What are you listening 2 now?

[foxandpeng]

I've been having a horrible headache whenever it rains, including yesterday. I think it might be due to mold or maybe a pressure change.

Petrichor is a huge relaxant, I find! I particularly enjoy the rain - even as a small child you could find me sitting outside with an umbrella as the rain sounded down!

Sorry for your discomfort 😒

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, 1890 Version. Ed. Leopold Nowak
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly

[Lisztianwagner]

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Polonaise and Waltz from 'Eugene Onegin'
Capriccio Italien

Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker

[André]

Theodorakis was a protean composer. He was, first and foremost an ardent communicator, expressing himself in music, words, plays, opera, films, oratorios and cantatas, hymns, ballets and music for the stage. The man had a message and a voice.

Whatever one may think of his talents as a classical music composer, one must bow to the aura of ardour and authenticity that his works convey. I love his 'political' oratorio Canto General on poems by Nobel Prize winner Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. A sweeping, now hectoring, now elegiac score that imprints in the mind. His 7th symphony is in the same vein. A vocal/choral work lasting some 55 minutes, it might have been composed as the score for a movie. There's nothing you haven't heard before, sometimes in a totally different context.

It is well-crafted however. Theodorakis has always had a knack for churning singable, hummable tunes and he knows when to gild the lily. The big moments are good enough to make one forget about a few patches of slightly arid accompanied poetry.

[Karl Henning]

First-Listen Fridays!

[foxandpeng]

Frank Bridge
The Sea
James Judd
New Zealand SO
Naxos

A while since hearing this, but prompted by recent forum discussions.

[foxandpeng]

George Lloyd
Violin and Cello Concertos
VCs 1 & 2
Cristina Anghelescu (violin)
Philharmonia Orchestra
David Parry
Cello Concerto
Anthony Ross (cello)
Albany Symphony Orchestra
David Alan Miller

Lloyd is always excellent, and these never fall short.

[SimonNZ]

[Madiel]

I liked it when listening to it, but as it is with me and Norgard, I never feel keen enough to listen any more than that. I only listen to him about once a decade.

Personally I tend to prefer the later Dacapo recordings. Certainly they have very modern sound, and this is one composer where I think that helps a lot.

[Daverz]

Suk: Symphony in E major.



A lovely early work with great tunes.  The Chandos recording is overly resonant, blurry and cold sounding.  Neumann with the Czech Phil sounds much better.

   

[Madiel]

Haydn: Keyboard sonata no.53 in E minor



One of the works where publication was without Haydn's authorisation, though in this case it might have been sufficiently new that he hadn't had time to put together another collection of 3 or 6. Anyway, it's very well worth having, especially the opening movement.

[SimonNZ]

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

NP: Rubbra String Quartet No. 2, Op. 73

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

NP: Bridge There Is a Willow Grows aslant a Brook

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

NP: Brahms String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat, Op. 67

[steve ridgway]

Xenakis - Metastasis

[steve ridgway]

Varèse - Density 21.5

[SimonNZ]

[steve ridgway]

Kagel - Anagrama

[steve ridgway]

Scelsi - Elohim