What are you listening 2 now?

[Symphonic Addict]

NP: Roussel Le festin de l'araignée (Rophé)



Giving this another listen. Wonderful.

I'll have to revisit this piece on the strength of your enthusiasm, John. I don't have strong memories of it.

[Symphonic Addict]

Langgaard: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3, Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Dausgaard. Continuing my journey through this eclectic and excentric symphony cycle. The Danish Havergal Brian maybe?!

Just that Langgaard's thematic material tends to be more memorable yet traditional.

[Symphonic Addict]

Glière: String Octet in D major

Gosh, this has to be one of his most lovely and tuneful works. A very inspired creation.

[SonicMan46]

Milhaud, Darius (1892-1974) - Orchestral Works & Chamber Symphonies w/ the performers on the first two CDs shown below - last two later today - also have his Piano Concertos & Complete Symphonies w/ Alun Francis - I don't usually wander into the 20th century except for a handful of composers writing in the early-mid-eras; now, Milhaud was such a PROLIFIC composer (list of compositions), and I'm sure his fans here will come up w/ a LOT of suggestions, but I'm happy w/ this 'small' collection.  Dave

     

[Linz]

CD 2 from this set

[Iota]

Tippett: The Midsummer Marriage

Remedios, Carlyle, Herincx, Harwood, ROH Chorus and Orchestra, Colin Davis


Such a joyful, luminescent and exhilarating score, like a tsunami of endorphins at times! Some of the most radiant sounds you'll hear from an orchestra, and spine-tingling ensembles that positively soar. Davis is brilliant at the helm, and soloists and chorus all absolutely shine in their roles. I don't often listen to whole operas on disc, it can become a bit of a trek, but this floats by like a galleon in full sail.
An enigmatic libretto, but one that seems perfectly fitting in its dreamlike setting.

[The new erato]

    Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli 
    Jeremy Summerly, Oxford Camerata

The mass that saved Westerm church music! Probably my favourite recording of it, too.

I recommended the BIS recording with the New York Polyphony.

[Mountain Goat]

Just that Langgaard's thematic material tends to be more memorable yet traditional.

Langgaard is certainly more tuneful than Brian! Not that I'm knocking Brian, as my avatar indicates I'm a big fan. Interesting coincidence, Brian's 3rd symphony, like Langgaard's, is also almost a piano concerto (for 2 pianos in Brian's case).

Tippett: The Midsummer Marriage

Remedios, Carlyle, Herincx, Harwood, ROH Chorus and Orchestra, Colin Davis


Such a joyful, luminescent and exhilarating score, like a tsunami of endorphins at times! Some of the most radiant sounds you'll hear from an orchestra, and spine-tingling ensembles that positively soar. Davis is brilliant at the helm, and soloists and chorus all absolutely shine in their roles. I don't often listen to whole operas on disc, it can become a bit of a trek, but this floats by like a galleon in full sail.
An enigmatic libretto, but one that seems perfectly fitting in its dreamlike setting.

I love The Midsummer Marriage, probably the only opera I regularly listen to complete on CD in a single sitting. Such life-affirming music!

[bhodges]

Bruckner: Symphony 0, 1869 version [Chailly]





From the very opening bars, I have always liked this work by Bruckner. Yes, this is an early work but it still does have so much to offer. I think that it is a work of real exploration and that it was a portent of the future offerings in terms of musical language, architecture, tension and drama from this young composer. This is a very fine, expansive reading filled with the requisite tension and drama and Chailly certainly portrays this early music to great effect. Power certainly prevails in the opening movement. The slow movement is a much more delicate and sophisticated affair. The music is very well written here and Chailly presents it very well indeed. I think that the music in this movement is staggeringly good from every conceivable point of view. The third movement, Scherzo, is indeed an exuberant affair with a fine, contrasting and well balanced Trio section. The final movement is a slightly hesitant but, overall, a powerful affair where both strings and brass occasionally compete for supremacy. It is a wonderful sonic battle and Chailly gives it all full reign where appropriate. Otherwise the movement is continually exciting anyway. It is great music.

It is a much better work than some think (who have dismissed it completely). If it doesn't show the sublime heights of Bruckner's later symphonies, No. 0 does serve, as you say, as "a portent of the future offerings." It's illuminating to see a composer's early thoughts, and how they progress.

