What are you listening 2 now?

[Que]

The Philips is excellent - and I would say that the Sweelinck is even more excellent! In the Sweelinck, he brings a sense of dream. The Philips is like an intense and hypnotic hallucination, the Sweelinck is like a sweet daydream.

Yes, I definitely agree Belder's Sweelinck is as good.

[VonStupp]

Bohuslav Martinů
The Epic of Gilgamesh, H351

Lucy Crowe, soprano
Andrew Staples, tenor
Derek Welton, baritone
Jan Martiník, bass
Simon Callow, narrator

Prague Philharmonic Choir
Czech Philharmonic - Manfred Honeck

For this afternoon. VS

[SonicMan46]

For the afternoon, continuing perusal of my Boccherini collection - below Cello Quintets then the Divertimenti; one of the latter discs from the 10-CD Haupt Cappriccio box - Dave

 

   

[Karl Henning]

A first listen:

Webern
Quintet for pf & str qt (1907)

Leonard Stein, pf
Dorothy Wade & Ward Fenley, vn
Milton Thomas, va
Emmet Sargeant, vc

[Artem]

First disk. Maybe too smooth.

[Mandryka]

Yes, I definitely agree Belder's Sweelinck is as good.

Do you have the booklet? Does he ever actually use a virginal?

[Brian]

Today so far:

Mozart concertos 11/17/19 with Zoltan Kocsis, from his big box
Glazunov 3 with Jose Serebrier, from his cycle box
Beethoven trio Op 70 No 2 with the HIP Trio Marie Soldat

Next, Marie Soldat album will continue to Schubert's second trio. After that, I'm planning on cranking up the volume and letting Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Igor Markevitch rattle the windows a bit.

[bhodges]

James Weeks: Primo Libro (2012-16) - Performed by Ekmeles (Jeff Gavett, baritone and director). Weeks is the director of EXAUDI, a similar a cappella group in London, which also does cutting-edge choral music. After studying early microtonality, he wrote this for Ekmeles, and the result is astonishing (and extremely difficult to sing).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB-juvLRsgU

--Bruce

[VonStupp]

Bohuslav Martinů
Symphony 3

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Bryden Thomson

A mite-bit moodier than the previous two.

VS

[Todd]

As expected, quite good.  A bit more surprising, but not really surprising, the concluding piece, Sarmal by Turkish composer Oğuzhan Balcı, ends up the best thing on the disc.  The piano duo pretty much seem to reserve their best work together for the most recent works on each recording.

[Mandryka]

James Weeks: Primo Libro (2012-16) - Performed by Ekmeles (Jeff Gavett, baritone and director). Weeks is the director of EXAUDI, a similar a cappella group in London, which also does cutting-edge choral music. After studying early microtonality, he wrote this for Ekmeles, and the result is astonishing (and extremely difficult to sing).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB-juvLRsgU

--Bruce

The thing I've liked most from James Weekes is Mala Punica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVnvJSjt-RQ&ab_channel=Exaudi-Topic

[Que]

Do you have the booklet? Does he ever actually use a virginal?

Oh yes, he does.

[André]

Extraordinary music! Traumsommernacht for female chorus and orchesta is a peach. The other works are strong as expected. A fabulous and compelling composer in my view.

Wonderful indeed !

[André]

I recall some humorous quotations from Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Shostakovich's 10th (and possibly other works) in the 4th Symphony!

Coincidentally, I'm listening to this Yoshimatsu disc again as I write ! 

[VonStupp]

Bohuslav Martinů
Symphony 3

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Bryden Thomson

Continuing on to Symphony 4 from the same recording.

VS

[JBS]

Atonal honking alert

The last CD of this set starts with Winter Songs by Brett Dean in which Dean set three poems by e e cummings in the first two there are rather too many outbursts of what can be described rather literally as atonal honking from the tenor and the instruments
The rest of the disc promises better, with works by Tuur, Vasks, and Part before finishing up with Neilsen's Wind Quintet.

[Linz]

Purcell Dido and Aneas with Jessy Norman, Thomas Allen and Raymond Leppard conducting the English Chamber Orchestra

[vandermolen]

Alexander Glazunov
Symphony 8
Valeri Polyansky
Russian SSO
Chandos

Great CD!

[vandermolen]

Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3 
    Aaron Copland, London Symphony Orchestra

Arguably the greatest recorded performance of that work. I much prefer it to Bernstein's CBS/Sony recording.

[vandermolen]

Sticking with Prokoviev, I've moved to Karajan's absolutely superb recording of his 5th Symphony. It seems to me that the symphony has a certain kinship to Romeo and Juliet and inhabits a very similar sound world.

The coupling is a rather too civilised performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, though it is a marked improvement on his 1964 recording.

I found Karajan's recording of the 5th Symphony to be too polished - I much prefer Rozhdestvensky's recording.