What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Kullervo]

Well yes, sometimes I start listening to something and just say to myself "this isn't working out"

I can understand that. Usually if I find I'm not in the mood for a certain piece I'm not in the mood for any music.

[Mozart]

I usually listen on the spur of the moment, but this afternoon I was writing two papers and it suited my needs to set up a playlist before hand. I tried to make it a bit "concert-style" - a symphony, then a late lunch, then the usual overture-concerto-symphony form.  Smiley

If I have to do something else, or if I am just chatting, I pick something that doesn't require much attention, and hopefully also not to many changes in dynamics. Trying to write a paper to the grosse fugue, well it just wouldn't fly

I can understand that. Usually if I find I'm not in the mood for a certain piece I'm not in the mood for any music.

Really? I definitely get cravings, kind of like a pregnant woman "Ohh I could kill for some Brahms right now!"

but it is usually not clear until I find it. I can't think and listen, so usually if the piece isn't working i get carried off to the clouds in vague thoughts, and its time to switch

[Brian]

Really? I definitely get cravings, kind of like a pregnant woman "Ohh I could kill for some Brahms right now!"

Ditto. Specific pieces too. Sometimes specific performances. All day today Paul Robeson has been demanding to sing "Old Man River" for some reason.

[Brian]

No, I didn't. What is it coupled with? The second repeat is de trop IMO. I find it a letdown to go back to the development just as the rythmic and harmonic screws are tightened and the tension increased. But that's just me, of course...

Just listened again, and you are correct about the repeat in the finale. A bit much even for me.    It's actually coupled with a "Jupiter" symphony by the same artists.

[Que]

Samples maybe?.....and please if convenient some side remarks as to the performance?

Hey, Que, I've had my eye on this disc for quite a while, after hearing Spering/Das Neue Orchester's fabulous Kalliwoda album. What did you think of it?

The Beethoven Academy - 1824 under Spering is quite wonderful. The Drei Hymnen are the Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei of the Missa Solemnis. Church authorities refused to allow performances of a Mass (or Mass parts)  in a secular context - the concert hall. So Beethoven renamed them "3 Hymns". I was very impressed by the beauty of sound achieved by the players and the engineers. Wonderfully transparent, immediate and solid sound. I wouldn't say the symphony ranks with the best, but it's a very, very good performance (especially in the finale). The Overture is played with urgency and punch, as well as lots of colours from the winds and brass. Very different from the WP Schmidt-Isserstedt one I have.

My impressions on the symphony are similar to Lilas: very nice, but not (near) top of the pile. It's certainly too slow for you Harry! It's swift, but tempi are fairly moderate for HIP. Other than that: a nicely shaped fresh sounding performance, beautiful choral part. (Same goes for the "Hymnes" - a recording of the Missa Solemnis by Spering would be most welcome). I missed a more tighter controle on tempi and accentuation. The recording sounds a bit "hollow" - not entirely natural and IMO to the disadvantage of the (wood)winds, but it's a live recording.

Q

[Harry]

Good morning my friends.

Girolamo Frescobaldi.
Canzone, CD I.
Ensemble ConSerto Musico, Roberto Loreggian. (On Authentic Instruments)
Frescobaldi Edition, Volume II.

I could not wish for better performances.

[Brian]

I wonder what is the fastest HIP LvB 9 you gentlemen are familiar with?

Thank you for the description of that album, Lilas and Que - looks like it is not something I really need at this point in time. 

[val]

SIBELIUS:   Luonnotar, Pohjola's Daughter, En Saga, King Christian, The Bard

/ Bornemouth Orchestra, Berglund


The best version of the wonderful Luonnotar, with the soprano Taru Valjakka, more dramatic than usual.
Another remarkable version of The Bard, a very mysterious work, and of the incidental musical for King Christian.

Regarding Pohjola's Daughter, Berglund is good, but he doesn't reach the colour and dynamic of the legendary version of Barbirolli.

[Harry]

Girolamo Frescobaldi.
Canzone, CD I.
Ensemble ConSerto Musico, Roberto Loreggian. (On Authentic Instruments)
Frescobaldi Edition, Volume II.