And in this case, a superb recording as well.

--Bruce

[bhodges]

I'll have to revisit this piece on the strength of your enthusiasm, John. I don't have strong memories of it.

And another vote for the Roussel Festin. Though I do not know that recording, I can vouch for the Georges Prêtre version, with the Orchestre National de France, which is charming, and comes with the equally delightful Bacchus et Ariane.

--Bruce

[ritter]

Music by Michael Jarrell. All the works on this CD are from the 1980s. Claude Helffer is the soloist in Modifications for piano and ensemble (he was the dedicatee of the work).

[Karl Henning]

Berlioz: Grande Messe des morts:

Exquisite!

[Karl Henning]

Gesualdo

How is the performance?

[aligreto]

Arnold: Commonwealth Christmas Overture [Arnold]





I am deliberately starting at the back end of this album due to this work's title, as we have just recently emerged from the said festive season.

[Karl Henning]

The Yellow Shark is an album of orchestral music by American musician Frank Zappa.



Frank Zappa – conductor, producer, performer
Peter Rundel – conductor, violin
Dietmar Wiesner – flute
Catherine Milliken – oboe, english horn, bass oboe,[nb 2] didjeridu
Roland Diry – clarinet
Wolfgang Stryi – bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, contrabass clarinet
Veit Scholz – bassoon, contrabassoon
Franck Ollu, Stefan Dohr – french horn
William Formann, Michael Gross – cornet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet, trumpet
Uwe Dierksen – trombone, soprano trombone
Michael Svoboda – trombone, euphonium, didjeridu, alphorn
Daryl Smith – tuba
Hermann Kretzschmar – celeste, harpsichord, voices, piano
Ueli Wiget – celeste, harpsichord, harp, piano
Rumi Ogawa-Helferich – cymbalom, percussion
Andreas Böttger – percussion
Detlef Tewes – mandolin
Jürgen Ruck – banjo, guitar
Ellen Wegner – harp
Mathias Tacke, Claudia Sack – violin
Hilary Sturt – violin, voices
Friedemann Dähn – violoncello
Thomas Fichter – contrabass, Fichter electric upright bass
Ensemble Modern – main performer

Sharp album!

[aligreto]

It is a much better work than some think (who have dismissed it completely). If it doesn't show the sublime heights of Bruckner's later symphonies, No. 0 does serve, as you say, as "a portent of the future offerings." It's illuminating to see a composer's early thoughts, and how they progress.

And in this case, a superb recording as well.

--Bruce

Agreed on all counts and I honestly do believe that it should have been labelled as Bruckner's Symphony No. 1. But the composer, unfortunately, had self confidence issues.

[Karl Henning]

I'll have to revisit this piece on the strength of your enthusiasm, John. I don't have strong memories of it.

I'm in!

Roussel
Le festin d'araignée, Op. 17
Cz Phil
Košler

[Karl Henning]

Oh, before The Arachnids' Hootenanny:

Our Harry said this is pure delight, and he was right!

[Todd]

FFG's first recording of Brahms last two sonatas.  Excellent, but his later effort is better, and is in better sound.

[ritter]

And now, for something completely different...


Baritone François Le Roux (with a distinguished career behind him as a singer of French mélodies, and perhaps known to some for his Pelléas in Abbado's recording of Debussy's opera) and pianist Nicolas Chevereau devise a program in which French mélodies alternate with mélodrames (recited poems with piano accompaniment). The composers range from the well-known (Bizet, Saint-Saëns, Debussy...), the relatively obscure (Gaubert, Pierné, Büsser) to the never-heard-of  (Francis Thomé, Fernand Ochsé —who died in Auschwitz in 1944–, Louis Diémer —teacher of Cortot, Yves Nat and Enesco at the Conservatoire!—, Edmond de Polignac —yes, that Prince de Polignac, who married Winaretta Singer, the Princesse de Polignac).

A bit 'salonish", but there's some lovely songs here (including Polignac's Vous qui m'aiderez, Gaubert's Le Répos en Égypte —to a poem by Albert Samain—, and Büsser's Apparition —on Mallarmé—). OTOH, I find Thomé's mélodrames quite terrible...   

Le Roux is clearly past his prime (the recording is from 2019, when he was 63 years old), but he's a sensitive interpreter. Chevereau accompanies superbly.