What are you listening 2 now?

[Todd]

Stumptown native Ben Kim's playing some Mozart PCs.  He tries to mimic fortepianos using a grand, which means lots of staccato.  That's OK, he still has a nice, polished sound, and the top shelf chamber orchestra plays superbly in this small scale recording.  Not the best Mozart, but rather far from the worst.

[vandermolen]

Atterberg: Symphony No.3
What an ending! A most inspiriting score.

[classicalgeek]

Currently listening to Die Walküre, making my way through this well-known set:

Welcome DizzyD! Solti is one of my top choices for the Ring Cycle as well.

Moeran: Piano Trio

Enchanting work.

Just last night I reacquainted myself with Moeran's Symphony among other orchestral works. Simply delightful!

TD:
Knudage Riisager
T-DOXC (Poeme Mecanique)
Symphony no. 2
Concerto for Orchestra
Primavera Overture
Symphony no. 3
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra
Bo Holten
(on Spotify)



Riisager's style is hard to describe and hard to pigeonhole. He's fond of odd orchestral sonorities and timbres (and he's a superb orchestrator); his harmonies are dissonant but thoroughly tonal. I really enjoyed each of the works on this disc.

[VonStupp]

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Oboe Concerto
Toward the Unknown Region

David Theodore, oboe
LSO & Chorus - Bryden Thomson

VS

[classicalgeek]

Aleksandr Lokshin
Symphony no. 4 'Sinfonia Stretta'
*Three Scenes from Goethe's Faust
*Vanda Tabery, soprano
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Bremen
Michel Swierczewski
(on Spotify)



My first exposure to Lokshin, and what a fascinating composer he is! His style is basically atonal, but has a soulful lyricism at its heart that reminds me of Alban Berg and even Mahler (though the Three Scenes from Faust bring Schoenberg's Erwartung to mind.) His orchestration is stunning as well.

[Symphonic Addict]

Just last night I reacquainted myself with Moeran's Symphony among other orchestral works. Simply delightful!

TD:
Knudage Riisager
T-DOXC (Poeme Mecanique)
Symphony no. 2
Concerto for Orchestra
Primavera Overture
Symphony no. 3
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra
Bo Holten
(on Spotify)



Riisager's style is hard to describe and hard to pigeonhole. He's fond of odd orchestral sonorities and timbres (and he's a superb orchestrator); his harmonies are dissonant but thoroughly tonal. I really enjoyed each of the works on this disc.

Moeran wrote some lovely pieces (being the Symphony his best achievement), but he's not one of my favorite English composers.

For me, Riisager sounds like a Danish Martinu. There is a perky Neoclassicism permeating his output I find alluring.

[foxandpeng]

Hilding Rosenberg
Symphony 6 'Sinfonia Semplice'
Gothenburg SO
Mario Venzago
BIS

[Symphonic Addict]

Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Cello Concerto

This Naxos recording is better than the one on CPO. I feel more presence, clarity and passion.

[classicalgeek]

Moeran wrote some lovely pieces (being the Symphony his best achievement), but he's not one of my favorite English composers.

For me, Riisager sounds like a Danish Martinu. There is a perky Neoclassicism permeating his output I find alluring.

I'm looking forward to listening to more Moeran - he's a fine composer, but yes, he's no Vaughan Williams, Walton, Britten, or Malcolm Arnold!

That's a good comparison for Riisager, actually! I know I enjoyed him quite bit.

TD:
Johan Wagenaar
Sinfonietta
Concert Overture "Fruhlingsgewalt"
Elverhoi
Amphitrion
Le Cid Overture
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie
Antony Hermus
(on Spotify)



Heart-on-sleeve late-Romantic works full of soaring melodies that bring to mind the likes of Richard Strauss, Rachmaninov, and Tchaikovsky. Perhaps Wagenaar isn't as distinctive as those guys, but that's a minor reservation. I absolutely adore this kind of music!

