What are you listening 2 now?

[Symphonic Addict]

[Linz]

Joseph Haydn Symphonies, Volume III, CD3
Symphony No. 16 in B flat major
Symphony No. 40 in F major
Symphony No. 72 in D major
The Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood

[Madiel]

Vivaldi etc.: Argippo. Act one so far.



Interesting in that it demonstrates the pasticcio opera. The version that has survived is only about one third Vivaldi, with a huge number of arias by other composers shoved in - easy enough when everyone was using the same Metastasio libretto. So it's not very Vivaldi, and it's not even in the Turin collection that the Naive series is supposed to be documenting, but being able to actually hear some difference between Vivaldi and his contemporaries makes one a bit more aware of what makes Vivaldi's personal style.

The risk of me going crazy and hunting down the series is not diminishing. At the moment I'm trying ones that can still be bought new, but we all know that if i pull the trigger on those I'll want the first 60-odd volumes as well.

[Symphonic Addict]

Tsfasman: Suite for piano and orchestra

Exhilarating! This is nothing but one sparkling idea after another, including some jazz elements that reminded me of Gershwin a bit, a deluxe orchestration, among others. It seems that this composer wrote so little which is a shame because judging by the quality of this work I want to hear more.

[Linz]

Uuno Klami
Kalevala Suite, Aurora borealis, Cheremis Fantasia
Samuli Peltonen cello, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, John Storgårds

[André]

The violin concerto is my favorite classical music form and there are some many days I crave hearing at least one. Weill's VC, composed in 1924, with its potent amalgam of Stravinskian coolness, Busonian intensity and Weill's own theatricality really sings to me. After many years of listening to it, I can never cue it up without asking "So how come Szigeti (its dedicatee) with all his ambitious discography never recorded it?" That question still nags. Weill's VC had to wait 'til '55 for release on MGM, below.

We are lucky to have Szigeti's scorching performance of Bloch's violin concerto on record (1938, Charles Munch conducting). He is so commanding in it that it's strange he didn't re-record it in good sound. I guess he wasn't really interested in making records.

[André]

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.

Great review Harry, you sold me on this composer !

[André]

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.

Now I'm curious to sample Ms. Malkki and Mr. Bloch's work. Thanks Brian !

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Mei Yi Foo. Bach French Suites, etc..

[Wanderer]

[AnotherSpin]

I continue my little home-grown Wagner festival and today's treat is Die Walküre, not in some pedestrian, run-of-the-mill rendition but in the resplendent, pulse-quickening 1955 live performance from Bayreuth. This is no ordinary archival curiosity. It forms part of the legendary Keilberth stereo Ring, the very first time Wagner's monumental cycle was ever captured in stereo. And where better than the Festspielhaus itself, with Joseph Keilberth presiding like a benevolent demigod and a cast in incandescent voice.

The tale of this recording is, in itself, a small operatic drama. For decades the world assumed that Solti's Decca set was the inaugural stereo Ring. Not so. Keilberth had done it already in 1955, only for the tapes to languish in obscurity for fifty years, the victims of that most unmusical of forces: legal entanglement. When at last they emerged in the mid-2000s it was as though one had opened a priceless time capsule from Wagner's golden age.

And what a marvel it is. The sound is remarkably fine, warm, spacious, and brimming with the vivid immediacy of live performance in that sanctified auditorium. Keilberth draws from the score a sweep and poise that manage to be both monumental and transparent, grandeur and detail walking arm in arm. For any self-respecting Wagnerite this is pure ambrosia, a Bayreuth night preserved in its pomp and splendour, graced with the glowing magic of early stereo wizardry.

[Que]

[Roasted Swan]

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.

Not apropos this recording/performance but the bolded phrase above jumped out at me reading your comments...

It strikes me that modern orchestral performance practice is ALL about blending as the holy-grail-like ideal.  Of course many will point the finger of "blame" at Karajan for creating this ideal.  But if you think about it this is a world-wide general trend.  It is often discussed how the regional sound of orchestras has all but disappeared - Bohemian winds, Russian Brass, French small bore instruments etc.  The direct consequence of all of those 'local' styles was to ensure the collective sound did NOT blend.

This in turn made me think more about the expectation of composers.  We talk a lot about HIP and how reverentially some groups try to recreate original performances.  Yet to my mind, this is in part hampered/limited by a perhaps unconcious aspiration to make a "beautiful" sound where beauty = blend.  Just recently I listened to this disc prompted by its mention elsewhere on ther forum;



It is a tremendous disc!  Really characterful - perhaps a little coarse in purely recording terms - Decca would make sonic improvements in just a few years.  But the Ravel Iberia played by the L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande is so characterful.  This is Impressionism painted in primary colour oils not muted water colours.  Surely this is want Ravel wanted?  Not the sleek super-refined urbanity of many performances.  NO this is not the most refined/beautiful/accomplished performance you will hear but it gripped me in the way few others do.

All that said, I'm not sure players/audiences would want or be able to embrace this style any more - suave perfection is all.....................

[Que]

Music for the unusual combination of keyboard ("tecla" - here  harpsichord or chamber organ) and vihuela from Milan under Spanish rule.

https://outhere-music.com/en/albums/milano-spagnola-para-tecla-y-vihuela

[Irons]

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. 

Not to forget Szigeti was a great advocate and friend of Bartok.

[Wanderer]

[Que]

A Harry recommendation. 

[Madiel]

Starting on another Vivaldi volume, of violin concertos.



The liner notes explain that this volume is of relatively late concertos.

I do quite like the liner notes in this series, as well as the covers... aargh.

[DavidW]

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.

I've always been a fan of the viola concerto, here is the recording I have:

[DavidW]

It is time for the glorious 8th!!!