What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[prémont]

Weird: Don without activity for 5 days, Q during 4 days. Are the GMGers being abducted? 

Most unusual - early vacation maybe?

[kishnevi]

Just finished:

Take liberal doses of Wagner and blend onto a matrix of Verdian grand opera (especially Rigoletto), use an episode of Renaissance history that ended with murder at High Mass, and sprinkle the libretto with some of Lorenzo di Medici's poetry--and you end up with a very good opera that should be much better known than it is now.  Less melodramatic and intimate in scale than Pagliacci, but at least as good musically.  Domingo as Guiliano is still able to project youthful ardent love on CD (don't know about onstage, of course), the ladies do a good job (Daniella Dessi and Renata Lamanda), but the central gravity of the story really belongs to the lower voices--Lorenzo (Carlos Alvarez), the humanist poet Poliziano (Fabio Capitanucci), and the Pazzi conspirators (most important of whom is Eric Owens as Montesecco).

Someone needs to mount a production of this opera just for the sake of a DVD for the rest of us.

[Renfield]

It means that you have to look at that cover closely.

Prima facie, it's significantly more robust than the earlier Less.

But according to some architect-types, closer inspection might reveal them to be identical.


(BTW, I must admit I shared Scarpia's reaction, at first. )

[greg]

Just found something absolutely mindblowingly incredible! 

Zimmermann: Un petit rien

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRNKtqiQd8&feature=related

[Renfield]

Just found something absolutely mindblowingly incredible! 

Zimmermann: Un petit rien

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRNKtqiQd8&feature=related

"Musique légère, lunaire et ornitologique".

Excellent piece, you're right.

[jlaurson]

"Musique légère, lunaire et ornitologique".

Excellent piece, you're right.

inspired by your BAZi discovery, this:


B.A.Zimmermann
Un Petit Rien, Das Gelb und das Grün,
Metamorphose, omnia tempus habent

[Renfield]

inspired by your BAZi discovery, this:


B.A.Zimmermann
Un Petit Rien, Das Gelb und das Grün,
Metamorphose, omnia tempus habent

How lovely! I think I might pick this up at some point, as I don't actually have any Bernd Alois Zimmerman in my collection.

[Conor71]

Bach: The Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1



0:)

[greg]

inspired by your BAZi discovery, this:


B.A.Zimmermann
Un Petit Rien, Das Gelb und das Grün,
Metamorphose, omnia tempus habent

Cool! I actually don't have any Zimmerman in my collection, either (just looked him up because he was mentioned in another thread). Going through videos randomly, I found that one and was blown away. I think that background helped a lot to set the mood- to me, it sounds like what Pierrot Lunaire expresses, except in a way I can more easily understand and enjoy- reminds me of evil clowns! 

[Sydney Grew]

To-Day we have been listening to two Psalms: Roussel's Eightieth for tenor chorus and orchestra, and Schmitt's Forty-Seventh for soprano chorus large organ and large orchestra - grand works both. The Psalms are are they not excellent texts for composers - who are therewith given the opportunity to let themselves go in a very big way should they have it in them so to do.

[Coopmv]

A change from my recent diet of chamber music/solo piano works:
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 In Eb Major, WAB 104, "Romantic"  0:)

What are your thoughts on this set?  I bought the set over a year ago and it is a nice set ...

[Coopmv]

Now playing the first of 15 CD's that arrived from MDT today after more than 2 weeks ...

[Franco]

Antonín Dvořák: Intermezzo (Nocturne)
Panocha Quartet
Dvořák: Chamber Works



Mezmerizing. This Panocha Quartet set is excellent in general and dovetails nicely with my other Dvořák string works since I had the Prague Quartet's string quartet box and this Panocha set has the string & piano quintets and sextet along with some other things, but only two of the quartets.

[PaulR]

The 14th symphony

[Conor71]

What are your thoughts on this set?  I bought the set over a year ago and it is a nice set ...

I do like this set - I have to admit that Ive only listened to it a few times (have spent more time listening to my other Bruckner set conducted by Chailly) but I am impressed by the SQ and the quality of the performances so far  .


Now listening:
Nielsen: Symphony No. 4, Op. 29, FS 76, "The Inextinguishable"



First listen to this version of this great symphony - impressed! .

[bhodges]

Last night:

Ligeti: Le Grand Macabre (Alan Gilbert/New York Philharmonic, radio broadcast taped from live performances, May 27-29, 2010) - After being totally wowed by this in person, I was curious to hear the score again, and whether it would stand alone without Douglas Fitch's brilliant visuals.  I am happy to say that I'd really like to hear this again--there is a lot to admire in this piece, and it holds up very well, just listening to it.  What came across even more strongly was the electrifying playing of the New York Phil's musicians; Alan Gilbert should be praised to the skies for coming up with this idea. 

Here's another clip they put up on YouTube, of the Black and White Ministers, with Prince Go-Go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN7Tl2Sxd6Q

--Bruce

[Opus106]

Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 5 in B major, D. 485
NDR-Sinfonieorchester|Günter Wand

09 June 1996
Laeisz-Halle, Hamburg

The only version of this symphony I've heard is the one by Böhm and the VPO. While I find the opening is done quite beautifully on that recording, I like the peppiness I'm listening to now that (to me) is missing in DG recording. After all, this was modelled on the symphonies of the Classical era, and the first movement almost always is an energetic piece of music.

[Lethevich]

This disc is a good pick for somebody without the patience to listen to the full thing (I often find myself feeling lazy like that) but still wanting a slice of some of Martinů's most dream-like music - preferable to excerpts because the fragments are more through-composed and seem to include different material as well (it's been a while since I've heard the full thing). Good fun, really. The disc is filled out by an instrumental suite from the opera.

I dig the companion disc by the same forces (Pavel Kuhn & his choir), doing 3 other Martinu cantatas, including the touching (if somewhat confusing) Mount of Three Lights and the apocalyptic (though subdued) Prophecy of Isaiah. Put together, they would make a fine Duo. Are you listening, Supraphon?

Ooh danke, I didn't know that disc existed.

[Bogey]

[Drasko]