What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Wanderer]

During the past 2 days...

The former. I think (or hope) it is the original track, as the re-recording was only done in 5.1 surround IIRC. Which isn't generally bad: I found it nice for certain Beethoven symphonies out of the 80's cycle, for instance, but it does sound muddled in others.

Hence, I've decided to go through the original tracks at this point, and contrast them with the re-recordings later.

Thanks for clarifying. I have a Bruckner DVD that got the same treatment and had so far thought that the stereo track was left intact (that's why I bought it). I wouldn't care for the 5.1 track anyway (since I don't have a 5.1 speaker system installed to appreciate any presumed benefits), let alone after such drastic processing.

[Wanderer]

  0:)

That's my favourite recording of this often maligned Beethoven mass. 

[Florestan]

I just dream of the day that Leonard Cohen records the cycle...

What a pitty Oscar Peterson died, they would have matched perfectly...

[Subotnick]

What a pitty Oscar Peterson died, they would have matched perfectly...

Oh my! I do believe I'm chuckling! 

I can't find the exact LP cover to Rachmaninov's 3rd. My version was recorded by Previn and the LSO in 1968. I ripped it from vinyl issued on RCA. This is the closest I can find.



TTFN.
Me.

[wintersway]

Good morning/day to all!

[Subotnick]

Quartets 1 & 2 =

TTFN.
Me.

[Christo]

Inspired by the thread on Latvian composers, some Latvian all-time favourites:
               

[DavidRoss]

Re. Schubert's Winterreise by FiDi:

I just dream of the day that Leonard Cohen records the cycle...

Now that's funny!  Thank you!

I doubt this is what Schubert felt or intended it to be.

So what's wrong with it?  What do you think Schubert intended differently?

[bhodges]

Listening to, and watching, this concert from Verbier on July 24 with Manfred Honeck and the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra, here.  The Berg is wonderful, with very fine playing from the orchestra (e.g., the march sections, with some taut woodwind and percussion work) and engaging vocals from Ms. Brueggergosman, a singer completely new to me.  I confess the Sibelius is not normally one of my faves by the composer, but somehow Kavakos sells me.

Berg: Three Fragments from Wozzeck (Measha Brueggergosman, soprano)
Sibelius: Violin Concerto (Leonidas Kavakos, violin)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6

--Bruce

[johnQpublic]

LPs

Hanson - Overture to "Merry Mount" (composer/Mercury)
Imbrie - String Quartet #2 (California SQ/Stereo Records)
Harrison - Song of Quetzalcoatl (Price/Orion)
Copland - Connotations (Bernstein/Columbia)

[Florestan]

So what's wrong with it?  What do you think Schubert intended differently?

Winterreise is all about sadness, despondency and desolation. "Joyous" is hardly the apt word to describe it.

[DavidRoss]

Winterreise is all about sadness, despondency and desolation. "Joyous" is hardly the apt word to describe it.

Ah, I see...you, like he, refer to Subotnick's listening experience, not the recording itself.  So what do you think of the recording?

[Florestan]

Ah, I see...you, like he, refer to Subotnick's listening experience, not the recording itself.  So what do you think of the recording?

The recording is excellent and highly recommended.

[orbital]

Medtner - Complete Skazki

This is the second spin. I was not overly impressed by the first listen, but the music sounds much better second time around. Skazki are not homogeneous in mood, they are like preludes in movements. although the influences (judging from the titles) vary, I don't think any of them are written to convey a particular mood or scenario. The closest resemblance that I can come up with may be Alkan's Esquizzes, but that too, would be a bit far off. They are quite different from his sonatas, perhaps closer to the Forgotten Melodies cycles except that there is a binding foggy atmosphere to the music throughout. I don't want to say they are dreamy, but they are not concrete either.

Since the Skazki were written throughout Medtner's composing career they are a good indication of his development in piano music.
Milne's playing, although there is nothing to compare, seems suitable enough. These are not virtuosic pieces for the most part (some are), but it is still commendable for a pianist to learn and carefully record over 2 1/2 hours of music that consits of over 40 separate pieces.

I would recommend this recording to those who like the Forgotten Melodies cycles and want to investigate Medtner's romantic idiom further.

[Moldyoldie]

Adams: On the Transmigration of Souls
New York Philharmonic
Lorin Maazel, cond.
NONESUCH
I've always been of the opinion that all's fair in art; the contempt for this work displayed by certain reviewers on Amazon and elsewhere thus rings hollow. I'm also at a loss in understanding why the mere fact that it was a commissioned work should have a bearing on its merits as a listening experience. What The Transmigration of Souls manages to do is elicit a recollection of the "emotions of the moment" that surfaced in the terrible aftermath of 9/11/01.  That I'm hearing this for the first time nearly seven years hence probably has as much to do with my reaction to it as anything the music itself conveys.  As a remembrance of the victims, heroism, and sudden personal losses; I think it's a perfectly fine piece that serves its purpose well enough.  As a work of absolute music, it's probably found a bit wanting.

The use of an overlapping collage of spoken voices and street sounds throughout the 25-minute work probably comes across as gimmicky to musical purists, but I found similar "musical" exercises in works by the likes of Stockhausen and others to lend a moving immediacy to the music. I think it works here as well.

It's difficult to recommend purchasing this CD at full price with less than a half-hour of content, but hearing it at least once will not be a waste of anyone's precious time -- I borrowed it from the library.

Bartok: Violin Concerto No. 1; Viola Concerto
Yehudi Menuhin, violin and viola
New Philharmonia Orchestra
Antal Dorati, cond.
EMI (2 CDs, inc. other works for solo violin and orchestra)
Bartok's Second Violin Concerto is one of those works which became a personal obsession upon first hearing (I couldn't help but think of John Coltrane!); wanting to hear other such works in Bartok's oeuvre was a natural inevitability.   Both the Violin Concerto No. 1 (1908, first published posthumously in 1956) and Viola Concerto (completed by Tibor Serly in 1945) are thoroughly inside the angular (and angry?) Bartok idiom already familiar to those to know it.  Along with Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and others; I place Bartok among those whose most important works practically define the sound of early twentieth century modernism.  What "hummable" melody there is to be found seems ephemeral.  Shades of Hungarian folk music are also present, and often predominate. Menuhin plays both works spiritedly and with conviction; ably abetted by Dorati and company.  The remastered sound is fine enough with the soloist front and center.  Neither work is on the same level as Violin Concerto No. 2, in my opinion, but both should certainly satisfy Bartok enthusiasts -- as they did me.

[Harry]

I am venturing into this for me unknown territory and I like it so far, like it very much.
Sound is very good, and the tempi are for my feel excellent.

[Mark]

I can never resist a recording of Ravel's String Quartet in F.  0:)

[ChamberNut]

I can never resist a recording of Ravel's String Quartet in F.  0:)

Indeed Mark, Ravel's quartet is marvelous! 

[Keemun]

Scriabin: Symphony No. 3, "The Divine Poem" (Segerstam/Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra), from this set:

[ChamberNut]

Faure

Elegie, P. 24
Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 109
Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 117

Maria Kliegel, cello
Nina Tichman, piano

Naxos