What are you listening 2 now?

[Linz]

Gunter Wand Bruckner Symphony No. 3

[Mirror Image]

Gunter Wand Bruckner Symphony No. 3

What do you think about this particular set? Wand is one of my favorite Brucknerians.

[bhodges]

Thanks Bruce. I think I will be going through the entire set over the next month. I enjoyed the America entry very much last week (on July 4th).

So far for me, they are an interesting introduction to these composers within choral music. Some I am unfamiliar within vocal music, some altogether.

I think they are all available to hear on YouTube for anyone interested, under the SWR Vokalensemble topic.

VS

Thanks, now subscribed to their YouTube channel! (I'm a big fan of the orchestra, but didn't realize the chorus has a channel, too.) Some other tempting things, e.g., Rachmaninov Vespers, and works by Elliott Carter and Hans Zender.

--Bruce

[Linz]

I have alot of Wand's Bruckner and he has been my favorite Conductor and it was his 5th Symphony that made me realize the 5th is really a great Symphony

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Prokofiev SY4-II. Kuchar/Ukraine.

[Mirror Image]

I have alot of Wand's Bruckner and he has been my favorite Conductor and it was his 5th Symphony that made me realize the 5th is really a great Symphony

For me, it was Karajan that made the 5th come alive, but Wand certainly has given us plenty of outstanding performances.

NP:

Duruflé
Requiem, Op. 9
Sir Thomas Allen, Ann Murray
Corydon Singers
English Chamber Orchestra
Matthew Best





In 1947, Maurice Duruflé was already working on a suite of pieces for organ based on the Gregorian chants for the requiem mass (the service for the dead), when he was commissioned by his publisher Durand to write a large-scale work based on those texts. The resulting Requiem, originally for orchestra and chorus, is the culmination of Duruflé's style, mixing chant, quasi-Renaissance counterpoint, and sumptuous harmony derived from Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel.

Duruflé made three versions of this work; the final one, completed in 1961, is for choir, string orchestra, trumpets, and organ; it is the most practical and the most commonly used. He used the same text as Fauré had done in his Requiem of 1889, omitting the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) section which, although it provided some of the most spectacular music in the Mozart, Berlioz, and Verdi settings, was not compatible with the gentler, more reassuring tone of the work. This peaceful quality is in many ways simply a reflection of the Requiem's indebtedness to Gregorian chant, the flowing, easy quality of which serves as a musical template for many of the movements (chant formed a large part of Duruflé's musical upbringing: from 1912 to 1918 he was a boy chorister at the cathedral in Rouen, where the services were almost entirely chanted, and his professional education was at the Paris Conservatoire, where harmonizing chant melodies was a large part of the training for organists). Duruflé presents the chants quite clearly, much as in the Four Motets on Gregorian themes. The serene mood is enhanced by pervasive imitative counterpoint in a quasi-Renaissance melodic style. There is often a similarity of sound between Duruflé's music and that of Vaughan Williams, who briefly studied in France and also used modal melodies and counterpoint, though for him these archaic-sounding techniques were inspired by English folk music and the composers of the Tudor era. With Duruflé, the modal counterpoint is supported by rich, and very French, added-note harmonies.

Duruflé's grounding in the past is evident throughout the Requiem. The opening movement, one of the most beautiful in twentieth century music, sets a mood for the rest of the piece: running sixteenths (a favorite device of Duruflé's) create a wash of sound, preparing the entrance of the tenors and basses intoning the requiem chant, soon accompanied by a wordless vocalise from the women's voices. The original chant melodies are present in many of the movements; a striking instance is the Kyrie, where the trumpets sound the chant melody in long notes over a busy contrapuntal texture in the choir (which in turn is based on a rhythmicized version of the chant). The effect is similar to that of Bach's famous cantus firmus cantata opening movements -- Wachet Auf and Ein' feste Burg are good examples. Another striking section is the Pie Jesu, which Duruflé sets in a style very similar to Fauré, with a mezzo-soprano solo accompanied only by organ and cello. In the final movement, In Paradisum, the sopranos, supported by full chords in the strings, sing the incantatory chant promising the deceased a peaceful welcome into heaven. At the words "chorus angelorum te suscipiat" (May the choir of angels receive you), the other singers enter with a beautiful, slowly descending passage to end the work. Duruflé's wife has said that while composing his Requiem, which is dedicated to the memory of his father, Duruflé "cried several times"; it is indeed one of the most moving religious works of the twentieth century.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Enescu
Symphony No. 3, Op. 21
Leeds Festival Chorus
BBC Philharmonic
Gennady Rozhdestvensky





