What are you listening 2 now?

[Traverso]

Froberger

[kyjo]

Were you reading my mind about/with Ludolf Nielsen? I was about to post this stirring and glorious work:

The Tower of Babel



The choral parts never lack depth and they're majestic, noble, even close to VW's style. The vocal solo parts are more academic, truth be told. I was less engaged by them, but when the chorus enters becomes an overwhelming creation. Even it has something of Langgaard's Antikrist. Quite a discovery, I must say!

And please, you do give a listen to his symphonies and other stuff!

Oh yes, The Tower of Babel is stirring stuff, indeed. Ludolf could be quite dramatic when he wanted to be! The accompanying orchestral suite Forest Walk is an interesting work - rather harmonically advanced and almost expressionistic in places. It has a glorious "sunrise" of an ending! Regarding his other works, I enjoy his colorful, folksy orchestral suite From the Mountains, less so his rather unmemorable 1st Symphony. I've yet to hear his ballet Lackschmi or his SQs.

[Mirror Image]

A darkly moving work. I like No.5 very much.

Indeed. Truth be told, I like all of Honegger's symphonies.

[Traverso]

Mahler

Symphony No.4
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

[Irons]

Tippett : Piano Sonata No.1. Piano Concerto. Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli.



Tippett splits opinion and that is just for me!

Piano Sonata No.1: A work ideally suited to John Ogdon. In four movements, big and bold with not for the first time more then a hint of Beethoven.

Piano Concerto: Again Ogdon with support from the Philharmonia directed by Colin Davis. What can I say? Only not for me. After a gap of five years or so, didn't like it then and nothing has changed.

Fantasia: Tippett takes a theme and spirit of Corelli and creates a masterpiece. Tippett himself conducting Bath Festival Orchestra with Menuhin and Robert Masters (violins) with Derek Simpson (cello). The best works of Tippett have a feeling of rapture. 

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Lutosławski
Cello Concerto
Tomasz Daroch (cello)
Filharmonia Wrocławska
Jacek Kaspszyk



This entire series on CD Accord of Lutosławski are worth their weight in gold. Superb performances from all-involved. There will be an eighth volume coming out in February:

[Mirror Image]

Once I heard the Pelleas et Melisande Suite from this recording and I thought that both the performance and the work were rather flaccid and few dynamic. Not too interesting for my taste. Perhaps the DG recording will be more convincing.

You need to listen to the new recording from Jonathan Nott on Pentatone:



The arrangement is done by Nott and it's the most complete this suite has ever been. Worth a listen.

[SonicMan46]

Alkan, Charles-Valentin (1813-1888) - Top row of double-CD sets in my collection (own just 2 others w/ M-A Hamelin) - bottom two listened off Spotify this morning - Wee is astounding but the BIS disc is not cheap; love Martin in the Esquisses and ordered from Amazon - reviews attached of Wee & Martin, for those interested.  Dave

Charles-Valentin Alkan was a French Jewish composer and virtuoso pianist. At the height of his fame in the 1830s and 1840s he was, alongside his friends and colleagues Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, among the leading pianists in Paris, a city in which he spent virtually his entire life. (Source)

   

 

[ritter]

You need to listen to the new recording from Jonathan Nott on Pentatone:



The arrangement is done by Nott and it's the most complete this suite has ever been. Worth a listen.

I was listening to the Leinsdorf arrangement of Pelléas et Mélisande in Abbado's recording yesterday (prompted by a post by our fellow GMGer Artem). I hadn't listened to any of these orchestral suites from the opera for a while (I also have the Marius Constant "symphony" on the Naxos set conducted by Jun Markl, but don't know the Nott). Truth be said, this time around this suite didn't make much sense to me. It's as if, without the words, the music were denaturalised, and one of the great masterpieces of the 20th century becomes a formless mush, almost elevator music. 

I'm no lover of Wagner bleeding chunks, and now realise that a wordless Pelléas is not for me either...

Good day to you, John!