[Mirror Image]

Now playing:

Vaughan Williams
A Sea Symphony
John Carol Case (baritone), Sheila Armstrong (soprano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir

A London Symphony
London Philharmonic Orchestra

Sir Adrian Boult

From this newly acquired Warner/Tower Records hybrid SACD set with a new remastering -

[amw]

Brahms Piano Quintet. Another recording I've never listened to before. Maybe I'll be convinced this time. (Not sure so far, but this Ránki guy is a pretty good piano player. Who could have imagined.)

[Symphonic Addict]

I'm looking forward to listening to more Moeran - he's a fine composer, but yes, he's no Vaughan Williams, Walton, Britten, or Malcolm Arnold!

That's a good comparison for Riisager, actually! I know I enjoyed him quite bit.

TD:
Johan Wagenaar
Sinfonietta
Concerto Overture "Fruhlingsgewalt"
Elverhoi
Amphitrion
Le Cid Overture
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie
Antony Hermus
(on Spotify)



Heart-on-sleeve late-Romantic works full of soaring melodies that bring to mind the like of Richard Strauss, Rachmaninov, and Tchaikovsky. Perhaps Wagenaar isn't as distinctive as those guys, but that's a minor reservation. I absolutely adore this kind of music!

Maybe I was a little unfair with Ernest. I had forgot about his gorgeous Violin Concerto and heartfelt Cello Concerto. Both stupendous works.

Re. Johan Wagenaar, good stuff! This guy really composed some uplifting music. His tone poem Saul og David is one of my favorites by him.

[kyjo]

One piece I've always loved is the Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano with Two Chamber Orchestras.

Re: Carter

That sounds rather intriguing, Karl. I'll have to try it!

[Symphonic Addict]

Dvořák: Symphony No. 8 in G major

It could not to be the most idiomatic of the performances, but Järvi and the Scottish NO are featured by doing an excellent job most of times, and there's no exception here.





Wetz: Symphony No. 2 in A major

If you like Bruckner with a more cinematic and more agile touch to it, this will be a good treat for you. Another composer whom I link with Bruckner is Marcel Tyberg.

[kyjo]

Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 3

Am I the only one to consider this work a masterpiece? The incorporation of Straussian gestures in the 1st mov. is delightful.

No, you're not! A great work. One can also detect some legendary, Baxian gestures in the slow movement. I love all five of Rachmaninoff's symphonies pretty much equally (the "other two" being The Bells and the Symphonic Dances).

[kyjo]

I never can understand why the 2nd Piano Concerto is performed so rarely, whilst the 1st gets done to death. I really like it, especially the slow movement with its solos for violin and cello. This performance is pretty good, maybe not quite in the same class as the Donohoe/Barshai recording, which has Kennedy and Stehen Isserlis in the slow movement, but still worth hearing. It too is complete and comes coupled to the rarely performed Concert Fantasy.

I agree! Perhaps the first movement is a bit overlong, but the beautiful slow movement and exuberant finale are as great as anything else Tchaikovsky wrote.

[kyjo]

Atterberg: Symphony No.3
What an ending! A most inspiriting score.

You've become quite the addict to this great work recently, Jeffrey!

[kyjo]

Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Cello Concerto

This Naxos recording is better than the one on CPO. I feel more presence, clarity and passion.

Agreed. Although I'm thankful to Raphael Wallfisch (the cellist in the CPO recording) for advocating so much lesser-known repertoire, the truth is that he's not one of today's most outstanding cellists. He's made some good recordings, to be sure, but in some I feel like he's just "playing the notes" and not much else.

[JBS]

Tonight's listen so far


The Poulenc consists of:
Sonata for Violin and Piano
Bagatelle in d minor for Violin and Piano
Sonata for Clarinet in B Flat and Piano
Sonata for Cello and Piano

[Madiel]

Haydn, op.20/4 in D major, first listen.



An appropriate celebration of the arrival, after a couple of weeks of mystery, of the rest of the Haydn Mosaiques recordings that I bought.

EDIT: The fact that op.20 contains something like this, with the a wild gypsy finale, and the total seriousness of op.20/5 is really quite amazing.