What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[mahler10th]

Yes, I am on a collecting spree, because I find much pleasure in this music, and I have far to little of it.

Harry.  On a collecting Spree?  Surely not...   

Thread Duty:

A Radio Documentary
Rhythm - presented by Leonard Slatkin  (Archived BBC Radio content)

Available here: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/discoveringmusic/ram/cdm0401slat1of4.ram

[Harry]

Marco Uccellini.
Works for Violin.

Helene Schmitt, Violin.
Markus Markl, Harpsichord/Organ.
Karl Ernst Schroder, Theorbe/Guitar.
Arno Jochem, Cello.

Really fine music well performed and recorded. It emits a rest and tranquillity that makes you totally relaxed, and you find yourself repeatedly thrown back into the time it was composed. Wonderful.


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[Brian]

Beethoven | Nine
Minnesota Chorale and Orchestra
Juntunen, Karneus, Norman, Davies
Osmo Vanska

Trying to give Vanska's Beethoven another chance after the weird critique I just posted of it in the "Great Recordings" forum.

[DavidRoss]

Beethoven | Nine
Minnesota Chorale and Orchestra
Juntunen, Karneus, Norman, Davies
Osmo Vanska

Trying to give Vanska's Beethoven another chance after the weird critique I just posted of it in the "Great Recordings" forum.

I enjoyed your weird critique, and substantially agree, though I've not heard his set enough to form a strong opinion.  It seems pretty good, nigh faultless, but just hasn't caught fire for me the same way others have.  And you may have put your finger on it--some of it, at least.  It's like, no one's going to deny that whatshername, Jon Voight's kid, uh, Angelina Jolie, has substantial sex appeal, but some of us find, say, Ellen Barkin or Cate Blanchett far more interesting and much more likely to last well.

But I'll give it another go now as well...the 4th, I think.

[prémont]

Is Goode too "Classical" for your taste?

Not at all, I like a classical approach (Levinas, Buchbinder, Franck among others), but Goode seems to me rather bland and lacking in spirit.
This is only my opinion, BTW. I know that he is much appreciated in wide circles.

[Scarpia]

Sallinen, Symphony No 3.

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Wonderful sonorities, and interesting interplay of motific material and ominous harmonies.  I want to hear more of this composer.

[listener]

VERDI Opera Overtures and Preludes    La Forza del Destino   Rigoletto    Aida + March)
  La Traviata    Vespri Siciliani (+ ballet music)
CSR Bratislava     
I prefer Ponchielli (Gioconda) to the Vespri ballet music.
VIVALDI Concertos on period instruments   cello, violin, mandolin, flutes solo and combined
RV numbers for anyone collecting them 115, 116, 256, 415, 425, 524, 533, 571
Musici di San Marco       Alberto Lizzio    unnamed soloists
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[Bogey]

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After a listen to Richter's '61 Fantasia by Schumann, thought I would roll this out. 

[DavidRoss]

following discussion w/Jens re. Sibelius elsewhere, thought it was time to hear this again:

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[Gurn Blanston]

Not the world's greatest Chopin fan, but a disk from time to time really hits the spot. And this one has a variety like mazurkas, waltzes, polonaises, ecossaises, etc., so it hits many spots. The 1836 Pleyel pianoforte has a very nice tone, too.





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Now playing:
Arthur Schoonderwoerd - Chopin Op 64 #2 Valse in c#

[Bogey]

Murray Perahia, Mozart's piano concertos Nos. 1-4:





I just have listened to three discs from this set, but I think these renditions could maybe take the Uchida's place in my collection. The ECO (directed by Perahia from the piano) sound here better than under Jeffrey Tate; the sound quality has been notoriously improved (I have two single discs not remastered) and Perahia's piano sounds really sweet and crystalline. 

Does that include the sound of the ECO....my single discs has them sounding as dull as a butter knife.

[abidoful]

I am listening to the String Quartets of Mozart (Philips Complete Mozart edition; Quartetto Italiano)
I'm right now at the so called "Hoffmeister-Quartet" , KV 499 which is the first one that seems to hold it's grip on me.

[SonicMan46]

Some new arrivals in the mail yesterday - first listens:

Blasco de Nebra, Manuel - Sonatas & Pastorelas w/ Carole Cerasi on harpsichord (Joachim Antunes, Lisbon 1785) & fortepiano (Sebastian Lengerer, 1793) - short lived (1750-1784) Spanish composer/priest & virtuoso keyboardist; composed 172 works w/ only 30 extant according to the liner notes - instruments sound great & Cerasi's playing is excellent.