I could not wish for better performances.
Second time around this morning.

[Harry]

Girolamo Frescobaldi.
Canzone, CD II.
Ensemble ConSerto Musico, Roberto Loreggian. (On Authentic Instruments)
Frescobaldi Edition, Volume II.

Just wonderful.

[Que]

Jean-Charles Ablitzer, Ian Honeyman/ Orgue de Sainte-Croix d'Aubusson
Bach, Orgelbüchlein, 45 mélodies originales des chorales du petit Livre d'orgue

Q

[Bogey]

Earlier:

Mozart
Symphony No. 39 K. 543
BPO/HvK
1978
DG 474 272-2

Now:

Mozart
Requiem K. 626
Concentus Musicus Wien/Harnoncourt
2003
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 82876 58705 2

[karlhenning]

Karl - please as a clarinetist, provide some comment?   Dave 

I have the Naxos disc of these works - not bad, but willing to 'change sides' - our new member, Mozart claims that "...this is the best recording of Brahms clarinet sonatas"; not sure if this is based on listenting experience from many different recordings or just a guess?  Hope for some clarification from Mozart on the basis of this opinion?  But would appreciate some other comments from those who may have heard this particular recording - love the clarinet works of Brahms - thanks all!   

I don't know that recording, Dave, so I must forbear to comment  0:)

[karlhenning]

Hindemith
Kammermusiken Nos 1-4
Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Abbado

[Moldyoldie]

Hindemith
Kammermusiken Nos 1-4
Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Abbado

I just picked up that one myself a few days ago, the EMI Gemini two-fer -- most entertaining, I guess what can be described as 20th century Neoclassical a la Stravinsky.

[karlhenning]

I just picked up that one myself a few days ago, the EMI Gemini two-fer -- most entertaining, I guess what can be described as 20th century Neoclassical a la Stravinsky.

Roughly the same vein;  Stravinsky and Hindemith have quite distinctive characters.  A good comparison, though!

[Fëanor]

Atmosphères (1961) for orchestra (8'51)
Extremely soft slow moving piece, and the music drifts without any sense of traditional melody, harmony and above-all no sense of pulse, through a sequence of very subtly moving textures which change register in a very smooth way, almost like lava or plasma. Berliner Philharmoniker / Jonathan Nott, cond.

James, I absolutely relate to and admire your interest in contemporary music;  also, I envy you your collection. 

[Moldyoldie]

Still: Symphony No. 1 "Afro-American"
Ellington: Suite from "The River" (orch. Ron Collier)
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, cond.
CHANDOS
This CD presents two orchestral works steeped in the jazz & blues idioms of early 20th century America. The Symphony No. 1 of William Grant Still takes a commonly drawn blues riff and expounds on its possibilities within the four-movement framework of European Classical period symphonic form. While the idea itself may strike one as somewhat contrived, the music as performed here does deliver an entertaining, though mostly "one-note" vibe. My reluctance in writing whether its perhaps derivative of Gershwin or vice versa is borne strictly out of ignorance and expediency, but my overall feeling is that while this symphony is fleetingly entertaining, it's not a very elaborate musical expression.

Duke Ellington's Suite from "The River", on the other hand, is a delight from beginning to end! My library copy of the CD is absent the booklet, therefore I'm ignorant of this work's genesis and history, as well as to what extent the credited orchestration of Ron Collier is responsible for the suite's richness of color and musical variety. Absent this knowledge, one can still delight in all the jazzy permutations as we're taken on what's presumably a seven-part musical journey down an imaginary river, culminating in a rapture amongst the Village Virgins!

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra displays its incredible versatility here under its then music director Neeme Järvi; they play as if thoroughly immersed in the idiom and Chandos gives them the most vivid and naturally spacious sound imaginable. A very fine production!

[Opus106]

Variation 30 of BWV 988. Gustav Leonhardt. After all the sparkling "keyboard-ery" I love it when finally the aria returns quietly. Wonderful moment.

[Keemun]

Sibelius: Symphony No. 6 (Blomstedt/San Francisco Symphony)