What are you listening 2 now?

[Operafreak]

Brahms: Late Piano Works, Opp. 116-119-Paul Lewis (piano)

[prémont]

Bach

Book 1

I find the Moroney version sleep-inducing and schoolmaster-like. The van Asperen  recordings are superior in every way. 

I don't think van Asperen is "better" than Moroney, they are just different in that van Asperen is more temperamental. And variety is, in my eyes (ears), a good thing. Otherwise we would have to sit with aural blinders and listen to the same recording all the time.

[Traverso]

I don't think van Asperen is "better" than Moroney, they are just different in that van Asperen is more temperamental. And variety is, in my eyes (ears), a good thing. Otherwise we would have to sit with aural blinders and listen to the same recording all the time.

What matters is that there is more music in Van Asperen's and indeed a more lively performance than the bone-dry Moroney whose Louis Couperin recordings also sound disappointing. Surprisingly, his Byrd recordings sound very convincing. You can try to see the good sides. see in a performance but
in these Moroney recordings, a sense of being involved in the music is completely absent and I can't listen to it when there are performances that are so much more than a schoolmaster-like exercise.
To each his own, I have these CDs on the shelf but I won't listen to them.

Leonhardt is in my view still the  first choice. 

[Harry]

J.S. Bach.

The Well tempered Clavier.
Book I.

Bob van Asperen, plays on a Christian Zell, Hamburg 1728.

There could not be a greater difference in performance, pace, and interpretation. Moroney plays the first Preludes of the book as if the devil is on his heels, while van Asperen takes its time, and as Poul said is more temperamental. In the detailing he is freer in expression, and pauses in places to give more emphasis to a phrase or detail. The Prelude No. 3 in C sharp major is a point in case. I also like this take on J.S. Bach, in fact both versions have their merits and demerits. I like the Harpsichord by Zell much better as the Phillips Moroney is using. There is more warmth in the Zell, and the recording has more air around it.

[Traverso]

In short, Moroney is for me not a choice,he may be playing as the devil but there is no fire.
I just listened to some clips and it just confirms, Moroney doesn't do it for me.

It would have been fantastic if Leonhardt had recorded the Well-Tempered Clavier a second time in a better recording sound.

[Cato]

Ernst Toch: Symphony #1


See my review under Toch Talk in the Composer Discussion!  An excellent symphony!


https://www.youtube.com/v/EVxQryuNAxw


Also, because I had some time this morning thanks to insomnia... 0:)


Eugen Jochum conducting Bruckner's Symphony #5 !

https://www.youtube.com/v/6J4IDfajZHw&t=329s

[vers la flamme]

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.4 in G major. George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra, with soprano Judith Raskin in the finale

Wow, wow. Haven't heard this recording in a while. It's so damn good. I think I like it better than the Maazel/Vienna that I've been listening to these past few days, but they're both absolutely wonderful performances. I also love Bernstein/New York on Sony and Reiner/Chicago on RCA but I have not heard those in a while.

[prémont]

In short, Moroney is for me not a choice,he may be playing as the devil but there is no fire.
I just listened to some clips and it just confirms, Moroney doesn't do it for me.

It would have been fantastic if Leonhardt had recorded the Well-Tempered Clavier a second time in a better recording sound.

Moroney is more emotionally restrained and cerebral than most, but I think there is room for interpretations of that kind too.

In the end of the day I also prefer Leonhardt, but this doesn't prevent me from listening to and enjoy others: Moroney, van Asperen, Wilson, Gilbert, Schornsheim, Verlet, Suzuki, Tilney, Chorzempa, Levin, Belder, Koopman, Weiss, Watchorn, Walcha, Ahlgrimm, Thiry, Janssen et.c.et.c.

[ritter]

Joseph Jongen's String Quartet No. 2 in A major, op. 50, played by the Quatuor Gong.

[DavidW]

Shostakovich's 8th string quartet.  I heard it in a dream, so when I woke up I decided to listen to it in real life.

