What are you listening 2 now?

[Symphonic Addict]

Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in G minor

What an intense, magnetic rendition in terms of sustained poignancy. Incredibly heartfelt, sincere music.

[steve ridgway]

Maderna - Viola

[Symphonic Addict]

Mozart: Sonatas for piano 4 hands K. 19d, 358 and 381

His sonatas for solo piano often overshadow these lovely works for piano 4 hands. I enjoyed these works a lot.

[hopefullytrusting]

Using my interpretation of the end of Hesse's The Glass Bead Game as the jumping off point (with copilot):

Julius Eastman's Femenine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHgDRv6NVCI
Gavin Bryars's Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfT3njX2FLU (rediscovered)
Stars of the Lid's Requiem for Dying Mothers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15wX9ftFAOI
Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks_mZJR-lAQ

[steve ridgway]

Xenakis - Kottos

[Symphonic Addict]

Bax: Symphony in F

Call it sprawling if you want, but I have to say that this huge work has very good moments, often of knightly quality. At least 75% of this work is quite interesting to my ears.

[AnotherSpin]

Guillaume Du Fay

Ensemble Diabolus In Musica, Antoine Guerber

[Mandryka]

Xenakis - Kottos

The trio Ikhoor is a great favourite for me

[AnotherSpin]

Woke up to the Kyrie from Faure's Requiem on the radio, turned it up and listened to the whole work, thinking that this is the best recording I've heard since Herreweghe.

Until the announcer tells me it was Herreweghe.

It is a wondrous state, this eternal moment of morphing the dreams of sleep into the illusions of the apparent world. Awareness has already begun to weave the world's images, while the mind has not yet entered its dissecting bustle. The flowers are fragrant, the sea sparkles in the rays of the morning sun, and the music is enchantingly magical.

[Que]

It took me a while to get to this recording since for listening to Gesulado I need to be in the right mood.
Because, perhaps a platitude but so very true, this brilliant en enigmatic music is dark, real dark....

But, as expected, this is an absolutely amazing recording.

https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Mar/Gesualdo_responsoria_GCD922803.htm

[Harry]

It took me a while to get to this recording since for listening to Gesulado I need to be in the right mood.
Because, perhaps a platitude but so very true, this brilliant en enigmatic music is dark, real dark....

But, as expected, this is an absolutely amazing recording.

O, yes totally agree, and that goes for most of the recordings of this ensemble.

[AnotherSpin]

Bohm: Chorale Partitas - Preludes and Fugues

Christiaan Teeuwsen

[vandermolen]

Bloch: Three Jewish Poems
NZSO, Sedares (Alto CD)

One of the best recent Alto releases IMO

[Madiel]

Vivaldi arias for bass



Hmm. Well this one is... interesting. For one thing this is a case where the cover doesn't link to the music at all (whereas in quite a few others, there actually is a meaningful relationship, it's not all just pretty pictures). Also there's a bit of stretching out and padding to make a full album here. Nothing egregious, and in fact much of it is quite well explained. But there are a couple of 'reconstructed' arias, and a couple of things that I expect will reappear on later-recorded albums including ones that are in transit to me. I'll eventually be making some comparisons to see whether there are differences or not. To be fair, in a couple of cases I suspect they didn't know certain later recordings would be happening at the time this one was done, because the operas in question are incomplete.

The liner notes are definitely still informative, and trace Vivaldi's relationship with particular bass singers, but this author is a little too keen to present Vivaldi as one of the greatest geniuses of the age.

Nevertheless, there's definitely good music here. The highlight thus far is the 'mad scene' from the 1714 version of Orlando furioso, certainly not a conventional da capo aria. I stopped at that point, but later in the album there's an aria that's over 10 minutes long, so THAT ought to be something notable.

[pjme]

This organ concerto was Hindemiths last major symphonic work. Not only do I find the combination organ & orchestra very exiting ( be it soft or loud), it combines also seriousness and fantasy in a bewitching degree.

By chance (YouTube) I stumbled (again) on Jaromir Weinbergers gloriously pompous (think of Janaceks Glagolitic mass/ Richard Strauss' Praeludium) Passacaglia for organ and orchestra and Weinbergers "Christmas" for large orchestra and organ of which I knew nothing.

https://musicwebinternational.com/2024/10/1927-1929-rondeau-production/

" Weinberger's composition Vánoce/Christmas for large orchestra and organ (1929) became just as popular, and was frequently performed and broadcast especially in Czechoslovakia, to whose Christmas tradition the score invokes.

Erich Kleiber, who had conducted the first Berlin performance of Schwanda, premiered the Passacaglia for orchestra and organ in October 1931 with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Carnegie Hall. Weinberger had been drawn to the organ ever since the musical youngster was impressed by the organ in the synagogue near his parents' house.
"
https://www.boosey.com/composer/Jarom%C3%ADr+Weinberger?ttype=BIOGRAPHY

[vandermolen]

Salmenhaara Symphony No.4
A fine work (in the Tubin, Roy Harris, Lilburn tradition), tracked down with great difficulty (as Harry knows  ) to the 'Fuga Music Shop' in Helsinki
The Finnish RSO is conducted by the impressively named Ulf Soderblom:

[Iota]

Martin: Petite Symphonie Concertante
Osian Ellis (harp), Simon Preston (harpsichord), Philip Ledger (piano)
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Sir Neville Marriner

First listen to this exotic and at times very beautiful work. The concertante instruments of harp, harpsichord and piano go a long way to creating the work's very distinctive and striking atmosphere. The harpsichord so often seems to have a certain eerie quality in the setting of 20th century music, and combined here with harp and piano all sorts of nuance and hi-jinx come within range. Some weary trudging through the dark shadows of the soul and frenetic outbursts, balance each other nicely. Much enjoyed.

[Madiel]

Vivaldi flute concertos, continued.



A long time ago I was told a joke: What's worse than a flute concerto? A concerto for two flutes.

Vivaldi's concerto "for two flutes" actually has a very prominent bassoon part as well, which is used to ground the music a bit (though it doesn't move the way the solo bassoon does in the bassoon concertos). One of the other concertos here also has a significant bassoon part.

[Mister Sharpe]

Vivaldi flute concertos, continued.



A long time ago I was told a joke: What's worse than a flute concerto? A concerto for two flutes.

Vivaldi's concerto "for two flutes" actually has a very prominent bassoon part as well, which is used to ground the music a bit (though it doesn't move the way the solo bassoon does in the bassoon concertos). One of the other concertos here also has a significant bassoon part.

The flute joke is attributed, unsubstantiated btw, to Mozart who reportedly did dislike writing for that instrument.  A few days ago I greatly enjoyed Ibert's Flute Concerto on the Beeb and so the humor falls flat on me...also, I was kinda expecting a viola joke.

[Madiel]

Winding up for the evening, but... how cute is this? 2 oboes and 2 clarinets.

Apparently this concerto is used in the Italian animated film Allegro non troppo. Not this recording obviously, given the age of the film.