What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[DavidRoss]

Schumann, Kinderszenen, Horowitz -- good enough to make me a believer.  Lovely, delicate, sensitive, deft.  How wonderful that an artist who really "gets" a piece can help us to get it, too. 

[SonicMan46]

A small order from BRO earlier in the week - just getting a chance to listen to a few:

Scharwenka, Xaver (1850-1924) - Solo Piano Works, Vols. 2 & 4 w/ Seta Tanyel - just missing Vol. 1 from this series, which was licensed from the now defunct Collins Classics label (excellent sound - recorded in the early to mid-1990s); BRO is selling 3 of these volumes for $5 each! 

CLICK on Vol. 2 for some comments from Scott Morrison - he registered a 4*/5 rating.

 

[Lethevich]

Hey there! I've been looking at getting, via eMusic, Dvorak's Requiem (Ancerl). Do you have that one? How is this one? Which piece should I start off with?

The Requiem is a bit weaker than the Stabat Mater, unfortunately. The only movement I can recall is the Dies Irae, which isn't anything to write home about...

[Keemun]

Hey there! I've been looking at getting, via eMusic, Dvorak's Requiem (Ancerl). Do you have that one? How is this one? Which piece should I start off with?

I've had my eye on that for a while, but decided to get the Stabat Mater instead because I was more impressed with the samples I heard. 

The Requiem is a bit weaker than the Stabat Mater, unfortunately. The only movement I can recall is the Dies Irae, which isn't anything to write home about...

That's good to know.  I'll probably wait on getting the Requiem. 

[Lethevich]

That's good to know.  I'll probably wait on getting the Requiem. 

He wrote so much choral music which is barely known that I am unsure whether the SM was a fluke, but I doubt it. Perhaps I was being harsh on the requiem, which, to be fair, has recieved fewer good performances than the SM. There are also a late mass and Te Deum (contemporary with the Requiem) which I should probably look into sometime...

[Keemun]

[karlhenning]

LvB
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Opus 68 Pastorale
Leipzig Gewandhaus
Masur

Sergei Sergeyevich
Symphony No. 6 in E-flat Minor, Opus 111
Berliner Philharmoniker
Ozawa

[Brian]

The Requiem is a bit weaker than the Stabat Mater, unfortunately. The only movement I can recall is the Dies Irae, which isn't anything to write home about...

I've had my eye on that for a while, but decided to get the Stabat Mater instead because I was more impressed with the samples I heard. 

Thanks guys, looks like I'll be Mating first 

[DavidRoss]

Siegfried, disc 3-4 of the Solti recording, then on to Götterdämmerung, for the conclusion of this wholesome family entertainment.  When does the Disney version come out?

[karlhenning]

Siegfried, disc 3-4 of the Solti recording, then on to Götterdämmerung, for the conclusion of this wholesome family entertainment.  When does the Disney version come out?

Gosh, Dave, you remind me that I just haven't been in the humor to try the Ring, after finding Rheingold, well, a bit thick.

[prémont]

I just haven't been in the humor to try the Ring, after finding Rheingold, well, a bit thick.

I just received my 14th set of Wagner's "Ring":

Wagner: Das Rheingold (Sym des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Haitink, EMI 2CDs)

Wagner: Die Walkure (Sym des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Haitink, EMI 4CDs)

Wagner: Siegfried Sym des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Haitink, EMI 4CDs)

Wagner: Gotterdammerung Sym des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Haitink, EMI 4CDs)

Karl, you have got something to learn from this guy. 

[DavidRoss]

Gosh, Dave, you remind me that I just haven't been in the humor to try the Ring, after finding Rheingold, well, a bit thick.

Well, the whole thing is rather...ponderous, even turgid at times...but if you can just turn off your mind and drift along with it, and accept the tuneless singing as if it were an artifact of the age, like a Greek chorus, then the virtues appear as delightful surprises--and they are more abundant than Rossini's calculus would predict.  The trouble is that once I've attained the appropriately vacant, dreamy state of mind, I tend to fall asleep.  Of course, this serves to remind me of yet another facet of Little Dicky's far-reaching "genius," for when experienced in the proper theatrical environment designed by the Master himself at Bayreuth, drowsiness is dispelled by the painful discomfort of the hard wooden seats.

