What are you listening 2 now?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

And now, dipping my toes into this recent release:



Starting with something familiar, from the fourth of this 4-CD set: Jacques Fëvrier plays Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand, with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra under Charles Munch. This is Février's earlier recording of the work, made in occupied Paris in 1942 (he'd re-record the concerto in the late fifties under Georges Tzipine).

Février was a favourite performer of the composer in this particular work, but I must say I'm not that impressed by either of his recordings of the concerto (or of the solo piano music, for that matter). Wonderful phrasing and control of dynamics, but I seem to detect too many wrong notes...   

To be fair, I found his recordings of Debussy's solo piano music superb.

Kazuko Kusama (Saint-Saens pc No. 5) was a daughter of Japanese diplomat and grew up in Paris. She was a student of Lazare Lévy.  @Mandryka has her recordings of Debussy.

[Linz]

Frederick Delius Paris - The Song of a Great City
Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra
Cello Concerto
Tasmin Little violin, Raphael Wallfisch cello
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Mackerras

[JBS]

CD 2 of this set, which Capriccio seems to be allowing to go OOP already


Besides Stepan Razin and Krylov, the CD also contains the curiously titled Intermezzos from "Katerina Ismailova" (original 1934 version).

[foxandpeng]

Conrado Del Campo
SQs 3 and 5
Quatuor Diotima
March Vivo

Very worthwhile.

[Symphonic Addict]

Kuhlau: Piano Quartet No. 3 in G minor and String Quartet in A minor

This early romantic Danish composer turned out to be a very fine discovery. Two more chamber works written with remarkable expertise in those forms. The String Quartet struck me like particularly stupendous. It's almost like the Danish counterpart to the Cherubini's quartets. Very impressive indeed.

[hopefullytrusting]

Lully's Le bourgeois gentilhomme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Oy8qdfiyyg

Strauss's Le bourgeois gentilhomme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTsZJXdS8_0

[AnotherSpin]

[Wanderer]

[hopefullytrusting]

Lully's Le bourgeois gentilhomme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Oy8qdfiyyg

Strauss's Le bourgeois gentilhomme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTsZJXdS8_0

More of this pair:

Strauss's Duet Concertino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym3JVzD_1Q8

Lully's Pastorale Comique:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oATYAmsYFo0

Plus,

Marais's Ariane et Bacchus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUsg56hmBp4

[hopefullytrusting]

Rest of the day will be filled with (between all my meetings - school is officially back in session for me)

Gluck's Symphonies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvtPfmpG3lQ
Weber's Symphonies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJDk64tkYK0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPuA3-xSohc
Humperdinck's Moorish Rhapsody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STTjEITIZyw
Graun's Concerto for Strings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8QahWCOqjA

First time for all of this (from this post and the two prior).

[AnotherSpin]

Des Prez: The Complete Masses, Vol.1

Vocal Ensemble Capella and Tetsuro Hanai

Thanks to @Selig

[Christo]

Vaughan Williams' "First piano concerto", the Fantasia from 1901, in fact better than the official one. One of the many compositions he withdrew after six years of voluntary military service in the First World War because the style was still too indebted to his 'Teutonic' teachers. The entire CD is a revelation.

[Iota]

Pierre de la Rue: Missa "Ave Sanctissima Maria"
The Sound and the Fury

What a lovely mass this is. My ear was caught by a change of metre in the Credo (about 7'30), that coming mid-flow as it did, somehow sounded very modern. To me, a perpetually unknowledgeable listener of Renaissance choral music, one of its characteristic qualities seems to be its metreless-ness, giving a feeling of being adrift on waves of eternity, which of course seems appropriate to the context. And when that is interrupted, it seems to introduce an element of compositional 'consciousness' to the music, which feels unusual.
But then maybe there are countless examples throughout the period that I've just never noticed before  . I guess my ears will be more attuned to hearing them henceforth, if there are. 

[Florestan]

You should rinse your ears out with this set!

Many thanks for that from me as well. Will listen and report.

[Roasted Swan]

So a first listen to the 1st half (Homage to the Queen)of this new release;



Its really well played and nicely (quite neutrally) recorded by Dutton.  Martin Yates is excellent in this repertoire and the BBC Concert orchestra play with confidence and flair.  The old Robert Irving recording was perfectly good but Arnold's colourful orchestration does benefit from modern engineering.  As a work its kind of Arnold-lite(ish) with lots of musical gestures familiar from his film scores and lighter works.  Any prolific composer - and Arnold was certainly that! - will rely on a set of 'templates' regarding melodic shape/orchestration/harmony/rhythm - and these are very evident here.  Not as deep or personal as some of his symphonies - but it it wasn't meant to be - its a festive work to mark the Queen's coronation.  Lots of attractive music without trying for profundity.

Then this disc;



I've had this for years but couldn't tell you when I last listened to it.  My mistake!!  What a tremendous collection.  Really rare/unfamiliar but very good Hindemith given sparkling performances.  The film music "In Sturm und Eis" has the kind of melodrama of a Shostakovich score of the same period (could Hindemith have known any??) and its great fun.  The orchestration of the Kammermusik No.1 for 12 instruments is brilliant.  Indeed the whole disc is a delight.  All to easy to sideline this kind of collection when there are many more substantial scores by Hindemith but this is as typical of his style and work as any.  This won't stay unlistened to as long again.....

[AnotherSpin]

Vol. 2

[Traverso]

Debussy

Préludes Livre 1  (1956)

[Madiel]

Dvorak: Prague Waltzes, and the Polka for the Prague students' ball.



Which completes listening to the album in bits and pieces. I will have to try to listening to it all in one sitting at some point, because I think it would be very pleasurable. Yablonsky really seems to know how to handle this light music.

My only regret is that they didn't manage to squeeze in just one more of Dvorak's occasional dance music pieces (the elusive Gallop in E major, reportedly about 2.5 minutes long) - but it's a 78-minute album so they're not skimping.

@Florestan if you haven't heard this I suspect it would be very to your taste.

[Madiel]

Balakirev: Overture on three Russian themes



First listening to the album I bought at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago for $1 (and the sale was within walking distance, so no petrol costs).

It's nice. It's not wow. Maybe other pieces will be "wow", but even if not it's $1.

[Mister Sharpe]

Glazunov Violin Concerto. I love the technical prowess required of the soloist (the double stops are insane). But most of all I relish the work's melancholy ponderings...and its joyous - happy after all - conclusion.