What are you listening 2 now?

[Mandryka]

Liszt?

Yes.

There must be lots of stuff in Beethoven, but I don't go there.

[Karl Henning]

CD 47 with guest Mischa Maisky

Tchaikovsky
Vars on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
Lensky's Aria from Eugene Onegin
Nocturne, Op. 19/4
Andante cantabile
Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70

We take it as read that the guest's showpieces will be excellent. But it is the electric, magnificent performance of the Op. 70 that has set me to feeling that this disc is one of the very highlights of an overall superb box.


Now:


CD 3 In which we first draw Delius

Ponchielli
Dance of the Hours from La Gioconda

Delibes
Excerpts from Sylvia

Frederick Rosse
Suite from The Merchant of Venice

Wm Vincent Wallace
Maritana—Overture

Michael Balfe
The Bohemian Girl—Overture

Delius
A Song Before Sunrise

Roger Quilter
A Children's Overture, Op. 17

[JBS]

Yes.

There must be lots of stuff in Beethoven, but I don't go there.

If you mean start to finish, probably only Rage Over A Lost Penny (whose sobriquet was not from Beethoven).

[Florestan]

Yes.

I'll take your word for it.

There must be lots of stuff in Beethoven, but I don't go there.

I think Beethoven is hugely overrated in the "aggressive and angry" dept. Here and there, even extensively here and there, yes --- but overall he's quite the opposite: gentle and life-affirming.

[Florestan]

If you mean start to finish, probably only Rage Over A Lost Penny (whose sobriquet was not from Beethoven).

Do you really perceive it as aggressive and angry? For me it's humorous through and through.  Never fails to put a smile on my face.

[Iota]

It's just extremely beautiful playing, and a consoling, passionate interpretation. Everything on the CD is sweet -- like a box of chocolates.  What it lacks is aggression and anger. But I don't want to be a grouch, the world's a better place because this recording exists.

It's a highly rarefied beauty, almost so perfect it ends up penetrating somewhere deep. But it's not at all shallow, and not fitting the 'box of chocolate' tag remotely, for me. I found it moving.

Volodos' musical personality doesn't seem to contain much aggression or anger from what I've heard of him. If you listen to the bravura coda to Vallée d'Obermann on his Liszt cd e.g, he just seems throw the mighty concert grand round like a rag doll. You'll rarely ever hear more insane power coming out of a piano, it's just spectacular. But even that doesn't seem to come from a particularly furrowed brow. Still sensational though.

As far as the ongoing anger/aggression conversation above goes, I think if you find a piece of music aggressive, it is. If you don't, it's not. However, they're not words I'd use to characterise the Opp.116 - 119 generally, though there may be moments of somewhat repressed anger perhaps.

Glad you enjoyed it, Iota. The Cello Sonata on the same disc is worth listening too.

You could also like his ballets Nikotina and Signorina Gioventù

Actually I could only find the Novak Quartet recording, so no Cello Sonata. But thanks for the recs!

Alessandro Striggio's Missa Ecco sì beato giorno 
    Robert Hollingworth, I Fagiolini

I remember seeing the 'premiere' of that at the Proms in 2007, when it had been recently re-discovered. I was very excited about seeing it, and it was good, but slightly blunted by the poor acoustics you sometimes get in the Royal Albert hall, alas. Tallis Scholars and Davitt Moroney were leading the show.

[Mandryka]

Here's a performance of Debussy's Blanc et Noir which I've always thought was full of anger -- Paul Jacobs knew he was about to die at the time

https://www.youtube.com/v/-m-44NjMETM&ab_channel=PaulJacobs-Topic

[Artem]

Notturno

[ritter]

Another new arrival: Pierre Boulez conducts Schoenberg (Five Orchestral Pieces op. 16 and Accompaniment to a Film Scene, op. 34), Webern (Symphony, op. 21 and Variations, op. 30) and Berg (Evelyn Lear in the Sieben frühe Lieder). Live with the London Symphony Orchestra on tour in Vienna in June 1969.

[vandermolen]

Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony (piano duet version).
The great thing, for me, about this is that it is of the 1920 version and therefore retains the intensely poetic and moving section at the end which Vaughan Williams later excised. Also featured is a lovely setting of Finzi's 'Eclogue' arranged for piano and organ.

