What are you listening 2 now?

[Traverso]

Purcell

[Vox Maris]

In my case it is a little of both. I also find Bacewicz works for small ensembles (chamber music or string ensemble) to have more edge, more of the Bacewicz magic. But I also think that cpo's audio engineering lets the music down, to some extent. I have noticed a pattern that cpo chamber music recordings often strike me as vibrant and satisfying, while their orchestral music recordings often strike me as a bit pale and lacking in impact. (There are exceptions, of course) I don't fault Lukasz Borowicz, the conductor in the cpo series, who has history of advocating Bacewicz and was the conductor on excellent Chandos' discs of Violin Concerti.

I can draw a parallel with cpo's series of Toch Symphonies, which were underwhelming to me, while the only other recording I know of a Toch Symphony (Steinberg, Pittsburgh) struck me as revelatory, even though the recording dated to the late 50's (I think). The Toch string quartets on cpo were superb.

In any case, there is the competing Chandos series with Oramo, but I would have expected some announcement of Volume II by now, and am starting to worry that it will die on the vine.

I don't agree with you at all. I think CPO's orchestral recordings sound fantastic and I also refuse to put the blame on the performances when it comes to this Bacewicz series. For me, it's the music itself --- I just don't think any of these works are top-drawer Bacewicz. To be honest, I don't think she's some kind of bee's knees composer anyway, but this doesn't keep me from admitting that she has composed some fantastic pieces, but her orchestral works aren't amongst them.

[Vox Maris]

NP:

Zemlinsky
Die Seejungfrau
Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg
Emmanuel Krivine

From this new acquisition -



I can only describe this performance with one word so far: LOUD!

[Karl Henning]

[Vox Maris]

Now playing some miscellaneous Stravinsky works:

Scherzo fantastique, Op. 3
Le roi des étoiles
Le Chant du Rossignol
L'Histoire du Soldat
Cleveland Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
Pierre Boulez

From this set -

[Bachtoven]

[Linz]

George Frideric Handel Messiah, Rachel Redmond; Damien Guillon; Nicholas Mulroy; Matthias Winckhler; La Capella Reial de Catalunya; Le Concert des Nations, Jordi Savall

[Vox Maris]

This listen is for @Luke after his recent post...

NP:

Chopin
Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58
Tatiana Shebanova

From this set -

[Traverso]

Tchaikovsky

No Nutcracker for me but the highlights from Swan Lake in this classic recording.

London Symphony Orchestra

[JBS]

All 3 CDs. Listening to this set seems to have become my Christmas routine.

[Florestan]

I had this scheduled for tonight:



but I will first play this:



in memory of @Luke 's wife. May God rest her in peace!

[Vox Maris]

In memoriam of @Luke's wife:

Boulanger
Pie Jesu
Bernadette Greevy
BBC Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra
Nadia Boulanger



Wishing for solace in the eternal sleep.

[Vox Maris]

NP:

Ives
Symphony No. 4
London Philharmonic Orchestra, John Alldis Choir
José Serebrier

From this set -

[Bachtoven]

Pure DSD256, baby! (The music and performances are great, too.)

[Vox Maris]

NP:

Ives
String Quartet No. 2
Juilliard Quartet

From this set -

[Vox Maris]

NP:

Ives
Holidays Symphony
Philadelphia Orchestra, Temple University Choir
Ormandy

From this set -

[SimonNZ]

[Lisztianwagner]

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No.6

Leonard Bernstein & Wiener Philharmoniker

[Vox Maris]

NP:

Suk
Ripening, Op. 34
Royal Liverpool PO
Libor Pešek



It seems like over the past five or six years my musical focus has shifted to the Central Europe composers and with good reason. I don't see this changing in the future --- in fact, I see my focus becoming more and more drawn into these countries and, again, with good reason.

[Madiel]

The rest of this month, classical-wise, is going to be Dvorak. I don't know what it is, but my ears are now ready to take in his music (this is why I always return back to composers I didn't care for prior, as I always attribute to my ears just not being ready - same thing happened with Mendelssohn and Schumann, both who I used to find boring, but now I find delightful, and I am intrigued where Dvorak might fall, as his music, for me, has  more significantly more depth).

I have reached the point in the last few years where I now consider Dvorak to be one of the greatest ever composers. For one thing, he's one of the very few who turned his hand to practically every genre of the day and succeeded in all of them.** About the only perceived weakness is in the piano works, and if you ask me the mature works there are actually highly enjoyable. Meanwhile you've got symphonies, tone poems, dances, chamber music, songs and opera. He can do it all, while also being one of the greatest tunesmiths of all time.

I'm not the first person to wonder whether he would have long been in the canon if he'd been German rather than Czech. The cultural bias was real, and even though Dvorak came to be hugely popular in the UK and USA, that also wasn't where the centre of "Classical" music was. Thank goodness Brahms understood what a talent he was seeing and championed the only slightly younger composer, because it helped Dvorak enormously. And we still reap the rewards.

**Okay, okay, I confess that the oratorio Saint Ludmila is something I find really off-putting, and while the public loved it, the critics disliked the libretto even in the 1880s.