What are you listening 2 now?

[Todd]

[Linz]

Schumann Works For Solo Piano Vladimir Ashkenazy CD1

[bhodges]

Last night at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, a fantastic introduction to the Apollon Musagète Quartet from Poland, with guest pianist Garrick Ohlsson, who apparently admired the group so much he wanted to perform with them. Loved the entire program, but the Shostakovich was phenomenal.

Schubert: Quartet in D Major, D. 94
Schubert: Quartet in B-flat Major, D. 36
Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57

-Bruce

[Que]

That's a good motto Que, I seem to remember you once saying that the days of every day a Bach cantata were over.
Which cantata did you choose for today?

The Bach cantata days might return! 

I listened to BWV 130, Herr Gott, dich loben wir alle.
A bit late for das Fest des Erzengels Michael (29 Sept), but anyway...

[Traverso]

The Bach cantata days might return! 

I listened to BWV 130, Herr Gott, dich loben wir alle.
A bit late for das Fest des Erzengels Michael (29 Sept), but anyway...

Pleased to witness this clear signal of progress. 

[aligreto]

Elliott Carter: Double Concerto & Duo for Violin and Piano





This is my first time to hear both of these works.

Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano with Two Chamber Orchestras [Jacobs/Kalish/Weisberg]

I like this work. Yes, I find it challenging in its musical language but I also find it to be interesting and engaging in its scoring and its wonderful sonorities. Yes, it can be rather brutal and violent sometimes but it can also be calm and serene. This juxtaposition of such wide contrasts is also an appealing factor for me. This also creates wonderful drama and tension.

Duo for Violin and Piano [Zukofsky/Kalish]

The musical language in this work is both sparse and harsh in the respective scoring for each instrument and that is well presented here by the two musicians. It is also an argumentative and confrontational work in tone between two voices, as opposed to being merely conversational. However, I find the bleak soundworld to be engaging and exciting.

[aligreto]

JS Bach: Organ Works played by Kooiman





Toccata [Adagio und Fuge] BWV 564
Toccata und Fuge d-moll BWV 538


This is excellent music making to my ears. There is nothing pretentious about it. Kooiman is allowing the music to take centre stage. This is a very good thing. One remembers that it takes a very good musician to make playing intricate music sound simple and straightforward. I find Kooiman to be excellent in this regard. The organ sounds wonderful and it is very well recorded.

[Operafreak]

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op. 103 'The year 1905'-Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink

[Symphonic Addict]

Tippett: Symphony No. 3

It's been years since my last listen to this very accomplished work. The orchestral handling is nothing but imaginative and colourful in a certain way, but... why to include a vocal soloist?? That spoiled the experience to me (fortunately the voice only appeared in the 2nd part), and the singer's voice becomes too irritating and tiresome. I ended up listening to the whole work for the sake of the music, but that singer managed to annoy me too much.

[Que]

Morning listening: a quick check on Spotify before ordering.



Possibly one of the worst covers of the bunch... which is quite an achievement. 

[vandermolen]

Tippett: Symphony No. 3

It's been years since my last listen to this very accomplished work. The orchestral handling is nothing but imaginative and colourful in a certain way, but... why to include a vocal soloist?? That spoiled the experience to me (fortunately the voice only appeared in the 2nd part), and the singer's voice becomes too irritating and tiresome. I ended up listening to the whole work for the sake of the music, but that singer managed to annoy me too much.

Interesting. I much prefer the first two symphonies.

[Madiel]

Morning listening: a quick check on Spotify before ordering.



Possibly one of the worst covers of the bunch... which is quite an achievement. 

Suddenly I miss the abstract backgrounds. I didn't realise there were worse options.

[Operafreak]

 




Johannes Ockeghem: Masses 2- The Sound and the Fury

[Madiel]

Picking up this album again with a few more songs. This series continues to be a great treasure.

[Papy Oli]

Good afternoon all,

More of Foccroulle's Bach organ works (CD4):

[Spotted Horses]

Mozart's Piano Sonata K310 has grown on me, as I listened to a few alternate recordings after Zacharias' excellent EMI recording.

Brautigam was altogether too clamorous



van Oort struck me as just the right approach on fortepiano



Finally, Uchida had a quiet dignity that brought out the pathos in the music in an underrated but convincing way.

[pjme]

Interesting. I much prefer the first two symphonies.

I really like Tippett's third symphony. But it is a long and difficult opus that asks for concentrated listening.
I find Heather Harper (Davis soloist in the first recording) very good, if, possibly,  a bit polite/beautiful for blues...In a BBC recording with Raymond Leppard /BBC SO, Josephine Barstow's  less "beautiful" voice gives more bite to the texts.
I haven't heard the more recent recordings.

From The Guardian:
First performed in 1972, Michael Tippett's Third Symphony was written during what was perhaps the most successful period of the composer's career. The premiere of his third opera, The Knot Garden, at Covent Garden in 1969, had been a huge success. He had also tapped into a totally new audience in the US, which he first visited in 1965, and where he returned regularly for the rest of his life. The Third Symphony reflects his new enthusiasm for American culture, with its vocal finale in which a soprano soloist, partnered by a flugelhorn, sings a series of blues. It's intended to offer a 20th-century response to the expressions of universal brotherhood proclaimed by the finale of Beethoven's Ninth, which Tippett quotes in his own last movement.

So much of Tippett's output has become unfashionable in the 20 years since his death, it's reassuring to discover how well the Third Symphony still stands up, both musically and idealistically, in a far more cynical age.

[Madiel]

Picking up this album again with a few more songs. This series continues to be a great treasure.

I keep saying how wonderful this is. In part because no-one ever reacts. It's heavenly, dammit.

[Traverso]

JS Bach: Organ Works played by Kooiman





Toccata [Adagio und Fuge] BWV 564
Toccata und Fuge d-moll BWV 538


This is excellent music making to my ears. There is nothing pretentious about it. Kooiman is allowing the music to take centre stage. This is a very good thing. One remembers that it takes a very good musician to make playing intricate music sound simple and straightforward. I find Kooiman to be excellent in this regard. The organ sounds wonderful and it is very well recorded.

Hi Fergus, enjoy these fine performances.

[pjme]

In part because no-one ever reacts.

Well, yes, one of the frustrations of Forums with people listening, reading and writing  in the four corners of the world. I stopped worrying, and react even less.
But I do like a good dose of Poulenc songs .

And this historical TV recording is -at least - fun. Denise Duval's voice isn't the sweetest , but suits the café chantant atmosphere....

https://www.youtube.com/v/dJeMUVa_ym4