A monumental and distinctly Brahmsian work, Enescu's Third Symphony is an emotionally intense war symphony of grandiose dimension. Scored for orchestra and chorus, it calls for large forces to be deployed in execution of the composer's vision -- 12 double basses, for example, including two soli. It anticipates Oedipe in its philosophical approach and indeed in some of its thematic material which finds its way into Enescu's magnum opus. Its lavish orchestration and its entry into a completely new world of harmonic thinking for the composer make it a much more advanced work than the Second Symphony, for example. But it is a much less difficult symphony to grasp, since its melodic lines and majestic expressiveness lead the listener unerringly through the sweeping scope of the first two movements to the sparsely orchestrated and carillon-like conclusion.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]

[JBS]

The best part is probably Sariel's neo-Bachian Mandolin Partita that closes out the CD

[Madiel]

DavidW has deleted his account. What happened to him? I think it's not the first time he does it.

It was truly baffling to read a post joking about leaving the forum that, by the time I read it several hours later, was from an account that had left the forum.

[Madiel]

I had a technical issue with the associated email.  No drama, I just couldn't change my email so I reset my account.

I'd call it the second coming but... I don't know what number we are up to.

[classicalgeek]

Do we need a Koch & Toch Festival?

A Koch & Bloch Festival would be much better for my ears.

I vote for all three! Because why not?

Gunter Wand Bruckner Symphony No. 3

What do you think about this particular set? Wand is one of my favorite Brucknerians.

I assume that's the same set I picked up a couple of months ago?



I'm not sure if Wand recorded just one Bruckner cycle, or more than one - he definitely recorded some of the individual symphonies multiple times!

TD:
Scriabin
Symphony no. 3 'Le Divin Poème'
Le Poème de l'extase
New York Philharmonic
Giuseppe Sinopoli
(on CD)



I still haven't gotten into Scriabin's symphonies yet - I find them excessive and over the top (though that seems to be the point), but short on memorable moments. Sinopoli's recording was fine, but maybe I should give Muti another shot. No such reservations about Poème de l'extase, however: it never outstays its welcome (it's less than half the length of the Third Symphony) and has some really great tunes (like the trumpet theme). The ending is really something special too, with its slow buildup to that heaven-storming C-major chord... wow!

[Mirror Image]

I assume that's the same set I picked up a couple of months ago?



I'm not sure if Wand recorded just one Bruckner cycle, or more than one - he definitely recorded some of the individual symphonies multiple times!

Yes, they're both the same sets, but that later set, I'm assuming, has a more recent remastering. But I'm quite content with the older set (which does have a 24-bit remastering, but I'm not sure how it compares with the set you own) and I find the fidelity to be quite good. Also, yes, this is Wand's only complete Bruckner cycle. He's recorded many of these symphonies multiple times over, but favorite performances come from later in his career (this RCA set) and the partial cycle with the Berliners when he was already quite older. He was a magnificent in this music and has remained a favorite Brucknerian of mine over the years.

[Mirror Image]

Last work of the night:

Ligeti
Lontano
Sinfonie-Orchester des Südwestfunks, Baden-Baden
Earnest Bour

[Operafreak]

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto, Violin Sonata in F Major & Songs Without Words- Augustin Dumay (violin), Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Jonathan Fournel (piano)

[vandermolen]

Good Morning! (well, it is morning here)
Symphony No.5

[Que]

Morning listening on Spotify:



The San Lorenzo Palimpsest, as the collection is known today, is an invaluable source of mainly Italian secular polyphonic music composed in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. It turned out to contain not only new readings of compositions known from other contemporary manuscripts, but also, and more importantly, completely unknown pieces by such Florentine composers as Giovanni Mazzuoli and his son Piero. La Morra breathes new life into these long-forgotten musical treasures, the majority of which are recorded here for the first time.

https://earlymusicreview.com/splendor-da-ciel/

Pretty good stuff! 

PS Great review on Amazon, full of musical insights... 

"I bought this as a Christmas present for my sister and she was very happy the customer service was great as well."

[Operafreak]

Bortnyansky - Sacred Concertos Volume 2- Russian State Symphonic Cappella, Valeri Polyansky

[Traverso]

Purcell


CD 1

[Papy Oli]

Philip Glass's Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists 
    Gerard Schwarz, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Fun piece!

Yes, Yes !!

[Lisztianwagner]

In honour of Schönberg:

Arnold Schönberg
Pelleas und Melisande