What are you listening 2 now?

[Traverso]

You took my comment much too seriously, Rafael. 

Sensible warning Andrei   

[Traverso]

Messiaen

Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant-Jesus (1944)  Yvonne Loriod

[kyjo]

'Odd Man Out' is one of my favourite works by Alwyn. Coincidentally I'd fished the Merikanto symphonies out to play soon.

No. 2 is Merikanto's finest and most ambitious symphony - full of excellent ideas and brilliantly orchestrated. Though subtitled War Symphony (WWI), only the slow movement is particularly dark and troubled, though I think you'd enjoy it very much overall. No. 3 is "Romantically neo-classical" and breathes the same fresh air as the Thirds of Sibelius and Madetoja. The rather Atterbergian slow movement is especially lovely.

[ritter]

You took my comment much too seriously, Rafael. 

I'd never take anyone who'd rather listen to Lanner than Stravinsky seriously, Andrei! 

Good evening to you, good sir.

[steve ridgway]

First listen to Stockhausen - Momente from archive.org

[kyjo]

Lloyd: Symphony No. 8 [Downes]





The wistful woodwinds and strings create a wonderful atmosphere at the opening of the work. This tone becomes prolonged and also somewhat disconcerting and also a little menacing when the dynamics are augmented. The further into it I go the more sinister sounding it becomes. This is all the more unnerving as this is played against a somewhat comical passage which I find unnerving and yet quite engaging and inventive. I do not know what Lloyd is trying to say with this music to be honest but I do like its heightened musical language, its wonderful scoring and its sense of drama and tension. The brass has great bite throughout the movement. 
The slow movement appears like a dream-like sequence of passages layered with different sonorities each yielding up its own individual atmospheric sound picture. Each individual thread weaves itself into a grand plan to create an atmospheric, mysterious and enchanting tapestry.  This I find very inventive, interesting and effective.
The tempo, dynamics and the tone all pick up in the final movement. We have a return to that element of levity that occasionally appears in the first movement and which, likewise, is countered here by a sense of menace. All of this, however, never distracts from the sense of power and drama in a movement that is very well driven throughout with a great conclusion.

Quel coincidence - I was just listening to this last night!  My estimation of the Eighth, which I hadn't previously included amongst my favorite Lloyd works - has risen higher since the last time I heard it, and I very much concur with your impressions. My only slight gripe with it is the recurring "somewhat comical passage" you mention in the first movement which becomes just a tad wearisome after a while. But the mysterious, atmospheric slow movement is totally compelling, especially when the "big tune" finally breaks through around 9 minutes in. And the finale is an incredibly fun romp with virtuosic writing for all sections of the orchestra, particularly the percussion. Surely John Williams must have heard this movement at some point in his life?!

[SonicMan46]

Now playing Disc 2 from this marvelous set:

 

Contents of this set here:

https://bis.se/label/bis/the-complete-choros-bachianas-brasileiras-1

Hey John - we must be on the same wave-length - just put on the Villa-Lobos piano box for the morning - wish that Naxos had not packaged the 8 discs in separate jewel boxes, but one does get the original booklet notes - might re-package then in double-disc single jewel boxes?  Rubinksy's competitors seem to be OOP or expensive in the 'secondary' markets.  Dave

[Papy Oli]

Sallinen
Shadows
Symphony No.8

[Karl Henning]

We probably have a different perception of what "kitsch" means, Andrei (at least in this instance). In my view, Stravinsky's quotes from Lanner (and also from the popular song Elle avait une jambe en bois, which he thought was in the public domain, but the author was alive and kicking, leading to a hefty financial cost for Igor Feodorovich  ) are eminently ironic, not kitschy by any means. And in Pulcinella, the quotations from Gallo and Pergolesi can only be described as "lovingly humorous", and the result is simply extraordinary (miraculous, actually). As Boulez wrote, in Pulcinella Stravinsky "definitively imposed his look on the contemporary world: this unheard of mixture of vigour, aggressiveness, poetry, good humour, familiarity, candour, pessimism and melancholy" (my translation from Boulez's book Regards sur autruip. 608, Christian Bourgois Éditeur, Paris 2005 — but the text was originally published in English in the program notes of the concerts of the NYPO in memory of Stravinsky three weeks after his death on 6 April 1971).

Scènes de ballet is an entirely different affair. Stravinsky himself wrote that "the recapitulation of the Pas de deux with the full orchestra now sounds to me like movie music: the happy homesteaders, having massacred the Indians, begin to plant their corn" and that is "featherweight and sugared, my sweet to not yet being carious", to the immediately add "but I will not deprécate it" (Stravinsky and Craft, Memories and Commentaries —new one-volume edition—, pp. 233-234, Faber and Faber, London 2002). In any case, as I mentioned in my earlier post, Scènes de ballet has —kitsch and all— some charming moments. 

A fine contribution to the discourse, amigo!

[Traverso]

I'd never take anyone who'd rather listen to Lanner than Stravinsky seriously, Andrei! 

Good evening to you, good sir.

