What are you listening 2 now?

Started by Gurn Blanston, September 23, 2019, 05:45:22 AM

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Harry

Quote from Manuel, born in Spain, currently working at Fawlty Towers.

" I am from Barcelona, I know nothing.............."

aligreto

Quote from: SonicMan46 on January 28, 2022, 12:43:55 PM
Albinoni, Tomaso (1671-1751) - Oboe Concertos, Op. 7 & 9 w/ Stefan Schilli on a modern instrument; Nicol Matt/Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra - wonderful performances, but for period instrument fans, I also own the first two of three volumes (bottom row) w/ Anthony Robson and Catherine Latham on oboes, plus Simon Standage & Collegium Musicum 90, which have the two Opus works 'mixed up' - the remainder are on a third disc - this has been re-packaged (and re-arranged) into a 3-CD set (top row, 2nd/3rd pics) but is not a bargain, e.g. $37 on Amazon USA - might just get a DL to complete my 'period set', but that 're-arrangement' is attractive - drat!   :laugh:  Dave

   

   

For those interested, there is an Albinoni thread to explore. Albinoni is a composer definitely worth exploring if you want to bring some sunshine into your life  ;)

aligreto

Quote from: Papy Oli on January 28, 2022, 01:39:13 PM

Only a few months properly into this world but it is very rich and rewarding indeed.

And long may your enjoyment and appreciation of this music be, Olivier.

aligreto

Quote from: classicalgeek on January 28, 2022, 01:57:11 PM

Canteloube
Chants d'Auvergne, Part 1
Veronique Gens
Orchestre National de Lille
Jean-Claude Casadesus

(on Spotify)



I've always really liked these songs, which run the whole range of emotions from sad to wistful to joyful to humorous... and I have to say the Gens has the perfect voice for these! She carefully and lovingly shapes each song, and the result is mesmerizing. The orchestration is full of color, as is the orchestra from Lille; the piquant woodwinds especially stand out. Just an outstanding recording overall.

Yes, a great cycle indeed. Absolutely recommended to anyone who has not yet heard it.

Linz

Bax symphony 5  from Bryden Thomson set

Traverso

Quote from: (: premont :) on January 28, 2022, 12:10:08 PM
I have been for the most of my life, and isn't it true of you too?

Difficult to commit myself to a preference because it doesn't do justice to the many compositions I appreciate  that fall outside of that.
Yet it is the simple melodies that touch me the most, such as the example in the attached video.
The joy in the Bach sonatas for Traverso, the English and French suites, you almost drown in the overwhelming richness that the Baroque has given us.
According to Gustav leonhardt, with the advent of the "aufklärung", Voltaire and his followers destroyed much that was dear to him. The world was determined more horizontally and this had a wide influence on thinking and the cultural world.
It was a curse in Leonhard's eyes, because at the same time man had turned away more from God." Man was incapable of love, God was love". It is precisely Leonhardt who saw himself simply as a servant and mediator who nevertheless with his sober approach could enchant the listener .
I am very attracted to the Baroque era as there are, Sweelinck, Bach, Telemann, Scarlatti, Schütz, Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Purcell and many others.
The Renaissance is equally loved by me. Dufay is also one of my dear ones. It is striking how contemporary his songs sound, at least to my ears.
I am thinking of Telemann's 'Ino' cantata sung by Gundula Janowitz.
I have it all enclosed in my heart and as much as I can enjoy for example Boulez, it will never be like that for me  .
All in all, I think you're right, I feel most at home in the world of the Baroque and the periods before that.  :)



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


SonicMan46

Quote from: aligreto on January 28, 2022, 02:29:41 PM
For those interested, there is an Albinoni thread to explore. Albinoni is a composer definitely worth exploring if you want to bring some sunshine into your life  ;)

Hi Fergus - I debated 'where' to put this post, i.e. likely 'buried' in the listening thread w/ few responses or maybe receiving more comments in the 'Albinoni Thread' - believe you and I have made a few contributions there - maybe I should repost?  Thanks - Dave :)

premont

Quote from: Traverso on January 28, 2022, 03:10:45 PM
Difficult to commit myself to a preference because it doesn't do justice to the many compositions I appreciate  that fall outside of that.

Yes I also enjoy lots of later music (Beethoven, Nielsen, Hindemith, Bartok to name a few), but it's the early music (1750 and backwards) which is closest to my heart. I am not sure that it is the simple melodies which are primary interests, but rather the polyphony and counterpoint.
γνῶθι σεαυτόν


JBS

Quote from: JBS on January 28, 2022, 01:27:58 PM
Time to get started with this set

CD 1
1928 recordings: sound (2020 mastering) is relatively good compared to most from that era.
Orchestra is credited as John Barbirolli's Chamber Orchestra.
Purcell Hornpipe from "The Married Beau"
Mozart Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Haydn Symphony 104
Elgar Introduction and Allegro for Strings

After supper, CD 2, with recordings from 1929-31.
It starts off with a technological oddity: two pieces for cello orchestra arranged by Barbirolli (an aria from Die Zauberflote) and by Casals(Sardana) recorded over a landline from the ROH to Small Queen's Hall in London. They do sound like they were recorded over the phone. Then three Orchestral Potpourris from Faust, Carmen, and Tannhauser, the Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, two pieces by Glazunov, and something from a composer I've never heard of, Alexandre Luigini*'s [1850-1906] Ballet Russe Op. 23.
Orchestras are Royal Opera and London Symphony Orchestras, except for those first two all-cello tracks.

