What are you listening 2 now?

[Spotted Horses]

Alexandre Tansman
Symphony 2 À Serge Koussevitzky
Symphony 3 Sinfonia Concertante
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Oleg Caetani

I like these Tansman symphonies. Undemanding and accessible.

Much as I like the symphonies, I enjoy the chamber symphonies, concerti, ballet music more.

[Todd]

Alexander Lonquich and Nicolas Altstaedt, deliverers of bad-ass Beethoven Cello and Piano works, team with Barnabás Kelemen to deliver a Dumky Trio unlike any other version I've heard.  At times, there is so much vibrato, especially from Kelemen, that one thinks it might be way too much - until one understands that it's literally the perfect amount.  The ensemble have a tendency to play the slow passages very slowly, and then the fast passages very fast, to the point where it becomes predictable early on, but one not only accepts it, one eagerly awaits the next tempo shift.  Dynamic contrasts are likewise predictably but effectively varied.  And Lonquich's playing, with incredible tonal variation throughout, anchors the piece and once again makes one wish that he would just go ahead and record the entire great composer canon.  The disc starts with Kodály's Duo for Violin and Cello.  I recently listened to Gabetta and Kopatchinskaja in this piece and found it vibrant and exceedingly enjoyable.  This version easily surpasses that, with more intensity and more delicacy.  A peach of a recording. 

[Linz]

Another Saint John Passion quite different

[amw]

You've got to be kidding me. Have you ever actually listened to op.76?

Which, by the way, is generally considered one of the Kodaly Quartet's high points.

Claiming that Haydn didn't keep progressing after op.33 is like saying that he didn't need to bother with the Paris and London symphonies. In the case of the quartets there's an evident flaw in that the later quartets were written for a different purpose to the earlier ones. The opus 71/74 set were consciously written for public performance in London, in a concert hall, after Haydn's previous experience, because the whole idea of public performances was developing at that time. Each of them starts with a loud and strong musical gesture so that the audience would shut up and listen. They are among the first works of 'chamber music' that aren't actually intended for a noble's chamber.

It's honestly very silly to torpedo the earliest works as being of 'historical interest' and yet ignore the importance of history to Haydn's later work. One of the reasons that Haydn's career is so important is that he straddles important societal changes. And he did it with damn good music, whether as a junior court musician, a Kapellmeister or the most famous composer in Europe.

As one of several people on here who can reliably identify almost any Haydn quartet based on themes, this is a fairly common sense take, and I suspect the full cycle simply fell victim to aukhawk's notoriously short attention span. But the lack of consensus over the ideal integral set doesn't help, I imagine: Kodály, Aeolian, Angeles and Buchberger all have their partisans and detractors, as does the London Haydn Quartet (which excludes those before op. 9). The Festetics are much more widely praised but still somewhat controversial among anti-HIP types (and also exclude those before op. 9). The Auryn Quartet would probably be the consensus integral if it was available as one, but it's not, and enough people seem to find individual volumes boring to avoid total unity. (I'm not sure what received opinion has to say about the other ensembles that recorded almost all of the Haydn quartets.) As such, people almost always end up picking and choosing from single discs/sets.

(For me the essential opuses are 33 and 50, especially the latter, but I do like everything, and know reasonably well everything from op. 17 onwards.)

[Traverso]

Bach


There is no music that makes me more defenseless than the Matthäus Passion. As the years go by I experience the power of this music greater than when I was young. I have a lump in my throat and can't hold back my tears.


As far as the performance is concerned, I prefer a real choir that of course should not be massive and heavy.

[classicalgeek]

I nearly injured myself pounding the table when I saw classicalgeek listening to Atterberg!

Atterberg is worth a broken table or two! Just outstanding music, both the disc of his works for chamber orchestra (the Suite Barocco and Suite Pastorale, which are utterly enchanting) and the disc of his symphonies I sampled. I'm definitely going to buy the CPO box set of the symphonies! I don't know when I'll buy, but it became an essential purchase for me.

on to a composer I didn't find nearly as spellbinding:

Leonardo Balada
Guernica
Homage to Sarasate
Homage to Casals
Symphony no. 4
Zapata
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra
Catalonia National Orchestra
Salvador Mas Conde
(on Qobuz)



I don't know what else to say, except Balada's style isn't my proverbial cup of tea. Sure, there were moments I found decent, but it was a chore to get through the whole disc.

[vandermolen]

Chopin: Preludes
Grigory Sokolov (piano) 

A unique pianist who seems to reach areas of expressivity and intimacy on the piano that nobody else ever has. The slower preludes in particular are breathtaking at times.

For a moment I thought that Boris Johnson was playing the piano. 

