What are you listening 2 now?

[kyjo]

Ahmed Adnan Saygun's Piano Concerto No. 1 
    Howard Griffiths, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Gulsin Onay (piano)

I'm so glad to have somehow (and I now can't remember how) stumbled across this composer: the music is never less than fine. I like the CPO CD covers, too: Saygun's music is now indelibly associated with bright, quasi-Fauvist colours in my head!!

+1 Somehow those wonderfully fitting CPO album covers only add to my already immense enjoyment of the music!

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Prokofiev
The Tale of the Stone Flower, Op. 118
Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra
Rozhdestvensky

From this incredible set -

[Linz]

Pucell The Tempest John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra

[VonStupp]

Bohuslav Martinů
Symphony 5

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Bryden Thomson

I love that each of these symphonies are amuse-bouche in scope, but fully satisfactory as a symphony.

It has been a great cycle to listen to! VS

[Symphonic Addict]

Nice, Mr. Addict!! MGV is an all-timer for me, can't go long without a listen.

Good to know I'm not alone in liking his music on this forum!

[Symphonic Addict]

Thoughts? I've heard his 4th Symphony and wasn't terribly impressed.

The 1st Symphony is the main course here. A very good work. The 2nd Symphony is less ambitious and lighter. I found it enjoyable.

[Symphonic Addict]

Harty: A Comedy Overture

[Symphonic Addict]

Bohuslav Martinů
Symphony 5

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Bryden Thomson

I love that each of these symphonies are amuse-bouche in scope, but fully satisfactory as a symphony.

It has been a great cycle to listen to! VS

My favorite Martinu cycle!

[André]

Lieder in orchestral transcriptions. Works by Spohr, Beethoven, Schubert, Sibelius, Wolf and Strauss.

Orchestrators include Stravinsky, Max Reger, Leif Segerstam, Ernest Pingoud, Jussi Jalas, Robert Heger.

A very interesting selection. Not surprisingly, the work of Segerstam stands out as the most...original 

Excellent interpretation by Skovhus and maestro Blunier.

[Iota]

Arnold: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 118
Maggini Quartet


There's something very personal about Arnold's music, something confessional, sometimes so vividly so, that it hardly feels  abstract. Wild and unstable outbursts in the first two movements, and achingly bleak and poetic music in the latter two. A very impressive and affecting work.

[classicalgeek]

Oh please do listen to it,you will be surprised by its beauty,it is a great  accessible composition.You will enjoy it,I'm sure of it.

Do give it a listen. It's a magical piece! The last section called Des Sommerwindes wilde Jagd is absolutely thrilling.

And so this weekend I listened to Gurrelieder - for the first time, I believe.

Schoenberg
Gurrelieder
Thomas Moser, Deborah Voigt, Jennifer Larmore, and others
various choirs
Staatskapelle Dresden



There's a lot here to grasp, especially on one hearing; I suspect I'll return to it, listening in smaller chunks, perhaps with a score. On the whole, a very impressive work, for the scope as much as anything, but there's no shortage of great tunes and moments of incredible grandeur. In this performance, Sinopoli gets some incredible playing from the orchestra, and Moser and Voigt really shine (though the singing is uniformly excellent.) The dense orchestration can be a little over-the-top at times, sort of "too much of a good thing", but that's part of its appeal, I think.

[Spotted Horses]

Arnold: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 118
Maggini Quartet


There's something very personal about Arnold's music, something confessional, sometimes so vividly so, that it hardly feels  abstract. Wild and unstable outbursts in the first two movements, and achingly bleak and poetic music in the latter two. A very impressive and affecting work.

Sounds like something I must hear!

[Todd]

Disc seven from the Mozart cycle.

[André]

This Pristine Classical masterization is way better sounding than any other releases of this legendary recording I've heard (EMI and Naxos Historical) . No other tenor has matched Melchior's voluminous, baritonal Siegmund for sheer power and stamina. Emmanuel List's cavernous Hunding has amazing presence - bass voices were almost always shortchanged by technical limitations in historic recordings. I found Lehmann's Sieglinde unusually bold and forthright, with clear tones and fine legato to complement her excellent diction. Walter's ebullient conducting sweeps all before it. A classic.

[Linz]

Haydn Symponies 24, 30, 42, 43 with György Vashegyi conduducting the Orfeo Orchestra

[VonStupp]

Both phenomenal recordings!

My favorite Martinu cycle!

I can understand why! These have all been a great pleasure this weekend so far. Thomson's cycle had been sitting around for quite a while, but I finally got to it.

On to his last...

Bohuslav Martinů
Symphony 6 'Fantaisies symphoniques'

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Bryden Thomson

[SonicMan46]

Boccherini, Luigi (1743-1805) - Keyboard Chamber Works, all using fortepianos - total of 9 CDs, so just a sampling of one from each set for the afternoon! - Dave

[Iota]

Sounds like something I must hear!

I hope you do. 

[Mirror Image]

And so this weekend I listened to Gurrelieder - for the first time, I believe.

Schoenberg
Gurrelieder
Thomas Moser, Deborah Voigt, Jennifer Larmore, and others
various choirs
Staatskapelle Dresden



There's a lot here to grasp, especially on one hearing; I suspect I'll return to it, listening in smaller chunks, perhaps with a score. On the whole, a very impressive work, for the scope as much as anything, but there's no shortage of great tunes and moments of incredible grandeur. In this performance, Sinopoli gets some incredible playing from the orchestra, and Moser and Voigt really shine (though the singing is uniformly excellent.) The dense orchestration can be a little over-the-top at times, sort of "too much of a good thing", but that's part of its appeal, I think.

A fine piece and, while I don't listen to it that often, it does have such incredible music within it. Over-the-top? Excessive? Wagnerian in scope? Yes! But, who cares, it's a fun listen all the same.

Speaking of a fun listen...

NP:

Gershwin
Porgy & Bess, A Symphonic Picture (Arr. Bennett)
Second Rhapsody
Cuban Overture
Cristina Ortiz, piano
LSO
Previn

[Todd]