What are you listening 2 now?

[Operafreak]

Elgar: Violin Concerto & Violin Sonata

Renaud Capuçon (violin), Stephen Hough (piano)- London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle

[Que]

On Spotify:



Transcriptions for the Vihuela of vocal works of Spanish composers from the 16th century.  The manuscripts come from Simancas and the Song Books of Uppsala and Elvas.

[vandermolen]

Léon Orthel: Symphony No.3 - I've had the CD set for ages but never realised how good this symphony is:

[Que]

Lovely set! It's nice to finally be able to comment on something you're listening to, Que.

Our musical worlds meet! We also both like Sibelius, though you listen to him a bit more often than I do. 

Anyway, I wasn't exactly gobsmacked by Les Solistes de l'Orchestre de Paris. Nice, but a couple of rough edges and less than ideal balance in the ensemble playing. Though withpartly different (but not less attractive) programming, I prefer the Saint-Saens album by the Nash Ensemble.

[Mandryka]

Listening to this on the big system, it's very well recorded, the way it captures the church ambience is really impressive. Singing is totally committed and has « inner life » - life which comes from the internal rapport of the voices. Despite its title, Sweet Harmony, the harmonies in their performing edition are rich and complex. Sweet it may be, cloying it is not. A fabulous recording of lovely music.

[Que]

On Spotify:



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortunato_Chelleri

[Irons]

Your incessant criticisms of this conductor are getting to be quite tiresome, to be honest. To me, extremes of dynamic/articulation/musical gestures are what make a piece of music come alive, and Wilson excels at this. Sure, he doesn't "plumb the depths" (a kind of meaningless phrase anyway) with his interpretations, but most of the music he's recorded doesn't require that anyway, and that's totally fine! Not every conductor has to treat music like Celibidache treated Bruckner....

+1

[Operafreak]

Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11/Chopin: Piano Concerto
No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21

    Alexis Weissenberg (piano)-    Paris Conservatoire Orchestra-    Stanislaw Skrowaczewski

[vandermolen]

Vagn Holmboe's Symphony No. 04 'Sinfonia Sacra'
    Owain Arwel Hughes, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, The Jutland Opera Choir

I love the opening of No.4 and rate Holmboe very highly - a great composer.

[foxandpeng]

I love the opening of No.4 and rate Holmboe very highly - a great composer.

Holmboe is a real favourite. New Nightingale Qt take on SQ 2, 14 and the completed Quartetto Sereno by Nørgård is excellent, but the symphonies are just stellar.

[Madiel]

Your incessant criticisms of this conductor are getting to be quite tiresome, to be honest. To me, extremes of dynamic/articulation/musical gestures are what make a piece of music come alive, and Wilson excels at this. Sure, he doesn't "plumb the depths" (a kind of meaningless phrase anyway) with his interpretations, but most of the music he's recorded doesn't require that anyway, and that's totally fine! Not every conductor has to treat music like Celibidache treated Bruckner....

What a lovely false dichotomy you made there. You must be very proud of it.

[Madiel]

Thread duty.

Dvorak, 'American' Suite in A - orchestral version. David Zinman/Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra



I'm curious what anyone who is more familiar with the music thinks of this particular recording. The only immediate comparison I have is a recording of the piano version (Poroshina), and in general I find Poroshina more dynamic and engaging. I don't know how much of that is inherent to a piano performance versus an orchestral one, and how much is due to Zinman specifically taking a rather gentle approach to the music.

[Madiel]

Sibelius, some of his music for brass.

Andantino and Menuet, JS 45 (1890-1)
Overture in F minor, JS 146 (1889)



Sibelius initially made the Andantino and Menuet an opus, then changed his mind in his next list and made the Andantino and the more substantial Overture an opus. After that they dropped off the lists. Earlyish music, but kind of interesting to hear.

[Spotted Horses]

Picking up where I left off listening through the set of Maconchy String Quartets. I've arrived at the second volume, and oddly each volume of the cycle is played by a different ensemble. This time it's the Bingham Quartet and I'm listening to the fifth quartet.



This is just the sort of music I like, contrapuntal, intensely chromatic but not serial, moving between dissonance and consonance. It is in four movements following the classical scheme. It is interesting from beginning to the and I was most engaged by the third (slow) movement.

Little of Maconchy's substantial body of work is available in recordings. I hope some record label will decide to make a project of rediscovering her music.

[Harry]

Arnold Bax.

Piano Music, volume II.

Sonata No. 3 & 4, and other small trinkets.

Ashley Wass, Piano.

Mesmerizing music, very addictive. Bax is a deep world. Wass plays them excellently.

[Madiel]

Sibelius, Violin Sonata in F. Kuusisto recording on BIS.

In my opinion, one of the best of the early works that he should've kept in the opus list.

[Traverso]

Paul Hindemith



Nobilissima Visione - Suite


Engelbert Humperdinck

Hänsel Und Gretel








   

[Karl Henning]

CD 24

Reincken, Schiedemann, JSB, Böhm, Handel, JCB
Harpsichord and Organ works

[Traverso]

Zemlinsky


Die Seejungfrau

Psalms 13 & 23

[Mirror Image]

Now playing excerpts from this 2-CD set of Schulhoff piano music with Margarette Babinsky:



I wish that Supraphon would reissue their Schulhoff series. This year, if my math is correct, marks the 80th anniversary of his passing --- he died in 1942.