What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[BachQ]

MUSSORGSKY: Khovantchina (version of Rimsky-Korsakov)

An extraordinary interpretation, the best I ever heard in this sublime opera. First, the choir of the Bolchoi, really unique in this music.
Khaikine conducts using a fast tempo, very dramatic.

The singers are remarkable. In special Arkhipova, unforgettable Marfa. Krivtchenia is the ideal Ivan Khovansky and Maslenikov, with his beautiful voice and his perfect style, the best Galitsin.

Ogvnitsev has not a voice as glorious as Reizen, but his a very human and touching Dosifei.

Thanks, Val.

[PSmith08]

A welcome addition to the Carlos Kleiber discography. A bit faster in the outer movements than the DGG release with the Wiener Philharmoniker (11.28 vs. 13.36 and 7.42 vs. 8.36), but still very nice. I like this reading, but I'm generally a fan of Kleiber. I will say this, though: a full-price (or very near it) CD with one symphony - and some applause - adding up to ~36 minutes is probably not the best bargain. If you like Kleiber, then it's a great disc, but - unless you're a specialist or a completist - probably no better than the DG Originals set.

[not edward]

Snatched a half-hour free, and the nearest disc had Paul Meyer, the Petersen Quartet, the Münchener Kammerorchester and Christoph Poppen in Hartmann's bittersweet Chamber Concerto for Clarinet, String Quartet and String Orchestra.

[rubio]

Mahler Symphony No. 6 performed by Eiji Oue/Osaka PO. One of my top choices for this symphony (together with Boulez, Karajan and Bernstein). The andante (the most beautiful slow movement from Mahler IMO) is just sublime here - very emotional. I really like Karajan as well here, but that one is more beautiful than purely emotional. Stunning woodwind playing, and the sound of the CD is really good. Highly recommended!

[71 dB]

Elgar - The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38 - Barbirolli.

[Que]

The "other" Kleiber.



Symphony nr. 7

Q

[sidoze]

Bach cello suites played by Fournier (DG). Especially love the C minor Suite 5, the lengthy dramatic Prelude and the stilted Sarabande which Bergman used in a film (or two?).

[rubio]

Bruckner

Symphony No. 9

Keilberth/Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg (Teldec)

Something of a hat-trick of Bruckner performances today. I have liked all of them a lot, and the Keilberth recording really hit a spot with me. I find this interpretation very emotional. Maybe it has to do with the sonorities he get from the orchestra. I very much like the pacing of the Scherzo. Thanks to Choo Choo again for the copy!

[Choo Choo]

Vaughan Williams.

Symphony No. 7, "Antarctica".

Sheila Armstrong, soprano.
LPO and Choir/Bernard Haitink.

In general I can say, that this set of Symphonies is rather disappointing. It does not matter, if you hear the second or the seventh, there is a sense of sameness, and again blandness. There is no deep digging into the content of these compositions. But maybe my expectations were to high, or my conception of this composer is all wrong. I agree with Christo, that the Haitink never catches the inner fire, it does not reach the goal as intended. Not that it is all wrong, of course not. The stillness and concentration is amazing, soft is really soft with Haitink, sometimes barely noticeable, the crescendi tend to be thunderstrokes, that make you sit up, but more in a frighten fashion I might add. In the seventh Symphony the Organ sounds like a unwelcome visitor, to loud and coarse, positively ugly.
So all in all, I think that I will sell this box, for it is not likely that I will revisit these interpretations.
I will ignore the 8th and 9th symphony alltogether, and close this box.

Harry, that is exactly my impression of this set also.  I really do not understand the enthusiasm which it arouses in others.  Those of the symphonies which I've heard - and like you, I haven't bothered to hear them through to the end - have seemed to me to be ponderous and over-wrought.

