What are you listening 2 now?

[kyjo]

Bridge: Enter Spring [Groves]





I was engaged immediately from the opening bars. The musical language, for me, is far less effusive and much more assertive, dramatic and atmospheric. The music is very vibrant; it veritably throbs with Life. It does have one or two dark moments but they, for me, only add to the colour and the atmosphere of the work. The music is also well driven here, augmenting the drama and excitement.

I had a feeling you'd like it!!

[Madiel]

Sounds enticing, except for the "speaker" part.... Might I ask how prominently the narration features in the work?

It's pretty much the main event.

Go on. Try something different. The booklet is available to read the Swedish.

[aligreto]

I had a feeling you'd like it!!

You had more faith than I did, Kyle. 

[71 dB]

Jean-Philippe Rameau's Abaris ou les Boréades 
    Mary Térey-Smith, Capella Savaria

Wonderful stuff.

Yes, Rameau rules and that is a nice CD, I have it.  0:)

[Todd]

In general, I don't listen to very much string duo music, but here I figured why not.  Kopatchinskaja, here teamed up with Sol Gabetta, delivers another mix rep, mixed period concept disc that might at first seem a musical jumble, but it works out.  Jumping from 18th Century French music to the impressively reliable Jorg Widmann gets the recording off to a good start, and the duo cranks through pieces by various well-known composers, including Ravel's and Kodaly's works for the assembled duo, and some lesser-known living composers, and they even make Xenakis sound musically satisfying.  While I doubt I run out and buy a boatload of string duo recordings, when properly put together, they can sound quite enticing.

[Klavier1]

[classicalgeek]

yet more Einar Englund!

Piano quintet
String quartet
Sinfonia Lahti Chamber Ensemble



Symphony no. 3
Symphony no. 7
Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
Ari Rasilainen
(both on Spotify)



I especially enjoyed the chamber music disc! The piano quintet is an earlier work, and more unabashedly tonal than Englund's more mature works (which are still largely tonal), while the string quartet is a much more mature work. The Third Symphony again shows the influence of Shostakovich, while the Seventh (among his last compositions) introduces a fair bit of dissonance not present in many of the earlier works. I've liked everything I've listened to by Englund; I think he may be making an appearance in the 'Purchases' thread sometime soon!

[Todd]

[classicalgeek]

Another discovery!

Grazyna Bacewicz
Violin Concertos nos. 2, 4, 5
Joanna Kurkowicz, violin
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Lukasz Borowicz



Symphony for String Orchestra
Concerto for String Orchestra
*Piano Quintet no. 1 (arranged for string orchestra)
*Ewa Kupiec, piano
Capella Bydgostiensis
Mariusz Smolij
(both on Spotify)



Some really excellent music here! The musical language is neo-classical and tonal, but with plenty of dissonance mixed in - right in my proverbial wheelhouse! The violin concertos are substantial works, with lyrical, expressive slow movements and sharply rhythmic finales, and the solo parts are expertly handled by Ms. Kurkowicz. The works for strings were just as pleasing, though I confess the timbre of a string orchestra wears on me over time, so I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the Violin Concerti. But on the whole? I look forward to exploring more of her music! I see there's a series of the chamber music and some of the orchestral works on Dux - which unfortunately isn't on Spotify. I may have to order a couple of CDs...

[JBS]

First listen ever to this.
Cast listed on the album cover.

1951 mono.
It's fine as far as it goes, but I don't feel impelled to get a more modern recording.

[Madiel]

Chopin - Askenazy, "volume 4" of his original series of albums (actually the last of the 13 volumes to be recorded and released)



And let me tell you, the op.52 Ballade followed by the op.53 Polonaise is a heck of a 1-2 punch.

[Mirror Image]

Now for some back-to-back Weinberg: Symphony No. 12, Op. 114, "In Memoriam D. Shostakovich" and Chamber Symphony No. 4, Op. 153

From these recordings -

[Mirror Image]

Another discovery!

