What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Lethevich]

Holmboe - Chamber Concertos No.10-13 (DaCapo)
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No.10 has a cute title (concerto for wood, brass, gut and orchestra) and proceeds in a Sværm-like series of short movements, although is much less astringent in tone, it is surprisingly warm and pastoral so far.

Edit: I speak too soon Perhaps unsurprisingly a glowingly powerful movement of music typical for this composer emerges, beginning with scampering, march-like strings in the manner of the opening to Sibelius' 3rd or perhaps more close to his Snöfrid cantata given the dramatic context, it then introduces Holmboe's very characteristic combination of woodwind/brass in some beautiful, primal gestures.

[listener]

Debussy, La Mer, and Jeux, Dutoit, Montreal

La Mer is a wonderful piece, but I find Jeux a little harder to come to terms with.  Although Debussy does not conform to any standard form in La Mer, it is easy to hear how themes are transformed as the music evolves.  Jeux takes this farther, and seems to invent new themes every few bars.

Jeux begins to make sense if you think of film music for a silent ballet based on a tennis game, with short phrases representing the movements of the game.   Different strokes for different folks?
from wikipedia:
'Diaghilev intended the music to describe a homosexual encounter between three young men, and Nijinsky wanted to include an airplane crash. The final version of the story involved a man, two girls, and a game of tennis. The scenario was described to the audience at the premiere as follows:

    "The scene is a garden at dusk; a tennis ball has been lost; a boy and two girls are searching for it. The artificial light of the large electric lamps shedding fantastic rays about them suggests the idea of childish games: they play hide and seek, they try to catch one another, they quarrel, they sulk without cause. The night is warm, the sky is bathed in pale light; they embrace. But the spell is broken by another tennis ball thrown in mischievously by an unknown hand. Surprised and alarmed, the boy and girls disappear into the nocturnal depths of the garden.""
I seem to remember a description of the last tennis ball as stage-filling in size.
later-  no, it was the tennis balls the size of footballs that bounced onto the stage at the beginning and the end that mystified the audience.

[Scarpia]

Jeux begins to make sense if you think of film music for a silent ballet based on a tennis game, with short phrases representing the movements of the game.   Different strokes for different folks?
from wikipedia:
'Diaghilev intended the music to describe a homosexual encounter between three young men, and Nijinsky wanted to include an airplane crash. The final version of the story involved a man, two girls, and a game of tennis. The scenario was described to the audience at the premiere as follows:

    "The scene is a garden at dusk; a tennis ball has been lost; a boy and two girls are searching for it. The artificial light of the large electric lamps shedding fantastic rays about them suggests the idea of childish games: they play hide and seek, they try to catch one another, they quarrel, they sulk without cause. The night is warm, the sky is bathed in pale light; they embrace. But the spell is broken by another tennis ball thrown in mischievously by an unknown hand. Surprised and alarmed, the boy and girls disappear into the nocturnal depths of the garden.""
I seem to remember a description of the last tennis ball as stage-filling in size.

I also read the Wikipedia article, but the scenario of a homosexual orgy, or the boy and two girls frolicking in the bushes beside the tennis court didn't help me much.   The notes from the Dutoit recording contain the following quote from Boulez, who said it marked "the arrival of a kind of musical form which, renewing itself from moment to moment, implies a similarly instantaneous mode of perception."   After listening to the piece again with that in mind, and imagining it as describing a string of perceptions, perhaps related perhaps not, I have a better appreciation of it.  In any case, the piece contains some remarkable sonoroties.

[Antoine Marchand]

Mendelssohn: Piano Trios, String Quintets

First listen to these works from this newly arrived set - very impressed so far, lovely music! .

