What are you listening 2 now?

[foxandpeng]

Edmund Rubbra
Symphonies 2 and 7
New Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley
Adrian Boult
Lyrita

Fine symphonies from an underrated English composer. Warms my heart in these strange times.

[Mirror Image]

First-Listen Wednesday

Saint-Saëns
Suite algérienne, Op. 60
Basque National Orchestra
Jun Märkl



Wow! This piece is lyrical, rhythmically taut but with much color. I might just have to repeat it once it's over. The performance itself is fantastic as is the audio quality. Naxos have certainly come a long way.

[André]

8 minutes of early, avant-garde Penderecki, 60 minutes of his late works (Sextet, Clarinet Quartet and Divertimento for solo cello). These late pieces are powerfully expressive and deserve to be heard often - which I'll do. This disc is a winner.

[SonicMan46]

I like Koechlin's music a lot, but I wouldn't say his solo piano works are where he shines the brightest. I prefer his orchestral and chamber works by a country mile. And a good evening to you, Rafael.

Well, have to agree w/ John - own over a dozen of Koechin's CDs and enjoy, but most are the orchestral and chamber recordings - Dave

[Mirror Image]

8 minutes of early, avant-garde Penderecki, 60 minutes of his late works (Sextet, Clarinet Quartet and Divertimento for solo cello). These late pieces are powerfully expressive and deserve to be heard often - which I'll do. This disc is a winner.

Absolutely agreed, André. The Sextet, in particular, was quite the discovery for me whenever I received that recording.

[Todd]

[Klavier1]

[JBS]

8 minutes of early, avant-garde Penderecki, 60 minutes of his late works (Sextet, Clarinet Quartet and Divertimento for solo cello). These late pieces are powerfully expressive and deserve to be heard often - which I'll do. This disc is a winner.

Agree with all of that. This CD contains the only 68 minutes of Penderecki's music that I like (out of what I have heard) and it's almost all high quality music.

TD
CD 61 of the Barbirolli box

For those keeping score this is the 1967 recording.
Filled out with the Metamorphosen performance originally (and usually) coupled with M6


The M6 appears on the box's next two CDs, but coupled (rather logically) with Schoenberg's Pelleas and Melisande.

[Mandryka]

KV 515

Uncompromisingly stern and grim reading, almost Shostakovich-like cold, harsh and gloomy. I have never ever heard Mozart's music in general and this quintet in particular played like that. I'm not sure it should be played like that. I'm sure I didn't like it. If that's the general tone of this set, then I'll pass.

The recording of violin sonatas which Ryo Terakado made with Boris Vodenitchkarov is like that - it's clearly how they read the music, a deliberate approach to Mozart.  It's a while since I heard it, but I think that Sigiswald Kuijken's recording of Mozart with Gustav Leonhardt is very similar.

[Mirror Image]

Last work of the night:

Janáček
On the Overgrown Path, Series I, JW 8/17
Josef Páleníček

[Karl Henning]

Silvestrov
To Boris Lyatoshinsky (Piano Quintet)

[Mirror Image]

Ah hell, I have time to squeeze in one more work:

Kodály
Concerto for Orchestra
Hungarian State Orchestra
János Ferencsik

[vandermolen]

Howard Hanson 'Mosaics'(1958)
Characteristically heart-felt and memorable.

[Que]

On Spotify:



This time some "sonatinas" on fortepiano.
I must say, for me this adds to the attractiveness of the set and gives me the last push to put it on the shopping list. 

[Harry]

On Spotify:



This time some "sonatinas" on fortepiano.
I must say, for me this adds to the attractiveness of the set and gives me the last push to put it on the shopping list. 

Good to know!

[Tsaraslondon]

There's no doubting this is a superb recording of Prokoviev's score and I'm very happy with it, though my recollection of the Ashkenazy recording is that it had a warmer acoustic and slightly more affectionate response to the music.

[Florestan]

The recording of violin sonatas which Ryo Terakado made with Boris Vodenitchkarov is like that - it's clearly how they read the music, a deliberate approach to Mozart.  It's a while since I heard it, but I think that Sigiswald Kuijken's recording of Mozart with Gustav Leonhardt is very similar.

Thanks for the tip. I'll avoid.

[Harry]

Johann Ludwig Krebs.

Complete Organ Music.
CD 10.

Felix Friedrichs plays on a Hildebrandt Organ in the church St. Wenzel in Naumburg.
Pitch: A=464 Hz at 15 degrees.
Temperament: Neidhardt I (1724)

Nearly at the end of this set, just one CD to go, and I found the weakest link in the set. Querstand is not in the habit to make bad recordings, but...this one is. The Hildebrandt organ no doubt will sound fine, but the recording makes it a shamble. Swimming is the best term for it, the notes are everywhere except in the right place. A pity and lost chance. Why the experienced engineer Wolfgang Muller made such a mess of it is beyond me. I have heard excellent recordings from this organ, but this one is definitely not so. And furthermore some of the compositions on this disc are not of the quality I am used too listening to Krebs. It starts with a Fantasia and Fugue in F major which kicks the quality into the cellar, badly played and a sub par composition. the same with the Trio sonata in E minor makes it even worse, after this trio sonate I turn it off, could not take more. Ughhh.
Avoid!

[Harry]

Hugo Alfven.

The Mountain King-Suite.
Symphony No. 5 in A minor.
Elegy from Gustav II Adolf.

Royal Stockholm PO, Neeme Jarvi.

[Papy Oli]