What are you listening 2 now?

[vers la flamme]

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.5 in C-sharp minor. Pierre Boulez, Wiener Philharmoniker

Still my favorite recording of this symphony, I think. What other Boulez Mahler recordings should I check out? I've got 5, 6 and 7.

[aligreto]

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 3 Op. 2 No. 3 [Fischer]

[Karl Henning]

Antheil: Piano Concerto No. 1

This may be a first listen, and what a fun listen it was. Tuneful, colourful, perky, delightfully orchestrated... a hit!

Yes, Cesar!

[Biffo]

Sibelius: Symphony No 3 in C major - Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy

[DavidW]

Great performance.  I streamed the studio master on Qobuz to see if this new remaster is worth the upgrade from the bargain box (which is already a remaster).  Nope.  Doesn't really sound any different to me.  I suppose if you had those original overly bright issues then yeah.



4th symphony and 4th piano concerto.  It is time to pull the trigger on this fine box set.  The performances are just fantastic and stand out in a very crowded field.

[aligreto]

Loewe: Songs and Ballads [Boesch/Vignoles]





Loewe was a contemporary of Schubert. This music is always interesting and engaging. I find it to be gentle and persuasive. The baritone Boesch delivers very fine and accomplished performances throughout. The pianist Vignoles is always very sympathetic to both the music and the vocalist. Unusually nowadays, I listened to this one straight through and I enjoyed it.

[Florestan]

Loewe: Songs and Ballads [Boesch/Vignoles]





Loewe was a contemporary of Schubert. This music is always interesting and engaging. I find it to be gentle and persuasive. The baritone Boesch delivers very fine and accomplished performances throughout. The pianist Vignoles is always very sympathetic to both the music and the vocalist. Unusually nowadays, I listened to this one straight through and I enjoyed it.

Pounds the table!

I also have the complete Lieder and Ballads cpo 21-disc edition.

[aligreto]

I also have the complete Lieder and Ballads cpo 21-disc edition.

Wow, you obviously enjoy your Loewe moments, Andrei 

[Karl Henning]

Again. I cannot get "too much" of the Molto tranquillo, especially:

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

[Brian]

Gotta listen to the Haydn Quartet Op 76 No 3 armed with Madiel's discovery from the Mosaïques release liner notes.

(But I, ungratefully, am listening to the Festetics instead.)

[Mirror Image]

Again. I cannot get "too much" of the Molto tranquillo, especially:

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

And I'm still awaiting on your thoughts on Toch, Karl...

First-Listen Tuesday!

Antheil
Symphony No. 5, "Joyous"
Frankfurt RSO
Wolff





By the time Eugene Ormandy commissioned a new symphony from George Antheil in 1947, the self-proclaimed "Bad Boy of Music" had substantially tempered and refined the brash musical style that in the 1920s had driven audiences in Paris and New York to riot. As the 1930s approached, Antheil increasingly drew upon neoclassical principles; after embarking on a film music career in Hollywood during the 1930s, his style took on a distinctive turn toward neoromanticism and Americana.

The optimism and earnestness that distinguish Antheil's Fifth Symphony -- in contrast to the wartime gloom of the Third and Fourth -- is characteristic of Antheil's music of the postwar period.

The Symphony is in three movements. The first utilizes a broad palette of harmonic color; instead of piling chords layer upon layer in the polytonal manner of his earlier works, however, Antheil separates and juxtaposes multiple harmonic schemes to create linear variety. The second movement is surprisingly plaintive, rivaled only, perhaps, by the lush Largo of the String Quartet No. 3 as the most introspective music of Antheil's later years. The carnival atmosphere and playful orchestration of the third movement earn the Fifth Symphony its "Joyous" appellation.

