What are you listening 2 now?

[Symphonic Addict]

Ben-Haim: Symphony No. 2 - Lahav Shani, Israel Philharmonic

As with his recording of the Symphony No. 1, Shani takes a more romantic approach to the music than Yinon on CPO.

Interesting, I need to give them a listen. I imagine the sound quality being stupendous.

[Symphonic Addict]

Mozart: Requiem

Yet another piece I haven't heard in years. It's very good and powerfully performed on this recording. I really enjoyed it.

[Daverz]

Interesting, I need to give them a listen. I imagine the sound quality being stupendous.

Sound quality is very good.  Not dry as is often the case with recordings of the IPO.

Now playing: Bruckner Symphony No. 5 - Rudolf Kempe, Munich Philharmonic

Note that there have been some really awful transfers of this (and their 4th).  I would only recommend the JVC XRCD (standard CD) or the Tower Japan SACD (stereo only).

[Mandryka]

I suppose I should be thrilled to keep discovering new Hindemith works I never knew existed.  And I am.  But I'm also wondering how so many escaped my radar.  Something's not quite right in Happy Hindemith Land, at least insofar as I've construed it, so I'm gonna spend part of the day with New Grove re-reading the Hindemith biography and reviewing the List of Works. What occasioned this mini-crisis was today's Listener's Club which features Hindemith's Six Chansons, based on some of Rilke's French poems (several of the ones Hindemith set I'd actually read). News to me! https://thelistenersclub.com/2025/10/15/hindemiths-six-chansons-an-ode-to-nature-harmony-and-community/

Hindemith's music for voice is a real unexplored Aladin's cave, I think.

[brewski]

Barber: Andromache's Farewell (Roberta Alexander / Edo de Waart / Netherlands Radio Philharmonic). Listening in memory of Alexander, who died yesterday.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Prokofiev Piano concertos. Krainev, Kitajenko/Moscow.

[Linz]

Guido Cantelli CD 5
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Romeo And Juliet Overture
Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Milano, Guido Cantelli

[Symphonic Addict]

This disc offers quite a variety of delights. The main course is the tasty Violin Sonata which I remember not liking much on previous occasions, but now I loved it. The Scherzo is just awesome, a brilliant creation on its own terms. The rest of the CD comprises short pieces that are arrangements from either operas or incidental music and they are enchanting to the core, pieces with no waste whatsoever.

[Symphonic Addict]

Corigliano: Violin Concerto 'The Red Violin'

A first listen ever to this work. I waited too long for it, really impressive music. Now I know why the Chaconne (1st movement) is included in many recordings as a standalone movement. Pervaded by poignant lyricism, but also of an intrepid nature. The clear highlight of the work. Time well spent with this wonderful concerto.

[JBS]

From the American Explorer set on Piano Classics

Book 1 only
Currently on Etude 5.
Will I stay awake through Etude 10?

General comment: of the three Explorer sets the Piano Classics label has issued (French, Russian, American) I've found this American set to be least rewarding. What value it has lies in the first 5 CDs, which cover relatively unknown 19th/early 20th century works. The last 5 are much better known (Ives, Gershwin, Bernstein, Adams, Glass).

[Karl Henning]

[JBS]

Stayed awake through Glass. Will Adams do the trick?



NB--the back cover is from the LP version (I didn't even know Brilliant did any vinyl). On the CD Phrygian Gates is the second track and Hallelujah Junction is the final work.

ETA
Finished it. Won't be back for a second listen anytime soon. Might be the most boring John Adams CD I've heard. Is Hallelujah Junction really as bangy-clangy as the van Veens play it here?

[SimonNZ]

[steve ridgway]

Ligeti - Passacaglia Ungherese

[AnotherSpin]

As Morales's album played, I sat in my chair watching Venus gleam, until her light faded, almost imperceptibly, into the gathering dawn.

[steve ridgway]

Messiaen - Oiseaux Exotiques

[steve ridgway]

Schoenberg - Dreimal Tausend Jahre

[steve ridgway]

Boulez - Mémoriale (... Explosante-Fixe... Originel)

[AnotherSpin]

[steve ridgway]

Stravinsky - Firebird Ballet Suite