After these harsh words this as a remedy ......

https://www.youtube.com/v/RGU7MhlhXfk

[Karl Henning]

Fairy's Kiss perhaps?

On one hand, a sensible and sensitive suggestion.
On t'other, Andrei appears determined not only to appreciate Stravinsky as little as possible, but also to advertise his dislike at any opportunity.

(* yawn *)

[ritter]

After these harsh words this as a remedy ......

https://www.youtube.com/v/RGU7MhlhXfk

Reminds me of the old joke: One Viennese on his own is a conductor, two Viennese together are a Schrammelmusik duo. And three Viennese? There's no such thing, the third one is always Czech.

[Biffo]

Mahler: Symphony No 1 in D major - Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle - live performance from 2010, a fairly routine affair but the audience loved it.

[Brian]

Looking forward reading more of your opinion of these Shostakovich Lazarev performances, Brian.

OK, here's my review of Lazarev 5:

I don't know where it falls in terms of favorites etc. but there are a lot of distinctive (mostly good!) little details about how they articulate things and the sounds they get. For example, the orchestra's gongs are darker and lower-pitched than usual. At the climax of the slow movement, the violas are so ferocious that there is a strange little insect-like noise which I think is somebody's sleeve on their instrument. (Also you can clearly hear, as the cellos play in that climax, the clarinets rattling around in accompaniment in the background. I have never heard them there before.)

The bass sound is terrific. Really top-tier. It is probably not balanced realistically or ideally, but I'm all about that bass, I prefer to sit on the side of the concert hall where the cellos and basses are because you can't usually hear them as well on record as you can at the concert hall. Here's the exception. Amazing double bass work and creepy low harp notes.

Lazarev gets the orchestra to sound plausibly Russian at times (loud, crackly, fierce trombones). I don't think you necessarily notice the fast timings, the slow movement doesn't feel merely 13'. I did notice a kinda weird final bar of the scherzo and somebody making a weird short yelp sound near the start of the finale (this is a live performance).

So again, maybe not my favorite? But let's be real - we're connoisseurs and nerds - we like anything new and interesting. And this is definitely interesting! I heard details I hadn't before, thought about phrasings everyone else does that I hadn't really noticed were interpretive choices before, and grooved with the bass.

[aligreto]

Honegger: Cello Concerto [Poltéra/Ollila-Hannikainen]





I had cause to re-listen to this work and, once again, I very much enjoyed what I heard.

[aligreto]

Quel coincidence - I was just listening to this last night!  My estimation of the Eighth, which I hadn't previously included amongst my favorite Lloyd works - has risen higher since the last time I heard it, and I very much concur with your impressions. My only slight gripe with it is the recurring "somewhat comical passage" you mention in the first movement which becomes just a tad wearisome after a while. But the mysterious, atmospheric slow movement is totally compelling, especially when the "big tune" finally breaks through around 9 minutes in. And the finale is an incredibly fun romp with virtuosic writing for all sections of the orchestra, particularly the percussion. Surely John Williams must have heard this movement at some point in his life?!

This was my first time to hear this symphony, Kyle, and I must say that I liked it very much. With regard to any comments that I write [on any work that I listen to] I tend to write them as I listen to the work. I may or may not embellish them later after subsequent listening sessions. My point being that I like to record my first impressions [for myself] and on this occasion I am not surprised that this work has risen in your estimation. I have already stated that I did not fully understand this symphony but I was still impressed with it. Attention to the details that you mention will come with subsequent listening sessions and I am grateful to you for mentioning them and pointing them out. I am eager to listen to Lloyd' symphonies 9-12 asap. Happy listening. 

[Florestan]

I'd never take anyone who'd rather listen to Lanner than Stravinsky seriously, Andrei! 

Good evening to you, good sir.

To you too.

[Florestan]

Reminds me of the old joke: One Viennese on his own is a conductor, two Viennese together are a Schrammelmusik duo. And three Viennese? There's no such thing, the third one is always Czech.

Good one. 

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Honegger: Cello Concerto [Poltéra/Ollila-Hannikainen]





I had cause to re-listen to this work and, once again, I very much enjoyed what I heard.

Nice to hear that you enjoyed it.  I had played it yesterday or the day before and liked it; however, I suspect that yours was in better sound.  Mine was with Rostropovich live from Moscow.

Just played Shostakovich's
String Quartet No. 3
with, again, the original Borodin Quartet

Really enjoyed this quartet...or perhaps moved by it?  The third through the fifth movements in particular.  The sound of the strings was particularly eery, haunting and other-worldly about 5 minutes into the last movement...a kind of shimmering effect, but not like sunshine on a lake...very dark.

A great set...I'm slowly working my way through his quartets.



PD

[timwtheov]

Brian,

Might I ask which streaming service you're using for the Lazarev/Exton stuff? Qobuz (and Tidal I believe) in the US, up until the last month or so, had all the in-print Exton recordings, but they're gone now, except for a few strays; and on Spotify and Deezer, many tracks are grayed out.