What are you listening 2 now?

[vandermolen]

Time for some doom-laden impending catastrophe:
Rachmaninov 'The Isle of the Dead' and Symphony No.1:

Review
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/oct00/Rachdead.htm

[vers la flamme]

What at one time was maybe my least favorite of Mahler's symphonies, but I've really come round to it over the past couple of years:

Me too, and I love that recording.

[aligreto]

CPE Bach: Solo Keyboard Music [Spányi]





Sonata in G maj. W.65/22 H.56
Sonata in A min. W.65/25 H.61

[aligreto]

Good morning all,

A first listen to Beethoven's Fidelio.

Olivier, if I may offer other listening options for you [from those that I know other that the von Karajan] for this wonderful work, if you are interested, they would be:

Bernstein - I find all of the voices wonderful here
Fricsay - I find this one an excellent version all around
Halasz - Compares favourably with most versions that I have heard
Harnoncourt - Lighter textures offer great clarity of lines, if lacking a little weight; a minor quibble as this is a fine performance
Klemperer - A great sense of drama with the music breathing wonderfully

Two other versions that I own, which would be slightly less favoured by me:

Abbado - Harnisch, although wonderful, is a bit too big a voice for Marzelline for me. Otherwise an excellent version with Nina Stemme a show stopper.
Furtwangler - Overall, an excellent live performance, quite electric in places. It is let down by poor sonics, however and I know that many do not like Schwarzkopf's voice.

Ultimately, your choice will come down to preference in the vocal department but the above list is worth investigating, I feel.

[Madiel]

Sibelius, Cantata for the coronation of Nicholas II



Fairly pleasant and fairly undemanding, apart from being a bit longer than necessary.

[Madiel]

I'm going to at least start on this Schumann album, though it's a double-CD set so maybe not all at once.

A lot of positive reviews for this set.

[Todd]

Having finished streaming their currently available Mozart, I went for the Armida's recording of LvB's 59/1 and DSCH's 10th.  Just crazy good.

[aligreto]

Strozzi: [Galli/Bonizzoni]






Cantata - E giungerà pur mai alla linea crudele
Aria - È pazzo il mio core

[Papy Oli]

Olivier, if I may offer other listening options for you [from those that I know other that the von Karajan] for this wonderful work, if you are interested, they would be:

Bernstein - I find all of the voices wonderful here
Fricsay - I find this one an excellent version all around
Halasz - Compares favourably with most versions that I have heard
Harnoncourt - Lighter textures offer great clarity of lines, if lacking a little weight; a minor quibble as this is a fine performance
Klemperer - A great sense of drama with the music breathing wonderfully

Two other versions that I own, which would be slightly less favoured by me:

Abbado - Harnisch, although wonderful, is a bit too big a voice for Marzelline for me. Otherwise an excellent version with Nina Stemme a show stopper.
Furtwangler - Overall, an excellent live performance, quite electric in places. It is let down by poor sonics, however and I know that many do not like Schwarzkopf's voice.

Ultimately, your choice will come down to preference in the vocal department but the above list is worth investigating, I feel.

Hello Fergus,
Thank you for those recommendations. Duly noted.

[aligreto]

Janáček - Mládí - Suite for Wind Sextet [Harris/Gatt/Pay/Eastop/Craxton/Bell]





What magical, beguiling and inventive music we have throughout this work; it is very atmospheric. This is greatly enhanced by the scoring and indeed the playing. It is wonderfully well presented here.

[aligreto]

Hello Fergus,
Thank you for those recommendations. Duly noted.

Cheers, Olivier.
I hope that you find something of interest there.

[VonStupp]

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Dona Nobis Pacem
Carmen Pelton, soprano
Nathan Gunn, baritone

Samuel Barber
Prayers of Kirkegaard, op. 30
Carmen Pelton, soprano

Bela Bartok
Cantata Profana, Sz. 94
Richard Clement, tenor
Nathan Gunn, baritone

Atlanta SO & Chorus - Robert Shaw

While I gobbled all of these Telarc/Shaw recordings up in the 80's and 90's, I find all of them at an arm's length emotionally and without a personal stamp, despite the technically fine choral singing, and so I rarely return to these at all. Where the chorus and orchestra should be harrowing for example, I find them merely competent in comparison.

