What are you listening 2 now?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Yeah, that's a shame about his political leanings. We must also remember that Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem was also commissioned by Japan for the same event, although, if memory serves me, it wasn't actually used.

Correct about Britten. I love music, but there are other things important to me as well. So I don't listened to the music supported by the Axis powers or inhuman regimes. Same for the albums by child molesters, sexual predators, etc.

[JBS]

That's a very reasonable line to take, Manabu, especially concerning the Tojo regime.

My own red line is simpler and less comprehensive: nothing recorded under the Third Reich.  There are certain famous performances (especially some by Furtwangler) I'll never hear---but so be it.

[Mirror Image]

Correct about Britten. I love music, but there are other things important to me as well. So I don't listened to the music supported by the Axis powers or inhuman regimes. Same for the albums by child molesters, sexual predators, etc.

I completely understand your position. Personally speaking, a political stance wouldn't stop me from listening to a composer's music. World War II was a difficult time to make a living as a composer and so many composers left Europe as we know, but those who stayed behind had reasons for it as perhaps it's not always an easy thing to do to drop everything and leave for an unknown country. Not everyone has this kind of courage. So many composers had to find ways to survive the political climates they were in even if they didn't fully believe in it themselves.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Yes there is a grey area, ie. Karajan.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Mahler
Des Knaben Wunderhorn
John Shirley-Quirk, Jessye Norman
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Haitink

From this OOP set -

[Madiel]

Haydn, op.64/3

[classicalgeek]

Pascal Dusapin
*Watt
%Galim
#Celo
*Alain Trudel, trombone
%Juliette Hurel, flute
#Sonia Wieder-Atherton, cello
Orchestre National de Montpellier
Pascal Rophe
(on Spotify)



I approached this disc with caution, knowing a little bit about Dusapin's style. It turned out I found a lot to like - especially the stellar performances by the three soloists.

[Mirror Image]

Last work of the night:

Janáček
Sinfonietta, JW 6/18
LSO
MTT



A tremendous recording all-around.

[vandermolen]

That's a very reasonable line to take, Manabu, especially concerning the Tojo regime.

My own red line is simpler and less comprehensive: nothing recorded under the Third Reich.  There are certain famous performances (especially some by Furtwangler) I'll never hear---but so be it.

Interesting. I have a problem with Atterberg (whose 2nd, 3rd and 5th symphonies are amongst my favourites) some of whose later symphonies were premiered in Nazi Germany and I rarely listen to Carl Ruggles since discovering recently that he was a rabid anti-semite. My stuff I know but that's how it is.

[vandermolen]

Vaughan Williams: Piano Quintet (withdrawn) from this fine Chandos disc. It's interesting that the composer withdrew this (fine) work but then recycled the theme of the last movement in the Violin Sonata at the other end of his musical career:

[Operafreak]

Sibelius: Symphonies Nos 3, 6 & 7- Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä

[Madiel]

Sibelius: Karelia Overture (Gibson conducting). Highly enjoyable.

[Madiel]

And following the Karelia Overture with the Karelia Suite...



An awful lot of "earlyish" Sibelius from this period sounds very much like film music to me. And I mean that in a good way.

[Mandryka]

Howard Skempeton's most recent (2019), I believe, composition, 24 Preludes and Fugues, played in full by Carson Coorman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Li6vmGTsc

Light, airy, breezy, minimalistic - contemplative, meditative, dreamy, lulling.

Someone told me that John Tilbury hopes to release a recording of these soon. I've not heard the Coorman - Tilbury says that Skempton's piano music is extremely hard to play because there's very little on the page, it demands a huge amount of embellishment from the pianist, and because the music is so simple, there's nowhere to hide. On his website he's released four solo Skempton CDs, well worth hearing IMO.

[Harry]

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck.

The Fourth Book of Psalms by David.
CD II.
Psalms: 55/57/58/59/68/71/73/76/79/81/83/85/87/88/93/94.
Organ Fantasies over Sweelinck's Psalm 55, by Bernard Winsemius, Canon for Organ over Psalm 68.
Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam, Harry van der Kamp.

I am absolutely besotted by this gorgeous music. Sweelinck is truly the greatest of them all.

[Madiel]

Sibelius, Piano Sonata op.12



I haven't listened to this in a while. In context with other Sibelius from around the same time period (1893), it makes more sense - or at least I'm enjoying it rather more than I remember. It's another one of his grand-sounding, almost over-stuffed works like some of the chamber music. A piano that would in some ways rather be an orchestra.

Mertanen is better than most pianists in making the piano music sound big, so maybe it's partly down to him. But I think it's the right tack for this period of Sibelius.

[Que]

Morning listening on Spotify, hat tip Mandryka. 



Nice. The musical approach is to my taste, but since it is a Flemish ensemble I wasn't much worried about that.
With 7 singers this is supposed to be one voice per part, with the possible doubling of the tenor, but the vocal clarity isn't there. At times it sounds like a sea of voices.... Must be the way it is recorded: too much blending, too much reverb.
The singing is also not as crisp and tight as we are used to with the curent top ensembles.

I am curious what part 2 sounds like. 

[Harry]

Johann Strauss II.

Complete Orchestral Edition.
CD 9 from 52.

Carnevalsbilder, Walzer (Carnival Pictures, Waltz), Op. 357.
Annen-Polka, Op. 117.
Indigo-Marsch, Op. 349.
Albion-Polka, Op. 102.
Gedanken auf den Alpen, Walzer (Thoughts in the Alps, Waltz), Op. 172.
Festival-Quadrille nach englischen Motiven (Festival Quadrille on English themes), Op. 341.
Habsburg Hoch! Marsch (Hail Habsburg! March), Op. 408.
Nachtveilchen, Polka-Mazur (Dame's Violet, Polka-mazurka), Op. 170.
Lucifer-Polka, Op.266.
Kaiser-Walzer (Emperor Waltz), Op. 437.

Polish State PO, Katowice, Johannes Wildner.

[Tsaraslondon]

Yes, it's one of the great VW (and Warlock) CDs.

I had both works on separate LPs. I remember, both treasured records.



In fact I was at one time learning The Curlew as we were going to do it at the Three Choirs Festival. We were going to also do Lambert's Eight Poems of Li-Po. Unfortunately for some reason the concert was cancelled.

[Traverso]

Bach


Ewald Kooiman