What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[mc ukrneal]

I am quite taken by these Swedish and Russian Dances, well played and recorded. They are somewhat laid back, but delicious lyrical and melodious. With some fine writing for brass, quite some inventive scoring for strings too. They will not rock your boat dangerously, but they give you a good boating anyway.

Glad you enjoyed it in the end.

[springrite]

One of my favorite 20th century composers, Lou Harrison:

Suite for Violin with Strings
Western Dance for Piano
Three Waltzes for Piano
Suite for Cello and Piano
Suite for Cello and harp

(Boriskins, Bachman, Flyer, etc.)

[Antoine Marchand]

Brahms - Clarinet Quintet and Trio
Joan Enric Lluna, clarinet
Tokyo String Quartet [Martin Beaver, violin; Kikueil Ikeda, violin; Kazuhide Isomura, viola; Clive Greensmith, violoncello]
Lluís Claret, violoncello
Josep Colom, piano
Recording: June & December, 2003
Musique D'Abord
Harmonia Mundi

Nice re-release on the series Musique D'Abord of this previously OOP recording.

[Coopmv]

Bach, JS - St. John Passion w/ Kuijken & La Petite Bande - from the 5-disc box below (comes as 2 double jewel cases in a box containing separately the booklet on the St. Matthew Passion - so not a space-saver!); reading along in Michael Steinberg's choral book (2005 publication date) - 


 

I have this excellent 5-CD set.  In some way, the SMP in this set is better than the version recently released on SACD.

[karlhenning]

Brahms
Symphony № 1 in c minor, Opus 68
Netherlands Phil
Jaap van Zweden

[Harry]

Another classic from Romania, beautiful singing and fine arrangements. Well recorded too.

[Sergeant Rock]

More Mackerras. Disc 1: Brigg Fair, In a Summer Garden, The Walk to the Paradise Garden, and the North Country Sketches:




Sarge

[Antoine Marchand]

Instrument: Derek Adlam, Welbeck, 1987, after Anton Walter, Vienna, ca. 1795

If Bezuidenhout keeps the level shown here, this could be -in the future- one of the best cycles of Mozart's keyboard music in existence. Honestly, I have not found anything to criticize in these interpretations. Highly recommended. 

Definetively this one deserves another listen.

MOZART Piano Sonatas: in F, K 533/494; in B♭, K 570. Variations on Unser dummer Pöbel meint, K 455. Fantasy in c, K 475 • Kristian Bezuidenhout (fp) • HARMONIA MUNDI 67729 (72:15)

The South African-born pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout commences a projected series of all of Mozart's piano music with this splendid new disc. His studies began in Australia and were completed at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester under Rebecca Penneys, Arthur Haas, Malcolm Bilson, and Paul O'Dette. He is the laureate of several competitions and now lives in London. He is an immensely talented player of great imagination, drawing from the fortepiano—in this case a replica by Derek Adlam of an Anton Walter instrument from the mid 1790s—a realm of color and nuance.

As a program opener, the great C-Minor Fantasy, K 475, provides an interesting point of departure, embodying as it does what are assumed to be many of the characteristics of Mozart's own vaunted improvisations. Bezuidenhout deftly maneuvers through the disparate succession of affects, from the ominously dissonant chromaticism of the Adagio through the startling contrasts of light and color with a genuine spontaneity that is riveting. It is still debated whether this Fantasy should be performed together with the C-Minor Sonata, with which it was first published. But when Bezuidenhout cadences at the conclusion of the Adagio ritornello, it's hard not to wish for further exploration of these somber climes.

Each of the two mature Viennese sonatas is imbued with such distinctively individual character that it seems almost astonishing to think that they were composed scarcely a year apart. The concluding Rondo of the F-Major Sonata unfurls with some of the most exquisite cantabile imaginable. Bezuidenhout never lets us forget that the composer of this sonata was also the greatest operatic genius of the age. Indeed it isn't hard to imagine the exposition of the B♭-Sonata's opening Allegro fitted with text and serving as an opera scena; its musical gestures and contours are expressively shaped in the manner of the very best singing.

Gluck's arietta from The Pilgrim of Mecca inspired the most virtuosic of all Mozart's variation sets and one can't hope to hear it played with greater flair and élan than here. Bezuidenhout revels in Mozart's playful changes of mood, from the angelic, to the mysterious, to the teasingly exhibitionistic. It's a satisfying wrap-up to an astutely chosen recital, leaving us eager for the release of further volumes in this series, the sooner the better.

Harmonia Mundi's superb engineering captures a rich and lifelike sound. Meanwhile, I hope we all get to hear a lot more from Kristian Bezuidenhout. Very highly recommended.

FANFARE: Patrick Rucker

[listener]

ERNST:  Music for Violin and Orchestra
    Fantasy on the March from Rossini's Otello, Concerto Allegro-Pathétique, Concertino in D, Rondo Papageno, Elégie sur la mort d'un objet chéri
   Ilya Grubert, violin       Russian Philharmonic O.        Yablonsky, cond.
Ernst (1814-1865) had a fabulous technique and could have developed a reputation as great as Paganini's had he not suffered from gout which impeded traveling and performing.

TAUSIG:  Wagner transcriptions, etc
3 from Tristan,  2 from Die Walküre (including The Ride..)    Kaisermarsch
    Dennis Hennig, piano

[karlhenning]

Brahms
Symphony № 2 in D Major, Opus 73
Netherlands Phil
Jaap van Zweden

[Mirror Image]

More Mackerras. Disc 1: Brigg Fair, In a Summer Garden, The Walk to the Paradise Garden, and the North Country Sketches:




Sarge

An outstanding collection right there. Some of my favorite Delius recordings right there.

[karlhenning]

Brahms
Symphony № 2 in D Major, Opus 73
Netherlands Phil
Jaap van Zweden

I like this performance!  The finale has more nimble playfulness in it than probably any other recording/broadcast/performance I've heard of the piece.

[karlhenning]

And, because there's no good reason why so long has passed since I listened to this last:

Roussel
Symphony № 4 in A, Opus 53
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire
André Cluytens

Roussel – Symphonies &c. – Prêtre/Cluytens/Dervaux

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to the disc with Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4. A great, if underrated, set.

[karlhenning]

Listening to the disc with Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4. A great, if underrated, set.

Yes; if I were not by now satisfactorily appointed with RVW symphonies, that is a set I should seek out.

[Mirror Image]

Yes; if I were not by now satisfactorily appointed with RVW symphonies, that is a set I should seek out.

I own all of the RVW symphony cycles. My favorites are Andrew Davis', Thomson's, and both of Boult's (Decca & EMI). I'm less thrilled with Previn, Bakels, Handley, Hickox (though he never completed the cycle), Haitink, and Slatkin.

[Sergeant Rock]

More Mack: Haydn 31 and 45, Orchestra of St. Lukes.




Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

I own all of the RVW symphony cycles. My favorite...Thomson's

paulb's favorite, too...accept no substitutes 

Sarge

[Mirror Image]

paulb's favorite, too...accept no substitutes 

Sarge

Who is paulb?

[karlhenning]

He's a legend, but best known probably as the fellow who alerted the board to Alan Pettersson.