[ritter]

Two superb historical recordings of (mainly) French music:

Firstly:

CD 2 of the above (I had listened to CD 1 weeks ago) has Arthur Honegger conducting his Le Roi David, with an all-star cast —a radiant Janine Micheau, Duruflé on the organ—. I was approaching this with a bit of scepticism, as i) I can't help seeing David as the "less good-looking younger brother" of Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher —even if my appreciation for the earlier work has increased lately—, and ii) this recording hasn't had much circulation despite the distinguished forces and the fact that there aren't that many documents of Honegger conducting his (or any other) music. Well, this is by far the best recording of the work I've heard: Micheau is superb, and the other soloists are excellent as well. The composer's handling of his score (this is the revised version for full orchestra) can sound almost excessive in its expression, but somehow this makes the piece "work" much better. The excess is matched by Jean Hervé's old-fashioned vehemence in the recitation, but again this fits in with the overall concept, and almost elevates the piece to unexpected (at least to me) heights. A great performance (in perfectly acceptable sound for its vintage —1951—). As an aside, I had never noticed  until now how several of the choruses from David pre-echo (in their contrapuntal writing) the much later Une cantante de Noël. Some really lovely music in those choruses.

This is the cover of the original 1951 release on LPs:



And then, this recital of lieder and mélodies:

Wow! WOW!
Irène Joachim was the female lead in the legendary wartime recording of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande under Désormière (one of the greatest opera recordings ever), but otherwise her discography is rather scant. Here we have a well selected programme of the well-known and the obscure, from three live or radio recitals of the 1950s. What made Joachim so endearing as Mélisande applies just as well to what we hear on this CD: a smallish —almost childlike— and clear voice, but one that is perfectly managed and projected, a clarity of enunciation as I've seldom come across (both in French and in German), and a feeling of strong but reined-in emotion (no flashiness here) that is of impeccable taste. She shines in everything: the Berg 4 Lieder op. 2 are stunning, Maurice Jaubert's Chanson de Tessa is delightful —even if it's almost more a chanson than a mélodie—, Koechlin's Berceuse phoque —an earlier version of what would later become a part of The Jungle Book— is charming. A real jewel is her Trois chansons de Bilitis; I have Mme. Joachim in an earlier recording of these pieces (accompanied by Jane Bathori, who plays the piano in other pieces on this CD, including the Koechlin songs), but today these songs (perennial favourites of mine) sounded so fresh and wonderful. A desert island CD I must say (pity the sound deteriorates a bit in the Koechlin songs). The complete contents can be found here.

[Linz]

Easter Oratorio / Actus Tragicus

[ritter]

The performance by Irène Joachim and Jane Bathori of the Koechlin's Berceuse phoque prompted me to listen to the whole Le Livre de la jungle:

[Madiel]

For a moment I thought that Boris Johnson was playing the piano. 

We need that on DVD.

[Que]

Bach


There is no music that makes me more defenseless than the Matthäus Passion. As the years go by I experience the power of this music greater than when I was young. I have a lump in my throat and can't hold back my tears.


As far as the performance is concerned, I prefer a real choir that of course should not be massive and heavy.

I started out with Harnoncourt, I but have grown quite fond of the Leonhardt as well.

[VonStupp]

Richard Strauss
Oboe Concerto in D Major
Horn Concerto 1 in E-flat Major, op. 11
Horn Concerto 2 in E-flat Major
Duet-Concertino in F Major for clarinet & bassoon

Martin Gabriel, oboe
Lars-Michael Stransky, horn (1)
Ronald Janezic, horn (2)
Peter Schmidl, clarinet
Michael Werba, bassoon

Vienna Philharmonic
André Previn

For this afternoon:

I don't think I have ever heard of the 'Vienna Horn' or 'Vienna Oboe', but these concertos are played on both of those instruments from players within the Vienna Phil.

VS

With the exception of the Duet-Concertino, I am taken with how reserved (or restrained) R. Strauss' concertos are compared to much of his orchestral music I have been listening to over the last few weekends. Even the dances of Le bourgeois gentilhomme, which seemed a neo-Baroque homage, retained his opulent orchestral style, whereas these almost seem clean and sparse, of a Classical Era fashion.

I don't think I can hear a difference in Previn's recording with the solos played on 'Viennese Oboe' and 'Vienna Horn'.

VS

[VonStupp]

Richard Strauss
Der Rosenkavalier Waltz Sequences 1 & 2

Scottish National Orchestra
Neeme Järvi

VS

[Bachtoven]

This became available on Qobuz today. I prefer the Cello Concerto, but both are strong works. Excellent sound.

[classicalgeek]

The performance by Irène Joachim and Jane Bathori of the Koechlin's Berceuse phoque prompted me to listen to the whole Le Livre de la jungle:

So good to see someone listening to Koechlin!

TD:
Stanley Bate
Symphony no. 4
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Martin Yates



Cello Concerto
Lionel Handy, cello
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Martin Yates



Well-crafted, enjoyable music, with more personality than Richard Arnell's (the Fourth Symphony is coupled with Arnell's Seventh) and better orchestration. Maybe not the best pieces ever written, but still quite fine.

[Traverso]

I started out with Harnoncourt, I but have grown quite fond of the Leonhardt as well.

I"m glad you like It too,It has the right approach, it is serious and solemn but not heavy. There are many special moments of delicate but not imposed music-making and the boys' choir is also a bonus and makes it extra attractive.

[classicalgeek]

Wrapping up the workday with this:

Elgar
Enigma Variations
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Andrew Litton
(on Qobuz)



A powerful, stirring work, given a fine if not outstanding performance.

[Operafreak]

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14-  Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Daniele Gatti

[Linz]

Jos van Veldhoven St John Passion