What are you listening 2 now?

[Irons]

Alwyn: Autumn Legend; Pastoral Fantasia
City of London Sinfonia, Hickox

I've never really got into Alwyn before, but I certainly enjoyed Autumn Legend, very deftly done with many attractive timbres/compositional subtleties en route. It didn't seem particularly autumnal, more dreamy heat haze to me, though perhaps the current heatwave is skewing my senses.
I probably shouldn't have listened to the Pastoral Fantasia straight after as it felt a bit like more of the same, but nonetheless I still enjoyed it, preferring it to VW's Lark Ascending for instance, with which it shares similarities.

You may find this of interest.

http://landofllostcontent.blogspot.com/2022/07/william-alwyns-autumn-legend-1955-part-2.html

[Mirror Image]

The Ravel Piano Concertos with Vincent Larderet and Daniel Kawka with the Orchestre Symphonique de l'Estuaire:



Stunning performances!

[Linz]

More of the Strauss Family with Willi Boskovsky on this New Year album

[Lisztianwagner]

Edward Elgar
In the South

[aligreto]

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 [Boulez]





The work opens with great power, bite and menace. The intensity is also terrific. The lower register instruments sound wonderful. They add an appealing dimension to the wonderful sound world and sonic textures. The music maintains its great presence as the movement moves along. The second movement is a great contrast both sonically and emotionally. Boulez lets the music breathe wonderfully but never lingers on it. The third movement is playful with slight undercurrent of tension to it occasionally. The fourth movement is rich and mellow in both tone and texture. It has a wonderfully haunting, forlorn and poignant atmosphere to it. The fifth movement has a wonderful sense of hesitancy or doubt in the choral singing. The opening of the glorious final movement is simply divine! The transition from this delicate music to the emotionally powerful final section of the movement is handled very well by Boulez. He basically lets the music take its own path. The ultimate climax reached is powerful but controlled. This is a very fine presentation of this monumental work.

[Traverso]

Alright, it's Golliwogg's Cakewalk. People who insist on it being racist are simply a touch too sensitive. This what the composer named it and I'll keep it this way.

Right john,a pity that this so-called sensitivity also implies a kind of puritanism and  self righteousness wich has in many cases not a friendly face.People are so easily shocked that I doubt whether there is any knowledge or insight behind it.It is like in the book 1984 where it doesn't matter who the enemy is as long as we walk in the same direction.

[Traverso]

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 [Boulez]





The work opens with great power, bite and menace. The intensity is also terrific. The lower register instruments sound wonderful. They add an appealing dimension to the wonderful sound world and sonic textures. The music maintains its great presence as the movement moves along. The second movement is a great contrast both sonically and emotionally. Boulez lets the music breathe wonderfully but never lingers on it. The third movement is playful with slight undercurrent of tension to it occasionally. The fourth movement is rich and mellow in both tone and texture. It has a wonderfully haunting, forlorn and poignant atmosphere to it. The fifth movement has a wonderful sense of hesitancy or doubt in the choral singing. The opening of the glorious final movement is simply divine! The transition from this delicate music to the emotionally powerful final section of the movement is handled very well by Boulez. He basically lets the music take its own path. The ultimate climax reached is powerful but controlled. This is a very fine presentation of this monumental work.

Enjoy your Mahler , Fergus 

[aligreto]

Enjoy your Mahler , Fergus 

Thank you, Jan. It is wonderful music and music making. 

[Mirror Image]

Right john,a pity that this so-called sensitivity also implies a kind of puritanism and  self righteousness wich has in many cases not a friendly face.People are so easily shocked that I doubt whether there is any knowledge or insight behind it.It is like in the book 1984 where it doesn't matter who the enemy is as long as we walk in the same direction.

Absolutely. As I said in another thread, let the people who are easily offended remain this way.

[Mirror Image]

Thank you, Jan. It is wonderful music and music making. 

+ 1

I love Boulez's Mahler. It's much, much better than I initially gave it credit for.

Speaking of Boulez...

Now playing this entire Bartók recording, which, coincidently, was the second disc of his music that I had bought:



This recording remains one of my favorite Bartók recordings. Some people don't care much for Boulez's later DG recordings, but I think he still produced some exceptionally fine work. And the sound quality is FANTASTIC.

[Todd]

One of the very best Sixths.

[Traverso]

Thank you, Jan. It is wonderful music and music making. 

Do I have to purchase this set,I have already seven complete sets and some seperate recordings,I'm tempted. 

[Mirror Image]

Do I have to purchase this set,I have already seven complete sets and some seperate recordings,I'm tempted. 

In a word, yes. It contains all of Boulez's Mahler on DG. His insights into the music are remarkable and these particular insights allow many passages throughout each work to come alive in a way I hadn't quite heard before. This isn't exactly "cool and detached" Mahler, but it's not the kind of intensity and barnstorming we here in Bernstein for example. I believe you would like the performances as they provide a different view of the composer that hasn't been done before.

[Karl Henning]

Any conclusions?

I like it. Tangentially, I've found no hardship with a modern horn in the Op. 40

[Karl Henning]

TD:
"Il Prete rosso"
Concerto in G for 2 mandolins, strings & organ

Maiden-listen Monday:
Alkan
Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique & Concerto da camera in a minor.

[Lisztianwagner]

Edward Elgar
Cockaigne Overture

[Mirror Image]

Now playing Book I from the Ligeti Études from this new acquisition:



This is some fantastic playing so far. Thomas Hell is a beast.

[Karl Henning]

Maiden-listen Monday:

Gil Shaham playing the Bruch Violin Concerto

[Karl Henning]

And, because it's too long since I last listened:

Toch
Symphony № 1, Op. 72
Berlin Radio Symphony
Alun Francis

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Schnittke
Symphony No. 4
Mikael Bellini (counter-tenor), Stefan Parkman (tenor)
Uppsala Academic Chamber Choir, Stockholm Sinfonietta
Okko Kamu



An absolute stunning work and performance. Such an eerie sound-world.