What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Drasko]

[Lethevich]

I don't know whether it's the performances or the pieces, but I find many of the Greek dances remarkably un dance-like*, sometimes having a tense urgency, or the implication of something windblasted, arid or otherwise slightly menacing. Spectacular atmosphere music as a result, but it's never what I expect when I give them a play.

*A horrible sequence of words there.

[ChamberNut]

How is this performance Brian?  Curious, since Karl really enjoyed Petrenko and BSO concert of DSCH's 10th. 

[Brian]

How is this performance Brian?  Curious, since Karl really enjoyed Petrenko and BSO concert of DSCH's 10th.  

The Fifth is really interesting (in a very good way). The first movement is very slow - 18 minutes - and in a way it really works, especially from about minute 5 to the end of the big climax, although the final coda was not as magical as I usually feel like it is: an uneasy moment of repose, looking back on the carnage of the movement so far and wondering how worried to be. The second movement was a little too fast for my taste - very Russian but not very sarcastic. On the other hand, the symphony's "second half" was just fantastic - the finale is totally devastating, with an almost unbelievable climax and some fantastically emphatic percussion playing, and the rush of strings at the climax of the slow movement, just before the xylophone's entrance, was AMAZING. Fantastic playing from Liverpool. Vasily Petrenko is going to be a star, and it's fantastic that, with artists like this, Naxos can do more than just add music to its catalog - it can offer bold new artistic statements too.

I'm listening to the Ninth right now. So far so good - love the violin solo in the first movement recap - and the slow movement is reminding me of Yakov Kreizberg's PentaTone performance. Like Kreizberg, Petrenko believes in giving us a LOT of contrast between fast and slow sections. 9.ii is nine minutes long (!) and then 9.iii is just two and a half.

[Brian]

WHOA!

That is by far THE coolest performance of the end of Shostakovich No. 9 that I've ever heard! Granted, I've only heard a few (Bernstein, Barshai, Fricsay, Kreizberg), but the way that Petrenko plays with the tempo - the way the brass belt out the silly main theme with ever-increasing silliness - the way the whole orchestra sounds like kids stealing candy from a candy shop - holy Toledo!!

[CD]

[Lilas Pastia]

This was my first Brahms Fourth ever. It was brand new at the time. I've played the disc through the ground (as well as its companion issue of the First symphony). I fondly recall the creamy winds, sweet strings, noble brass and warm, solid sound. Kertesz led the orchestra in a very direct manner. I've never listened to the other two symphonies. I don't think they were issued here.

[SonicMan46]

Philips, Peter (1560/1-1628) - Keyboard Music w/ Paul Nicholson on harpsichord & virginals; now I have several of these works on the well-recommended Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (below right; 2-CD set) - only about 4 compositions overlap, so will be happy to keep the new disc - plus, another BRO bargain! 

 

[WI Dan]

 

[Coopmv]

Philips, Peter (1560/1-1628) - Keyboard Music w/ Paul Nicholson on harpsichord & virginals; now I have several of these works on the well-recommended Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (below right; 2-CD set) - only about 4 compositions overlap, so will be happy to keep the new disc - plus, another BRO bargain! 

 

This Peter Philips set should be part of my future orders with BRO.  I like works in early music by relatively obscure composers ....   

[Coopmv]

Now playing disc 1 from this SACD set ...

[Coopmv]

Now playing disc 2 from this SACD set ...

[Conor71]

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1 - Ortiz/Berglund/BSO

[Coopmv]

Now playing this CD, which arrived last week from BRO ...

[Que]

 

A very good morning.

Q

[Florestan]

I've been listening to this over the week-end. Excellent!

[Harry]

Good morning dear friends.

After some window cleaning high up in the air, I deserve some coffee, and this rather fine recording of Membra Jesu Nostri.

4,99 euro at JPCde.

[Wanderer]

This is an impressive release; a worthy successor to the very good Eleventh they released some months back. A very promising cycle in the making.

[val]

MOZART:    Don Giovanni                 / Siepi, Simoneau, Grümmer, Della Casa, Mitropoulos, Salzburg 1956

The quality of the recording is bad, and Mitropoulos doesn't seem very inspired.

But the singers are extraordinary: no one did better than Simoneau, Grümmer or Della Casa. Siepi was, with Fischer-Dieskau, the best Don Giovanni after the II World War.
A version not very intense in a theatrical perspective, but with legendary vocal performances.

[Harry]

Another cd filled with beautiful music, not that many people know this composer.
I urge you to try.

4,99 euro, at JPCde.