What are you listening 2 now?

[Lisztianwagner]

Antonín Dvořák
5 Slavonic Dances
Scherzo capriccioso

[Todd]

[Lisztianwagner]

While I do own (and listen to) HvK recordings, in no case do I feel he "owns" the music, so if one wished, one could boycott HvK and still have a perfectly rich musical experience, IMO.

That sentiment of mine is not personal to HvK. I don't feel that any conductor  "owns" any music.

+1

I'm rather the opposite, I feel he "owns" the music in some ways, or at least he masterfully handles what he conducts like no one else; I personally think my musical experience wouldn't be the same if it weren't possible to listen to Karajan's recordings anymore, not as rich as before.
Of course, this is just for me, and luckily Karajan wasn't the only great conductor in the music history.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

While I do own (and listen to) HvK recordings, in no case do I feel he "owns" the music, so if one wished, one could boycott HvK and still have a perfectly rich musical experience, IMO.

That sentiment of mine is not personal to HvK. I don't feel that any conductor  "owns" any music.

For his sheer amount of popularity and prestige, the posts about, and appraisal of, Karajans recordings are minuscular at best on this forum. Personally I don't have his discs much.

P.s. I scarcely remember (I'm not a historian) that Karajans explanations were like 1) he was a formal, but not active, member of the Nazi party, and 2) every professional in Austria had to be a pro-forma Nazi member. I think 1) is accurate while I don't know about 2).

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

The Kooiman set ( That I bought in the Netherlands) was half the price it was year ago. I asked the seller the reason for this and he replied that most people who are interested have already these recocordings,It's a small market after all.

I don't have the set and I want it badly! 

[André]

All 4 instruments are called for in the Yun, Bussotti and Cage pieces: in alternance in the first two, simultaneously via tape montage in the third. The Schnebel work is for flute and (very discreet) synthesizer. I enjoyed the disc as a whole and was surprised that an hour of flute didn't send me up the wall at all. OK, maybe the Cage piece sounds a bit dated with its aleatoric collage of sounds, but it's also the shortest, so one can't really complain it outstays its welcome.

The Yun piece is a major one and a minor masterpiece. I can't imagine anyone listening to this suite of 5 pieces lasting 23 minutes not being mesmerized by the sounds and the atmosphere Yun conjures by using a single wind instrument. It's a hit right from the start.

[André]

Now on to a composer I've never heard of before. Works included in this 'Musical Portrait' are 3 Estonian Dances for orchestra, 3 Serenades for orchestra, a quintet for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, a concerto for flute, a Forest Concerto for horn and the composer's 2nd symphony. Love those comprehensive, varied programmes. There's some very catchy music and original ideas here.

[JBS]

Arrived today. A kyjo find, so far well worth hearing, a composer who manages to include Chopinian and Bartokian or Prokifievan moments in his music, sometimes in the same movement


A piano concerto and a violin concerto surrounded by short works for violin and piano or piano alone, and a (non-vocal) Stabat Mater for strings and timpani.

Now on to a composer I've never heard of before. Works included in this 'Musical Portrait' are 3 Estonian Dances for orchestra, 3 Serenades for orchestra, a quintet for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, a concerto for flute, a Forest Concerto for horn and the composer's 2nd symphony. Love those comprehensive, varied programmes. There's some very catchy music and original ideas here.

This Magnin CD I'm listening to fits that bill very nicely.

[Traverso]

I don't have the set and I want it badly! 

Are you interested in a flac transfer,I hate to see you suffering  I'm afraid there is no other way exept emigrate to the organ paradise.

[classicalgeek]

Rodion Shchedrin
*Cello Concerto
Seagull Suite
*Marko Ylonen, cello
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Olli Mustonen
(on Spotify)

[Lisztianwagner]

For his sheer amount of popularity and prestige, the posts about, and appraisal of, Karajans recordings are minuscular at best on this forum. Personally I don't have his discs much.

P.s. I scarcely remember (I'm not a historian) that Karajans explanations were like 1) he was a formal, but not active, member of the Nazi party, and 2) every professional in Austria had to be a pro-forma Nazi member. I think 1) is accurate while I don't know about 2).

1) Yes, he was so little interested that he didn't even collect the party card and had to renew it in 1935. He said: "My party affiliation was a prerequisite for becoming general music director in Aachen. It was the price I had to pay to get what I wanted. I would have reached any point to get that job".
2) Yes, especially if they wanted to make a career, since in 1938 the same laws that there were in Germany had come into force. But for example, Furtwängler didn't have the party card.

[Linz]

Christoph von Dohnanyi with Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 and Athalie Overture, War March of the Priests and The First Walpurgis Night,

[Symphonic Addict]

Thanks. But Google found it for me.
It's a portrait of the cellist Ricard Pichot, done in 1920 by none other than...

Now, I didn't expect that! Thanks for the info.

[VonStupp]

Through "just one of those accidents," we might say, Handley was my first set of RVW, I've found no reason not to continue enjoying it.

Coincidentally, mine too. I really like this Job, although I wish the Tallis Fantasia was less wiry sounding, for the LPO is all in.

VS

[Madiel]

Thank you!

Never again.

[Symphonic Addict]

It could be possibly and partially because Pizzeti was a pro-fascist guy connected to the Mussolini govt? He even wrote a symphony for the Imperial Japan, an Axis partner.  That's Symphony A major and it is in one of the Naxos discs. I don't listen to it because of the political reason though I like his compositions in general.

I don't know much about that part of history but it makes sense. OTOH, I've enjoyed that Pizzetti Symphony. I for one don't have any problem with political issues when I listen to music or anything related to artists whose views or positions can be seen as uncomfortable. I respect everyone's views about it, nonetheless.

[Symphonic Addict]

I thought you had a higher opinion of Moeran, Cesar! I love almost everything he wrote, but even if he had just written his G minor Symphony I would still consider him a great composer. The same applies to Walton and his 1st Symphony.

But you didn't see this post  :

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

He definitely wrote some remarkable works.

[Symphonic Addict]

Rodion Shchedrin
*Cello Concerto
Seagull Suite
*Marko Ylonen, cello
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Olli Mustonen
(on Spotify)

Shchedrin's Cello Concerto is rather severe, serious and stern, but somehow it manages to captivate.

[Symphonic Addict]

Villa-Lobos: Chôros No. 10 Rasga o Coraçao

Potent stuff. The chorus provides a great effect.





Berwald: Symphony No. 4 Symphonie naïve

It's not in the same league as the first three symphonies, but it's enjoyable and entertaining.

[Mapman]

Rautavaara: Piano Concerto #3, "Gift of Dreams"
Ashkenazy: Helsinki

An interesting work, which vaguely reminds me of Bartok's 3rd Piano Concerto, especially in the character of the second movements.