What are you listening 2 now?

[Linz]

Tchaikovsky's Suites for Orchestra Dorati

[SonicMan46]

Haydn, Joseph - Symphonies w/ Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico/Kammerorchester Basel - on a Spotify playlist at the moment and listening to the second CD - PI performances -  10-disc box about to be released (price shown is Amazon USA) and highly recommended in the 'recent releases' thread; assume the box will contain single jewel cases but not certain - anyone know?   Dave

[Florestan]

I absolutely *adore* the Saint-Saens Piano Concerti - particularly the odd-numbered ones! Nos. 1 and 3 hardly get any love, but they're both exciting and brimming with great tunes. I just love, in no. 1, how the horn call that opens the piece returns transformed at the end. And it's nice to see no. 5 (my personal favorite) getting its time in the proverbial limelight.

Pounds the table! Saint-Saens PC1 is a strong contender for the most underrated PC ever.

[Roasted Swan]

Two new discs which proved to be greatly enjoyable;



Cambreling's "Rite" is almost elegant - a word I would not associate with this work.  But it actually works in an unexpectedly interesting way.  Certainly balletic, not brutal - but the real interest is the way is sounds a lot closer to jeux and La Peri (both excellent performances) than I'd ever have thought.  The Slatkin/Bach disc is a stunner if you are a fan of big orchestral transcriptions of Bach which I am.  Very unusual/unexpected arrangers and all turn out to be deft handlers of big Romantic orchestras.  Unabashed fun from first to last........

[ritter]

Revisiting, after decades,  this CD of music by Henri Rabaud:


The dances from the opera Maroûf, savetier du Caire are great fun, with their unpretentious, light-hearted orientalism. I don't have any recollection of the other works on the disc, so it'll be like a first listen...

[Madiel]

My memory was not very accurate. Here is the whole paragraph:

The "Apostles of the Ninth Symphony" have devised the notion of "depth" in music. It is still current at face-value, especially in Germanic lands.

There is a depth of feeling, and a depth of thought; the latter is literary, and can have no application to tones. Depth of feeling, by contrast, is psychical, and thoroughly germane to the nature of music. The Apostles of the Ninth Symphony have a peculiar and not quite clearly defined estimate of "depth" in music. Depth becomes breadth, and the attempt is made to attain it through weight; it then discovers itself (through an association of ideas) by a preference for a deep register, and (as I have had opportunity to observe) by the insinuation of a second, mysterious notion, usually of a literary sort. If these are not the sole specific signs, they are the most important ones.

To every disciple of philosophy, however, depth of feeling would seem to imply exhaustiveness in feeling, a complete absorption in the given mood.

Whoever, surrounded by the full tide of a genuine carnival crowd, slinks about morosely or even indifferently, neither affected nor carried away by the tremendous self-satire of mask and motley, by the might of misrule over law, by the vengeful feeling of wit running riot, shows himself incapable of sounding the depths of feeling. This gives further confirmation of the fact, that depth of feeling roots in a complete absorption in the given mood, however frivolous, and blossoms in the interpretation of that mood; whereas the current conception of deep feeling singles out only one aspect of feeling in man, and specializes that.

In the so-called "Champagne Aria" in Don Giovanni there lies more "depth" than in many a funeral march or nocturne:—Depth of feeling also shows in not wasting it on subordinate or unimportant matters.

Ferruccio Busoni, Sketch of A New Esthetic of Music, full text here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/31799/31799-h/31799-h.htm

It surprises me not at all that you were the person to bring this up.

On the other hand... can people stop minimising the intensity of Duparc please. Some of those songs are 4-minute epics.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Revisiting, after decades,  this CD of music by Henri Rabaud:


The dances from the opera Maroûf, savetier du Caire are great fun, with their unpretentious, light-hearted orientalism. I don't have any recollection of the other works on the disc, so it'll be like a first listen...

Great disc!

[foxandpeng]

Another admirer of these symphonies here!

You've prompted me to give #4 another spin 

Brenton Broadstock
Good Angel's Tears, Journeys through Light and Dark: The Symphonies of Brenton Broadstock
Symphony #4 'Born from Good Angel's Tears'
Andrew Wheeler
Krasnoyarsk Academic Symphony Orchestra

[ritter]

On the other hand... can people stop minimising the intensity of Duparc please. Some of those songs are 4-minute epics.