Grazyna Bacewicz
Violin Concertos nos. 2, 4, 5
Joanna Kurkowicz, violin
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Lukasz Borowicz



Symphony for String Orchestra
Concerto for String Orchestra
*Piano Quintet no. 1 (arranged for string orchestra)
*Ewa Kupiec, piano
Capella Bydgostiensis
Mariusz Smolij
(both on Spotify)



Some really excellent music here! The musical language is neo-classical and tonal, but with plenty of dissonance mixed in - right in my proverbial wheelhouse! The violin concertos are substantial works, with lyrical, expressive slow movements and sharply rhythmic finales, and the solo parts are expertly handled by Ms. Kurkowicz. The works for strings were just as pleasing, though I confess the timbre of a string orchestra wears on me over time, so I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the Violin Concerti. But on the whole? I look forward to exploring more of her music! I see there's a series of the chamber music and some of the orchestral works on Dux - which unfortunately isn't on Spotify. I may have to order a couple of CDs...

Pounds the table! I love Bacewicz. Do check out her Piano Sonata No. 2, the SQs and the Piano Quintets. She wrote some top-drawer works.

[JBS]

[Operafreak]

No 1

[kyjo]

Kinsella: Symphonies 6 and 7, Prelude and Toccata for string orchestra, Cuchulainn and Ferdia: Duel at the Ford



My favorite disc devoted to the late Kinsella's music. Really stunning stuff, actually; I'd say some of my favorite music composed within the last 30 years. The spirits of Sibelius and Nielsen hover over this sweeping, organic music, but never to the point of it becoming too derivative. Kinsella is a fantastic orchestrator, and he writes particularly imaginatively for the horns and timpani. Only the Prelude and Toccata for strings is rather less compelling, because Kinsella feels more comfortable with the full orchestra at his disposal.

Carter: Cello Sonata and Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei



The Cello Sonata (one of few American works in the genre) is an ingeniously written, broadly neoclassical work from 1948, often foreshadowing the complex directions his music was to take later. The Symphonia is a substantial work from his maturity, and all I can say is I made an effort to stick with it to the end! I find avant-garde music like this fascinating for the first few minutes in its textural inventiveness, but after that I long for some sort of traditional tonal or melodic material. Purely a personal reaction, of course, and I'm not going to argue with the many who consider this work to be a masterpiece. I'm just a hopeless musical conservative, I guess.


Hausegger: Natursymphonie



A late-romantic bona fide extravaganza if there ever was one! I consider the most compelling movements to be the two middle ones - the second an extended lament with a shattering funeral march at its core, and the third a brilliant and colorful scherzo with an unmistakable Star Wars moment about a minute in. Though there's much to enjoy in the outer movements as well. Rasilainen brings all his Atterbergian credentials to the fore here!


Janáček: Violin Sonata



It had been too long since I'd heard this magical, unique, and surprising work. Oh, how I wish Janáček had composed a piano trio, quartet or quintet!!


Groven: Symphony no. 2 The Midnight Hour



Despite its subtitle, there is nothing dark or nocturnal about this symphony. I was a bit disappointed with it to be honest - Groven's musical language feels a bit "anonymous" - though I did really enjoy with the finale with its Braga Santos-like modal joyousness.

[Symphonic Addict]

Pounds the table! I love Bacewicz. Do check out her Piano Sonata No. 2, the SQs and the Piano Quintets. She wrote some top-drawer works.

I heartily recommend this disc for the Piano Quintets, including Alexandre Tansman's astonishing Musica à cinque for the same forces. A self-recommending disc.

[Symphonic Addict]

How are they? I'm completely unfamiliar with Kallstenius' music.

One of the few works I consider worth listening from his pen as his Symphonies 1 and 2 are a frustrating bore. Dalarapsodi has traces of Sibelius, that opening is quite reminiscent of his sound world. The Marx is a moderate late-Romantic wallow, so worth listening too (for me, at least).

[Symphonic Addict]

(Re: Tippett's symphonies) Bewitchingly elusive, for sure.

Not for me, with a prominent exception being the 4th.

[kyjo]

One of the few works I consider worth listening from his pen as his Symphonies 1 and 2 are a frustrating bore. Dalarapsodi has traces of Sibelius, that opening is quite reminiscent of his sound world. The Marx is a moderate late-Romantic wallow, so worth listening too (for me, at least).

That's a shame about Kallstenius' symphonies, as I'm a Swedish symphony enthusiast par excellence...