What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[listener]

done:
BALFE   The Bohemian Girl       Central City Opera  1978 live performance.
     Great fun, cross of Victorian operetta and Verdi.     I'll look now for the Laurel and Hardy parody.
prepping for a live concert this weekend:
STRAVINSKY:  The Rite of Spring,   4 Études for Orchestra       Boulez conducting
RIMSKY-KORSAKOFF   Scheherezade        Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic
C.P.E.BACH  Quartet in G for Harpsichord, Flute, Violin, Cello, Trio in b for flute, violin and continuo,
    Flute Sonata in D,  Flute - Violin duo in e,  Solfeggietto for harpsichord
   Kurt Redel, flute,  Irmgard Lechner, harpsichord,   Ulrich Grehling, violin

[Brian]

After a year or two of finding it somewhat hostile territory, Atterberg's Sixth just "clicked" for me. Rasilainen on cpo. At last I will now be able to add it to the list of Atterberg's symphonies that I really love, along with Nos 3, 4 and 8. 7 still occupies the "not quite sure why it's doing that" territory which the Sixth dwelt in until today, and I just don't know enough about 1, 2, 5, and 9 yet to decide on them.

[listener]

listener, what you just chain your crusty vinyl lps all day & night or what?!?

A lot of LPs play about 45 min. total, so it's possible to get several listened to in a session, and they are still playable unlike the CD's I've  had to discard because of bronze rot.
I have to allow 3 - 4 hours for some medication side effects to pass, so I pass the time in the morning listening to discs I bought years ago and maybe heard but without a lot of attention.   And local TV is terrible (I'm not on cable) so I have the evenings available when a video or book hasn't taken my attention.

[Philoctetes]

Giulini with the WP in Bruckner's 2nd (1877)

[Brian]

Oh my gosh. This is so bad that it's actually funny. Part of me feels guilty laughing, though, because does my bemusement disrespect Bruckner? But then the other part of me says it's okay because Roger Norrington is the one disrespecting Bruckner.

[Sergeant Rock]

Oh my gosh. This is so bad that it's actually funny. Part of me feels guilty laughing, though, because does my bemusement disrespect Bruckner? But then the other part of me says it's okay because Roger Norrington is the one disrespecting Bruckner.

When I bought Norrington's Bruckner (3, 4, 6, 7), I thought to myself: 3 and 6 will probably work (in a Bizarro World kind of way); what Norrington does with 4 will be totally alien to me but it might just possibly work too; but 7 will be a complete disaster. I haven't listened to 7 yet but I see my predication might turn out to be right 

Sarge

[Brian]

When I bought Norrington's Bruckner (3, 4, 6, 7), I thought to myself: 3 and 6 will probably work (in a Bizarro World kind of way); what Norrington does with 4 will be totally alien to me but it might just possibly work too; but 7 will be a complete disaster. I haven't listened to 7 yet but I see my predication might turn out to be right 

Sarge

I actually like the way he blazes through the first movement's second subject, that goofy dance for the winds. But there's this sort of feeling of guilt, like, You shouldn't be enjoying that, Brian, you know you shouldn't, probably heightened by the fact that everything else made my eyes (ears?) pop out in disbelief.

[Sergeant Rock]

I actually like the way he blazes through the first movement's second subject, that goofy dance for the winds. But there's this sort of feeling of guilt, like, You shouldn't be enjoying that, Brian, you know you shouldn't, probably heightened by the fact that everything else made my eyes (ears?) pop out in disbelief.

We should send a copy to John just to see what his avatar would look like   

Sarge

[listener]

ps - perhaps someone should teach you how to properly care and store your cds so they don't get "bronze rot". 

It was a production problem, not a storage one.   I keep CD's in their jewel boxes.
For detailed info. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_bronzing
PDO replaced several discs for me, and as they were (then high-priced) Hyperion and other labels I thought that that was exceptional customer service.

