What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Korngold
Symphonic Serenade in B-flat, Op. 39
NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra
Hartmut Rohde

[Florestan]

Lyrical, gentle and calm(ing) music. Perfect for a snowless winter afternoon.

[Harry]

Niels W. Gade.
The Symphonies.
Disc II
Symphony No 2 in E major & No. 7 in F major.
Stockholm Sinfonietta, Neeme Jarvi.

[The new erato]

I love that disc ! The violin concerto's big first movement is a gem.

Yes, I liked the violin concerto a lot, but it wass slightly let down by a "notespinning" finale.

The Serenade was very charming BTW.

[SonicMan46]

This morning, some more 'just arrived' PrestMusic purchases:

Franck, Eduard (1817-1893) - Piano Concertos - I'm a big fan of the Franck father-son team and own a dozen or so discs, mainly Eduard, nearly all by Audite, so this 2018 recording is of interest being on the CPO label, start of another interest?

Roussel, Albert (1869-1937) - Piano Music, V. 1/2 w/ Jean-Pierre Armengaud.  Some reviews attached for the interested.  Dave

   

[Mirror Image]

Lyrical, gentle and calm(ing) music. Perfect for a snowless winter afternoon.

Lovely, Andrei.

[listener]

BEETHOVEN:  Piano Concerto 2 in Bb op. 19   Piano Concerto "0" in Eb (solo piano version)  WoO.4  Concerto Rondo in Eb WoO.6
Annette Töper, piano     Harleshäuser Kammerorchester    Matthias Enkemeier, cond.
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concertos 1 & 4 - original versions
Alexander Ghidin, piano   Helsinki Philharmonic O.    Vladimir Ashkenazy, cond.
ALKAN: Pro Organo, Studies for the Pedals only nos. 7-12, 11 pieces in Religious Style and a Transcription of a March by Handel
Kevin Bowyer,  organ of Blackburn Cathedral

[vandermolen]

Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony. An impressive performance:

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Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony. An impressive performance:

I really felt letdown by these Vaughan Williams Hickox performances on Chandos, Jeffrey. The performances are just dull to me. A Sea Symphony needs electricity. That introduction "Behold, the sea..." (followed by huge orchestral crescendo) is supposed to completely engulf you.

[classicalgeek]

Schmitt: Oriane et le Prince d'Amour

Simply sensational.

How Schmitt manages to combine Impressionism, some Neoclassicism and a few tinges of Second Viennese School is nothing short of cohesive and brilliant.

I really need to give Schmitt's orchestral music another listen!

Glad to hear you're enjoying Ives, CG, and "wonderfully chaotic and exactingly precise" is a great description of his music.

As good a nutshell summary of Ives as I've seen.

It's true I've warmed up to some of his pieces more than others (I was enthralled by his Second and Fourth Symphonies and Three Places in New England, while I was less enthusiastic about the First and Third, though I do want to keep on listening!), but my first "deep dive" into Ives has been a success. The Piano Sonatas are on the docket for today, while I want to keep exploring the chamber music after being highly impressed with the Violin Sonatas.

TD:
some shorter works by Ives, including a few first-listens:

The Gong on the Hook and Ladder
Tone Roads no. 1
Hymn for string orchestra
Hallowe'en
Central Park in the Dark
The Unanswered Question
New York Philharmonic
Leonard Bernstein



I particularly liked the Hymn - Ives at his most beautiful.

And my first non-Ives listen since last week:

Respighi
Fountains of Rome
Philadelphia Orchestra
Riccardo Muti



Of course, I was on a Respighi kick before I started my Ives kick...   A wonderful performance on the whole with amazing playing by the Philadelphians, perhaps a bit fast in spots, and lacking the last bit of overwhelming grandeur at the climax of "The Fountain of Trevi at Midday". But otherwise a marvelous recording.

[VonStupp]

PI Tchaikovsky
Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, op. 41
Latvian Radio Choir - Sigvards Kļava

For this afternoon:

VS

[kyjo]

Aarre Merikanto's Ekho 
    Petri Sakari, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Anu Komsi (soprano)

My first time with Finland's other composer! Good stuff 

As The New Grove puts it, "His mature style may be seen as a fusion of chromatic polyphony, Russian 'mystical' colour and Finnish folkdance rhythms; he was one of the pioneers of highly chromatic, and highly coloured, writing in Finland, and for years, even decades, his endeavours were not understood." I can vouch for the chromaticism!

Oh yes, that's a pretty extraordinary work in Merikanto's "modernist" style. What do you think of the 2nd Symphony? It's a real favorite of mine.

[kyjo]

Lyrical, gentle and calm(ing) music. Perfect for a snowless winter afternoon.

Schoeck's Sommernacht is a remarkably beautiful and atmospheric work; a real highlight of the string orchestra repertoire. It has the same magical, twilit atmosphere of some of Atterberg's slow movements but with a slightly more "modern" harmonic language. The Cello Concerto is pretty good, too, if a bit uneven in the quality of its material. Schoeck was nothing if not a difficult composer to pigeonhole stylistically!

[Florestan]

Schoeck's Sommernacht is a remarkably beautiful and atmospheric work; a real highlight of the string orchestra repertoire. It has the same magical, twilit atmosphere of some of Atterberg's slow movements but with a slightly more "modern" harmonic language. The Cello Concerto is pretty good, too, if a bit uneven in the quality of its material. Schoeck was nothing if not a difficult composer to pigeonhole stylistically!

By his own admittance he was first and foremost a vocal music composer and it shows in his non-vocal music as well, with its remarkably song-like, cantabile quality.

[vandermolen]

I really felt letdown by these Vaughan Williams Hickox performances on Chandos, Jeffrey. The performances are just dull to me. A Sea Symphony needs electricity. That introduction "Behold, the sea..." (followed by huge orchestral crescendo) is supposed to completely engulf you.

I prefer Haitink John but still enjoyed the Hickox.
I think that the only essential Hickox VW symphony recording on Chandos is the 1913 version of A London Symphony, which was not replicated elsewhere.

[vandermolen]

Arthur Bliss: Melee Fantasque.  David Lloyd-Jones.

Great work which I only discovered recently.

[vandermolen]

New release, first listen.


William Wordsworth.
Orchestral Music.
Volume IV.

A Spring Festival Overture.
Symphony No. 7 "Cosmos".
Jubilation, A festivity for Orchestra.
Confluence: Symphonic Variations.

Liepaja SO, John Gibson.
Liga Baltabola, Violin.

I just listened to samples of Symphony No.7 'Cosmos' on the Toccata website and thought that it sounded really good. A mystical crash-bang-wallop symphony. Definitely on my wish list.

[SonicMan46]

Niels W. Gade.
The Symphonies.
Disc II
Symphony No 2 in E major & No. 7 in F major.
Stockholm Sinfonietta, Neeme Jarvi.

Hi Harry - I own the 4 volumes (just first one shown below) of the Gade's Symphonies w/ Hogwood and the Danish National RSO on Chandos, and have enjoyed the performances - have you heard and compared Jarvi w/ Hogwood?  Thanks for any info - Dave

 

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. 5 Asahina with the New Japan Phiharmonic

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Great work which I only discovered recently.

I prefer this DLJ performance to that of Rumon Gamba from Chandos.