What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Haffner]

No one who can play Paganini well would need to appear in a circus. The music may not have that much "depth", but it is musically more complex and nuanced than you can grasp (or that your textbooks tell you). So it does have room for a soloist to display his/her musical wit and flexibility. Or not.

I'm not sure that sound67 meant that part about Paganini as a straightforward assertion. Obviously you are right, Paganini's music (I'm thinking i Capricci and Concerti) was certainly clever, and had more than a fair amount of wit. Of course, it's hard for me to to just leave the instrumental/technical mastery out of the equation.

Many of the slower parts during the Caprices showed a terrrific amount of sensitivity...though again centered overwhelmingly on the violin.

The circus music thing...maybe he meant as in being a bit of a "freak-y" show in terms of Paganini's virtuosity?

[rubio]

Some of Böhm's Mozart. How does his BP recordings compare to his WP recordings for the Mozart symphonies?

[SonicMan46]

Some new arrivals from several of Johann's sons:

Bach, CPE (1714-1788) - Harpsichord Concertos w/ Ludger Remy & Les Amis de Philippe on the CPO label - CPE apparently wrote well over 3 dozen of these keyboard concertos - just 4 on this disc clocking in @ 65 mins - despite owning a lot of his music, this is my first exposure to these works on harpsichord!

Bach, JC (1735-1782) - Woodwind Concertos, Vol. 1 w/ Anthony Halstead & Hanover Band; three works each featuring the oboe, flute, & bassoon - delightful; only complaint is that the disc is just 48 mins long - poor showing for the CPO label - there is a 2nd volume, which I'd love to own but will first check the timing - 


 

[George]

PC #3

[ChamberNut]

Tchaikovsky

Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48

Riccardo Muti
Philadelphia Orchestra
Brilliant Classics

[rubio]

Shostakovich by Mravinsky. I really like 11th and especially the 15th. The 12th on the other hand I haven't cracked yet.

[Keemun]

Nielsen: Symphony No. 4 (Schonwandt/Danish National Radio SO)

[mozartsneighbor]

This is very fine Haydn from Pogorelich.
He is playing here in Vienna soon, but I have read in several places already that his playing has gotten quite eccentric lately, and bears little resemblance to his artistry back in the 1980s and 90s. So I think I am skipping that. Any contradictory reports on that?

[George]

Debussy
Preludes Book Two
Michelangeli
DG

[Sergeant Rock]

Hindemith
Symphonia serena
Philharmonia Orchestra
the composer conducting

Don't yet know this one so well as I should like . . . .

Was listening to that yesterday and had to repeat the Geschwindmarsch several times, and then had to hear the original Beethoven here:



Donned my Pickelhaube and marched around the house all evening 

Sarge

[George]

Debussy
Children's Corner
Michelangeli
DG

[George]

Debussy
Images - Books I, II
Moravec
VOX

[M forever]

Neither can you, apparently.  0:) Otherwise, why would you're working in that demeaning job your're doing now? 

Apparently, I can. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to to play in some fairly high-profile ensembles in younger years. An experience I wouldn't want to have missed, although I felt the need to move on to different things. Playing in orchestras is great fun and I highly respect those who are really good at it, but it's not what I ultimately wanted to do in my life. My current job is far from "demeaning". It is highly challening and satisfying (and very well paid, thanks, boss). I work for the top company in my industry in the US. You just read about films and film productions. We work for and with them (among other fun things).

BTW, you never told us what you actually do, I think. **offensive remark removed** That would be interesting to know.

Playing "beyond" the notes is just straying into self-indulgence, as any GOOD orchestral and chamber player would tell you. It's all there in the score.

Again, how would you know? From what others have told you or what you have read? There is much that is not in the score. Even if the performer attempts to take all instructions as literally as possible, there is still a lot of room for what people call "interpretation". And in the framework of a given interpretation, there is a lot of nuances and possible stylistic variations which make playing music a very complex craft. That is something that people not trained and experienced in that craft apparently can't understand.

[Wanderer]

[Keemun]

[karlhenning]

Brahms
Ein deutsches Requiem, Opus 45
Lucia Popp
Wolfgang Brendel
Prague Philharmonic Chorus
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Giuseppe Sinopoli

[rickardg]

John Corigliano
Mr. Tambourine Man: 7 Poems of Bob Dylan
Hila Plitmann, soprano
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra/JoAnn Falletta

Beautiful and dramatic music with classic lyrics coupled with singing very much to my taste makes this a thoroughly enjoyable recording.

Again.

This is turning out to be a new favourite of mine. I like the mid-part best where the ominous "Blowing in the Wind" (How many roads must a man walk down? Corigliano's music seems to suggest a very large number indeed as opposed to Dylan's stroll around the block.) is followed by a suitably violent "Masters of War" and a deliriously confused "All along the Watchtower". The postlude "Forever Young" is a serene cathartic ending. The remaining songs ("Clothes Line" and "Chimes of Freedom") don't grip me that much but it could be because I don't know the lyrics as well.

I wondered how the soprano voice could sound so relaxed and intimate even in the more dramatic passages, a perusal of the notes reveals that the part is specified as 'amplified soprano'.

[Kullervo]

Arthur Bliss - Violin Concerto (Bliss/BBCSO/Campoli) [thanks Dundonnell]
RVW - A Pastoral Symphony, Symphony No. 4 (Haitink/London Phil)

First listen to Bliss's music.

[karlhenning]

RVW - A Pastoral Symphony, Symphony No. 4 (Haitink/London Phil)

This was the first Haitink/RVW I ever had; very nice!

[Haffner]

Hmmm..the Boulez Mahler 3rd. VERrrrry interrresstink!