masterings tried to mimic stereo more (this set uses a 2010/2016 mastering, compared to the LP version I had in the 70s and the GROC I bought about 1995). Or perhaps my memory is fooling me.

[Symphonic Addict]

Symphony No. 6

Revisiting an old friend in a stirring performance. Mahler's most classical conception.

Ok, not so much. I'm in the slow movement and it is not moving me.

[Daverz]

Now Playing: Symphony No. 3

I'll have to give it a few more listens before making any judgements, but the Philadelphia Orchestra sounds great here and seems to really dig into this music.  I can report that it's written in a Depression-era populist Americana style (commissioned by the WPA), and it may be hard for modern listeners to get into the spirit of it.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Shchedrin
Concerto for Orchestra No. 1, "Naughty Limericks"
USSR State SO
Svetlanov



Such raucous fun!

[Linz]

Mahler's Songs of Youth Janet Baker and Geoffrey Parsons

[Linz]

For the Advent Season Gardiner's  Bach Advent cantatas

[Daverz]

An absolutely ravishing disc.

[Roasted Swan]

Why so much tsuris?  How is she different from our regular GMG diet of long forgotten provincial German or English composers on labels like CPO and Toccata?  They usually also have some story to pique one's interest.

I liked Price's Symphony No. 1 (Naxos) much more than I liked, for example, Ruth Gipps's Symphony No. 2.  I really tried with the Gipps (two recordings of it), but it's a snoozer.  However, I find it worthwhile and enjoyable to give forgotten music a chance.  You sometimes find forgotten gems, like the wonderful symphonies of Louise Farrenc.

Now Playing: Symphony No. 3

Easy answer to your question about how she's different - she's recorded on DG by the Philadelphia and has been programmed at this year's Proms (and is popping up in lots of other orchestras' schedules for 2022!)  So COMPLETELY different to "long forgotten provincial German or English composers on labels like CPO and Toccata" many of whom could be considered of at least equal musical stature to Price and would die - if not dead already - to have that kind of exposure. 

There will always be a range of opinion within discussion groups about relative merits of composers and their works but it seems to me that the motivation behind the upsurge in interest in this music is not primarily based on its quality.  Many might argue its about redressing the balance and equality - the cynic in me sees organisations making the most of a commercial opportunity which masquerades as "redressing the balance". 

FWIW - I thought the first Naxos disc was let down by pretty average playing from the Fort Worth SO - I'm curious to hear what a difference having an ensemble the calibre of the Philadelphia makes.  The ORF Vienna on the new Naxos disc are a significant step up on Fort Worth but not top drawer.

[Que]

Return to this:




http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Feb/Biber_rosary_AE10256.htm

[Irons]

Totally agree. For decades it was described as 'amiable but rambling' in the Penguin Stereo Record Guide. They have a lot to answer for.

How could they say such a thing (Medications on a theme by John Blow) but you are right Jeffrey in the 1975 edition Greenfield/Layton/March they did! By the 1982 edition the same reviewers had changed their view somewhat By far the most substantial and worthwhile of these three* works is Meditations on a theme by John Blow. 

* Discourse for Orchestra & Overture Edinburgh.

[Harry]

An absolutely ravishing disc.

Agreed!