The enthusiastic reception of the Fifth Symphony at home and abroad contrasted starkly with the uproar that had greeted such works as Ballet mécanique and Sonata Sauvage in the 1920s. Shortly after its critically acclaimed premiere in Philadelphia under Ormandy in 1948, the Symphony was broadcast on radio by the San Francisco Symphony; later, the work was received warmly in Paris, the city that had granted the composer his earliest succèsses des scandales.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]

[Florestan]

Oscar Straus was a pupil of Max Bruch, of all people! --- but his love for light music gradually estranged him for his arch-conservative teacher who had forbidden Straus to even mention terms like operetta and names like Johann Strauss-Sohn or Jacques Offenbach in his presence. Eventually Straus gave up his studies with Bruch before getting a diploma. The character of this uneasy relationship is perfectly illustrated by the compositional history of the Serenade for Strings. Bruch assigned Straus to write a Requiem, but the task was so totally alien to Straus's humorous and light-hearted nature that after a few tedious months he gave up and told Bruch he was going to write an orchestral works instead --- by which he meant a Serenade for Strings which is anything but requiem-ish: all sunshine and smile, unfailingly melodious and rhytmically infectious, it could easily pass for a newly discovered work by Fuchs or even Dvorak. One can only imagine Bruch's bewilderment. The Piano Concerto is a pithier piece, cast in three continuously-played but clearly delineated sections and thematically cyclical in the manner of Liszt --- another feature that probably drove Bruch crazy. It's a highly lyrical work, no less melodious than the serenade and just as enjoyable. The fillers are echt Straus waltzes. A most delectable recording from the indefatigable Oliver Triendl.



In another thread I expressed the thought that, had I been a composer I'd have wished to compose tonal, melodic, accessible and enjoyable stuff that should give pleasure to listeners and not add to the ugliness and the hardships of the world around. Well, that's exactly what Scott's music sound like --- et pour cause: the very interesting essay he authored for the booklet makes the case for a return to Haydn's aesthetic and methods in symphonic writing. Contemporary music right up my alley.

Both discs highly recommended to Kyle, Cesar and Brian. Why, John (MI) might give them a try as well.

[TheGSMoeller]

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.5 in C-sharp minor. Pierre Boulez, Wiener Philharmoniker

Still my favorite recording of this symphony, I think. What other Boulez Mahler recordings should I check out? I've got 5, 6 and 7.

I think the nos. 3(Vienna) & 7(Cleveland) are excellent from the Boulez cycle, but his 8th(Staatskapelle Berlin) might be my favorite recorded of that symphony.

TD: Some Rameau for the morning drive...

[Mandryka]

Lovely voice on that Schäfer lass, sweet songs from Schoeck too, if a little bland.

[Florestan]

Wow, you obviously enjoy your Loewe moments, Andrei 

Well, he was a very fine composer of vocal music plus I'm a sucker for Lieder, Ballads, Songs, Melodiec, Romances or whatever they call the voice/piano combo in different countries. 

[Mirror Image]

One by one, I'll listen to all Bartók's String Quartets, which, I confess, I haven't listened to before.

Béla Bartók
String Quartet No.1

Pounds the table! Thrilling works, Ilaria. That Takács is a winner, too. Fabulous performances.

[Mandryka]

Well, he was a very fine composer of vocal music plus I'm a sucker for Lieder, Ballads, Songs, Melodiec, Romances or whatever they call the voice/piano combo in different countries. 

Do you agree with that Kenny Rogers strapline of yours? Do you believe that music can make you think?

[Florestan]

Do you agree with that Kenny Rogers strapline of yours? Do you believe that music can make you think?

Well, it can certainly make me think "of England's pastures green", "of foreign lands and peoples" or of my personal life experiences, for instance.

[Karl Henning]

Gotta listen to the Haydn Quartet Op 76 No 3 armed with Madiel's discovery from the Mosaïques release liner notes.

(But I, ungratefully, am listening to the Festetics instead.)

I'll make it up:

"Papa"
"Emperor" Quartet, H:III/77 in C
Quatuor Mosaïques

JSB
BWV 1: Cantata № 1, « Wie Schön leuchtet der Morgenstern »

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Schnittke
Viola Concerto
Kim Kashkashian, viola
Saarbrücken RSO
Dennis Russell Davies