What are you listening 2 now?

[vandermolen]

Two of my favourite Alwyn scores
No.1 sounds a bit like 'film music' but this is an asset as far as I'm concerned.
No.2 (Alwyn's favourite) has a Sibelian concision.
Historic but deeply felt performances:

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Ravel Piano Works. Paul Crossley. Icy and cool playing in hot summer.

[(poco) Sforzando]

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.

Thank you for this. I find I have no recordings of the Viola Concerto at present. If I decide to go for the James Ehnes version of the three string concertos instead, it's because I have a ton of CfO's already (including that superb Malkki and any number of the usual suspects such as Kubelik, Reiner, Szell, Kocsis, Dohnanyi, Boulez), and because all copies I've found of the Grosz/Bloch are very expensive.

[AnotherSpin]

Frescobaldi: Toccate e Partite, Libro I & Capricci, Recercari, Canzoni

Lydia Maria Blank


Perfect music for the fading light of day. The night's shadows have not yet fallen, and the heat is gone. The past and future have dissolved, and the stillness feels eternal.

[Brian]

Thank you for this. I find I have no recordings of the Viola Concerto at present. If I decide to go for the James Ehnes version of the three string concertos instead, it's because I have a ton of CfO's already (including that superb Malkki and any number of the usual suspects such as Kubelik, Reiner, Szell, Kocsis, Dohnanyi, Boulez), and because all copies I've found of the Grosz/Bloch are very expensive.

James Ehnes can do no wrong, so that seems a good plan. I do also like the Naxos disc DavidW posted, with interesting coupling by the concerto's editor/completer, Tibor Serly.

[Brian]

I'm a simple man. Somebody mentions James Ehnes, I listen to James Ehnes.

[Que]

Last of my little Haydn violin concertos comparative listening project.

[Florestan]

Last of my little Haydn violin concertos comparative listening project.

And what are the results?

[(poco) Sforzando]

James Ehnes can do no wrong, so that seems a good plan. I do also like the Naxos disc DavidW posted, with interesting coupling by the concerto's editor/completer, Tibor Serly.

Try also his Bach sonatas and partitas (solo and with accompaniment) and the Ehnes Quartet doing 4 CDs worth of the last 8 Beethoven quartets.

[Wanderer]

[Daverz]

Last of my little Haydn violin concertos comparative listening project.

Highly recommend Zukerman's beautiful pre-HIP Violin Concerto No. 1:

[DavidW]

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E Major, 1885 Original Version. Ed. Robert Haas
Netherlands Radio Phiharmonic Orchestra. Willem van Otterloo

[Brian]

The Grand Piano record label is a real rabbit hole of obscure repertoire that's interesting enough to stream, but maybe not quite interesting enough to buy. I don't know how Naxos subsidizes it. Take this:



Vittorio Rieti's music was commissioned by Diaghilev, choreographed by Balanchine, and conducted by Toscanini, Stokowski, and Reiner. But it's almost all forgotten now. Two 16ish-minute suites, Suite champetre and Second Avenue Waltzes, both written in the 1940s for the Gold-Fizdale piano duo, are the highlights here. They're both fizzy good fun. The Suite has lots of neoclassical energy (it's a bourrée, écossaise, and gigue), but 15% less saucy wit than Poulenc. The Waltzes have both dancing lilt and a great flavor of modern harmonic oddness. Entertainment.

[Lisztianwagner]

William Alwyn
Elizabethan Dances
Festival March

Richard Hickox & London Symphony Orchestra

[Symphonic Addict]

Stravinsky: Concerto for string orchestra, Concerto in E-flat 'Dumbarton Oaks' and Ebony Concerto

The first time I am able to dig the elusive Concerto for string orchestra. Attractive music, including the other two concertos for chamber forces.

[Linz]

Jean Sibelius Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor Op. 47, Christian Ferras, violin
Finlandia Op. 26
Valse triste Op. 44/1
Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No 2 in C Minor, 1872/77 Mixed Versions. Ed. Robert Haas
Bruckner-Orchester Linz, Georg-Ludwig Jochum

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Last of my little Haydn violin concertos comparative listening project.

Nice cover art! Is she half-Japanese?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

William Walton - Concerto for Viola and Orchestra. NDR Radiophilharmonie, Garry Walker, Tatjana Masurenko.