[Lilas Pastia]

Dvorak's Stabat Mater is indeed a glorious work. A mite overstaying its welcome, but a great religious work all the same. The cyclical use of the march from the first movement is a great idea. That Smetacek version (Supraphon) is the best. Closely followed by Kosler's.

IMO the Requiem is even better. The Dies irae is my favorite movement. I love the way it starts: menacing timpani roll followed by the stern main theme, a descending scale on Dies irae, dies illa, solvet saeclum cum favilla, set on a swaying rythm (reminiscent of Berlioz' Lacrymosa). Speed and dynamics increase, generating great excitement. I love it. Ancerl is the best by far. That's one of those legendary records that has not been surpassed.

[lukeottevanger]

I've never been as drawn to the Requiem as to the Stabat Mater, but the former is a major work, significant in itself and for Czech music after. Its main, inward-turning chromatic motive became something of an idee fixe for, (for example) Josef Suk, whose Asrael Symphony uses it extensively (as is appropriate for a work which is in part a Requiem for Dvorak)

[SonicMan46]

Well, 'finishing off' the order I mentioned earlier in a post from today; now listening to:

Moszkowski, Moritz (1854-1925) - Solo Piano Works, Vol. 2 w/ Seta Tanyel - own Vol. 3, but not the first one; Tanyel is excellent in resurrecting this late Romantic piano music of these long forgotten pianists/composers; again, a great $5 BRO bargain!

Fischer, Johann Caspar (1656-1746) - Le Journal du Printemps (Orchestral Suites) w/ L'Orfeo Barockorchester & Michi Gaigg - first introduction to this composer for me - delightful Baroque overture/dance suite music in the French Lullist style w/ German influences - 

 

[Kullervo]

[Lethevich]

Kancheli - Symphony No.5 (MacMillan, BBC Philharmonic, 2008)

This demonstrates one of the most amazing things about the net - the ability to record/download broadcasted music which would otherwise have been permenently lost in the aether. It is so valuble to have another recording of such a relatively under-recorded work such as this. The performance being live rather than studio can only enhance a work such as this. I had forgotten how crushing this work is, especially given how boring the composer became later on - it tainted my opinion of him, which I am working on reversing thanks to this.

Dvorak's Stabat Mater is indeed a glorious work. A mite overstaying its welcome, but a great religious work all the same.

I am a bit torn about whether to think that or not, as without the monumentality the length gives, I am not sure whether it could be treated in the same way...

[greg]

Calvin, I admire your devotion to that cause!

While I labored at the Wal-Mart checkouts today, the Dvorak "American" Quartet swirled around my head almost endlessly, interrupted only by snippets from Tchaikovsky's First Quartet and a thoroughly original composition of my own devising depicting a sunrise, involving an intensive viola solo, some smashing modulations, and apparently nothing to prevent me from forgetting the whole thing five minutes later.

ha........ i once tried "writing" a score in my head (visualizing the exact notes, too), but it's so much work to memorize it that i just gave up.

[Lilas Pastia]

Beethoven Overtures with the LPO under van Beinum (Decca, late forties). Expert conducting, expert playing by the LPO (considering the dates, it should be Malcolm Arnold leading the trumpet section). Feeble timpani, otherwise exciting and very musical. Van Beinum is of the brisk, no-nonsense school of conducting, but that also means he's not going to bring out the human drama, the philosophical substratum of works like Coriolan and Egmont. The former is nervous, tense, but without the fullness Karajan brings to it, or the awesome grandeur of the WP under Böhm. The Egmont is similarly spic and span without being overwhelming as the music cries out to be. Unimpeachable, but Abbado, Böhm and Fricsay immediately spring to mind  when considering altenratives that justify my thinking of this as a condensed version of the 5th symphony.

Slowly going through the big Decca box of Vivaldi (40 discs). The 24 violin sonatas (one or two violins, 4 discs) are a revelation. I already have another version HIP, with Reitman) of Op 1 and 2, but this one with Accardo brings out the extraordinary resemblance of intent - if not musical language - with the Bach sonatas. Movements are a Grave (Prelude) followed by an assortment of dances - allemandes, gigues, courantes, etc. Accardo has a pure, ruby-like tone that is just perfect for the music. I'm less taken with the familiar droopy style of I Musici in the concertos (La Cetra is palying as I write). They have been done more imaginatively since.

Hindemith: Clarinet concerto. I didn't know this work, and that was my loss. It's a hugely interesting one.

[Wanderer]