What are you listening 2 now?

[Traverso]

Magda Tagliaferro

CD 2

[Florestan]

Copilot spit out a list of composers I might like given this information, and on that list there was one I had never heard of - Leopold Koželuch. I was a bit shocked I had never heard of him, given how prolific he was that was until I sampled his work - now, I think I have a fair idea about why I had never heard of him. I found all his work - that I sampled - significant enough for me - below run-of-the-mill, and there is far too much music to listen that I've not yet heard (or discovered) to even consider treading down that path - life is simply too precious and too short for that.

You find nothing special in Mozart's, Haydn's and Kozeluch's symphonies yet you rave about Clementi's. You are a strange fellow.

[Traverso]

 Saint-Saëns

Piano Concerto No.5

[AnotherSpin]

[Florestan]

Splendid performance in superb sonics. Non-HIP, of course, yet neither romanticized. Ms. Chua is approximately the same age Mozart was when writing the concertos --- and it shows. Crisp and nimble in fast movements, lyrical and elegant in slow ones, she plays with youthful zest, exceptional purity of tone and lucid beauty of sound. Mr. Graf, a Mozart specialist*, conducts a scaled down orchestra, offering fantastic clarity, all sections distinctly audible at any time, woodwinds and horns especially a joy to hear. Their gusto and mastery match Chua's perfectly. The sound is top-notch, one of the best stereo separation of voices I've ever heard.

Purchase of the year so far. Triple hat tip to @DavidW for drawing my attention to it. Thank you very much, good sir!



* he recorded all symphonies with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and accompanied Eric Heidsieck with the same forces in a traversal of the piano concertos 9-27. Both much enjoyed and highly recommended by me.

[Florestan]

Saint-Saëns

Piano Concerto No.5

A classic, desert island set.

[Florestan]

Magda Tagliaferro

CD 2

Fascinating countenance. 

[JBS]

You find nothing special in Mozart's, Haydn's and Kozeluch's symphonies yet you rave about Clementi's. You are a strange fellow.

De gustibus non disputandem.

But speaking of The Other Haydn


CD 2 out of 16

Symphonies 4-6
Slovak Chamber Orchestra
Bohdan Warchal

[Florestan]

Great boxset.

[JBS]

Great boxset.

So far it's charming and pleasant music (and as likely to soothe @hopefullytrusting to sleep as Franz Joseph's).

[Florestan]

So far it's charming and pleasant music (and as likely to soothe @hopefullytrusting to sleep as Franz Joseph's).

Well, better for music to cure insomnia than to cause it. 

[hopefullytrusting]

You find nothing special in Mozart's, Haydn's and Kozeluch's symphonies yet you rave about Clementi's. You are a strange fellow.

In those that I have listened to (and can recall), so that is Haydn 1-9 (yes, I've heard others, but so long ago that I no longer recall them), Mozart (1-19 and 41, yes, I've heard others, but so long ago that I no recall them - 41 is one that I am currently working on), and I sampled a slew of different works by Kozeluch (and none of them piqued any interest in me whatsoever).

De gustibus non disputandem.

Quite.

[Florestan]

In those that I have listened to (and can recall), so that is Haydn 1-9 (yes, I've heard others, but so long ago that I no longer recall them), Mozart (1-19 and 41, yes, I've heard others, but so long ago that I no recall them - 41 is one that I am currently working on), and I sampled a slew of different works by Kozeluch (and none of them piqued any interest in me whatsoever).

I quite like Kozeluch's piano sonatas, he wrote many of them, some 10-plus CD-worth. They are not all up to the level of Mozart and Haydn but some of them are. If you like the genre, give them a try. They could do no worse than induce you to sleep. 

Quite.

Of course, my post was entirely in jest, that's why I put that emoticon at the end. 

[Traverso]

Fascinating countenance. 

.

Indeed and it's not a pose

[Mister Sharpe]

Picked this up yesterday, fully cognizant of owning six or seven recordings of it already (inc. Daniel Hope's, the first to perform and record Berg's corrected and revised score in 2004), so this recording, from 2000, predates that one, my fave.  Still, of interest and really superb notes by Stephen Johnson, a name I recognized from his work at BBC, Gramophone, Guardian, and the Independent and a composer himself: https://www.stephen-johnson.co.uk/

[Spotted Horses]

Mozart's Symphonies No. 10 to 19.

Light and nice, but nothing that stood out to me.

Music I'd play in the background or on an elevator - at least two of them lulled me to sleep, lol.

My cure for insomnia - early Haydn and Mozart symphonies, lol.

What recordings have you been listening to? My impression is that early Mozart reveals its secrets best in PI performances. Pinnock does them nicely.

[Florestan]

Weber - Piano Sonata No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 39

It is often said that Weber struggled hard with writing sonatas and was never entirely successful. Yet to my ears this is one of the most tightly integrated piano sonatas I've ever heard (this was not a first listen): all movements have clearly audible connections, melodically and thematically, and the whole is permeated by a noble, chivalric, sentimental, childlike, dreamy, echt Fruhromantik feeling. It's no coincidence that Chopin held Weber in high esteem: this music adumbrates his not infrequently.  Thierry de Brunhoff's playing adds to the aforementioned characteristics a beauty of tone and sound which is very appropriate and works wonders. I've listened to recordings of this sonata by Brendel, Ohlsson and Endres, but while all have no small merits, none of them approaches Brunhoff's at this level: pure pianistic beauty.

That he eventually became a Catholic monk is actually no surprise to me: he was a fine, sensitive and eminently attuned interpreter of Romantic music, a genuinely Romantic spirit himself (his performance of Chopin's Nocturnes is a perennial favorite) --- and if we remember that many of the (German) Romantics converted or reverted to devout Catholicism, his move appears not so eccentric after all.

[Tsaraslondon]

An excellent performance of the Goldbergs.

[Florestan]

What recordings have you been listening to? My impression is that early Mozart reveals its secrets best in PI performances. Pinnock does them nicely.

Yep, agreed. An excellent set.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Saint-Saëns

Piano Concerto No.5

Nice!