What are you listening 2 now?

[DavidW]

I hope your box arrives soon! Has it at least cleared customs yet? (Mine took about 3 days to clear in Chicago.) I'm impressed with the quality of the packaging and booklet. The box is the perfect size for the contents, and the booklet has all of the information one might want about the recordings, as well as program notes and song texts in both German and English.

At least you have other great music to listen to until the box arrives!

Yeah it cleared customs.  I'm glad that it is a good box since the Petterson box I ordered is literally all the jewel cases.

[JBS]

Yes I know the physical CD of The Stubborn Lovers has a libretto. But unlike many other companies, the booklet does not seem to be available on any of the online services.

Supraphon has surprisingly few libretti online, and some of them are not for operas. Can you manage German? IMSLP has the score with a German text.
https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Stubborn_Lovers,_Op.17_(Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k,_Anton%C3%ADn)

[JBS]

TD

Liszt Hungarian Fantasies
Recorded in Budapest 1956 and Paris 1957

[amw]

Op. 111 from this.

The only person I know who's heard of this set is Todd. If you see this, remind me why you don't like it.

The Op. 111 was okay, although the second half of the slow movement was somewhat too literal; there should have been more of a drop into fantasy and subjectivity in the trills/cadenza section following variation 4. But apart from that it was pretty good, better than the average 111, imo. (Sony has done as it periodically does, where it dumps the discography of one of its Japanese artists onto Qobuz without warning and you have to be periodically searching for "new releases"—which these aren't really—to find them.)

[Madiel]

Supraphon has surprisingly few libretti online, and some of them are not for operas. Can you manage German? IMSLP has the score with a German text.
https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Stubborn_Lovers,_Op.17_(Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k,_Anton%C3%ADn)

Kind of. I'm not sure my ability will extend to translating German to English AND matching it up to whatever Czech is happening.

I did start Czech on Duolingo, time to go back... I recognise the words for "heart" and "night" because they turn up in song texts often enough 

[Mandryka]

This tenor Markus Schaefer is OK. (I just noticed he did a Winterreise with Tobias Koch.)

[kyjo]

Two Czech Serenades for Strings from father-in-law/teacher Dvořák and son-in-law/pupil Suk:

Sheer Czech loveliness!!

[Todd]

Op. 111 from this.

The only person I know who's heard of this set is Todd. If you see this, remind me why you don't like it.

It's not that I really dislike it, it's more that it's highly variable.  That variability, and the misses in Op 31 and the late sonatas land him in the fourth tier.  If memory serves, his Op 111 is the best of his late sonatas.  I should probably revisit his full cycle and studio one off LvB again, but Chemin will have to come first. 

I can say that his Emperor boasts some of the best trills I've heard - so good they stick out in memory - and I very much enjoy some of his Chopin, starting with his Nocturnes.  His Sony Liszt ain't too bad either.  And his disc of Franck and Faure violin sonatas is also quite fine.

[amw]

It's not that I really dislike it, it's more that it's highly variable.  That variability, and the misses in Op 31 and the late sonatas land him in the fourth tier.  If memory serves, his Op 111 is the best of his late sonatas.  I should probably revisit his full cycle and studio one off LvB again, but Chemin will have to come first. 

I can say that his Emperor boasts some of the best trills I've heard - so good they stick out in memory - and I very much enjoy some of his Chopin, starting with his Nocturnes.  His Sony Liszt ain't too bad either.  And his disc of Franck and Faure violin sonatas is also quite fine.

Cheers, thanks. I'll look into some of the Chopin as long as it's up for streaming, and explore a selection of other sonatas—based on the weaknesses of the Op. 111, probably 109, 31/3 and 90, the three sonatas that absolutely can't be played literally, to see if they're bad, and then 10/3 and 106 to see if they're good.

[Operafreak]

Chopin: 4 Ballades, 3 Nocturnes Op. 9 & Scherzo No. 2, Op. 31-Vestard Shimkus

[Mirror Image]

Sheer Czech loveliness!!

Absolutely!

NP:

Weinberg
Sinfoniettas Nos. 1 & 2
USSR State SO
Svetlanov

[Mapman]

Absolutely!

NP:

Weinberg
Sinfoniettas Nos. 1 & 2
USSR State SO
Svetlanov

I remember enjoying Sinfonietta #1 when I streamed it a few years ago.

I'm continuing Goetz's opera Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung. Act 2 isn't quite as interesting as act 1, although it's improving towards the end.

[Mirror Image]

I remember enjoying Sinfonietta #1 when I streamed it a few years ago.

It's a fine piece, but my revisitation for Weinberg's music has been rather slow. I enjoy much of what he wrote --- I just have to be more diligent about listening to his music more often.

[Mirror Image]

Last work for the night:

Rachmaninov
Three Russian Songs, Op. 41
The Yurlov Russian State Academic Choir
USSR State SO
Svetlanov

From this incredible set -



All Rachmaninov fans should own this box set. A treasure trove of great performances and the presentation of the set is one of the best I've seen from a label. Melodiya really had pulled out all the stops with one.

[Madiel]

Last work for the night:

Rachmaninov
Three Russian Songs, Op. 41
The Yurlov Russian State Academic Choir
USSR State SO
Svetlanov

From this incredible set -



All Rachmaninov fans should own this box set. A treasure trove of great performances and the presentation of the set is one of the best I've seen from a label. Melodiya really had pulled out all the stops with one.

Duly noted...

EDIT: Oh God, not for the prices I'm seeing!

[steve ridgway]

This group offers a good number of Henry Cowell works e.g.: Symphony #16 (Icelandic)

https://classical-music-online.net/en/production/103183

Thanks Cato, they seem to have a lot of files. Are they copies of CD and vinyl releases?

[Mirror Image]

Duly noted...

EDIT: Oh God, not for the prices I'm seeing!

Yeah, it's an expensive set. I bought it years ago around the time it was released for $170.

[steve ridgway]

Schoenberg - Serenade.

[Madiel]

Yeah, it's an expensive set. I bought it years ago around the time it was released for $170.

That would've been far more appropriate. What surprised me is that even Presto lists it for far more.

[Operafreak]

Berwald: 4 Symphonies- Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi