What are you listening 2 now?

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 5 in B Flat Major, 1878 Version Ed. Leopold Nowak
Altomonte Orchester St. Florian, Rémy Ballot

[Karl Henning]

Another used CD purchase from the public library


Track Listing

1    Day Signal
2    Quotation of Dream
3    How Slow the Wind
4    Twill by Twilight
5    Archipelago S.
6    Dream/Window
7    Night Signal

Takemitsu is a composer I've never avoided but also never sought out, so I think this is only my second CD of his music, the other being part of a Sony budget set.

ETA
This is the other one I have.

The Requiem for strings is nearly the only Takemitsu in my library. It's not that I think poorly of him, either. 

[Harry]

Adrian Sutton (b. 1967-)
Violin Concerto (2023)
Short Story (2022)
A Fist Full of Fives (2016)
War Horse Orchestral Suite (2023) – from War Horse: The Story in Concert (2016)
Five Theatre Miniatures (2005, 2023)
Fenella Humphreys – violin
BBC Philharmonic – Michael Seal
Recorded: MediaCityUK, Salford, Manchester, 2024
Streaming: FLAC 96kHz/24 bit
PDF file attached

This disc isn't just a calling card — it's a full-throated declaration that Adrian Sutton belongs in the front rank of living British composers. Yes, he has a career in theatre and film (and War Horse made him a household name in those circles), but here he proves that his voice can stride confidently into the concert hall, shedding the trappings of stagecraft without losing a jot of drama.

The Violin Concerto sets the tone. Broad, lyrical lines give way to darting rhythmic figures; the orchestral writing glows with that unmistakable Sutton blend of warmth and bite. If you hear the DNA of Vaughan Williams, Walton, or Korngold, it's only because Sutton has walked through those gardens and planted something entirely his own. Fenella Humphreys inhabits the solo part as if it were written for her diary—phrases bloom and breathe, never forced, and her interplay with the orchestra feels like chamber music on a grand scale.

Short Story is a masterclass in concision. In just over eight minutes, Sutton sketches a narrative that feels whole and satisfying—part miniature tone-poem, part restless dream. Then comes A Fist Full of Fives, a rhythmically playful, almost mischievous work in which 5/4 time is less a constraint than a dance floor. It's tightly built yet constantly surprising, like a magician revealing trick after trick without breaking a sweat.

The War Horse Orchestral Suite revisits Sutton's most famous score, but the reimagining is anything but a reheat. Themes emerge burnished, expanded, with orchestral colours filling in emotional shadings you might not catch in the theatre pit. And then, the Five Theatre Miniatures — distilled essence of Sutton's stage sensibility. They're witty, sharply characterised, and orchestrated with the kind of relish that makes you hear the players smiling through their parts.

Michael Seal and the BBC Philharmonic are utterly in step with Sutton's idiom. They give the music space to sing, but when the score demands it, they can turn on a sixpence and drive it forward with athletic precision. Chandos crowns it all with sound that's both generous and detailed — you can luxuriate in the warmth and still pick out the grain in the woodwinds' tone.

A superbly varied programme, brilliantly played, and a compelling portrait of a composer who has found his own voice and knows exactly how to use it.

[Harry]

Franz von Suppé (1819–1895)
Overtures and Marches.
See back cover for details
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Järvi.
Recorded: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 2012.
Streaming: FLAC 96kHz/24bit. SACD.
PDF file attached.

If Franz von Suppé had been paid by the sparkle in his orchestration, he'd have been the richest man in Vienna. His music — much like his spiritual cousin Julius Fučík — is irresistible in its craftsmanship: melodies as natural as breathing, rhythms that set the foot tapping before the brain catches up, and orchestral textures as bright and precise as a freshly polished brass button. Every overture here is a miniature theatre piece in itself, brimming with character, wit, and a Viennese confidence that doesn't waste a single note.

From the lively bustle of Pique Dame to the pastoral warmth and noble sweep of Dichter und Bauer, Suppé shows how to paint a complete scene in under ten minutes. Ein Morgen, ein Mittag und ein Abend in Wien is practically a day-in-the-life postcard from old Vienna, perfectly balancing charm with grandeur. Then there are the more rarely encountered gems: the buoyant swagger of Fatinitza, the mischievous sparkle of Banditenstreiche, and the rakish gallop of Leichte Kavallerie — whose famous opening could probably wake the dead, or at least rouse a sleepy cavalry unit.

The later works, like Boccaccio and The Beautiful Galatea, have an extra layer of sophistication in their scoring,  and it proves Suppé could take a simple march form and dress it in finery so it stands alongside the best of the Strauss dynasty.

Neeme Järvi clearly relishes every bar, keeping tempi buoyant but never breathless, and coaxing the Royal Scottish National Orchestra into a performance that dances as much as it dazzles. Chandos capture it all in SOTA clarity — brass gleam, woodwinds chatter with agility, strings shine without harshness, and the percussion lands with satisfying weight. It's music to lift the mood, sharpen the appetite, and remind you that joy, when served with such skill, is a serious business.

[Harry]

Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 8

Romanze (Cello-Romanze, for violin)
Little Scherzino, Op. 3 No. 4 (arr. Peter von Wienhardt)
Zueignung, Op. 10 No.1
Traum durch die Dämmerung, Op. 29 No.1
Cäcilie, Op. 27 No.2
Wiegenlied, Op. 41 No.1
From Arabella: "Aber der Richtige..." (arr. Peter von Wienhardt)

Arabella Steinbacher, violin
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Lawrence Foster
Recorded: 2017, Kölner Philharmonie, Germany
Streaming: 48kHz/24 bit. No PDF file attached

Arabella Steinbacher is a violinist who can hold a hall in stillness or make it shimmer with an effortless flash of brilliance. In this collection, she turns to Richard Strauss's youthful concerto and a sequence of orchestral songs and character pieces, inhabiting them with a rare blend of tenderness and precision.

The Violin Concerto in D minor—Strauss's calling card at just seventeen—already reveals the fingerprints of a composer in love with long melodic lines and sumptuous orchestration. Steinbacher approaches it with luminous poise, drawing out its melodic generosity without exaggeration, shaping each phrase as though it were a living breath. Lawrence Foster and the WDR Symphony match her with elegant support, the wind and brass passages speaking with a warmth that hints at the Strauss to come.

The rest of the programme is like stepping through a private gallery. The Romanze is inward and reflective, a soliloquy in sound; the Scherzino, by contrast, flirts and sparkles. Zueignung and Cäcilie sing as if the violin were a voice, their ardour framed by the orchestra's tender embrace. In Traum durch die Dämmerung, Steinbacher paints the dimming light with exquisite control, her tone suspended between reality and dream. The Wiegenlied offers a moment of quiet repose, and Aber der Richtige...—from the opera Arabella—is the perfect farewell: poised, radiant, and gently smiling.

While the SACD sound reflects the early years of the format and can show a faint rasp under pressure, it also captures the intimacy of Steinbacher's artistry and the burnished glow of the orchestra. In the end, this disc is a reminder that Strauss, even in his earliest steps, could weave a musical line with a beauty that lingers long after the last note, and that an interpreter of Steinbacher's calibre can make that line feel as though it were spun from light itself.

[Mister Sharpe]

Maybe Szigeti wasn't sure whether he liked this music? It seems to me he mostly recorded top-tier concertos first: Brahms, Beethoven, Bach, Prokofiev, Berg, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Tartini — that sort of pieces.

Interesting explanation, thanks, and you may be right. Szigeti did focus on the blockbusters.  Perhaps this was a marketing decision more than anything else.  He did reportedly play the Weill concerto "numerous times throughout Europe" and embraced new music via recordings of Stravinsky, Bloch, Berg, Webern, Hindemith, even Ives. I'd sure like to have heard his take on the work. 

[Florestan]

I'm currently at CD4. Mozart's early symphonies are the perfect embodiment of the Galant spirit: melancholy masquerading as joy, frivolity as counterpoint to melancholy, all wrapped in the shadows and murmurs of a moonlit rococo park's foliage *, and all in (much) less than 15 minutes and never anything other than eminently enjoyable. Last but not least, all conveyed with utmost clarity by my tiny, cheapo** music box.

* in painting, the closest equivalent is Watteau.

** as compared to SOTA audiophile equipment, that is; for me, that tiny, cheapo music box is priceless and has provided me with unadulterated joy for years.

[Lisztianwagner]

Igor Stravinsky
Jeu de Cartes
Suites for Small Orchestra

Hans Rosbaud & Südwestfunk-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden

[Symphonic Addict]

Stravinsky: Capriccio for piano and orchestra, Concerto for piano and winds and Movements for piano and orchestra

I waited too long to give these pieces a listen (neither do I have any notes about them nor I remember having heard them before). Glad I remedied that because this is seriously engrossing stuff, except for the Movements for piano and orchestra which didn't resonate with me that much (too serialistic and sparse for my taste). But the other two works are top-drawer Stravinsky.

[Brian]

First ever listen to the Schoenberg Pelleas:

Stravinsky: Capriccio for piano and orchestra, Concerto for piano and winds and Movements for piano and orchestra

I waited too long to give these pieces a listen (neither do I have any notes about them nor I remember having heard them before). Glad I remedied that because this is seriously engrossing stuff, except for the Movements for piano and orchestra which didn't resonate with me that much (too serialistic and sparse for my taste). But the other two works are top-drawer Stravinsky.

My reaction exactly when I recently listened to the performances from the Michel Beroff box (with Ozawa in Paris). Mouvements I did not understand or enjoy, but the other two are very fun.

[Linz]

Jean Sibelius Symphony No. 6 in D minor Op. 104
Symphony No. 7 in C major Op. 105
Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan

[DavidW]

First ever listen to the Schoenberg Pelleas:

How did you like it? I listened to that album a while ago.

[Que]

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Meulemans: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3. Frédéric Devreese.

[Brian]

How did you like it? I listened to that album a while ago.

It's like Richard Strauss with more atmosphere but fewer tunes. Definitely not likely to become one of my favorites, but some context there is that I'm also listening to the Strauss tone poems less and less every year.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

That is a great disc! Read more on this once popular opera

https://operascribe.com/2023/06/06/249-marouf-savetier-du-caire-rabaud/

Well-written article! Thank you! Btw, I love the cover art of the old recording below.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

William Walton - Varii Capricci. Bryden Thomson, London Philharmonic Orchestra.

[Cato]

First ever listen to the Schoenberg Pelleas:

How did you like it? I listened to that album a while ago.

A good number of years ago there was a SONY CD with Zubin Mehta conducting the Israel Philharmonic in those two works along with the Sibelius incidental music.

Yes, I would like to read a review!

It has been my experience that it seems to be difficult to get all the details just right, and especially difficult to nail the climax in the right way (i.e. Cues 67 with the build-up to Cue 68).

A conductor like Stokowski would have had no problem "interpolating" or "interpreting" a tam-tam blast at that point: this performance with Pierre Boulez and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra lets the piccolo and violins and flutes scream in mystified agony in that at the beginning of Cue 68.

I still have a few quibbles with some earlier things, but all together it is a great performance!


Ignore the message and hit "Watch on YouTube" :
 

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 1 in C Minor,  1877 Linz version with revisions - Ed. Robert Haas
RIAS-Sinfonie Orchester, Georg-Ludwig Jochum

[Brian]

The Lille Orchestra under Bloch is a real marvel. The individual sections and players are virtuosic, and unafraid to NOT blend in together. They used this to great effect in their deliberately garish, excessive Mahler 7, and they do it again in the Concerto for Orchestra, with so many wonderful solos coupled to deliberately folkish, "rustic" playing choices. The cellos and basses sawing away without vibrato, intentionally ugly, in the opening introduction. The cor anglais wanders around delightfully in the background of the intermezzo, and the brass and winds mock the Lehar tune ruthlessly. (In that episode, the violins are deliberately out of sync.) I do think we could have gotten slightly more prominent French horns and tuba. This is a string/wind forward performance with especially good string bass pickup. The recent Malkki/Helsinki performance is maybe a little more high octane and brassy, and is currently my favorite.

The accompanying Viola Concerto having been left unfinished, its textures are sparser and more delicate, less suited to this orchestra's "loud" strengths. The only other recording I know is with Ancerl but this one is more sensitive and lyrical, with an especially soft touch in the "religioso" slow movement.