What are you listening 2 now?

[Iota]

Live from Wigmore Hall, the Quatuor Danel:

Weinberg: String Quartet No. 14 Op. 122
Weinberg: String Quartet No. 15 Op. 124
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 14 in F sharp Op. 142

Just got in in time to hear the two short Prokofiev Visions Fugitives encores at the end, but was so impressed by those arrangements I'll be seeking out their recording of them all forthwith. And indeed highly impressed by their playing too, so will have a listen at the very least to the Shostakovich I missed.

[ritter]

A programme of short pieces by three favourite composers:

Cristóbal Halffter: Halffbéniz. Orquesta Filarmónica de Malaga, led by the composer.



Olivier Messiaen: Les Offrandes oubliées. Roger Désormière conducts the Orchestre de l'Association des Concerts Pierné.



Marc-André Dalbavie: Trois chansons populaires. Yuriy Mynenko (counter-tenor) and the Orquesta Gulbenkian under the composer.

[Symphonic Addict]

Last night at the "liberation concert" on the Amstel river in Amsterdam, I heard orchestra Phion play an over-familiar piece, but I broke my brain: what was it? Until in a flash: Aladdin of course, Carl Nielsen's most exotic score. Glad to get it out again. 

Great work! And I appreciate this recording a lot since it is the only one with the complete incidental music AFAIK.

[Que]

Both quartets are Op. 25? 

 

[Symphonic Addict]

Karlowicz: Episode at a Masquerade

Love this colourful score. The horns are particularly arresting on this recording.

[Cato]

]Pyotr Illitch Tchaïkovsky CD 1

Symphony No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 13 "Winter Daydreams"

Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 17 "Little Russian":
USSR State Symphony Orchestra, Evgeny Svetlanov

What a coincidence!  That work was also on my list today!

along with...

Dvorak: Symphony #4

and...

and...

[ritter]

Having a Slavic day, @Cato ?  Enjoy it!

[Irons]

Seixas: Harpsichord Sonatas. Robert Woolley.

Bach: Lute Music. Nigel North.

Based on a suggestion by @Irons for an excellent recording label for recording sound.

Thanks for taking the trouble....

I heartily recommend -

[Irons]

Sibelius: Symphony No.5



The Sinfonia of London conducted by Tauno Hannikainen.

[Madiel]

Which would suggest that the listener's quarrel is with the tuning, rather than with the instrument.

As the listener in question it was pretty much with both. It's rare for me to have any affection for a fortepiano frankly.  I'm perfectly happy with a harpsichord in an orchestral context, but fortepianos are generally a turn-off.

But this happened to be a particularly off-putting example of the species.

[Que]

[ritter]

And as an encore, Pierre Boulez's orchestration of Maurice Ravel's enigmatic miniature, Frontispice.



Robert Treviño conducts the Basque National Orchestra.

[Cato]

Having a Slavic day, @Cato ?  Enjoy it!

Oh yes!  And I should have time for one more, I am thinking Szymanowski's Symphony #3 on DGG with Pierre Boulez!

(YouTube has it broken into multiple parts, instead of just  one screen.    )

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, 1877 Version. Ed. William Carragan - Removes remaining Haas anomalies
Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Paavo Järvi

[Linz]

Franz Berwald CD 6
Grand Septet in B Flat Major
Louis Spohr
Double Quartet in D Minor, Op.65
Carl Maria von Weber
Clarinet Quintet in B Flat Major, Op.34
Melos Ensemble

[brewski]

Just got in in time to hear the two short Prokofiev Visions Fugitives encores at the end, but was so impressed by those arrangements I'll be seeking out their recording of them all forthwith. And indeed highly impressed by their playing too, so will have a listen at the very least to the Shostakovich I missed.

Those arrangements were great (I have to relisten to his announcement to catch the arranger). And yes, the musicians were at the top of their game. This is the latest in their exploration of Shostakovich and Weinberg quartets on the same program.

PS, one of the viewers mentioned this YouTube channel new to me, MarchVivo, which has the Quatuor Danel in videos of the complete Weinberg quartets, performed in 2024 at the Fundación Juan March in Madrid. Here's one with the same quartet they did this afternoon, No. 15:

[prémont]

In fact, Egarr's theory was that the tuning he used in that recording was Bach's personal tuning.

Probably he's wrong - I don't dare to say how wrong - one theory may be as good as another, when we know that little about the details. Bach was said to tune the thirds relatively high, but this is insufficient information to conclude anything about his tuning. I don't know what to say about Bradley Lehman's fanciful interpretation of the front page to the WTC where he thinks he can read Bach's preferred tuning.. Egarr uses Lehman's tuning, and whatever the teory behind it I think it sounds rather good. You may also hear it in Egarr's and Butt's recording of the Brandenburg Concertos. 

To be clear, my complaint with that recording had nothing to do with the tuning, and everything to do with its soporific lethargy, as if Egarr was trying to prove that the GVs were indeed composed to be used as a cure for insomnia.

I completely agree about the soporific quality of Egarr's Goldberg variations. I have still - in 5 years - not been able to stay awake during all his 30 variations. To make things worse he does all the repeats.

[Madiel]

I mean, the claim that the Goldberg Variations were invented to help the listener to sleep, even if NOT true, is a claim that was made for a reason.

[prémont]

Which would suggest that the listener's quarrel is with the tuning, rather than with the instrument.

The pitch sensitive listener usually gets problems with other tunings than the equal tuning. I recall a collegue who complained that there was the problem with HIP that the music sounded so badly out of tune.

[prémont]

I mean, the claim that the Goldberg Variations were invented to help the listener to sleep, even if NOT true, is a claim that was made for a reason.

Most of the performances of the Goldberg Variations I have heard certainly kept me awake. With a few exceptions: Egarr and Kempff. I heard Kempff's GV at a recital, where I couldn't lie down and sleep - certainly uncomfortable circumstances.