What are you listening 2 now?

Started by Gurn Blanston, September 23, 2019, 05:45:22 AM

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Harry and 18 Guests are viewing this topic.

Harry

#69960
Joseph Haydn.

The Complete Symphonies.
CD 1 from 32.

No. 1-5.

The Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood.


Always a delight to return to these performances. All 32 CD's are uniformly excellent. The sound is pristine. In my view you cannot do any better if it comes to Haydn Symphonies.
Quote from Manuel, born in Spain, currently working at Fawlty Towers.

" I am from Barcelona, I know nothing.............."

Tsaraslondon



This was the first CD reissue of Schwarzkopf's famous recording of Vier letzte Lieder and included an extra seven songs that were recorded a few years later with the LSO, though also under Szell. I'd had the LPs in my collection since I was a teenager and I remember that later when I worked for one of the major classical record retailers in London, it was one of two LPs (later CDs) that was on permanent order from EMI (the other was Jacqueline Du Pré's Elgar Concerto), which just goes to show how popular it was.

It was my first exposure to the songs and, though I've come to enjoy quite a few others (not least Norman's version, which I was listening to earlier today) it remains my favourite version of the songs, Schwarzkopf finding a depth of meaning in them that often eludes less probing singers.

It's a classic for me and one of my desert island discs.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Pizzicato-Polka

Listened to this album yesterday:



Already knew & enjoyed the Tchaikovsky violin concerto op.35, and from Nielsen's violin concerto op.33, I liked Praeludium: Largo the most.

Quote from: Operafreak on May 27, 2022, 10:26:16 PM
Coleridge-Taylor & Dvorak: Violin Concertos

Philippe Graffin (violin)/ Johannesburg Philharmonic, Michael Hankinson

I really enjoyed Danse Negre by Coleridge-Taylor recently, so your post made me go ahead and listen to this album too. The violin concerto op.80 was quite nice, especially Allegro maestoso-vivace, so I gotta thank you and explore this composer further. Also what an adorable cover photo!

Allegro feroce

Dallapiccola's Orchestral Variations by the RAI Rome Symphony under Maazel (1968).


Harry

Pjotr Ilyich Thaikovsky.

Collectors Edition.
The Complete Symphonies, and other Orchestral works.
CD 1 from VIII.

Symphony No. 1 in G minor. "Winter Dreams". Recorded in 1979.
Eugen Onegin. Recorded in 1971.
Marche Slave. Recorded in 1966

Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan.


Quote from Manuel, born in Spain, currently working at Fawlty Towers.

" I am from Barcelona, I know nothing.............."

VonStupp

Quote from: André on April 17, 2022, 12:12:54 PM
Well, they are of their time and place, so I understand some may hold the opinion that they have not aged well. Maybe, but I have no problem doing the mental voyage in time and bask in the cultural atmosphere of 1880s Paris. I also have the Rilling version - very impressive, superb indeed. But Kubelik is really special.

Yes, the Kubelik recording is quite special, as are the contributions of Jessye Norman. I only meant you were too generous towards my inane babbling!  :laugh:

VS
"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff."

VonStupp

#69966
Sergei Prokofiev
Eugene Onegin, op. 71 (Albrecht)
Egyptian Nights, op. 61

WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne
Gerd Albrecht


I didn't realize Prokofiev had so much reconstructed music, but I suppose it is probably true of most famous composers who were working on music around their deaths, or abandoned projects for whatever reason and never returned to them.

I actually don't mind narration in classical music, but Eugene Onegin could use less. At just over 40 minutes, Gerd Albrecht really cuts back this work to its bare essentials, and still I think the speaking could use dumping. Here, the dialog is in Russian.

Albrecht also confusingly cuts a short movement out of the Egyptian Nights Suite. I am not entranced with any of this music, but the Cologne ensemble satisfyingly digs in old-school style.

VS

"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff."

Todd

The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Allegro feroce

#69968
Montsalvatge's Morphological Disintegration of Bach's Chaconne by the Catalan National under Colomer (1994).


Spotted Horses

Mozart, Divertimento K 251. Marriner, Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble.



An utterly charming work. Early Mozart doesn't have the sophistication of the mature works, they there are moments of infectious playfulness and cleverness. The fifth movement, Rondo, had an episode that really threw me for a loop. I looked in my collection for an HIP version of this piece but didn't find one. On the other hand, I have the Karajan/Berlin. :)
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

Biffo

Koechlin: Les Heures Persanes, Op 65 - Kathryn Stott piano

Spotted Horses

Quote from: Biffo on May 28, 2022, 04:55:20 AM
Koechlin: Les Heures Persanes, Op 65 - Kathryn Stott piano

I remember that as a work with beautiful sonorities that left me struggling to maintain my focus.
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

ritter

Quote from: Spotted Horses on May 28, 2022, 04:57:42 AM
I remember that as a work with beautiful sonorities that left me struggling to maintain my focus.
Yep...Les Heures PerszzzZZZZZ;D

Harry

Pjotr Ilyich Thaikovsky.


Symphony No.1 "Winter Dreams"
The Snow Maiden, Orchestral excerpts.
Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy overture after Shakespeare.



Gothenburg SO, Neeme Jarvi.
SACD recording.
Quote from Manuel, born in Spain, currently working at Fawlty Towers.

" I am from Barcelona, I know nothing.............."

Biffo

Quote from: Spotted Horses on May 28, 2022, 04:57:42 AM
I remember that as a work with beautiful sonorities that left me struggling to maintain my focus.

I think that probably sums up the work fairly well; I find it best just to let it wash over me, nice to do that from time to time.

Spotted Horses

Quote from: ritter on May 28, 2022, 04:59:57 AM
Yep...Les Heures PerszzzZZZZZ;D

:laugh:

I remember our Karl Henning expressing admiration for the piece, which left me awe struck at his powers of concentration.
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

Mandryka

Quote from: ritter on May 28, 2022, 04:59:57 AM
Yep...Les Heures PerszzzZZZZZ;D

But that's the point. Think Seville in July. Hot afternoon, sunlight streaming through the mashrabiya, bottle of wine, lunch, splashing fountain in the courtyard, Les heures persaines, zzzzzzzzz.

Bliss.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

DavidW

Quote from: Madiel on May 27, 2022, 02:09:33 PM
You're the second person to nominate Chailly, though, the first being Hurwitz.

Ouch!  I feel like I should that as libel!


Mirror Image

#69979
Now playing Saint-Saëns La Muse et Le Poète, Op. 132 with Thedéen/Kantorow/Ollila-Hannikainen:



A rather Impressionistic work for violin/cello and orchestra. For a man that detested the idea of Impressionism and the music of Debussy, he could write some colorful and atmospheric works, but it retains a Classical Era clarity in the lines and in this regard he predates Ravel. No wonder Ravel regarded Saint-Saëns as a genius.