[Karl Henning]

I'll take your word for it.

I think Beethoven is hugely overrated in the "aggressive and angry" dept. Here and there, even extensively here and there, yes --- but overall he's quite the opposite: gentle and life-affirming.

Gentle is perhaps the last adjective I should generally ascribe to Ludwig van. I think of a line from Lewis's Narnia books. Not a tame lion.

CD 3 In which we first draw Delius

Ponchielli
Dance of the Hours from La Gioconda

Delibes
Excerpts from Sylvia

Frederick Rosse
Suite from The Merchant of Venice

Wm Vincent Wallace
Maritana—Overture

Michael Balfe
The Bohemian Girl—Overture

Delius
A Song Before Sunrise

Roger Quilter
A Children's Overture, Op. 17

The Procession of Bacchus from Sylvia was a serious flash ... hadn't thought of that, let alone heard it, since (in transcription) it was one of the chestnuts of the Rutherford Community Band, from my school daze.

[Karl Henning]

Another new arrival: Pierre Boulez conducts Schoenberg (Five Orchestral Pieces op. 16 and Accompaniment to a Film Scene, op. 34), Webern (Symphony, op. 21 and Variations, op. 30) and Berg (Evelyn Lear in the Sieben frühe Lieder). Live with the London Symphony Orchestra on tour in Vienna in June 1969.

Nice, Rafael!

[ritter]

Nice, Rafael!

Good evening, Karl!

[Mirror Image]

Nice, Rafael!

+ 1

[ritter]

Good evening to you as well, John!

[Karl Henning]

CD 3 In which we first draw Delius

Ponchielli
Dance of the Hours from La Gioconda

Delibes
Excerpts from Sylvia

Frederick Rosse
Suite from The Merchant of Venice

Wm Vincent Wallace
Maritana—Overture

Michael Balfe
The Bohemian Girl—Overture

Delius
A Song Before Sunrise

Roger Quilter
A Children's Overture, Op. 17

I must say that the Delius is a charming miniature, and stood out in this program

Now:

CD 48 with guest Gil Shaham

Vivaldi
Le quattro stagioni

Fritz Kreisler
Concerto in C in the style of Vivaldi

[Todd]

Wrapping up a first go-round with Lintu's Enescu cycle.  In better sound and better played than Foster's cycle, though not by enough to get too excited about, it more or less matches the earlier cycle in terms of musical satisfaction, though in the Foster set I have, Vox Maris in included, which, sadly, is not here.  Still, it's nice to have two cycles.  There really ought to be more recordings of the Third.

[Mirror Image]

Good evening to you as well, John!

And you, too.

NP:

Dallapiccola
Piccolo concerto per pianoforte e orchestra da camera
Pietro Massa (piano)
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Peter Hirsch



Lovely work, but all of the Dallapiccola I've heard whether serial or not, has been lovely. I remember some member on another forum asking me why did I even bother listening to this composer's music and my response was "Because it's beautiful...this should be enough." It seems to me that some listeners have an extreme allergy to a composer that is outside of their comfort zone hence why so many of them are stuck with a mere handful of composers and never branch out. My interest, and more importantly, preference has always been the 19th and 20th Centuries, so interest has led me to so much incredible music simply by continuously stepping out of my comfort zone to hear something I never heard before.

[JBS]

The Procession of Bacchus from Sylvia was a serious flash ... hadn't thought of that, let alone heard it, since (in transcription) it was one of the chestnuts of the Rutherford Community Band, from my school daze.

Surprising--since it seems the sort of thing WCRB would love to overplay.

Meanwhile, Samson having brought the opera house roof down, a fresh visit to the Barbirolli box.
CD 16
With the Halle Orchestra

Haydn Symphony #88
Schubert Symphony #9
Verdi La Traviata: Preludes to Acts 1 and 3

While Barbirolli would record two of the concertos later*, this 1953 performance is the last of the four Haydn symphonies he put on tape for EMI.

*one of them an oboe concerto that is merely attributed to FJH

[bhodges]

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll (Frankfurt Radio Symphony / Alain Altinoglu, conductor) - Live recording from a concert on Jan. 13 (just posted today) and quite fine, as most have been in this series of broadcasts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wolO4fJr70Y

--Bruce