What are you listening 2 now?

[Florestan]

[foxandpeng]

Last work for the night Sibelius The Wood Nymph, Op. 15 with Vänskä conducting the Lahti Symphony Orchestra from this set:

I will be listening to the Sibelius Edition Tone Poems for most of today, I think. I dipped in and out yesterday with The Wood Nymph, Night Ride and Sunrise, Barden and Tapiola, so thought today would be a good chance to play the whole collection.

[Florestan]

And that opera (in a touring Met production) was one of my least favorite nights at the opera: advertised with Pavarotti as the tenor, only to be told at the last minute that James Alexander would be substituting due to "illness"*, and finding the soprano to be a Slavic lady who in both height and width was bigger than Alexander (perhaps she had been cast with Pavarotti's dimensions in mind, although Alexander was not a small man) and who seemed to think standing stock still front center stage while shrilling at the audience supplied any acting needs.

*a considerable segment of the audience had cynically expected this, thinking Atlanta was not big enough for his ego.

Ouch! Nightmare!

[Operafreak]

Biber: The Rosary Sonatas

John Holloway (violin), Davitt Moroney (chamber organ & harpsichord)), Stephen Stubbs (lute/chitarrone), Andrew Lawrence-King (harp/regal), Erin Headley (gamba/lirone)

[vandermolen]

John Kinsella, Symphony No. 7 (1999) on the same CD:

I think that you are right about No.7 Johan - I now think that it is one of the greatest of the Kinsella symphonies (with No.3). The odd thing is that I had this oddly haunting choral phrase (a bit minimalist and also like the end of 'Neptune' from the Planets) running through my head and I couldn't work out where it came from and then, just now, I realised that it's at the end of Kinsella's 7th Symphony!

[Madiel]

Sibeilus: Overture in E, Scene de Ballet



Originally the first 2 movements of a projected symphony. Though frankly the music never sounds very 'symphonic' to me. The Overture in particular tends to sound to me like an old film score.

At this point in his career Sibelius seems to be liking a really big, grand sound with a heck of a lot of notes. The piano quintet (1890), the op.4 string quartet (1890), and these 2 works/movements (1891) all tend that way. There are turns of harmony here, though, that definitely sound like the music he's heading for.

[Tsaraslondon]

The Strauss has a rather complicated recording history and it wasn't actually discovered until the 1990s. Klemperer was supposed to have conducted, but rather tired and Don Quixote not being a particular favourite of his, he withdrew after the first day. Boult took over the sessions, though it seems their recording was pure accident, and the result of someone flipping the switch as they started working.

The Lalo with Barenboin is a live performance from Cleveland in 1973, when she was in remission from the MS which eventually forced her to give up performing altogether.

[vandermolen]

Alexander Dmitriyevitch Kastalsky's Requiem for Fallen Brothers
    Leonard Slatkin, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Kansas City Chorale, The Saint Tikhon Choir, The
    Clarion Choir, Cathedral Choral Society, Anna Dennis (soprano), Joseph Beutel
    (bass/baritone)

A great discovery of recent years!

TD
Philip Spratley (great name!)
Symphony No.3 'Sinfonia Pascale':

[Mandryka]

Pletnev, Chopin Preludes, Dubai last week. This is by far and away the most creative performance of the Chopin preludes I've ever heard.

[vers la flamme]

Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.1 in C minor, op.68. Marin Alsop, London Philharmonic Orchestra

This is my favorite Brahms cycle currently. So good.

[Madiel]

Act Two.

[Tsaraslondon]

Don Juan, recorded 1973.

[Traverso]

Bach


CD 2

[Florestan]

[Todd]

Revisiting for the first time in a long time.  Superb, just as memory suggested.

[Florestan]

[Spotted Horses]

This has been a treat, Ciccolini's recording of Années de pèlerinage by Liszt. Just had time for Le mal du pays.

.

I'm used to thinking of Ciccolini as a purist who plays what's on the page, but I find a lot of poetry in his recording of Années de pèlerinage. Wonderful control of sonority, highlighting shadings of harmony.

[Mirror Image]

I will be listening to the Sibelius Edition Tone Poems for most of today, I think. I dipped in and out yesterday with The Wood Nymph, Night Ride and Sunrise, Barden and Tapiola, so thought today would be a good chance to play the whole collection.

A great choice!

Now playing Adams City Noir with David Robertson conducting the Saint Louis SO:



City Noir is, if I'm remembering what the composer said, his homage to Gershwin and Jerry Goldsmith but filtered through his own stylistic lens.

[Karl Henning]

Poulenc: Les Animaux modeles (complete ballet)



One of the only complete recordings of this, one of the most gorgeous and shamefully neglected ballets in the repertoire. Full of contrast, color, great tunes, and no lack of drama, this is truly a must-hear for all Poulencians (and others)!

I should have to demur to our André, a native Francophone, but I suspect there would be an orthographic adjustment: possibly Poulenchiens, although that looks a little canine.

TD:

LvB
String Quartet № 4 in c minor, Op. 18 № 4
Colorado String Quartet

CD 93
Purcell
Dido and Aeneas

CD 20
Keyboard music by Couperin, Poglietti, Grigny & Rameau

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Peter Mennin SY8. Badea/Columbus.