+1. Some of Duparc's mélodies are among the greatest in the repertoire...

[classicalgeek]

The best Church Windows I've ever heard. These Chandos recordings are top-notch.

It's really outstanding... and the blaze of glory which concludes the piece is really splendidly captured by the recording! All the juicy details of Respighi's orchestration really shine through.

Pounds the table! Saint-Saens PC1 is a strong contender for the most underrated PC ever.

It really is! And it's so nice to find a fellow admirer of the work! But it almost never gets done in concert (I looked for live concert performances on YouTube, and my search returned exactly zero results - there is one performance of #3 with a community orchestra), and I don't know of any recordings that exist outside of complete cycles. The high-spirited outer movements (both of which bring Mendelssohn to mind - especially the first) contrast brilliantly with the wistful slow movement, which to me recalls a Chopin nocturne. A fun and rewarding piece.

TD:

Richard Strauss
Don Quixote
Don Juan
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Fritz Reiner
(on Spotify)



Classic performances. If there's a more thrilling Don Juan out there, I haven't heard it!

[Spotted Horses]

Two new discs which proved to be greatly enjoyable
.,,
Cambreling's "Rite" is almost elegant - a word I would not associate with this work.  But it actually works in an unexpectedly interesting way.  Certainly balletic, not brutal - but the real interest is the way is sounds a lot closer to jeux and La Peri (both excellent performances) than I'd ever have thought. .......

Early recordings of the rite, Monteux and Anseemet, could be more elegant than brutal.

This sounds like an attractive release.

[ritter]

Great disc!

Indeed! Very enjoyable... Good evening, DBK.

And now, another old favourite: the two Ramuntcho suites by Gabriel Pierné.



I bought this disc more than 30 years  in Biarritz (i.e. in situ so to speak, given the Basque theme of Pierre Loti's novel / play for which Pierné wrote the incidental music), and I've revisited it a couple of times recently, with great pleasure.

[Mirror Image]

Do you know or own this recording, John? The Trio Wanderer is on fire here!

I do not, Cesar, but I own The Florestan Trio recording and it is a fine performance. I also enjoyed the one in the Warner box set I was listening to earlier.

[vandermolen]

New arrival: Fremaux, CBSO boxed set.
Walton: Coronation Te Deum
A marvellous performance of this great work.
The box is worth having for this alone:

[Symphonic Addict]

I do not, Cesar, but I own The Florestan Trio recording and it is a fine performance. I also enjoyed the one in the Warner box set I was listening to earlier.

Oh, nice. The Florestan is fine indeed, they play expertly. Wanderer Trio, however, really make these works shine more, there is intense and committed playing of the highest caliber here. And the sonics is nothing but overwhelming. A winner all around! Above all the works, of course. A frolicsome and joyous 1st in F major and an energetic, yet very expressive, 2nd in E minor.

[Symphonic Addict]

New arrival: Fremaux, CBSO boxed set.
Walton: Coronation Te Deum
A marvellous performance of this great work.
The box is worth having for this alone:

That was a recent rediscovery of mine one two weeks ago! Noble, uplifting, solemn piece.

[vandermolen]

That was a recent rediscovery of mine one week ago! Noble, uplifting, solemn piece.

That's a good description of the work Cesar. It seems to have been very well re-mastered for the set and I've just listened to the equally impressive 'Crown Imperial'. Before bed time I'm listening to 'Symphonie Marine' by Ibert - actually my favourite work by this composer (I think that Lol/Irons is another admirer). I prefer this performance to the good one on Naxos - Fremaux's recording is more atmospheric I think. I'm very pleased with this inexpensive boxed set:

Here's a review:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Jun/Fremaux_CBSO_9029588673.htm

[bhodges]

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 (David Afkham, conductor / Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, live recording, Feb. 3, 2017) - Quite fine, and one of the best of the outstanding videos from this ensemble.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg0M4LzEITQ

--Bruce

[Madiel]

Vivaldi - volume 45 of the Naive series.

[Symphonic Addict]

Duel of Fifths

You already know who the winner is. 

The good thing of the Järvi son is the ending. It's indeed a cracking duel of timpanists, and even so, I prefer the overall robustness and sentiment of père Järvi.

I can also notice how Sibeliusian or Sibelian this work is influenced by, and maybe even some touches of Nielsen.