What are you listening 2 now?

[Linz]

Respighi Church Windows, Brazilian Impressions, Belkis, Queen of Sheba, Metamorphoseon, Roman Trilogy 2 cd set Geoffrey Simon, Yan Pascal Tortelier and the Phiharmonia Orchestra

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Villa-Lobos
String Quartets Nos. 6, 1 & 11
Cuarteto Latinoamericano

[foxandpeng]

Robert Simpson
The Complete Symphonies
Symphony 8
Vernon Handley
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Fine symphony that grows in stature with each hearing.

[vandermolen]

Respighi Church Windows, Brazilian Impressions, Belkis, Queen of Sheba, Metamorphoseon, Roman Trilogy 2 cd set Geoffrey Simon, Yan Pascal Tortelier and the Phiharmonia Orchestra

A great set - especially 'Church Windows' and 'Metamorphoseon'.

[André]

An extremely fine disc.

[vandermolen]

Before bedtime - Hanson: Symphony No.2 'Romantic':

[Mirror Image]

A great set - especially 'Church Windows' and 'Metamorphoseon'.

Vetrate di Chiesa is an astounding work!

[vandermolen]

Vetrate di Chiesa is an astounding work!

It sounds much more impressive in Italian! 

[Mirror Image]

It sounds much more impressive in Italian! 

Indeed!

[foxandpeng]

Vagn Holmboe
String Quartets Vol 1
SQs 1, 3, 15
Nightingale Quartet

Familiarity, for me, is the key to these SQs. Hearing them with the Kontra Quartet and their more raw sound, and now the Nightingale, is just quality. The Holmboe SQs were my most repeated plays in 2021, according to Spotify metrics. Wouldn't shock me if 2022 had them near the front also.

[foxandpeng]

Peter Maxwell Davies
Strathclyde Concertos 7 and 8
PMD
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Naxos

Concertos for Double Bass (7) and Bassoon (8 ). Repeated listens are essential here, I think, to derive maximum benefit. I like both works very much but it's fair to say that I didn't at first. I'm still not sure whether the Naxos Quartets or the Strathclyde Concertos are more accessible, but at a push,  I would plumb for the Concertos.

Having said all that, I like them very much and suggest that perseverance is king with PMD.

[Mirror Image]

In memory of those Ukrainians lost in this unnecessary conflict:

Panufnik
Autumn Music
Polish RSO
Borowicz

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Villa-Lobos
String Quartets Nos. 3, 8 & 14
Cuarteto Latinoamericano

[Symphonic Addict]

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.

The 1st SQ has a bittersweet and unsettling character. Both quartets are fantastic, and the 2nd sounds like more optimistic overall.

[Symphonic Addict]

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

Here Martinu makes a trick by omitting the orchestral piano for the first time in this symphony cycle. Martinu's orchestration make the instruments sound something like "dreamy, oniric", more subdued. A great colorist and orchestrator in general.

[André]

The 15th is (I think ?) the only Pettersson symphony to end fortissimo, although that last chord is for the strings only. It's also one of the shortest at 38 minutes. the composer specified a duration of 31 minutes but the conductor wrote that the corresponding tempi would mean the work would sound almost unplayable and all but unintelligible to the listener. In any case it's a cauldron of feverish activity in many sections, with some respite in a few strategic spots.

Conductor Peter Ruzicka contributes with a filler of his own, Das Gesegnete, Das Verfluchte (The Blessed, the Cursed), 4 sketches for orchestra where he extemporizes with his own 'what if ?' petterssonian moments. It's interesting, actually.

[Todd]

[Symphonic Addict]

Suk: Prague, Op. 26

Invigorating stuff!




van Gilse: Variations on a Saint-Nicolas Song

In style it reminded me of Langgaard, albeit less distinctive. Most enjoyable.

[Klavier1]

This is my first exposure to his music, and I like it, but I'm not a fan of fanciful titles. ("No.5, Tango for 2 Saxophones and Broken Accordion" for example.)

[Mirror Image]

Now playing a trio of jazz-inflected piano concerti:

Gershwin
Concerto in F
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
San Francisco Symphony
MTT



Milhaud
Le carnaval d'aix, Op. 83b
Michael Korstick, piano
SWR Rundfunkorchester Kaiserslautern
Alun Francis



Tansman
Piano Concerto No. 1
Julia Kociuban, piano
Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra
Paweł Przytocki