What are you listening 2 now?

[Kalevala]

Comments in the opera thread.

Will check it out.

K

[DavidW]

[Todd]

Disc two.

[vandermolen]

Miaskovsky: Symphony No.21 in this very fine recording (David Measham, New Philharmonia Orchestra):

[Karl Henning]

The last two symphonies of Schnittke

The 8th is a more fitting conclusion to this exceptional cycle than the unauthentic 9th which I felt to be a little incongruous.

Having heard all of these symphonies, I rank them this way:

2, 1, 5, 8, 3, 4, 7, 6, 0 and 9

Interesting. I'm not sure I've even heard the Ninth.

[Spotted Horses]

Continuing my Martinu chamber music, I took note of some related releases that came up in my searches, and ended up diverting into some of the orchestral music.

Rhapsody Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, recordings by Jitka Hosprova and Nabuko Imai/James de Priest. A two movement work, really more of a Rhapsody than a Concerto.





I know the Rhapsody Concerto from the also excellent Conlon recording.



As long as I had the Imai/de Priest recording queued up I listened to the concerto for two string orchestra, piano and timpani. A striking wartime work, which has the outward form of a concerto grosso, but whose content is not at all Neo-Baroque. It is an expressionistic work whose outer movement mostly convey frenzied energy and whose central movement alternates between declamation and mystery.

[vandermolen]

VW string quartets

[Florestan]

My only complete set. I felt absolutely no need to find another. This set is a huge part of the reason I became such a fan of Faure's music.

I have multiple sets of his piano music (Stott, Collard, Hubeau, Doyen, Debargues and Wagschal) not because I do any comparison or ranking (never did, never will do) but simply because when I feel like listening to them I like to experience various performances and interpretations, and my favorite is always the one I currently listen to. (I have this approach in general with all my favorite composers and for all genres.)

And if I'm not careful I could easily stay up half the night listening to it. I can binge-listen to Faure more readily than practically any other composer. I truly think he's one of the greats, but the music is so subtle and so difficult to pull off that it doesn't always get the adulation.

Indeed.

Apparently I've haven't listened to Faure's 5th Barcarolle for 5 years

I remember reading somewhere that, upon being asked under what blue sky and warm climate did he conceived that Barcarolle (or was it the 6th? either one or the other, in any case), Faure replied: "Oh, its idea came to me in the Simplon tunnel". In one (probably tongue-in-cheek) short sentence he sketched an aesthetic program more sincere and more natural than a hundred-page dead serious manifesto.

Btw, I heartily recommend you a book: Carlo Caballero's Faure and French Musical Aesthetics. You can download it for free here: https://dokumen.pub/faure-and-french-musical-aesthetics-9780521781077-9780511084478.html

[Luke]

Most of these trifles are as short as a breath, yet they are the aural equivalent of, and have the same invigorating effect as, watching the fly of butterflies or the play of children: make the soul leap with joy.

Lovely description. I agree about these little trifles, some of which are delectable, and some of which skirt hidden depths.

[Luke]

I remember reading somewhere that, upon being asked under what blue sky and warm climate did he conceived that Barcarolle (or was it the 6th? either one or the other, in any case), Faure replied: "Oh, its idea came to me in the Simplon tunnel". In one (probably tongue-in-cheek) short sentence he sketched an aesthetic program more sincere and more natural than a hundred-page dead serious manifesto.

It was the 6th Nocturne I believe.

[Symphonic Addict]

Interesting. I'm not sure I've even heard the Ninth.

Not a necessarily bad work, but I didn't find it particularly worthy of much attention.

[André]

Rosenvald is an estonian composer active in the second half of the last century (his dates are 1929-2020). For almost 30 years he played the violin in the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. His style is best described as dissonant yet seeking lyricism as its goal - ad astra per aspera. There's a fine review of this disc in Musicweb where the reviewer traces the composer's influences this way: «While the First Concerto might sometimes be heard as a sort of amalgam of late Frank Bridge (Third Quartet) and Kurt Weill (Violin Concerto), the Second Concerto mixes the edgy angular vitality of Britten (violin concerto) at the centre with the flanking humanity of Rubbra (Improvisation and Violin Concerto) and Finzi (Introit). »

I found it interesting that, apart to Kurt Weill, all the composers Rob Barnett mentions are Englishmen. Strange, as Estonia at the time (1960s to 1980s) was part of the USSR and western music was probably heard infrequently. I suppose that we tend to make connections using known references. For my part I can't make specific connections, but you get the point: it was modern music then, and still sounds (on the surface) a tad spiky and caustic. There is definitely a folkish influence (obvious in the solo violin sonata) and the later works have a more settled countenance (second violin concerto, Two Pastorals).

Link to Musicweb's article for those interested: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Jun04/Rosenvald.htm

An interesting, original voice.

[Lisztianwagner]

Johann Strauss II
Wiener Blut
Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald
Perpetuum mobile

Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker

[Florestan]

It was the 6th Nocturne I believe.

You may be right, of course, although blue sky is more like a Barcarolle than a Nocturne. 

[Luke]

You may be right, of course, although blue sky is more like a Barcarolle than a Nocturne. 

It's very dark in the tunnel though... 

[Florestan]

It's very dark in the tunnel though... 

Yes, but the "blue sky" was on the part of the interviewer, not of Faure. 

[Luke]

Although this is interesting (just Googled up) :

A new world opens with the Sixth Nocturne, in D flat major, the most celebrated in the series, and admittedly one of the most important and beautiful. When asked as to where he had found the inspiration to its wonderful opening, Fauré is said to have replied: "In the most unlikely of places, in the Simplon tunnel!" This anecdote is either spurious, or Fauré must have meant it as a joke, for the Simplon tunnel was not opened until 1905, eleven years after the completion of the work!

(this applies to the Barcarolle too - it also dates from 1894)

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, 1894 Original Version. Ed. Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Markus Poschner

[Florestan]

Although this is interesting (just Googled up) :

(this applies to the Barcarolle too - it also dates from 1894)

Well, given Faure's reluctance to give names to his piano pieces (according to his son, he'd rather have prefered to title them Piano Piece No. This or That) and his reticence in discussing/expounding his compositional methods and general aesthetics, I wouldn't be surprised if he really said that.

[Linz]

Franz Schubert The Piano Sonatas, Wilhelm Kempff, CD4