Take the slow movement of #2.  The composer clearly says that this is supposed to evoke "Bloomsbury Square on a November afternoon."  I happen to know Bloomsbury Square well: for years I used to park in the underground car park there, and schlepp over to Senate House through Russell Square.  I know exactly what VW means by the November afternoon.  The appearance of the place can't have changed much since his time - it's not great architecture, just fairly ordinary - and on a November afternoon, even when it's not actually raining, there's a kind of wistful melancholy in the air.  Someone like Previn / LSO manages to evoke this quite successfully, touching the piece quite lightly with sadness.  Whereas Haitink over-dramatises to an absurd extent, as if trying to create high tragedy out of it.

[Harry]

Harry, that is exactly my impression of this set also.  I really do not understand the enthusiasm which it arouses in others.  Those of the symphonies which I've heard - and like you, I haven't bothered to hear them through to the end - have seemed to me to be ponderous and over-wrought.

Take the slow movement of #2.  The composer clearly says that this is supposed to evoke "Bloomsbury Square on a November afternoon."  I happen to know Bloomsbury Square well: for years I used to park in the underground car park there, and schlepp over to Senate House through Russell Square.  I know exactly what VW means by the November afternoon.  The appearance of the place can't have changed much since his time - it's not great architecture, just fairly ordinary - and on a November afternoon, even when it's not actually raining, there's a kind of wistful melancholy in the air.  Someone like Previn / LSO manages to evoke this quite successfully, touching the piece quite lightly with sadness.  Whereas Haitink over-dramatises to an absurd extent, as if trying to create high tragedy out of it.

Thank you, I felt alone, but not anymore, I compared it indeed with Previn, and was devastated with what brutality Haitink approached the Seventh, and for that matter the rest also.

[rubio]

Eivind Groven Symphony No. 1 "Towards the Mountains" brings you to the mountaneous regions of Norway. It's folk-inspired and quite nice, even if a letdown compared to the Bruckner recordings earlier today.

[Danny]

Bitches Brew~~Miles Davis

[rubio]

The first orchestral CD I hear of Janacek's music, and I did not immediately connect. But this is just the beginning .

[Mark]

This (my 13th version of this work):



As more 'period' performances go, I think I prefer Norrington.

[Tom 1960]

[bhodges]

The first orchestral CD I hear of Janacek's music, and I did not immediately connect. But this is just the beginning .

I have this, too, and like it very much.  And I love the sound of the Czech Philharmonic.  (Some day I want to make a "music pilgrimage" to Prague, to hear them in their own hall.)

--Bruce

[rubio]

I have this, too, and like it very much.  And I love the sound of the Czech Philharmonic.  (Some day I want to make a "music pilgrimage" to Prague, to hear them in their own hall.)

--Bruce

I love the Czech PO as well, and a visit to Prague is high on my list. I think we probably go next year. I must admit that I was packing for my vacation while listening to the Janacek CD. Usually this works fine; especially if I know the piece. But if I don't know the piece, and the work I'm doing requires some thinking it necessarily don't work so well. Anyway, the listening experience is stored somewhere in my mind so it will help me appreciate it more the next time.

[bhodges]

Anyway, the listening experience is stored somewhere in my mind so it will help me appreciate it more the next time.

That's a very mature listening outlook!  PS, love the Bob Marley quotation in your signature...

My listening right now (something as an antidote to a change from all the Wagner of this past week  ):

Xenakis: Tetras (Arditti String Quartet)

--Bruce

[Kullervo]

That's a very mature listening outlook!  PS, love the Bob Marley quotation in your signature...

My listening right now (something as an antidote to a change from all the Wagner of this past week  ):

Xenakis: Tetras (Arditti String Quartet)

--Bruce

Great piece, Bruce. Who knew a string quartet could sound like THAT?

[bhodges]

Great piece, Bruce. Who knew a string quartet could sound like THAT?

You got that right!  I am just in awe of this piece.  Actually at the moment I'm listening to it through headphones, and it's doing rather strange numbers on my head  . 

--Bruce