[Drasko]

STRAVINSKY:  The Rite of Spring,   4 Études for Orchestra       Boulez conducting

Iteresting, always wanted to hear Boulez' first Rite with Orchestre National de l'ORTF but it is very difficult to find on CD. Remember reading some reviews claiming that it is scrappier played but more aggressive and exciting than his later Cleveland recordings. He got some very fine playing from Orchestre National some years later for stravinsky's Le Chant du rossignol.

[Conor71]

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 29 In Bb Major, Op. 106, "Hammerklavier"



Have been working my through this set the last few days and liking most it - not too keen on the live sound of the Hammerklavier but think the performance is good .

[Lethevich]

For some reason I can never play the Jealousy overture just once, it must have multiple listenings. The way the motto re-states at the end is incredible and overall the piece is gem-like. It is both of an substantial length, but also not long enough, I want more On my first listen a long time ago I couldn't get past how sparse it was, but this is what gives it such power.

[Coopmv]

Now playing this CD, which arrived yesterday from MDT ...

[Antoine Marchand]

CD24:

Schubert - Piano Sonatas D840 & D958, German Dances D783
Alfred Brendel
Recorded: 1968, Vienna
Licensed by Sheridan Square Entertainment Inc.
Originally released by Vanguard Classics

[Opus106]

Is that a picture of a pair of spectacles displayed on the side of the box?

[listener]

prepping for live concert with STRAVINSKY   The Rite of Spring  in a 2-piano version
+  Concerto for 2 Pianos,  Sonata for 2 Pianos      Benjamin Frith and Peter Hill
I noticed some unusual orchestration details in the score (won't be heard in this version): the 4th oboe doubles on English horn, a 3rd clarinet doubles on bass clarinet, 4th bassoon doubles on contrabassoon providing 2nd English horn, a 2nd bass clarinet and 2nd contrabassoon.    8 horns is not unusual if you've heard Bruckner.
and for variety ROUSSEL  Évocations  (3rd mvt requires a chorus)  Résurrection
Capitôle de Toulouse   Michel Plasson, cond.
Évocations  recalls a voyage to India, and whets the appetite for a listen to Padmâtavi

[Conor71]

Puccini: La Boheme
This version (as part of the EMI boxset):



First time listening to this work - quite lovely .

[Que]

Weird: Don without activity for 5 days, Q during 4 days. Are the GMGers being abducted? 

I was away for a midweek in Paris for a healthy dose of Art, delicious French cuisine, the good life...
Nice that my absence has been noticed - I missed you all too!! 



See my comments HERE.

Q

[val]

BEETHOVEN:        Piano Sonata n. 11 opus 22

- Claudio Arrau
- Friedrich Gulda
- Wilhelm Kempff (1956)

The best moment of Arrau's version is the 2nd movement, "Adagio con molta expressione". Arrau plays it very slow, with a sublime phrasing as if he was singing an aria of belcanto. The result is very beautiful.

Gulda is remarkable in the first movement but plays the Adagio in an absurdly fast tempo (5' against the 10' of Arrau), that leaves no place for a real phrasing or any kind of emotion.

Kempff is elegant, well balanced and his piano has a beautiful sound.

[mc ukrneal]

Just finished:

Take liberal doses of Wagner and blend onto a matrix of Verdian grand opera (especially Rigoletto), use an episode of Renaissance history that ended with murder at High Mass, and sprinkle the libretto with some of Lorenzo di Medici's poetry--and you end up with a very good opera that should be much better known than it is now.  Less melodramatic and intimate in scale than Pagliacci, but at least as good musically.  Domingo as Guiliano is still able to project youthful ardent love on CD (don't know about onstage, of course), the ladies do a good job (Daniella Dessi and Renata Lamanda), but the central gravity of the story really belongs to the lower voices--Lorenzo (Carlos Alvarez), the humanist poet Poliziano (Fabio Capitanucci), and the Pazzi conspirators (most important of whom is Eric Owens as Montesecco).

Someone needs to mount a production of this opera just for the sake of a DVD for the rest of us.

I had planned to buy this, so nice to know it is good. Thanks for sharing.