It's a fine set, indeed; if the performances are the same included here, as I guess:



BC has released a very enticing 6-CD set with the complete string quartets and other pieces. The string quartets are performed by the Gewandhaus-Quartett and have been licensed from New Classical Adventure (NCA):

[Harry Powell]

Nielsen's Fifth.
The first Part is tremendous! And that desolate clarinet solo after the war-like section! The very voice of the individual lamenting man's irrationality.

http://open.spotify.com/track/5ruCgBTiT7Zfd3xYGOuMYj

[bhodges]

This afternoon, heard the New York City Opera's triple-bill of "Monodramas":

Zorn: La Machine de l'être
Schoenberg: Erwartung
Feldman: Neither

The Zorn (short, 10 minutes) had some amusing animation and an excellent singer (Anu Komsi), but left me a little cold. Erwartung was fascinatingly staged, as if being told in reverse--not a bad idea at all--and again, an excellent soprano, Kara Shay Thomson. But the highlight was the hour-long Feldman opera, the first time it's being staged in the U.S. The beautiful, minimal set (with no high-tech anything) suits the material perfectly, and Cyndia Sieden sings tons of high notes with effortless accuracy. New York City Opera took a big risk with this production, and for the most part, it seems to have paid off.

--Bruce

[Conor71]

It's a fine set, indeed; if the performances are the same included here, as I guess:



BC has released a very enticing 6-CD set with the complete string quartets and other pieces. The string quartets are performed by the Gewandhaus-Quartett and have been licensed from New Classical Adventure (NCA):

Youre right Antoine - the performances in the complete Chamber Music set are the same as the ones in the Masterworks set .

The new BC set for string ensemble looks nice as well! .

[Conor71]

Mendelssohn: Violin Sonatas, Violin Concerto

Some more first listens from my new box set - lovely works and nice and lively for this time of the morning .

[Mirror Image]

Now:

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Listening to the Violin Concerto right now played masterfully by Frank Peter Zimmermann.

[Antoine Marchand]

Stravinsky - Petrouchka (03/1962) & Le Sacre du Printemps (03/1963)



Not the same edition that I have, but same recordings. Great performance and quite impressive sound quality for the age. 

[CD]

[Mirror Image]

Now:

[asin]B000002ZIS[/asin]

A new acquisition. Absolutely gorgeous.

[Daverz]

Suk plays very beautifully here, and the early 60s CzPO (Ancerl's orchestra at the time) sounds wonderful.  Tempos are leisurely: 24:51, 11:28, 9:43.   Note that there's a later issue:



Suk also recorded the Beethoven VC with Boult.

[Mirror Image]

I'm about to try to restart the Holmboe symphony cycle from start to finish. I have been reading the liner notes to this BIS set and he's, indeed, a very interesting composer who has led an equally interesting life. Now on with the music:

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Listening to Symphony No. 1 right now.

[Mirror Image]

Okay, I'm just bored with Holmboe...sorry I had to say it. I'll come back another day....

Now playing:

[asin]B000001Q6F[/asin]

Listening to VL's Choros No. 10 right now. I've always loved this work. The choral singing towards the end is really infectious.

[val]

WAGNER:     Parsifal                      / Clemens Krauss, Bayreuth 1953

An extraordinary version, the best interpretation of Parsifal with the one of Knappertsbusch, also in Bayreuth, in 1951. The singers in both versions are the same with the exception of the tenor: Vinay sings Parsifal with Krauss, Windgassen with Knappertsbusch.
Krauss uses a very fast tempo, with a great dramatic tension, in special in the 2nd act and in the last scenes of the 3rd.
I prefer the intense presence of Vinay regarding the more pale Windgassen. For the rest, Ludwig Weber, Martha Mödl, George London are extraordinary in both recordings.
Knappertsbusch is more mystical, Krauss more dramatic, but I think they ideally complement each other.

[Sadko]

Valery Kikta:

- Ukrainian Carols and Spiritual Songs
- Frescoes of St. Sofia Cathedral of Kiev
- Beyond the Verge of Darkness
- Variations on a theme by Chaikovsky



Very nice music!

[karlhenning]

I'm about to try to restart the Holmboe symphony cycle from start to finish. I have been reading the liner notes to this BIS set and he's, indeed, a very interesting composer who has led an equally interesting life. Now on with the music . . . .

Okay, I'm just bored with Holmboe...sorry I had to say it. I'll come back another day....

(* sigh *) . . . just based on the first symphony? ; )

Do you know, I've had the symphony box for a couple of years now, but I have not at all read the accompanying booklet! Though I do not doubt there is interesting story in there.

[karlhenning]

Maiden-Listen Mondays!

Holmboe
String Quartet № 18, Giornata, Opus 153 (1982)
Kontra Quartet

[Sergeant Rock]

Maiden-Listen Mondays!

Tournemire Symphony #1 A major "Romantique"




Sarge