[Mirror Image]

I was listening to the Leinsdorf arrangement of Pelléas et Mélisande in Abbado's recording yesterday (prompted by a post by our fellow GMGer Artem). I hadn't listened to any of these orchestral suites from the opera for a while (I also have the Marius Constant "symphony" on the Naxos set conducted by Jun Markl, but don't know the Nott). Truth be said, this time around this suite didn't make much sense to me. It's as if, without the words, the music were denaturalised, and one of the great masterpieces of the 20th century becomes a formless mush, almost elevator music. 

I'm no lover of Wagner bleeding chunks, and now realise that a wordless Pelléas is not for me either...

Good day to you, John!

And a good day to you as well, Rafael. I'm not a fan of the suite of Pelléas et Mélisande, but thought this Nott arrangement was tastefully done. I realize there are several out there. I prefer listening to the opera, too as the singing is what guides this work along and brings everything into focus.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

James Ensor Suite, Flor Alpaerts.

[Mandryka]

Listening again to the 960 something which I think I got from Richard Barrett's book came to mind - that one possible mark of improvisation is that the performer creates the music in response to the specific sound qualities of the instrument he's using. And suddenly I saw what's really essentially gained by using a piano like the one Koch uses - it's that he is creating D960 by tapping into the unique timbral possibilities of his piano. What he does is in some as yet undefined sense more improvisatory, or differently improvisatory, than, for example, to pick a name at random, Curzon.

[Karl Henning]

The first OCO recording I bought, back when first released:

CD 39

Schoenberg
Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4
Erste Kammersymphonie, Op. 9
Zweite Kammersymphonie, Op. 38

[Traverso]

Sweelinck

[Mountain Goat]

Saint-Saëns: Symphony in F "Urbs Roma", Orchestre National de l'ORTF/Jean Martinon, from the Warner Saint-Saëns Edition which arrived today. First listen to an enjoyable symphony which Saint-Saëns seems to have disowned, can't think why!

[Karl Henning]

MIDI demo of our weirdears' latest: Fantasy & Fugue for flute and clarinet. I hope to play this someday.

[foxandpeng]

Tippett : Piano Sonata No.1. Piano Concerto. Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli.



Tippett splits opinion and that is just for me!

Piano Sonata No.1: A work ideally suited to John Ogdon. In four movements, big and bold with not for the first time more then a hint of Beethoven.

Piano Concerto: Again Ogdon with support from the Philharmonia directed by Colin Davis. What can I say? Only not for me. After a gap of five years or so, didn't like it then and nothing has changed.

Fantasia: Tippett takes a theme and spirit of Corelli and creates a masterpiece. Tippett himself conducting Bath Festival Orchestra with Menuhin and Robert Masters (violins) with Derek Simpson (cello). The best works of Tippett have a feeling of rapture.

+1 for Tippett's Double and Triple Concertos from me. Also a fan of the symphonies and my initial dabbling with the SQs.

[SonicMan46]

Bach, JC (1735-1782) - Six Quartettos, Op. 8 - performers shown below on period instruments or reproductions (oboe, violin, cello, & viola da gamba) - new arrival - apparently first recording of these works; despite Bach's long relationship w/ Abel, he wrote few gamba works so this disc is a nice addition to my JC Bach collection - performances well done w/ excellent sound (2017) - nice booklet w/ plenty of Gainsborough paintings, like the two below of Bach and Abel; review attached for those interested.  Dave

 

 

[Linz]

Arnold Bax symphony no. 4 with Nympholept Royal Scottish Orchestra  David Lloyd-Jones conducting

[kyjo]

Dohnányi: Symphony No. 2

Stirring!

Indeed! It's interesting how different each of the four movements are from each other: a stormy, dramatic first movement, a lush, almost Korngoldian slow movement, a sardonic, almost Bartókian scherzo, and a massive finale which is a variations and fugue on a Bach chorale. Due to this, maybe it doesn't completely "hang together" as a coherent symphonic structure, but that's relatively unimportant considering how effective the music is.