What are you listening 3 now?

[Fëanor]

Yesterday evening ... I had a dose of turgid bombasity that will going for quite a while.

Anton Bruckner:  Symphony No.4 "Romantic" ~ Riccardo Chailly & The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

[Lisztianwagner]

Richard Strauss
Eine Alpensinfonie

David Zinman & Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich

[Linz]

Joseph Haydn Symphonies CD 13
Symphony No.46 in B major
Symphony No.47 in G major
Symphony No.48 in C major "Maria Theresa"
Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, Adam Fischer

[Traverso]

 CD 1

[Todd]

What do you think of it?

Very good, lighter in approach than I expected - for no particularly good reason. 

[foxandpeng]

Hans Werner Henze
Symphony 10
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Marek Janowski
Wergo

Yeah. This.

[Madiel]

Beethoven: Piano sonata in D minor, op.31/2



My surprise 3rd version of the 'Tempest' sonata is a 1961 Richter recording that I have because Handel's keyboard suites, as performed by Richter and Gavrilov in 1979, needed some filler on the 4th CD. And apparently Beethoven was the choice.

The recording does show its age just a fraction but it's perfectly decent. Performance wise, it doesn't strike me as that radically different from the other 2 recordings I have, in many respects it lies somewhere in the middle. There are a couple of changes of gear in the 1st movement that I'm not sure I like but it's nothing too severe. The biggest difference is probably in the finale, where Richter is a fraction slower and a good deal more lilting, giving the music an almost waltz-like quality. It seems perfectly legitimate as an approach.

[Madiel]

Haydn: Keyboard sonata no.53 in E minor (c.1783)

[foxandpeng]

Hans Werner Henze
Symphonies 3 - 5
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Marek Janowski
Wergo

Hard  to work while listening to these, as I keep getting drawn in just to listening.

[brewski]

Dvořák: Serenade for Strings (Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt / NDR Sinfonieorchester, recorded 1963, remastered 2023). Highly enjoyable, energetic yet relaxed, and the sound quality has a pleasing heft. The only other recording I recall hearing by this conductor is his Beethoven 9th.

[Brian]

Very much enjoying my first exposure to Bent Sorensen's 12 Nocturnes, written from 2000 to 2014. The booklet note says "They are romantic in spirit, yet re-enchanted on 21st century terms....coloured by special poetic turns," and I think that description is entirely apt. Not challenging listening; just rewarding.

The concerto is up next. It's all performed by the composer's wife. The booklet describes an idyllic-sounding pandemic lifestyle in Copenhagen: he would retreat to his studio to compose, and then in the evening she would give a "mini-recital" of the music she was practicing that day.

[AnotherSpin]

[Brian]

Very much enjoying my first exposure to Bent Sorensen's 12 Nocturnes, written from 2000 to 2014. The booklet note says "They are romantic in spirit, yet re-enchanted on 21st century terms....coloured by special poetic turns," and I think that description is entirely apt. Not challenging listening; just rewarding.

The concerto is up next. It's all performed by the composer's wife. The booklet describes an idyllic-sounding pandemic lifestyle in Copenhagen: he would retreat to his studio to compose, and then in the evening she would give a "mini-recital" of the music she was practicing that day.

On to the concerto now. Here the musical language is more obviously of the present, with a collagist/mosaic-like tapestry. The piano often quotes snippets of past pieces or original music written in past styles, an echo of Gislinge's nights of practice during the pandemic, maybe. The orchestra often surges on alongside unflinching, as if on its own mission. A tender solo cadenza at 7' in the first movement calms the atmosphere, but then rattling percussion and darting strings intrude like bugs at a picnic.

The second movement begins in nocturnal mood, and to my imagination anyway proceeds through a series of nighttime scenes before two minutes of lively, exciting music at the end, leading to final bars that seem to be the beginning of a new melody, cut off as suddenly as the piece began.

[Spotted Horses]

Accumulation of a few days listening.

Haydn Piano Sonatas No 53 and 54. Brautigam then Buchbinder. No 53, in minor key, seemed a bit formulaic, with busy figuration in the outer movements and a slow movement which struck me as a highly ornamented melody over a simple harmonic progression. No 54, in two movements, was a bit more engaging to me.



CPE Bach, starting Volume 4 of the Spanyi set of piano sonatas. The first selection in B-flat major. The music continues to engage, I was a little disappointed to find Spanyi has switched to a different clavichord, whose sound is less attractive to me than the one used in the first three volumes.



Divertissement for piano quartet from Francaix and Tansman. (I noticed @Symphonic Addict listening to this release). I nice find, both works from composers I admire were new to me and very attractive.

[Karl Henning]

[Karl Henning]

[Linz]

Josquin des Prez
Dufay Ensemble

[ritter]

Christoph Keller plays solo piano music by Charles Koechlin: L'Ancienne maison de campagne, op. 124, Quatre nouvelles sonatines, op. 87, and Danse lente, op. 163 No. 2.

CD2 of this set:

[Bachthoven]

[Linz]

Ernest Chausson Symphony in B Flat Major, Op. 20
Viviane, Op. 5
Soir de fête, Op. 32
La tempête, Op. 18
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Yan Pascal Tortelier