What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[SonicMan46]

Hello George - same 'complete set' that I own - great stuff!  Earlier today there were some other complete sets mentioned of the Dvorak SQs, and Harry seemed to be favoring the Prague group pictured below - quite good reviews of the ones shown - would not mind having 'another' set of these works - they are quite good! 

 

[not edward]

Schubert's Unfinished, in Sinopoli's Philharmonia reading. So good I listened twice.

[Brian]

Beautiful cover image. Simple music played with elegance by Jeno Jando, who seems not to be nearly as active as he once was, in a rather unflattering acoustic and on a slightly unflattering piano. The old, very faint off-key humming is still there!

[Brian]

I really think it was Op. 111, and specifically this performance, which reignited my passion for Beethoven and launched him to his current position among my favorite composers. I'd always thought of him as a stern, moody nut whom I was obliged to acknowledge as Great without actually liking all that much. Paul Komen's traversal of the Opp. 109-111 finally showed me the kind of human being (rather than marble statue) that Beethoven really was - and the final movement of Op. 111 is more spiritually moving than the religious rites I know of...

My thanks to Gurn Blanston for sharing Komen's Beethoven with me - these performances are revelatory in just about every sense. I'm putting them on repeat.

[Bonehelm]

The 5th from this set.

Holy cow, this performance is a thriller from beginning to end. First the musical aspects, the brass chorales and tutti passages are very well handled, but Jochum doesn't leave much space after a tutti before starting the next phrase (especially evident in the 1st movement). The string pizzacatos so prominently featured throughout the piece is also brought-out in a very lyrical way (who would've thought staccato-like figures could sound like a complete, thoughtful sentence? But it is the case here; Jochum has the Dresden Staatskapelle play pluck their instruments with care). The finale's complex fugal section is also very effective, with the subject and counter-subject equally treated so that you hear the "conversation" going on in these passages. The very last orchestral tutti before the 3 (or was that 4?) chords that ends the piece is as "unison" as an orchestra can play, the articulation of the 4-note figure is unified throughout the almost 100 member orchestra. Very good oboe melodies in the Adagio section too, very affectionate. The only thing I didn't really like about this recording is that the trombones play with a VERY edgy, almost razor-sharp tone in the 1st movement (maybe in others as well, but in the 1st it is particularly noticeable)...the tone quality is of course very good, but I prefer the rounder, yet still brilliant sound presented in the Karjan/Celibidache recordings on DG/EMI. One last thing, during the final bars of the entire piece, where the blazing trumpets repeat the 1st movement's theme over and over again over an ostinato in the timpani, the passage isn't as well-presented as I liked it to be as there isn't much clarity(a better interpretation would be Karajan on the 70's DG set for me), so the tutti passage in the end arrives without much preparation.

Now onto the technical aspects. The set is recorded pretty awkwardly in terms of dynamic balance, at least in the 1st movement. The fortissimo parts are not remotely as earth-shattering as they should! (Although they are very much in the finale, god knows why) But the quieter, mp or even pp passages are very clear and at a comfortable, totally audible volume that is usually much lower and covered up in other recordings, unless the knob is turned way up. Gladly this "problem" doesn't really exist in other movements, at least not that I can remember. The depth of the orchestra is very impressively recorded. Just listen to the warm string chorale (is there such thing?) in the Adagio, at the first half of the movement. You can really hear the low-strings supporting the weighty section.

All in all, a superb recording that is only undermined by minor balancing issues, and the very final bars of the piece could be handled better by expressing more rythmic clarity. Still, this performance provides an excellent alternative to the spot-on Karajan reading on DG or the ever-so-slow account of Celibidache's on EMI. 8.9/10.

[Que]

I really think it was Op. 111, and specifically this performance, which reignited my passion for Beethoven and launched him to his current position among my favorite composers. I'd always thought of him as a stern, moody nut whom I was obliged to acknowledge as Great without actually liking all that much. Paul Komen's traversal of the Opp. 109-111 finally showed me the kind of human being (rather than marble statue) that Beethoven really was - and the final movement of Op. 111 is more spiritually moving than the religious rites I know of...

My thanks to Gurn Blanston for sharing Komen's Beethoven with me - these performances are revelatory in just about every sense. I'm putting them on repeat.

Word. 

[Brian]

Word. 

0:)

[Harry]

Good morning everyone. Well I am off to the Optician to check out the strength of my glasses, and if they are still up to scratch?
I think hours wasted that could be better spend listening, O, well, the Missus is insisting......

Have some time left, before I go, and I am enjoying a CD Bogey (Bill) send me.
American Beauty, the soundtrack, and I am enjoying this minimalistic music.

[Subotnick]

Subotnick, I don't know if you have noticed, but I have uploaded Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony (Kondrashin/Concertgebouw Orchestra). Links are in the thread of that name. It's not exactly music to chill out to... It's an enormously exciting performance. If you haven't heard it, do try it (tomorrow...).

I'm off to bed.

Johan

I wouldn't notice the Second Coming if it happened on my doorstep!  0:) Thanks for the tip. I'm rather fond of Russian music and have been known to do "exciting"...

TTFN.
Me.

[Wanderer]

[rickardg]

Earlier:

Franz Schubert
String Quartet No 14 in Dm "Death and the Maiden"
Melos Quartet

While I can't find anything wrong with this recording it doesn't grip me as much as the Takacs. It could be slightly less accented approach or the slightly smoother string timbre. Or maybe it's just the cover image... 



Now:
Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No 4
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Kirill Kondrashin
(courtesy of Jezetha)

Thanks for sharing Jezetha! I'm really enjoying this.

[Wanderer]

A most splendid release! Tharaud plays with impeccable clarity and magnificent sensitivity. Rameau on the piano can't sound better than this.

Also, listening to excerpts from the following recital discs:

[Subotnick]

I'm getting way behind with what I've said I'm going to listen to. There are too many musical distractions!



Just listened to the 3rd and have moved on to this:



My main interest in downloading this was Tchaikovsky's Grand Sonata In G, Op. 37. It's neither a good or bad recital. Just nice...

TTFN.
Me.

[rickardg]

Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No 17 in Dm "Tempest"
Ronald Brautigam, fortepiano

Just to be contrary

I haven't actually listened very much to Komen but since they are available for a good price on iTunes Plus (256 kbps AAC, no DRM) that might change (so are Brautigams, and also on eclassical in 320kpbs mp3, no DRM).

[George]

On the way to work in about 45 minutes:

[Opus106]

Bach
Cantata, BWV 90 "To ruin you an end of terror"
English Baroque Soloists/Monteverdi Choir/Towers, alt/Gilchrist, ten/Harvey, b/Gardiner

[johnQpublic]

Silcher - Overture in C (Lajovic/Carus)
Mendelssohn - String Quartet #1 (Vellinger/ASV)
Fibich - Symphony #3 (Jarvi/Chandos)

[Harry]

I keep returning to this disc and its music. Every time I give it a spin, it reveals more and more of its beauty, and what a fine composer Josef Bohuslav Foerster really was.
The following releases, for MDG will record the complete orchestral works, are awaited with eager anticipation.

[Opus106]

This one's a rare piece...

Pachelbel
Canon in D
ECO/Leppard

[Harry]

Robert Schumann.
Kreisleriana, opus 16.
Drei Sonaten fur die jugend, opus 118.
Jorg Demus, Piano.

I have no complaints. Very good.