What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Brahmsian]

Listening to Mozart the Haydn string quartets and the sublime Hoffmeister.

YES!!  That Hoffmeister quartet is still my favorite of Mozart's SQs. 

[karlhenning]

It is most appropriate that way. After all, the Death of Socrates is much different from the Death of... say, Spartacus.

Yeah, you don't have a screen full of half-naked actors offering, "I'm Socrates!"

[Opus106]

I have the string quartets set of these.  Now I wish I had got this box set instead, which includes a lot more than just the string quartets! 

Actually, Ray, that box contains just 4 discs with chamber music other than the string quartets.

Thread duty: Debssuy | Études 2ème série | Pollini | Verbier 2010

[Sergeant Rock]

Listening to Mozart the Haydn string quartets and the sublime Hoffmeister.

Good idea. I think I'll listen to ABQ's "Hoffmeister" too. I haven't heard it in ages (when I think Classical-era string quartet, I usually think Haydn, and so he tends to get far more time in the player).

Sarge

[Philoctetes]

[karlhenning]

Again, because it's such a stunner:

Пётр Ильич [Pyotr Ilyich]
Piano Trio in a minor, Opus 50
Kremer / Maisky / Argerich

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Hmmm. Looks like DG ripped off a classic jazz cover:

[listener]

Henry du MONT   Messe Royale       F. COUPERIN Messe des Couvents
Monks of the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Ganagobie
Laurent Jouvet organ
RACHMANINOFF   Symphony 3   (+Melody in E, Polchinelle
National Symphony Orch of Ireland
Alexander Anssimov, cond.

[Scarpia]

Hmmm. Looks like DG ripped off a classic jazz cover:

The photo was taken by Toni Frissell 16 years prior to the Bill Evans album and has appeared in various other contexts, so I don't think it is fair to say that "DG ripped it off" from Bill Evans. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Frissell

[The new erato]

An absolutely ravishing album:



IL CANTO DELLE DAME

Isabella LEONARDA Ave suavis dilectio [Motetti op.6, Venezia, 1676], Sonata VII a tre [Bologna, 1693
GIovannI Pietro del BUONO Canone sopra l'ave Maris stella
Francesca CACCINI Chi è costei, Maria, dolce Maria, Lo mi distruggo, Lasciatemi qui solo [Aria in cinque parti, Il Primo Libro delle Musiche, Firenze, 1618]
CaterIna ASSANDRA Duo seraphim, Canzon a 4 (di benedetto rè), O quam suavis, O salutaris hostia [Milano, 1608]
Barbara STROZZI Hor ch'apollo Serenata con violini, Arie a voce sola, Op.8, Venezia, 1664

Concerto Soave:

María Cristina Kiehr (soprano)

[Que]

Robert Johnson.
The Prince's Almain, and other Dances for Lute.
Nigel North.

Second run, still more impressed with the level of performance and recording. This is definitively a disc to have.

I very much enjoyed Nigel North's Dowland set, so this will go on the list.

Q

[AnthonyAthletic]

Petrenko's latest disc from what is shaping up to be a truly remarkable Shostakovich Cycle.
Its great to see Liverpool playing better music....than they do Football  0:)

[Conor71]

Villa-Lobos: SQ's #'s 4, 9 & 11 

[Sid]

Last night listened to these:

Khachaturian - highlights from Spartacus & Gayaneh Ballets
Glazunov - Autumn from "The Seasons"
Got this for $4 in a second hand shop yesterday - as new. It's been a while since I listened to these works. I particuarly enjoyed the adagios from the two Khachaturian ballets.

Sculthorpe - Piano Concerto
Anthony Fogg, piano/Melbourne SO/Myer Fredman
ABC Classics (no image)
This was (I think) the world premiere recording of this work back in the '80's. Sculthorpe fuses the static repetitiveness of Messiaen with gamelan like harmonies, as well as the dissonant brassy outbursts of Varese. It's quite a dark work (composed after he lost three friends), but it also has this polished luminosity (like a gemstone?) which I like.

Stockhausen - Japan & Wach
These works were subtitled "intuitive music for ensemble" & are for various acoustic instruments such as percussion and also electronic instruments.

Frank Martin - Petite Symphonie Concertante; 2 Ballades
Various soloists/ASMF/Marriner/Menuhin Festival Orch./Stoutz
EMI Gemini (2 cd set)
In the concerto, Martin fuses the Baroque concerto grosso with a sense of tonality falling apart. It's interesting because it includes all string instruments (except those in the guitar family) & the harpsichord part is quite prominent, not merely a continuo role. This was done in the 1940's, but Schnittke later was to do similar things in the '70's, so maybe Martin was not such a conservative as some people make him out to be? Anyway, I particularly like the upbeat ending. The Ballades are also interesting, again tonally vague harmonies, but this time in a much freer form. Martin was one of the first composers to write ballades after they had suffered many decades of neglect. He must have like this genre, for he composed about a dozen for various combinations of instruments...

[Antoine Marchand]

Francesco Durante (1684-1755) - Concerti Nos. 1-8/ Harpsichord Concerto
Concerto Köln
Gerald Hambitzer, harpsichord
Werner Erhardt, direction



Beautiful and varied concerti for strings (eight) and one concerto for harpsichord, composed by this contemporary of Bach, mostly remembered today as a composer of sacred music.

Anyway, this orchestral music sounds more Galant and sometimes Sturm und Drang than properly Baroque.

This 2-CD set is a reissue of material originally released on Capriccio.


   

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Tubin's Symphony No. 1, which is one of the great 20th Century first symphonies from a composer I've heard. Definitely a noteworthy work.

[Antoine Marchand]

Mrs. Monica Huggett:

[listener]

SCHULHOFF  Symphony 2,  Double Concerto for flute, piano and strings
MAUTNER  United Colours for Alto Saxophone, piano, percussion and strings
Austrian Chamber Orch.     Ernst Theis, cond.
DEBUSSY   Préludes   book 1
Jacques Rouvier, piano
The Mautner sounds a grim one: "Serial production of material (twelve-tone rows expanded, redued, altered according to mathematical principles) and spontaneous creativity..."

[Conor71]

Beethoven: String Trios

First listen to this newly arrived Disc .

[Que]

An absolutely ravishing album:



IL CANTO DELLE DAME

Isabella LEONARDA Ave suavis dilectio [Motetti op.6, Venezia, 1676], Sonata VII a tre [Bologna, 1693
GIovannI Pietro del BUONO Canone sopra l'ave Maris stella
Francesca CACCINI Chi è costei, Maria, dolce Maria, Lo mi distruggo, Lasciatemi qui solo [Aria in cinque parti, Il Primo Libro delle Musiche, Firenze, 1618]
CaterIna ASSANDRA Duo seraphim, Canzon a 4 (di benedetto rè), O quam suavis, O salutaris hostia [Milano, 1608]
Barbara STROZZI Hor ch'apollo Serenata con violini, Arie a voce sola, Op.8, Venezia, 1664

Concerto Soave:

María Cristina Kiehr (soprano)

I noticed when you bought it, looks very intriguing - I like Italina early Baroque. And Kiehr seems practically self recommending!

Listening myself to this disc with early French Baroque music by Pierre Guédron with highly expressive and musically elaborate airs de cours, ravishingly sung - there is noo other word for it - by Claudine Ansermet. Though I have limited experience is this repertoire, she seems absolutely perfect for it.



Q