What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Coopmv]

Now playing CD4 from this set, which arrived last week ...

[listener]

Schulhoff: Concerto for String Quartet and Winds, Chamber Suite and Bourgeois Gentilomme music
Moszkowski piano 4-hands German Round Dances, Polish Folk Dances, (New) Spanish Dances and Aus Aller Herren Länder

[Bogey]

Now playing CD4 from this set, which arrived last week ...

That one remains on my hit list, Stuart.

[Coopmv]

That one remains on my hit list, Stuart.

Bill,  I have the original recording on LP, an 8-disc set.  I just enjoy Kempff virtuoso playing so much that I want to hear "cleaner" sound.  Here is original LP cover ...

[Coopmv]

Now playing this CD from my Bach collection.  This is one of my all-time favorite Bach piano/cello combo originally adapted from Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord.  Martha was just fabulous with her dazzling virtuosity on this CD ...

[Opus106]

It strikes me that Mozart was never keen on composing fugues, so i wonder if his heart was in it (assuming he did compose that bit).

Interesting comment, considering that during the last years he was studying a lot of Bach; and not to mention the ever-amazing contrapuntal sections in some of his compositions during the same time.

[Christo]

I don't find this 5th to be particularly competetive, despite the interesting couplings.

Agreed. But.

1) The couplings are really interesting, take alone that archingly beautiful gem of Psalm 23 as taken from (and adapted by some-one else, forgot his name) The Pilgrim's Progress.
2) The very dreamlike qualities of Hickox' performance make it suitable for long winter evenings.
3) The art cover helps too. 

[Que]

Fischer, Johann Caspar - Keyboard Sonatas on harpsichord; a wonderful disc - the instrument is quite 'up front' w/ a pleasant tone - might convert a 'doubter' for the music of this period played on this keyboard? 
 

Hi Dave, how is Fischer's music? It is interesting, how does it compare with others from the period?


Listening now:



(Sorry about the blurry picture, this one seems to go OOP)
Q

[Wanderer]

1) The couplings are really interesting, take alone that archingly beautiful gem of Psalm 23 as taken from (and adapted by some-one else, forgot his name) The Pilgrim's Progress.
2) The very dreamlike qualities of Hickox' performance make it suitable for long winter evenings.
3) The art cover helps too. 

Seconded.

[The new erato]

Now, what about that Vine set? It´s on my wish list...and on offer at mdt.

[Harry]

Muzio Clementi.
The complete Sonatas, Volume III. ( The London Sonatas)
Gostantino Mastroprimiano, Forte piano. (Kirckman 1798, a'= 430 Hz)
3 CD'S.

Being impressed already by the first Volumes, the third volume seems to top even those, in sheer musicality.
The instrument sounds sublime, the playing is exemplary, and the music dazzlingly beautiful.
There is so much Spiel freude, that it spatters from the player.
The price is no hindrance me thinks.
Hear for yourself.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Muzio-Clementi-S%E4mtliche-Klaviersonaten-Vol-3/hnum/2535858

[val]

BEETHOVEN:       Piano Sonata opus 10/1

- Wilhelm Kempff (1951)

My favorite version, with a deep poetry in special in the Adagio. But there are other sublime moments, among them the development and the coda of the first movement.

- Alfred Brendel
- Friedrich Gulda

Brendel gives a powerful interpretation, very dramatic, with a splendid sense of the architecture.
Gulda is more similar to Kempff, but he plays the first movement too fast, without the beauty of the details of Kempff's version.

[Harry]

Dvorak.
Symphony No.3 in E flat major, opus 10.
Scottish NO Neeme Jarvi.
Recorded in 1987, in the Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow.

From the onset when this Symphony starts you know Jarvi got the tempi right, and is extremely conscious of the inner details, and the inherent importance of it. It can make or break the coherence of this work. But all of this is beautifully realized by Jarvi and the very obedient SNO.
The engineer Ralph Couzens, is a well respected and expert craftsman if it comes to the typical Chandos sound. That said, he had quite some difficulties with the Glasgow Hall. This hall has quite some reverberation, about 5 seconds, it hardens up the beautiful brass, and obscures the inner detail which is important for this work to hear all of it. Couzens does what he can, but doesn't get it right until we are at the last movement. You hear him fiddle the buttons in every movement, none of them is sounding quite the same. In the second Symphony of this series, he gets it right in the second movement, but it is clear that it gives him quite a headache. So what to think of the overall sound? Well its adequate at all times, and when good, its really good. But a warning is in place, although artistically these are fine interpretations, the sound quality is problematic. Played on a high end stereo will get it acceptable, but when I played it on my secondary system, and on a smaller tube micro set, it becomes unacceptable, boomy and harsh, and all inner detail gone. That goes to show, that not all Chandos recordings are as good as one would wish, like in the gorgeous Martinu Cello concerti I played not to long ago.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Anton-Dvorak-Symphonie-Nr-3/hnum/5073807

[Harry]

I cannot get enough of this work, so its daily lunch.

[George]

BEETHOVEN:       Piano Sonata opus 10/1

- Wilhelm Kempff (1951)

My favorite version, with a deep poetry in special in the Adagio. But there are other sublime moments, among them the development and the coda of the first movement.

- Alfred Brendel
- Friedrich Gulda

Brendel gives a powerful interpretation, very dramatic, with a splendid sense of the architecture.
Gulda is more similar to Kempff, but he plays the first movement too fast, without the beauty of the details of Kempff's version.

Hi Val!

It seems that you are working your way through Beethoven's 32 sonatas, comparing different versions and reporting on your findings. If so, I'd like to see your final results for each of the sonatas when you are done.

[Harry]

Kurt Atterberg.
Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra opus 1.
Piano Concerto opus 37 in B flat minor.
Ballad and Passacaglia, opus 38.

Love Derwinger, Piano.
Radio Philharmonie Hannover des NDR, Ari Rasilainen.
Recorded in 2000.

Very well recorded, this often reworked opus 1 from his youth sounds splendidly mature, after he doctored for many years on this composition, of which he remarked, that it was not bad at all, considering this being his first work, totally ignorant of counterpoint, uneducated but self taught.
This work charmed me, and I could hear the sense of that remark! The Piano Concerto, a much more mature work, is a crafty and colorful extravaganza that makes me sit upright. Very well done. The top charmer is however the opus 38, a glowing magical composition, that opened many fiestas for me, and affirmed me again in considering him a composer unjustly forgotten, to me this man is a genius.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/Kurt-Atterberg-Klavierkonzert-op-37/hnum/2073531

[Cato]

As part of my mythology section for my Latin I classes, today I played Venus from Gustav Holst's The Planets.

Yesterday we listened to Mars.

The reaction ranged from: "Was that used in Star Wars?" to "I think that's in the third Harry Potter."

So now we know from where John Williams lifts (at least part of )his inspiration!

(And why do the emoticons not work for me now?)

[Catison]

As I begin to read the Walsh Stravinsky biography:

[Catison]

So now we know from where John Williams lifts (at least part of )his inspiration!

There is a important Stravinsky quote somewhere here .

BTW, the grammar Nazi in me cannot keep silent: Mr. Carter's name is misspelled in your signature. 

[Carolus]

I'am listening to Dvorak's SQs.by the Prague SQ, from 4th.on, 2 a day. Also the 4 Hubay's v.c., 2 a day.