What are you listening 2 now?

[Brian]

Anyway, as to the recording: a while ago I did a comparative listening of the string quintets and Sine Nomine came on top... A performance that rocks!

Oooh, I don't think I have that one, need to find it, thank you!

-

As for my own listening, I am jumping on the Album du Jour:



first-ever listen to these pieces. In the first three minutes, the first track reminds me strongly of Dag Wiren and Kurt Atterberg. Very good things for me.

[Mister Sharpe]

Wonderful and inspiring enough to make one question why choral music isn't played more often chez moi... Especially embarrassing for me, because Brahms is my favorite composer; choral music wasn't merely his personal passion, it's what comprises - unbeknownst to many and to me for some years - the greater part of his oeuvre and except for the best-known works (Deutsches Requiem, Alto Rhapsodie, Nänie, Schicksalslied, Gesang der Parzen, Zigeunerlieder, and a few of his Motets I don't know the bulk of it as I ought to.  Of course, Brahms did not compose anything for Evensong service, so it's quite "stream of consciousness" to mention him here (Evensong is mostly an Anglican and Episcopal Church practice).  Still, it's surprising how often that master does turn up in those programs.  He's absent from this disc, but present are consummate singing and direction and superb engineering.

[SonicMan46]

I finally figured a while ago out that "our" Brian at Musicweb is actually a namesake, considerably older and he actually passed away a while ago... Fortunately our own Brian is still alive and kicking! 

Anyway, as to the recording: a while ago I did a comparative listening of the string quintets and Sine Nomine came on top... A performance that rocks!

Thanks Que for clearing up the MusicWeb Brians -    And also for your comments on the Brahms Sextets, already had two other recordings of those works but liked the reviews and just finished listening to the CD-R I made - excellent!  Dave

[Linz]

George Enescu Symphony No. 2 in A Major, Op. 17
Romanian Rhapsody in A Major, Op. 11 No. 1 and 2
Romanian National Radio Orchestra, Horia Andreescu

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

William Walton guitar concerto (arrangement).

[Karl Henning]

Jean Sibelius
Symphony № 2 in D, Op. 43
CBSO
Simon Rattle

[Brian]

Oooh, I don't think I have that one, need to find it, thank you!

-

As for my own listening, I am jumping on the Album du Jour:



first-ever listen to these pieces. In the first three minutes, the first track reminds me strongly of Dag Wiren and Kurt Atterberg. Very good things for me.

Loved No. 5 from first note to last, even the fugal finale, which as someone mentioned in the Melartin thread ends somewhat abruptly. I think that a hypothetical conductor's intervention - slowing down the penultimate bars for emphasis - would help solve this. No. 6 is much more dramatic, with genuinely creepy snarly music with grinding basses dominating the first movement. It's alternated with music of wistful tenderness. The second movement is an intermezzish thing with rapidly see-sawing moods, and then the scherzo is a bobbling thing with influences from all over. The first idea is straight out of Janacek, and it also has some doses of Stenhammar, the Americas, and an occasional bitter flavor when some instruments play in minor keys while others don't. Since this symphony is structured like Nielsen's Four Temperaments - it's the Four Elements - the grimy meanness of the first movement never returns, and after the gentle middle movements, the finale is an exuberant romp.

Extremely compelling stuff!!

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 6 in A Major, 1881 Version. Ed. Robert Haas
Staatskapelle  Dresden, Bernard Haitink

[Karl Henning]

Jean Sibelius
Symphony № 3 in C, Op. 52
SFSO
Herbert Blomstedt

[Que]

It takes a very special singer to turn simple folksongs into musical gold nuggets... If you don't mind a touch of Schmalz...

[Que]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 6 in A Major, 1881 Version. Ed. Robert Haas
Staatskapelle  Dresden, Bernard Haitink

Oh yes! 

[Linz]

Joseph Haydn Symphony No 103 in E flat 'Drum Roll'
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G minor K550
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Eugen Jochum

[Symphonic Addict]

Clara Schumann and Maria Herz's piano sonatas:

The first time I listen to anything by these composers and I was quite taken by their beauty, above all the Herz. An absolutely exquisite composition with shades of impressionism.

[Symphonic Addict]

NP: Korngold Symphony in F-sharp, Op. 40



Korngold's only symphony is a bonafide masterpiece, IMHO. This Previn performance is truly remarkable.

A glorious masterpiece indeed. This terrific symphony has been relatively well served on record.

[Symphonic Addict]

Beethoven: Symphonies 5 and 6

[Symphonic Addict]

Hindemith: Das Marienleben, for soprano and orchestra and Hérodiade

Hindemith orchestrated six songs from his song cycle and they're so lovely. The ballet Hérodiade didn't do much for me. The least interesting Hindemith work I've heard thus far, and it was the version without text.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Now playing Act I from Weill's Aufstieg Und Fall Der Stadt Mahagonny from this recording:



I bought all of the Weill recordings on Capriccio several years ago and it was a pain in the neck to find them all, but I'm glad I did because there were two box sets released called the Kurt Weill Edition, Vols. 1 & 2 and none of the contained the libretti. I also prefer having the original cover art, too. Anyway, if you're into Weill's music, then the Capriccio recordings are well worth hunting down.

[AnotherSpin]

Yes, but I didn't think of being so philosophical.

Does one really need philosophy to see this clearly and once and for all? :-)

[AnotherSpin]

A new serene morning

Ensemble Peregrina in glorious sound of Tacet label

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Last work for the night --- Reich Pulse



Beautifully hypnotic.