What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Bogey]

Beethoven
Symphony No. 7
Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York/Toscanini (1936)
Naxos Historical

Good morning.

[springrite]

Very excited to see Utah Bill back, and looking forward to someday meeting DR. Brett!

Now listening: Carmen excerpts (Price, Karajan)

[marvinbrown]

Bruckner: Symphony No. 0 "Nulte" (Skrowaczewski/Saarbrücken Radio SO)

  That's the CD that got me hooked onto Bruchner.  The Nulte is a real gem! If I had it my way I'd force every conductor who is recording a Bruckner symphony cycle to include the Nulte as well!

  marvin

 

[UB]

Hello Peter - how are things in China these days? Are there any young Chinese composers that you have found worth hearing? Does the Chinese government support the arts?

Good Luck on your studies Brett but some day you are going to have to actually start working!  Are you still listening to Feldman?

Last night before going to bed I listened to two of the works that Lilas Pastia wrote about above. Erster Doppelgesang - Music for Viola, Violoncello and Orchestra from 1980 is the oldest one on the CD and for me is a perfect example of how well Rihm builds and releases tension. There is tension in the music itself and tension between the two soloists and the orchestra and themselves. I enjoy these encounters and the continuous energy of the work. However I can clearly understand if this is not what you enjoy in music than you certainly would not like this and most of Rihm's works.

Styx und Lethe - Music for Cello and Orchestra was written about 20 years later. The poor soloist plays almost all the time. Some times it seems to me fighting the orchestra and some times being part of it. I particularly enjoy the flow of this work. But again it is not for everyone - in fact I have found that Rihm's work is not for most people.

If interested in other's opinion the Amazon reviews of the CD are here: http://snipurl.com/3tc5z  [www_amazon_com]

This mornings listening is the music of Samuel Zyman - Sollioquio. I do wish there were more recordings of this composer's music.

[Keemun]

Rachmaninov: Trio Elegiaque No. 2 (Beaux Arts Trio - Live Concert at the Library of Congress, 1986)

[Harry]

Sir William Sterndale Bennett. (1816-1875)

Symphony in G minor, opus 43.
World premiere recording.
Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, Douglas Bostock.

This Mendelsohnian work is unproblematic, and graced with a good tune now and then, and sprouts optimism in abundance! No wonder, he was friend and pupil of the said composer, and you may hear that regularly. Schumann is a regular guest in this composition too.
In its time it had a regular place in the British musical society, and was admired by many. The booklet is overly enthusiastic about Bennett, and is too much in the praising business, as to give you a fair assessment of the work. Its nice, conservative, sometimes undernourished in terms of the lack of inventive melodies, and lackluster in performance, but that is in part Bostocks boring conducting.
So all in all, it was cheap, so no dead duck to eat. I will not return to this one regularly.
Sound is placid.

[Kullervo]

Rautavaara - Symphony No. 7, Angels and Visitations (Koivula/RSNO)
Diamond - Concerto for String Quartet, String Quartets No. 3 and 8 (Potomac SQ)

[mahler10th]

Corey:  Rautavaara - Symphony No. 7, Angels and Visitations (Koivula/RSNO)

I am interested in this Corey.  Can you give me an idea what Rautavaara sounds like and how the RSNO deal with it?  It's next on my 'to get' list.

[Catison]

Good Luck on your studies Brett but some day you are going to have to actually start working!  Are you still listening to Feldman?

Well, I also recently got married, so I am reminded of my eminent employment more often.

I haven't listened to Feldman since December.  I still love his music, but of course I have to explore the other reaches of music history.  I am currently going through the Simpson symphonies.

This morning my program is:

Gyorgy Ligeti - Violin Concerto
Charles Ives - Symphony No. 4
Robert Simpson - Symphony No. 10

Oh how I love the Ives symphony, which was the first piece I ever heard by him.  When things really start getting haywire in the first and fourth movements, I enter a short state of noiseful bliss.  I feel sorry for the people who don't like this stuff.

[Dundonnell]

Mentioned this boxed set before but I have finally got around to listening to the extended excerpts from Landowski's Ballet "Le Fantome de l'Opera".

Quite superb, dramatic, beautiful music!! Nothing at all of Gallic frivolity here Grand, impressive stuff!

Landowski is a French composer whose music-through this marvellous(and cheap!) boxed set- is growing on my rapidly. Probably not as fine a composer as Dutilleux but definitely amongst the very best of post-war French composers!

Please investigate for yourselves!

[karlhenning]

Well, I also recently got married, so I am reminded of my eminent employment more often.

Imminent? 

[Harry]

Cipriani Potter. (1792-1871)

Symphony No. 7 in F major.
World premiere recording.
Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, Douglas Bostock.

A nice enough Symphony, with some good melodies, but Bostocks ruins it by playing it as Grandpa did when he was 160.
It sounds quite dead, although people are actually playing it.
What a missed chance. For I hear lots what is worth discovering.

[Dundonnell]

I am interested in this Corey.  Can you give me an idea what Rautavaara sounds like and how the RSNO deal with it?  It's next on my 'to get' list.

Oh yes, you should definitely investigate Rautavaara's music, John!! And much of it can now be obtained cheaply in the ongoing Naxos series with the RSNO-by and large, good to very good performances.

I would recommend the Symphony No.3-which when I first heard it made me catch my breath in amazement thinking that I had put a Bruckner symphony into my machine by mistake and Symphonies Nos. 7-9 which are typical of later Rautavaara-warm, romantic, beautiful music which envelops one in a marvellous sound world. The Violin Concerto, Flute Concerto, "Isle of Bliss" and any works with the word "Angels" in its title
are all very worth hearing.

Not 'demanding' music in any way(which has led some to be critical or dismissive of the composer) but he is far too fine a craftsman to be lumped with some other contemporary composers who have opted for neo-romanticism.

[Dundonnell]

Imminent? 

Could be "eminent"

[Subotnick]

I've just watched the final edition of Early Music which was broadcast a few months back on BBC4. It was most enjoyable. The highlight for me was the countertenor Robin Blaze. He sang some Dowland and Purcell. He has a beautiful, dare I say enchanting voice that stopped me in my tracks. I was pottering about at the time. As soon as the show ended, I headed straight for Google and found this to listen to online:



Only a few minutes into the second track and it's already in my Amazon basket!   I can see this becoming very special to me.

TTFN.
Me.

[karlhenning]

Quite superb, dramatic, beautiful music!! Nothing at all of Gallic frivolity here

Nothing for the frou-frou claque?  

Could be "eminent"

Oh, I am trusting so!

[Dundonnell]

No "frou-frou" or "chi-chi" No absolutely not

[Keemun]

Bach: Cello Suites (Yo-Yo Ma, 1982)  0:)

[Kullervo]

I am interested in this Corey.  Can you give me an idea what Rautavaara sounds like and how the RSNO deal with it?  It's next on my 'to get' list.

Dundonnell said it better than I could as I am only familiar with this disc, but these two pieces have an accessible "top level" that is immediately appealing, but there are many things bubbling underneath this shiny surface that keep it from being facile and boring. I will definitely get the rest of the cycle.

[Drasko]

Symphony No.2 in f-minor (1900)
Beautifully tuneful full-fledged romantic piece, at turns vigorous and nostalgic. Know next to nothing of composer, it says he was titled Cesar Franck of Brittany but to me symphony is more reminiscent of russian romantics than french, echoes of Tchaikovsky in the Scherzo, melancholic Adagio with prominent horn solos of Borodin. All in all quite enjoyable. Short clip here.
5th Symphony made lesser impression initially, but will give it another go.

edit: written in 1900 not 1990