Mozart, WA - Chamber Music w/ Jaap Schroder/Smithson SQ - 5 disc set - mainly 'Haydn Quartets' & a couple of String Quintets (plus 2 other works) - not sure that I really needed this set, but the price was right & highly recommended in other threads; plus, hard to beat this group of performers - enjoying! 


 

[greg]

Some pieces I actually haven't heard here! (the orchestration of the Ugly Duckling, the complete Winter Bonfire, and the Summer Day Suite)

This is filled with his lighter, more charming works, and I couldn't recommend it enough. Great stuff. 

[Antoine Marchand]

Does that include the sound of the ECO....my single discs has them sounding as dull as a butter knife.

Well, if we talk about the sound itself (not the interpretation), I think it was generally improved and now it sounds more natural and fresh. About the interpretation, I like the ECO's approach, a bit minimalist with the piano as a clear soloist and a bit upfront. A beautiful set, indeed. 

Now playing the concerto No. 17.

[Brian]

This is an absolutely stupendous new disc. Ilya Kaler sells the concerto's solo part like it's a concert-hall warhorse, and the Warsaw Philharmonic and Antoni Wit are on top form. The serenade for strings is a charmer which anyone who likes the serenades of Suk, Dvorak, or Tchaikovsky ought to love. This volume just makes me wonder why one of the earlier Karlowicz volumes was recorded with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, in that orchestra's acoustically inferior concert hall. Naxos' recordings from Warsaw over the last few years have depicted, with great flattery, what is quite clearly one of the great orchestras of the world. After this, I think I'll listen to the astonishing tone poem "Episode at a Masquerade."

[Brian]

Episode at a Masquerade, in a performance of opulence and splendor. I really love the combination of the Warsaw Philharmonic and Antoni Wit. Long may they record! (Can they do the Strauss tone poems? Pretty please?)

[listener]

BRUCH   Suite on Russian Themes, op. 79b
              Symphony in E^b, op. 51
Hungarian State Symphony Orch.,   Honeck cond.
I thought the sound of the Russian suite a bit harsh, as if the players were irritated by memories of the occupation.   The Symphony passes by pleasurably, but not memorably.
WAGNER   Die Meistersinger and Gotterdämmerung orchestral highlights.
Chicago Symphony       Reiner
The Brucknerian prelude to Meistersinger Act III is a clue to the long playing time of the opera.   But superbly played here.
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and now for the Prairie Home Companion on a radio repeat.

[Sid]

Stravinsky
Oedipus Rex, opera-oratorio with narration
Sadler's Wells production, rec. London, 1961
Sir Ralph Richardson, speaker
Soloists from Sadler's Wells Opera Company
Sadler's Wells Men's Voices
Royal Philharmonic Orch./Davis
EMI

I got this two years ago & hadn't listened to it in a while, so I gave it a few spins on the weekend. This work was from Stravinsky's neo-classical phase, composed in 1928. It was apparently a big influence on Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. It is a very static opera, with little or no action, which is sung in latin with the speaker telling the story in the language of the audience (in this case, it's in English). Almost everyone probably knows this ancient story of the man who accidentally married his mother & unknowingly killed his real father, but Stravinsky really brings it to life with this powerful and emotional music. Stravinsky was apparently highly influenced here by Italian opera composers from Monteverdi to Verdi. The most moving moment in the whole work for me (& the culmination point), is when Oedipus realises that he had it wrong all along, his life was lived in a shadow of untruths. The words "Lux facta est" (All is revealed) are pregnant with meaning and emotion. He, the great king, has been brought down from the arrogance and lofty heights of his throne. It's almost as if he's in shock, he can't deal with the truth. Indeed, one gets that feeling from listening to the whole work, every phrase was set with great care and sensitivity. The songs of Oedipus' brother Creon (baritone) and his mother Queen Jocasta (mezzo soprano) are really virtuoso pieces without being flashy or indulgent. Oedipus blinds himself and Jocasta hangs herself, but this is not acted out on stage, the speaker merely relates these facts after they have happened, a bit like a reporter. This is a great recording (now out of print) with the then young Colin Davis at the helm...

[Coopmv]

Now playing CD7 from this set for a first listen ...