What are you listening 2 now?

[Sergeant Rock]

Honegger String Quartet No. 3 (thanks to Cato)

https://www.youtube.com/v/jpT_I8tjxbQ


Sarge

[Spotted Horses]

Honegger String Quartet No. 3 (thanks to Cato)

I got to know the Honegger String Quartets in a superb recording by the Erato Quartet on the Ermitage Label.



I never came across another recording by the Erato Quartet or another release by the Ermitage Label. This was enough to seal their reputation for me.

[Mirror Image]

I got to know the Honegger String Quartets in a recording by the Erato Quartet on the Ermitage Label.



I never came across another recording by the Erato Quartet or another release by the Ermitage Label. This was enough to seal their reputation for me.

And I got to know the Honegger SQs through this recording with the Quatuor Ludwig on the Timpani label:



And the performances are uniformly excellent.

[aligreto]

The performance, I think. Unlike when hearing the Inbal, Tintner, Chailly, I found myself doing far more volume twiddling than usual.

Interesting; I have Haitink with the Vienna Philharmonic in this work but I have not heard that particular presentation. Thank you.

[Mirror Image]

Honegger String Quartet No. 3 (thanks to Cato)

https://www.youtube.com/v/jpT_I8tjxbQ


Sarge

Pounds the table! Find a recording of them and buy it, Sarge! I just mentioned in a post to Spotted Horses, the Quatuor Ludwig recording on Timpani. Honestly, the recording he mentioned with the Erato Quartet and the one I mentioned are both OOP and difficult to find. The only reason I own the Quatuor Ludwig recording is because it came in a 4-CD set of Honegger's chamber music (on Timpani), which is OOP as well.

[Traverso]

Telemann

What I like about this music, and the Suite in A minor in particular, is the total absence of a melancholic psychological ego document. Its absence can be liberating and refreshing like almost everything from Bach.

[classicalgeek]

Last night, finished up the Ives disc from the Orpheus CO box:

The Unanswered Question
A Set of Pieces
Set no. 1
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra



I've heard renditions of The Unanswered Question that I've liked better; Orpheus lacks that dreamy quality that I like the string chords to have, and the flutes are too far forward for me. But the two 'sets' are really well done; this is more in Orpheus's wheelhouse and they don't disappoint.

[Linz]

Debussy Debussy Sonata pour flute, alto et harpe, syrinx, Chansons de Bilitis 

[Papy Oli]

Stunning.

[Traverso]

Stunning.

It is clear that you are hooked in the Baroque era,it is a rich world to dwell in.

[ritter]

First listen to André Boucourechliev's Les Archipels series: Archipel I for two pianos and two percussionists, II for string quartet, III for piano and six percussionists, IV for piano solo, and Anarchipel for an ensemble of six instruments.



Boucourechliev (1925-1997) was a rather prominent figure of the avant-garde in the 60s and 70s, as well as a distinguished writer on music. Bulgarian by birth, he went to France for a piano competition in 1948, didn't return to his native country, and later became a French citizen, dying in Paris in 1997. His catalogue of works appears to be rather slim.

The Archipels are open form compositions. This is what www.boucourechliev.com, hosted by two entities dedicated furthering the composer's oeuvre, has to say about the series:

Two fully-fledged works predating the Archipels must be mentioned here: Musiques nocturnes for 3 instruments, a closed work that includes free elements, and Grodek (1963) for soprano and 4 instruments, which inaugurates the composer's vocal output, one that is relatively small yet powerful and original.

Archipel 1 (1967) postdates a long trip Boucourechliev made in the USA, in the course of which he encountered many composers, including Earle Brown whom he met again on his return to Paris, and closely followed what was a fertile, radical avant-garde. As the composer declared, the Archipel 1 project would not have been what it was without that experience.

True models of the genre, Archipel 1 and the works that followed it present numerous variant formal layouts that the performers dispose freely in a "game of lively riposte and altercation". Pitches, melodic profiles, registers, durations and rates of flow, dynamics, etc. are carefully thought out and written down, leaving no place to chance, in order to create complex, variable relationships.

In the wake of Archipel 1, and obeying the same principle, came Archipel 2 (1968) for string quartet, Archipel 3 (1969) for piano and 6 percussions, Archipel 4 (1970) for piano. Anarchipel (1970), finally, for 6 instruments, shows how it is possible for the form to explode and break up into as many solo scores as there are instruments.

These works, played throughout the world, form an individual and convincing interpretation of the ideas and pursuits of their time, and in them musicality is never sacrificed.


I'd stress the last phrase of the above text. This is powerfully expressive music, and I find it absolutely compelling in its extreme 60s avant-garde style.

The performers include pianists Claude Helffer (who worked closely with the composer), Hakon Austbö and Georges Pludermacher, the Quatuor Ysaÿe, and other instrumentalists.

Quite a discovery, I must say! 

[Florestan]

Telemann

What I like about this music, and the Suite in A minor in particular, is the total absence of a melancholic psychological ego document. Its absence can be liberating and refreshing like almost everything from Bach.

Well said. I'd add Domenico Scarlatti in the same respect.

[foxandpeng]

Interesting Danny. I have the Lipkin CD but, initially, the symphonies made little impression on me so, I must listen to them again.

I really quite like them. They've grown on me in the same way that the Alwyn symphonies have - very different works, but each with their own charm. I am warming to the Alwyn more and more, each time I hear them.

[pi2000]

Haydn (Sunrise) Prazak Qt  from here (30 Years of Praga-The Anniversary)https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B09BY285QY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[SonicMan46]

Albéniz, Issac (1860-1909) - Iberia w/ Alicia de Larrocha and Guitar Transcriptions w/ Wulfin Lieske & Fabian Spindler together on the first disc, plus a bonus disc (third one below) of Lieske solo; both performing on historic guitars from the 19th century.  Short bio of Albéniz below who wrote a LOT of piano music (Composition List), nearly all of which I do not own on the piano - probably need to add to my 'tiny' collection -    Dave

Isaac Albéniz was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era who also had a significant influence on his contemporaries and younger composers. He is best known for his piano works based on Spanish folk music idioms. Transcriptions of many of his pieces, such as Asturias (Leyenda), Granada, Sevilla, Cadiz, Córdoba, Cataluña, Mallorca, and Tango in D, are important pieces for classical guitar, though he never composed for the guitar. (Source)

   

[Iota]

The Unanswered Question
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

A piece that manages to summon up the GBS quote 'You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul', for me at least. Despite its short duration, it seems to radiate inwards and outwards over seemingly cosmic distances.


Here:



Nicholas Ludford: Missa Regnum mundi
Blue Heron

Another run for this spectacularly beautiful recording.

[ritter]

Early (1966 to 1973)  live recordings by Catherine Collard. A beautifully played and interestingly varied programme (contents on the back cover).

[ritter]

A piece that manages to summon up the GBS quote 'You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul', for me at least. Despite its short duration, it seems to radiate inwards and outwards over seemingly cosmic distances.

Indeed. An endlessly fascinating piece, The Unanswered Question. I've seen it live in concert only once, and it was a memorable occasion. Conductor Jonathan Nott (leading the Bamberg Symphony) did a daring thing: he started the evening's programme with the Ives piece, and then went straight, attacca, into Schubert's Unfinished Symphony. The effect was mesmerising. 

Good evening to you, Iota.

[Linz]

Bruckner 5 with Eugen Jochum taking his time with it and the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam

[Roasted Swan]

Bruckner 5 with Eugen Jochum taking his time with it and the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam

My favourite version!