What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Brian]

Writing about this new release for my next MusicWeb review:

[Scarpia]

Writing about this new release for my next MusicWeb review:

I sense something amiss here.

[Opus106]

I sense something amiss here.

Quite true. Why would a violist, of all instrumentalists, be allowed to conduct an orchestra? That's simply nuts!

Thread Duty: K. 551: Mackerras, Prague CO.

[greg]

I cannot answer to the Kitaenko version, Harry;  but Ozawa's account of the second is much better than Järvi's.

I wonder, if Prokofiev had heard the piece performed as well as in the Ozawa/Berliner Philharmoniker recording, perhaps he would not have suffered any doubt as to the worth of the Second Symphony . . . .

That's exactly what I thought yesterday after hearing Rozhdestvensky's recording for the first time. I kinda fell asleep around the end of it, but the beginning sounds like a complete mess in comparison to Ozawa, who does it just right. Such a shame Prokofiev probably never heard a really good performance like this one.

[Henk]

Thread duty:

Dallapiccola
Tartiniana
Due pezzi
Piccola musica notturna
BBC Phil
Noseda

Dallapiccola – Tartiniana; Due Pezzi; Variazioni per orchestra; Piccola musica notturna; Frammenti sinfonici dal balle

Do you like it? It's a bit boring imo.

[karlhenning]

Like it so far.  It is the sort of music I would not generally listen to the entire disc at once.

And hence . . . Thread duty:

RVW
Symphony № 8
London Phil
Haitink

[Franco]

Falla: Complete Piano Music I
Daniel Ligorio

[Keemun]

Glazunov
Violin Concerto
Ilya Kaler, violin
Camilla Kolchinsky
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra

[Harry]

If there's an Immerseel Fan Club I'd be tempted to join it. Just listening now to the Polovtsian dances, and revelling in the near-vibrato-less strings and the raunchy, scrunchy brass. Rock ON, Jos!

Agreed! I treasure that disc for almost 4 months now, and it still gets me on the edge of my seat.

[karlhenning]

If there's an Immerseel Fan Club I'd be tempted to join it. Just listening now to the Polovtsian dances, and revelling in the near-vibrato-less strings and the raunchy, scrunchy brass. Rock ON, Jos!

Agreed! I treasure that disc for almost 4 months now, and it still gets me on the edge of my seat.

Well, I am interested, chaps.

[Harry]

Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf.

Sacred Works.
Requiem in C minor.
Offertorium zu Ehren des Heiligen Johann von Nepomuk.
Lauretanische Litanei.

Hanna Farinelli, Sopran, Birgit Calm, Alt, Heiner Hopfner, Tenor.Nikolaus Hillebrand, Bass.
Regensburger Domspatzen, Consortium Musicum Munchen, Georg Ratzinger.

Dittersdorf was friends with Mozart and Haydn, and Vanhal, played with them together on a regular basis. Vanhal,  Mozart and Haydn thought highly of Dittersdorf's compositions.  So whatever people think of this composer and deriding his good name and his capacities as a composer should think twice before uttering remarks that hold no ground. Dittersdorf preferred to compose instrumental and stage works, but the composition of church music also belonged to his duties as Kapellmeister of a Prince-bishop. And although the recorded works may not have the dramatic impact as its fellow composers, its never the less worth my time and effort anytime. All three works on this disc shows Ditterdorf in fine stead, its well composed and well thought out, and can hold its ground with all that was composed at his time. I liked the lucid and straightforward approach that Dittersdorf took, and it brings rewards in many ways. The performance is good to very good, but there where some odd things going on, when recorded.

[Harry]

This disc of Smetana is remarkable in many ways. First of all the sound is spectacular, and the works performed, well I never heard it any better. This is a jewel of a disc.

[Harry]

Another winner for sure is this disc, again superb sound, and the works so well performed, that I regularly had to replay some parts, just for the pleasure of listening to it.
I am and was always a great admirer of Dutilleux works.

[Keemun]

I'm still feeding my late-Romantic craving. 

Schmidt
Symphony No. 1
Neeme Jarvi
Detroit Symphony Orchestra

[karlhenning]

I am and was always a great admirer of Dutilleux works.

Splendid, Harry!

[Harry]

This disc came very cheap from JPC, together with a few others on the label Symphonia, and I played it for the first time as the last CD before sleeping. Works by Anthony Holborne, John Adson, Thomas Simpson, played by a group of very dedicated authentic musicians, in superb sound. I fine achievement any time, this disc stands out as special for me. I was listening to it with increasing pleasure, and could not help myself pushing the repeat three times.
Recommended.

[Henk]

SQ op. 74, 95

[George]

Chopin
Etudes, Waltzes
Fiorentino

[Henk]

NP:

[Elgarian]

Quoting Harry on the Immerseel Scheherezade:
I treasure that disc for almost 4 months now, and it still gets me on the edge of my seat.


Well, I am interested, chaps.

It's worthy of your interest Karl.

Harry, do you have this one?


It came in the same parcel and I'm listening to it now, fascinated.

Both Scheherezade and Symphonie Fantastique were among the very first few pieces of classical music I 'discovered' at the age of sixteen, and I'd have thought the odds were rather against rediscovering such well-known old favourites now, 40-odd years on. But this Berlioz promises to make me listen anew just as much as the Rimski-Korsakov. It's really quite exhilarating!