What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Sergeant Rock]

Franz Liszt
Les Preludes
Arpad Joo / Budapest SO
Splendid!

Good idea. I bought Joó's Liszt cycle two weeks ago but haven't heard a note of it yet. I'll play Les préludes now.



Sarge

[mahler10th]

Yes Jarvi's 'directing is straightforward without nonsense..Kubelik is still my favourite, but at the absolute top for me is the complete set conducted by Otmar Suitner, never did I hear so much detail, in fact no matter how dense the score gets, thanks to applying the right dynamics you still hear all!

I couldn't agree more.  After you posted the Suitner over a year ago (or thereabouts) I got it, and it DOES open up a wonderland of sound not always heard through the normal histronic Dvorak conducting.   Still, I have to go with Kertesz, who interpreted Dvorak with sheer enthusiasm and made the public aware that Dvorak wrote more that 3 Symphonies!  (7,8,9)

Thread Duty:  I am not listening to anything.   

[Mirror Image]

Sorry to say I was really disappointed with the Rattle recording in most ways - it looked like a dream issue when I ordered it. It really misses so much of the charm and tenderness of the piece (at least compared to Ansermet, or Maazel, or others), it doesn't linger where it should or catch fire where it should, the princess passes by without us realising that something marvellous has taken place, even the end didn't draw as much of a tear from me as this piece usually does. Generally it struck me as not hitting the Ravelian sweet spot bang on in the centre - which is odd, because Rattle usually manages to do that pretty well. But, of course, that's my own ears only.

Maybe you are right, Luke. I haven't had much exposure to this wonderful opera at all. The Naxos recording was excellent (to my ears) and maybe I jumped-the-gun in my response to the Rattle. I do, however, like the textures he pulls from the orchestra in this recording though, but this never is enough. It has to have drama.

[Sergeant Rock]

Moved on to Listz's Tasso and now listening to Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne, Joó, conducting the Budapest Symphony Orchestra.

Sarge

[mahler10th]

Look what I got for £5.
Charity shop.
It was in the front window.
Listening now...

[Antoine Marchand]

CD1: Piano sonatas Nos. 8 (K. 311), 5 (K. 283) & 3 (K. 281)

Fortepiano a'=430 Hz
Philip Belt, New Heaven 1977 (after Anton Walter, Vienna, ca. 1780)

Arrived this morning, as usual I have the highest expectations about Bilson here.

It's a real shame that he has never recorded for labels of wide international distribution. 

[bhodges]

Grisey: Partiels (1975, Ensemble Dal Niente, on YouTube) -- First encounter with this excellent new music group, based in Chicago. And the piece, part III of Les espaces acoustiques, makes wild listening.

Part I (of II) is here.

Update: This is a really fabulous performance...

--Bruce

[Florestan]

Moved on to Listz's Tasso and now listening to Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne, Joó, conducting the Budapest Symphony Orchestra.

Sarge

How do you like the performance?

[bhodges]

Evaristo Fernández Blanco: Obertura dramática (José Luis Temes/La Orquesta Sinfónica del CONSMUPA, on YouTube) - Interesting piece, enthusiastically performed by a very well-rehearsed student orchestra in Oviedo, Spain (thanks, Popov!).

Now, more Grisey...

Grisey: Le Noir de l'Étoile (The Black of the Star) (Les Percussions de Strasbourg)

--Bruce

[Brahmsian]

Another from the library:

Hindemith - Symphonic Metamorphosis
Schoenberg - Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op.16

Rafael Kubelik - conducting

Kodaly - Variations on a Hungarian Folksong, "The Peacock"
Bartok - Miraculous Mandarin Suite

Antal Dorati, conducting
Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Mercury Records (MONO)

Amazing disc.  Wonderful performances, that make you forget they are recorded in MONO.

[karlhenning]

I have at least 20 discs of Mercury Living Presence reissues, Ray, and they all sound beautiful!

Thread duty:

Hindemith
Octet (1958)
Berlin Soloists

[DavidRoss]

[asin]B002XDE9GI[/asin]
Op. 95

[karlhenning]

Is that David Letterman on viola?

[Brahmsian]

I have at least 20 discs of Mercury Living Presence reissues, Ray, and they all sound beautiful!

I believe this is the first one that I have listened to.  I actually checked out another Mercury Living Presence reissue from the library.  Adolphe Adam's Giselle, paired with Strauss Jr.'s Graduation Ball and Offenbach's Gaite Parisienne.

I cannot believe, that as a fan of ballet music, I have yet to hear Giselle!

[DavidRoss]

Is that David Letterman on viola?

Hah!  Paul Yarbrough.  Nice fellows...all pretty good, too, esp.  Sandy Wilson on cello.

Letterman joins them occasionally for P.D. Kewpie Bach's "Quintet for Strings and Buffoon."

[listener]

CHADWICK   Concert Overtures (on the muses)   Thalia, Euterpe, Melpomene
     The Angel of Death       Aphrodite
Nashville Symphony O.      Schermerhorn, cond.
Chadwick sounds so much better with Mercury's sound  (cf. Symphonc Sketches)
BAX    Cello Concerto      Cortège for Orchestra        Mediterranean
     Overture to a Picaresque Comedy       Northern Ballad no.3
Rafael Wallfisch, cello       London Philharmonic O.     Bryden Thomson, cond.
[asin]B000000AF3[/asin]
[asin]B000069KFF[/asin]

[mahler10th]

I was listening to some music, and was struck by it, thinking it was great.  And it was, but it turns out to be by a composer I tend to avoid because of his atonal antics.
Schoenberg - 5 Pieces for Orchestra

There must be something wrong with me....

[bhodges]

Ah, that Schoenberg is a sneaky little bastard, eh! It's all right: after a good night's sleep, you'll be fine.     

Do you know who was playing it?

--Bruce

[mahler10th]

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra - Hannu Lintu
I like it.   

[Lethevich]

[asin]B0000030JS[/asin]

Diamond's music blows hot and cold for me. It's always spirited and creative, however even in the impressive symphonies, but especially in the chamber music, there often appears to be a wilfully un-confrontational manner, a slight reticence not to be found in his contemporaries Schuman, Piston, or even Hanson (derivative or not, he goes all-out). I like it all, but I am sometimes left wondering whether this is because of the cosiness - I would love to find this music more challenging or ambitious.

This disc does contain uniformly enjoyable music well-performed, and I realise that I am picking at threads, but none the less this is the feeling I have again and again when returning to Diamond's music.