What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thank you, moldyoldie, for that excellent review of one of my favourite CDs (the Langgaard).

[Those four songs are indeed  'thoroughly delightful' - sensuous, exquisite and beautiful.]

[Keemun]

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto (Leonid Kogan, violin; Constantin Silvestri; Orchestre de la Société du Conservatoire Paris, 1959)



My favorite violin concerto played by one of my favorite violinists. 

BTW, this CD is insanely cheap on Amazon.com.

[Lethevich]

Holt - Canto Ostinato


Less closely recorded than the other disc, the relative delicacy of the playing put me off when I sampled my favourite sections, but when played as a whole, or in larger sections (the indexing is much less numerous on the Brilliant discs) it works very well. While Holt's music doesn't seem to have the pop influenced rhythms of American minimalism, the music must be very easy to engage with from a pop mind-set. Maybe that is why I like it a lot - it sounds like a very strange mediation between Romanticism, modernism and minimalism, both classical and from electronic music. Sometimes the tone of the music comes close to sentimental or naive, like unobtrusive and undistinguished music found in modern movies or computer games, but they are just small parts of the journey - the massive span of the work is classical to the core.

Edit: I also find it remarkable how the music can seemingly repeat so much but remain engaging to a person such as myself who is not a great fan of Glass and Reich. Those two composers styles at their most minimal commonly involve a linear repetition with gradual changes which seem "inevitable" when realised, or as they progress (or both). Kind of train-like. Holt's style appears more variable, both in the various sections (which can have quite large differences), but even inside his musical cells, the music is teased back and forth. Really neat, I bought another two CDs of his after hearing the first two discs of this box

[karlhenning]

Debussy
Petite suite
Michel Béroff & Jean-Philippe Collard

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Holt - Canto Ostinato


Less closely recorded than the other disc, the relative delicacy of the playing put me off when I sampled my favourite sections, but when played as a whole, or in larger sections (the indexing is much less numerous on the Brilliant discs) it works very well. While Holt's music doesn't seem to have the pop influenced rhythms of American minimalism, the music must be very easy to engage with from a pop mind-set. Maybe that is why I like it a lot - it sounds like a very strange mediation between Romanticism, modernism and minimalism, both classical and from electronic music. Sometimes the tone of the music comes close to sentimental or naive, like unobtrusive and undistinguished music found in modern movies or computer games, but they are just small parts of the journey - the massive span of the work is classical to the core.

Edit: I also find it remarkable how the music can seemingly repeat so much but remain engaging to a person such as myself who is not a great fan of Glass and Reich. Those two composers styles at their most minimal commonly involve a linear repetition with gradual changes which seem "inevitable" when realised, or as they progress (or both). Kind of train-like. Holt's style appears more variable, both in the various sections (which can have quite large differences), but even inside his musical cells, the music is teased back and forth. Really neat, I bought another two CDs of his after hearing the first two discs of this box

Interesting, Lethe. I know the name of this (Dutch) composer, but I have never heard a note of his music. An omission I'll rectify in due course.

[Btw, his name is Simeon ten Holt, so his surname is Ten Holt (yes, with captal T). Just as it is, e.g., Vincent van Gogh/Van Gogh.]

[karlhenning]

Debussy
Marche écossaise sur un thème populaire
Michel Béroff & Jean-Philippe Collard

A minor work, but I likes it.

[karlhenning]

BTW, I think both the Petite suite and the Marche écossaise rather ill-served by orchestration . . . as four-hand works, they are charming, indeed refreshing.

[karlhenning]

Debussy
Epigraphes antiques
Michel Béroff & Jean-Philippe Collard

Completely off my radar until this week.  More fool me!

[Lethevich]

[Btw, his name is Simeon ten Holt, so his surname is Ten Holt (yes, with captal T). Just as it is, e.g., Vincent van Gogh/Van Gogh.]

Oops, I had forgotten the distinction between the way those names are filed (which I looked up when ripping - I presume he would be under "Holt" in a catalogue?) and the way they are used in conversation 0:) Thanks for the correction

[karlhenning]

Debussy
Lindaraja
Michel Béroff & Jean-Philippe Collard

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Oops, I had forgotten the distinction between the way those names are filed (which I looked up when ripping - I presume he would be under "Holt" in a catalogue?) and the way they are used in conversation 0:) Thanks for the correction

Ok, just to be complete (Dutch can be difficult):

Simeon ten Holt - name in full
Ten Holt - surname (just like some say Van Beethoven)
Holt, Simeon ten - the way the name is filed

Look here, at the Royal Library in The Hague:

http://opc4.kb.nl/DB=1/SET=1/TTL=1/CMD?ACT=SRCHA&IKT=1016&SRT=YOP&TRM=Holt%2C+Simeon+ten

So - you're right. The surname starts with an H (because 'ten' is only a preposition)...

http://www.donemus.nl/componisten.php?letter=H

[But you write: Ten Holt composed his * in 1978...]

[SonicMan46]

Dornel, Louis-Antoine (1680-1765) - Six Suites en Trio w/ Musica Barocca - group new to me w/ just a few CDs available - Baroque 'dance' music w/ 'voice' flutes (recorders in a lower key), theorbo, viola da gamba, & harpsichord - Musica Barocca Website, if interested in bios of the musicians.

Villa-Lobos, Heitor (1887-1959) - Piano Music, Vol. 6 w/ Sonia Rubinsky - great review by Scott Morrison; I've now acquired three of these Rubinsky's volumes (others are 1 & 2) - this disc includes a lot of delightful 'miniature' pieces + the much more substantial Rudepoema, dedicated to Arthur Rubinstein and running to nearly 23 minutes - both of these recordings are Harry recommendations, as I recall, & recommended!  


 

[karlhenning]

Ok, just to be complete (Dutch can be difficult):

. . . .

Thanks for the mini-lesson, Johan! 

[Harry]

Thanks for the mini-lesson, Johan! 

Yeah sometimes Dutch people are a pain, ehhhhhhhhhhhh, well lets keep it at that!
That's called double quick dutch!

[Bulldog]

Antheil's string quartets from Other Mind Recordings - great stuff offering the wide range of his styles:

[Kullervo]

RVW - Symphonies 8 and 9 (Haitink/London Phil)
and first listen to: Bartók - String Quartets 1, 3 and 5 (Takács)

I'm sure I probably deserve being called a cretin for knowing the quartets of Bloch, Honegger, Reger, Diamond and others before hearing Bartók's cycle — a blindspot in my listening that I'm remedying right now.

[Homo Aestheticus]

Tchaikovsky  -  Romeo and Juliet

Berlin Philharmonic - Herbert von Karajan

[Lilas Pastia]

Kalevi Aho's Organ Symphony (no. . It makes a much stronger impression in  the listening room (first heard in the car). A kaleidoscopic, gargantuan score of impressive reach but probably too diffuse to make an impact (as opposed to an impression). Surprises abound throughout, and I suspect it might have been intended as a ballet score (and a very good one). But a symphony it ain't.

Schubert's Trout Quintet, and Hirt auf dem felsen. Good, bracing and clearheaded Trout, surprisingly impressive 'Shepherd' (Chamber Players of Canada). The latter is sung by an unknown canadian singer, and were it not for the slight lack of utmost bell-like clarity on top and bottom, I would have mistaken her voice for the nonpareil Elly Ameling. I strongly suspect she served as a model for this interpretation. In any case, it's quite wonderful (including the splendid clarinet obbligato and strongly played piano part).

[mn dave]

[karlhenning]

Ravel
Ma mère l'oye
Michel Béroff & Jean-Philippe Collard