Thankfully, the rare Prayers of Kierkegaard from Barber has a nice recording on Koch with the CSO aside The Lovers.

VS

[Operafreak]

Alexandre Tharaud plays Rameau

Alexandre Tharaud (piano)

   

[ritter]

First lap in of these recent acquisitions:


TBH, none of the works on this CD made a very strong impression in this (admittedly superficial) first listening. Both the Malipiero and Ghedini are very serious works, with nothing overtly "Italianate" in them. They inhabit a "WW2ish grey" sound world (even if the Malipiero is from 1937 and the Ghedini from 1951), and some passages reminded me, of all things, of Shostakovich (not a compliment in my book). The Notturno e tarantella (not credited on the front cover) is Casella from a great vintage (1937), but too short (6')  to create any lasting effect. I'm sure to revisit this disc more attentively sometime soon, as particularly the Ghedini is an ambitious  piece that could deserve closer scrutiny.


Wonderful! As expected, Denise Duval is perfectly suited to the rôle of Concepción, the rest of the cast is at her level, and Cluytens shapes the score beautifully. Excellent sound for its time (1952), and overall this is a perfect example of those productions from the early 50s in which a good portion of the French operatic repertoire was being recorded for the first time, in a superbly idiomatic and ensemble-based way.

Every time I listen to Ravel's L'Heure espagnole, I like it more....

...
Rafael, do you have a favourite recording for Fidelio ?

I think Fergus has given you a very good roundup of recordings of Fidelio, Olivier (even if I don't know all those he mentions).

I had Bernstein on LP and indeed found it superb (oddly, I never got it on CD —to be remedied soon, I suppose—). Of the other versions I own, I have a weakness for the 1955 live Böhm from Vienna on Orfeo: it has a superb cast led by Martha Mödl, a sense of occasion to it (it's from the "reopening festival" of the rebuilt State Opera after its bombing during WW2), and a conductor who clearly cared very much for the score (there's at least 4 other versions available under Böhm—one of them an excellent studio effort from Dresden in 1970 on DG).

Abbado is also very good (and since I saw the production live here in Madrid —with a slightly different cast—, I have a sentimental attachment to it). I'd avoid the Dóhnanyi on Decca, as Gabriele Schnaut is problematic as Leonore).

[Papy Oli]

Cheers, Olivier.
I hope that you find something of interest there.

My listening of Karajan's Act I was a bit disjointed but first impressions were good. I'll do a shoot-out of the other versions when I go back to Act II 

I think Fergus has given you a very good roundup of recordings of Fidelio, Olivier (even if I don't know all those he mentions).

I had Bernstein on LP and indeed found it superb (oddly, I never got it on CD —to be remedied soon, I suppose—). Of the other versions I own, I have a weakness for the 1955 live Böhm from Vienna on Orfeo: it has a superb cast led by Martha Mödl, a sense of occasion to it (it's from the "reopening festival" of the rebuilt State Opera after its bombing during WW2), and a conductor who clearly cared very much for the score (there's at least 4 other versions available under Böhm—one of them an excellent studio effort from Dresden in 1970 on DG).

Abbado is also very good (and since I saw the production live here in Madrid —with a slightly different cast—, I have a sentimental attachment to it). I'd avoid the Dóhnanyi on Decca, as Gabriele Schnaut is problematic as Leonore).

Thank you Rafael. I have added the Böhm to the list too.

[Lisztianwagner]

First listen to:

Kurt Weill
Symphony No.2

[Todd]

[Linz]

Swan Lake Suite, The Nutcracker Suite and Sleeping Beauty Suite with Herbert von Karajan

[JBS]

[aligreto]

Mahler: Symphony No. 1 [Boulez]





I consider this to be a very fine presentation of this wonderful work. My overriding impression, on first listen, is that it benefits from a great attention to the detail of the music from the opening bars right the way throughout the work. However, I felt that this version lacks gravitas in the third movement but otherwise I very much liked it overall. It has a very fine and powerful concluding movement.