Impression is that Barbirolli was at this stage a sort of jack-of-all-musics.
*My brain wants to turn this into Linguine.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Traverso

Quote from: (: premont :) on January 28, 2022, 03:43:30 PM
Yes I also enjoy lots of later music (Beethoven, Nielsen, Hindemith, Bartok to name a few), but it's the early music (1750 and backwards) which is closest to my heart. I am not sure that it is the simple melodies which are primary interests, but rather the polyphony and counterpoint.

Of course it is not only that  :)

Daverz

Suk's Ripening from the new Supraphon Ancerl Live set, which just hit Qobuz.

https://www.youtube.com/v/nsp5NoP4X0s

Symphonic Addict

Quote from: foxandpeng on January 27, 2022, 03:25:56 PM
5 is also my preference of the two, although 4 probably isn't that far behind. I also don't find too much to choose between this and the Storgårds version, although I really do appreciate Storgårds. Nørgård and his like scratch a particular itch for me .

Thread duty:

Malcolm Lipkin
The Symphonies
Symphony 1 'Sinfonia di Roma'
Lionel Friend
BBC SSO
Lyrita


I don't know Lipkin well, but this and the accompanying symphonies are quickly growing on me. I would probably rank them 3, 2, 1 in order of favourites. Well worth hearing.

How is this music? I mean, what does it sound like? I've seen this composer somewhere before.
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Symphonic Addict

Quote from: Irons on January 28, 2022, 12:39:11 AM
Tippett: Concerto for Double String Orchestra.

Moscow/Bath Festival Chamber Orchestras conducted by Rudolf Barshai.



Craftsmanship and loveliness aplenty!
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Symphonic Addict

#60434
Quote from: Mirror Image on January 28, 2022, 06:04:12 AM
This entire recording:



This Honegger Zinman disc has been in my collection for ages it seems and I still come back to it from time to time with a newfound enthusiasm with each revisit. The performances are top-drawer and the audio quality is superb.

Looks yummy, John. But is Zinman sharp-edged enough to conduct and keep the exciting moments alive with the orchestra?
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Symphonic Addict

Quote from: ritter on January 28, 2022, 09:02:24 AM
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!  :)

Interesting, Raphael! And he has a cool name too! You piqued my curiosity. Thanks for the complete review!
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

André



Not this disc, but the same performance of the 4 Last Songs, coupled with various lieder (Christa Ludwig, Peter Anders) and extracts from 2 performances of Arabella. Most people choose Schwarzkopf with Szell in the 4 Last Songs. I must be in the minority in preferring her earlier incarnation, where she is in much fresher voice, and Ackermann's flowing conducting. Della Casa and Güden in Arabella (Solti's version) are a musical dream team.

Symphonic Addict

Quote from: vandermolen on January 28, 2022, 12:57:01 PM
Bax: Symphony No.6
Thomson's performance brought this work alive for me.


And what perfectly epic it is! The Epilogue is majestic too, and noble. Like a sunset.
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Symphonic Addict

Quote from: classicalgeek on January 28, 2022, 01:57:11 PM
I too really enjoy Jochum in Bruckner - I have a slight preference for the EMI cycle, but the DG cycle is very fine as well.

Great stuff! I especially like the opening with that relentless ostinato in the bass instruments.

TD: Sunny songs for a rare sunny day (at least in January in the U.S. Northwest!)

Canteloube
Chants d'Auvergne, Part 1
Veronique Gens
Orchestre National de Lille
Jean-Claude Casadesus

(on Spotify)



I've always really liked these songs, which run the whole range of emotions from sad to wistful to joyful to humorous... and I have to say the Gens has the perfect voice for these! She carefully and lovingly shapes each song, and the result is mesmerizing. The orchestration is full of color, as is the orchestra from Lille; the piquant woodwinds especially stand out. Just an outstanding recording overall.

Quote from: aligreto on January 28, 2022, 02:34:18 PM
Yes, a great cycle indeed. Absolutely recommended to anyone who has not yet heard it.

+1!
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

classicalgeek

Quote from: "Harry" on January 28, 2022, 02:14:38 PM
Presently I am going through the Vernon Handley set. He brings to the music by Bax, insight in the many moods of one of the greatest composers that ever graced the earth. I always need time to recover myself when I have listened to any of his works. Its so giving these notes.....I have to address Thomson's take sooner or later. I started listening to Bax when I bought an LP with Tintagel on it, i was hooked right away.

I first heard Bax's symphonies on Handley's recordings too, and found them much to my liking... but I'm not familiar enough with Thomson, or Lloyd-Jones on Naxos, to have a good sense for them. I guess I need to revisit Bax again!

Quote from: aligreto on January 28, 2022, 02:34:18 PM
Yes, a great cycle indeed. Absolutely recommended to anyone who has not yet heard it.

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on January 28, 2022, 05:39:56 PM
+1!

It might be my favorite version of the Chants d'Auvergne so far... I remember liking the iconic Davrath recording, but Gens equals, if not surpasses it.

TD: speaking of iconic recordings...

Franck
Symphony in D minor
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Pierre Monteux

(on Spotify)



I can see why this is a classic performance! White-hot and intense in the outer movements, with a perfectly wistful second movement, and outstanding playing from the Chicagoans.
So much great music, so little time...

Original compositions and orchestrations: https://www.youtube.com/@jmbrannigan