What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Catison]

Another former RSNO chief conductor that I don't typically like but who seems to do a better job than usual here. The Enfant perhaps lacks some subtlety but I think it does capture the spirit of the piece well; I also really enjoy the recording of the Divertissement, though I'd love to hear it under a different orchestra and conductor. The Andante and Symphonic Song are lesser works and I think given rather tentative performances here.

For a long time this recording was practically the only way to hear the full version of The Prodigal Son, and it certainly has remained the only available recording of Divertissement.  I find all this music really charming, and the Divertissement is a riot.  It was one of the first Prokofiev discs I really went wild for.

David Wilson-Johnson is, I think, a little too English (for want of a better term) for A Survivor from Warsaw's good (not that this work lacks good recordings) but I liked him in Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte; however the main interest for me was Rolf Schulte in the violin concerto. On first listening, it's a weighty, romantic, generally rather slow reading (in contrast to Hahn/Salonen's recent hyper-swift traveral), though I found Craft's direction perhaps a little staid. I'll definitely have to give this one more attention, though.

This recording, in its previous Koch incarnation, was what sold me on Schoenberg.  Specifically the Violin Concerto was absolutely stunning.  The original coupling was with Schoenberg's orchestration of Brahms' Op. 25 and I bought the CD for that.  I loved the Brahms and kept listening to the concerto and my enthusiasm carried over.  I have not been the same since.

[pjme]

Cool! excellent music to finish the evening. ( strangely, one can buy this disc now at Media Market, Saturn, Carrefour...for 7 or 8 €....)

I really must get the violinconcerto, however - haven't heard it in ages...

P.

[donaldopato]

A classic: Mahler Das Lied von der Erde Walter NYP with Mildred Miller and Ernst Häflinger.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Fourth quartet.

[Que]

A very good morning to all!



Q

[knight66]

Yet again Rego, you have stumped me!

I have loaded my brand new Gergiev Mahler 7 onto my Ipod and hope to get a chance at it later this morning, also the music from the film 'Joe Black'. I saw it years ago and was convinced I was hearing some Arvo Part music. However it was written, or ripped off, by the film music composer Thomas Newman. I will see how the disc sounds, I got it for next to nothing; so if it is bunk, no matter.

Mike

[Harry]

Good morning all!

From the Gustav Leonhardt box, this disc.
J.S. Bach.
Cantates.
Wer weiss wie nahe mir mein Ende ist, BWV 27.
O, ewiges Feuer, O, ursprung der Libe, BWV 34.
Jesu, nun sei gepreiset, BWV 41.
Markus Schafer, Tenor.
Harry van der Kamp, Bass.
Tolzer Knabenchor & Baroque Orchestra, Gustav Leonhardt.

Beautiful Cantates especially No. 34 is a firm favorite of mine. I have no complains about the recording nor the performance, but still a few minor points to mention are in order. The boys from the Tolzer Knabenchor are a bad choice for the solo parts. Why? Because they sing off key most of the time, and that is a major annoyance. In the Aria, Willkommen will ich sagen sung by Jonas Will, Alto, from No. 27, is a case in point, but the soprano voices are a pain also. Well I have to sit through it, but I am not happy with this recording.

[Wanderer]

Good morning, everyone! 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Egon Wellesz, Symphony No.1, op.62 (Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gottfried Rabl/CPO)

My second listen, courtesy of Dundonnell. Serious music. His writing for woodwind is magical. Wellesz' idiom is a strange mixture, rather stern and dry counterpoint next to late Romantic emotion. I like it a lot.

Oh, and good morning, everyone!

[Harry]

From the big box of Leonhardt, this disc. And I enjoy it, rather rich in expression. Second time this morning.

[pjme]

Egon Wellesz, Symphony No.1, op.62 (Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gottfried Rabl/CPO)

My second listen, courtesy of Dundonnell. Serious music. His writing for woodwind is magical. Wellesz' idiom is a strange mixture, rather stern and dry counterpoint next to late Romantic emotion. I like it a lot.

Oh, and good morning, everyone!

Good morning!
well said Johan! I'm listening again to Wellesz violinconcerto.
( and I must not forget to buy tickets for RVW "Hodie " in Eindhoven!)

Peter

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Good morning!
well said Johan! I'm listening again to Wellesz violinconcerto.
( and I must not forget to buy tickets for RVW "Hodie " in Eindhoven!)

Peter

Hi, Peter! On the Egon Wellesz thread I have written more extensively...

Now listening to

Vagn Holmboe, Symphony No. 6 (Owain Arwel Hughes/BIS)

At last, at last... After reading about Holmboe many many years ago in Paul Rapoport's study Opus est, and after being alerted to this composer again by Christo, in 1995, who had even visited the composer in his native Denmark, this symphony spoke to me from the moment go. I always found Holmboe a bit too spare and bare, but this work is marvellous. Holmboe, as strange as it may sound, sounds like Stravinsky AND Shostakovich, Nielsen AND Sibelius combined! A quite extraordinary feat, but I can hear all four of them seamlessly integrated. This is, indeed, a major symphonist. I think I have cracked the Holmboe code. After 28 years.

[Harry]

This disc from Leonhardt's big box.
A delightful assembly of the opus 5 works. Beautifully performed and recorded.

[Harry]

Hi, Peter! On the Egon Wellesz thread I have written more extensively...

Now listening to

Vagn Holmboe, Symphony No. 6 (Owain Arwel Hughes/BIS)

At last, at last... After reading about Holmboe many many years ago in Paul Rapoport's study Opus est, and after being alerted to this composer again by Christo, in 1995, who had even visited the composer in his native Denmark, this symphony spoke to me from the moment go. I always found Holmboe a bit too spare and bare, but this work is marvellous. Holmboe, as strange as it may sound, sounds like Stravinsky AND Shostakovich, Nielsen AND Sibelius combined! A quite extraordinary feat, but I can hear all four of them seamlessly integrated. This is, indeed, a major symphonist. I think I have cracked the Holmboe code. After 28 years.

Hmmm, I bought it, and it conquered me right away!
What code exactly?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Hmmm, I bought it, and it conquered me right away!
What code exactly?

Lucky you! On the other hand, I have a dozen symphonies (iirc) yet to explore... 

[marvinbrown]

  Some chamber music for this after noon.  I'm playing CD No.3 which features String Quartet Op.18 no.3 in D major, String Quartet Op.18 no.5 in A major and String Quartet in F minor, Op.95 "Serioso"  0:)!

 

  marvin

[karlhenning]

Nielsen
Symphony No. 4, Det uudslukkelige
Royal Scottish Orchestra
Bryden Thomson

[The new erato]

It's uudslukkelige, Karl...  (I'll remove this after your correction...)

uudslukkelige = inextinguishable

uudslukkelige = incloseable (or something like that)

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

uudslukkelige = inextinguishable

uudslukkelige = incloseable (or something like that)

You mean uudlukkelige! 

[karlhenning]

It's uudslukkelige, Karl...  (I'll remove this after your correction...)

I knew there's an s there . . . typo.

Thanks, Johan!