[Lisztianwagner]

Alexander Zemlinsky
Lyric Symphony

[ritter]

More SQs, but from the other shore of the Atlantic: The Juilliard String Quartet play Elliott Carter's Second and William Schuman's Third (the latter will be new to me).



CD 6 of this set:

[Traverso]

Moroney is more emotionally restrained and cerebral than most, but I think there is room for interpretations of that kind too.

In the end of the day I also prefer Leonhardt, but this doesn't prevent me from listening to and enjoy others: Moroney, van Asperen, Wilson, Gilbert, Schornsheim, Verlet, Suzuki, Tilney, Chorzempa, Levin, Belder, Koopman, Weiss, Watchorn, Walcha, Ahlgrimm, Thiry, Janssen et.c.et.c.

Of course, but practice shows that you end up listening to your favorite recording the most.
I also have the Koopman recordings, but there is too much Koopman in the foreground and I prefer performances where the performer is less prominent but of course retaining the musical message. Gilbert I like too.

[SonicMan46]

Morning listening on Spotify:

Thanks Que - listening now on my bedroom Sonos speakers off Spotify! Dave 

[Traverso]

Lily of the Nile


Hamza El Din

[prémont]

Of course, but practice shows that you end up listening to your favorite recording the most.

Not necessarily. I listened much to Leonhardt's recording in the 1980es and 1990es and got to know it so well, that I just for that reason feel the desire to listen to other recordings.

I also have the Koopman recordings, but there is too much Koopman in the foreground and I prefer performances where the performer is less prominent but of course retaining the musical message. Gilbert I like too.

Koopman has of course a big ego, but compared to his recordings of Bach's choral-free organworks and Buxtehude's organ works I think that his WTC is almost decent and in any case worth a listen or two.

[Mandryka]

For me the great joy of the Moroney is the constant fluidity and freshness of it. He makes WTC into a musical waterfall.

The Zell that Asperen used is reputed to be extremely hard to control -- maybe that inspired Asperen's interpretation.

Both Asperen and Moroney were working in Amsterdam at much the same time, that conservatory was then at least a real melting pot of ideas. I can't help but wonder whether HIP baroque keyboard playing in Europe has lost something of that sense of an adventure of ideas, whether it has become institutionalised, whether the conservatories have become conservative.  In America we have Rubsam! And Britain has Collin Booth to save us.

[Madiel]

Sibelius

Musik zu einer Scene (original version of the Dance-Intermezzo)
Dance-Intermezzo
Cortege (aka Dance-Intermezzo no.2)
Pan and Echo (aka Dance-Intermezzo no.3)



The similarities in style of the pieces are quite apparent (though Pan and Echo gets more dramatic), and Sibelius did group them together at one point when he was being sensible about opus numbers... but then he kicked the Cortege out from the op.45/1 slot (when it's probably the best of the bunch in my opinion) and moved Pan and Echo to op.53.

[prémont]

For me the great joy of the Moroney is the constant fluidity and freshness of it. He makes WTC into a musical waterfall.

Yes, indeed. And in this respect he is far more successful than Butt, whom I suppose has a similar approach to the work.

The Zell that Asperen used is reputed to be extremely hard to control -- maybe that inspired Asperen's interpretation.

Maybe, but I don't think this is characteristic of all recordings with this instrument eg. Curtis' English and French suites.

Both Asperen and Moroney were working in Amsterdam at much the same time, that conservatory was then at least a real melting pot of ideas. I can't help but wonder whether HIP baroque keyboard playing in Europe has lost something of that sense of an adventure of ideas, whether it has become institutionalised, whether the conservatories have become conservative.  In America we have Rubsam! And Britain has Collin Booth to save us.

Yes, I forgot Booth. He may in a way surpass both Moroney,Leonhardt and van Asperen by being didactic and passionate at the same time.

[Madiel]

Sibelius - Romance in C major for strings



Gorgeous little piece that is not yet in my CD collection anywhere, even though it's been recorded quite a lot of times as an album filler. Clearly I need a version of it. This album does not otherwise have repertoire that I particularly need but I might give it a full listen on streaming anyway.