What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

Great to see the glorious Saint-Saëns Piano Trio no. 2 receiving a new recording! I should hear it.

The Ravel was superb, too. This entire recording was top-drawer.

[foxandpeng]

Eduard Tubin
Complete Symphonies
Symphonies 8 and 9 'Sinfonia Semplice'
Neeme Jarvi
Swedish NRSO
Gothenberg SO
BIS

These symphonies bring back lots of happy memories of when my little ones really were little and wanted to sit on dad's knee in the evening. They're too big and ugly enough for that nowadays, but often still attempt it.

Tubin doesn't have any off days for me, with the last works being as engaging as his earliest.

Volmer for a few days, it looks like....

[Karl Henning]

After Oboe Purgatory, the Elysian Fields.

Methought I did espy a pearly gate. That recording with Navarra was my entrée to the Elgar vc cto: superb!

TD:

CDs 17 & 18
Bartók
Mikrokosmos Sz. 107

I cannot really listen to this in any focused way, but treat it like youngsters practicing in the background

CD 83

LvB

Pf Cto № 5 in E^b, Op. 73 « Emperor » (Mindru Katz, pf)

It would be a fib, if I said I look forward to this, but I'll give it an honest listen

Monn
Vc Cto in g minor
(harpsichord continuo realized by Schoenberg: ed. Aveling)
Jacqueline du Pré, vc
Valda Aveling, harpsichord continuo

Sure, part of me is curious as to what editing La Aveling, an Australian, and a recipient of the OBE, found the realization to require.

[Spotted Horses]

Methought I did espy a pearly gate. That recording with Navarra was my entrée to the Elgar vc cto: superb!

Although I've listened to a fair bit of Elgar, never the cello concerto, which seems odd. This is probably the one to listen to. Barbirolli and the Mercury recording team. That does seem like heaven.

P.S., my Kocsis complete Philips just arrived. Will have to rip it stat so I can start listening.

[Spotted Horses]

Poulenc without the memorability or emotionality, IMHO....

My condolences for being unable to appreciate the genius of Francaix.

[Symphonic Addict]

I'm considering to buy a recording of Zemlinsky's String Quartets, how is this one?

A competitive set overall: recording and playing are up to the expectations. However, I firstly recommend the DG set with LaSalle Quartet. I feel more authenticity in their playing.

[Symphonic Addict]

Now playing for a first-listen Respighi Tre preludi su melodie gregoriane with Michele d'Ambrosio from this set:



Fascinating how Respighi incorporated Gregorian melodies into his works such as Vetrate di chiesa and this solo piano work. Absolutely beautiful.

I need to hear this!

[classicalgeek]

Poulenc without the memorability or emotionality, IMHO....

My condolences for being unable to appreciate the genius of Francaix.

Of course, while Francaix may remind me of Poulenc, they're two different composers, and they each have their appeal! Poulenc, to me, can be sly and witty, but his music is, as Kyle says, more emotional, more "tugging at the heartstrings" - and more capable of a variety of moods. Whereas Francaix, to me, is just out to have a good time - his music is jolly and happy and carefree (but never shallow), and makes no pretense of being emotional. I really enjoy both of them!

TD:
Mussorgsky, orch. Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition
Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Seiji Ozawa

from this box:


The acoustic is a little reverberant, especially in Pictures, but the performances are excellent. And it's the Chicago Symphony, so the orchestral playing is top-notch. Britten's Young Person's Guide has grown on me each time I've heard it; the way he subjects the theme to a kaleidoscope of moods and textures is the work of a genius. The orchestration is dazzling, too; it really highlights each instrument's best qualities in their respective variations.

[Mirror Image]

I need to hear this!

I think you would enjoy it, indeed. This is my first foray into Respighi's solo piano music and I'm rather impressed by this particular piece.

[Florestan]

Francaix, to me, is just out to have a good time - his music is jolly and happy and carefree (but never shallow), and makes no pretense of being emotional.

+ 1 to all of that --- and count me in as a fan. 

[Mirror Image]

Now playing Disc 1 from the Revueltas Centennial Anthology on RCA:

[Spotted Horses]

Of course, while Francaix may remind me of Poulenc, they're two different composers, and they each have their appeal! Poulenc, to me, can be sly and witty, but his music is, as Kyle says, more emotional, more "tugging at the heartstrings" - and more capable of a variety of moods. Whereas Francaix, to me, is just out to have a good time - his music is jolly and happy and carefree (but never shallow), and makes no pretense of being emotional. I really enjoy both of them!

I find Francaix neither more nor less 'emotional' than Poulenc. Emotion is in the brain of the person who listens to the music, not in the music itself, and I don't see that "jolly and happy and carefree" isn't an emotion (even if I thought his music was limited to those moods).

[Karl Henning]

CDs 17 & 18
Bartók
Mikrokosmos Sz. 107

I cannot really listen to this in any focused way, but treat it like youngsters practicing in the background.

I ought to have anticipated that as the series progresses, it certainly becomes focus-worthy, so here's listening again to disc 18.

[Lisztianwagner]

Double Austrian combination:

Gustav Mahler
Das Lied von der Erde

Alexander Zemlinsky
Lyric Symphony

[ritter]

Listening to Luciano Berio's playful, evocative and ultimately completely spellbinding and seductive Cries of London, a tour de force four eight voices that, with its faux folk material, is a superb representation of the hustle and bustle of city life.



EDIT:

Following the above with Cristóbal Halffter's Versus for large orchestra (from 1983), one of the several pieces in which the composer builds his radically avant-garde music (with very intricate and fascinating orchestration) around a work from the past, in this occasion a 15th century madrigal (Juan del Encina's Triste España sin ventura). This is great stuff!

[Todd]

Disc three equivalent.

[Symphonic Addict]

+ 1 to all of that --- and count me in as a fan. 

+2, even though I do admit he was somewhat uneven and frequently uninspired, there is much good humour and wit in his works.

[ritter]

And finishing off tonight's listening with Ginastera's Estudios sinfónicos, an impressive orchestral tour de force (AFAIK, this is the only commercial recording it's ever received).


Once again, we can only be grateful to conductor Arturo Tamayo for making important but not widely performed 20th century music available on CD in polished performances!

[listener]

REGER:   3 big pieces for organ  and 3 little ones  (P&F on B-A-C-H, Fantasie & Fugue in d op.135b, Hallelujah! Gott zu loben fantasia
Lionel ROgg  organs of the Church of St,James and the Hedwig Eleanora Church, Stockholm
very loud and very soft
PRAETORIUS:  MagnificAt on ut re mi fa sol la, Psalm CXVI,    Aus tiefer Not  and 3 other  pieces
Huelgas Ensemble,     Paul van Nevel cond

[SonicMan46]

Platti, Giovanni (c. 1697-1763) - Italian born (Padua) but in his mid-20s relocated to Würzburg for the remainder of his life (see quote) - wrote a lot of music, much instrumental - last two days listening to most of the modicum of CDs in my collection shown below - now on the Late Keyboard Sonatas w/ Luca Guglielmi performing on fortepiano (copy by Kerstin Schwarz, Florence 1997, after Bartolomeo Cristofori, Florence 1726; also some sonatas on a reproduction harpsichord after Cristofori).  Dave

In 1722, he was called to Würzburg to work for the prince-bishop of Bamberg and Würzburg, Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn. There he married Theresia Langprückner, a soprano singer with whom he had at least two children. Platti spent the rest of his life in Würzburg, working as a singer, instrument virtuoso, composer and conductor. (Source)