What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Sadko]

Virgil Thomson: Mostly About Love



A collection of songs, they are text centered, but set to music interestingly and enrichingly.

[Père Malfait]

Has nyone ever heard the Scottish Gaels singing hymns?
It is an amazing sound - just voices singing in repeat of the preachers lead.  I first heard it in Stornoway, the Outer Hebridies, in 1984.  It is open hymnal church music like you have never heard before!  My album comes from actual church recordings.  Have a wee listen if you fancy...

http://rapidshare.com/files/455119150/03_-_Stroudwater.mp3

That is extraordinary! You can really hear the basis for the indigenous music of Appalachia (of which most of the settlers came from Scotland and Ireland) in that example. Thanks for posting!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

That is extraordinary! You can really hear the basis for the indigenous music of Appalachia (of which most of the settlers came from Scotland and Ireland) in that example. Thanks for posting!

Seconded. Wonderful!

[karlhenning]

Machaut
La Messe de Nostre Dame
Oxford Camerata
Jeremy Summerly

[asin]B000QQT28Y[/asin]

[Brian]

How can I tell I was LONG overdue for a first-ever listen to the Bach Orchestral Suites? Because I keep hearing individual movements (now: Air on a G string) and thinking, "OH! That's where that comes from!!"

(La Petite Band, Sigiswald Kuijken)

[Antoine Marchand]

Inspired by Brian:



via NML. 

[listener]

DELIUS A Song of the High Hills, Sea Drift
Royal Liverpool Orchestra  &  Choir    Charles Groves, cond.
DOWLAND    Consort Music  (21 pieces)
The Consort of Musicke       Anthony Rooley, cond. and lute.
MOZART    Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,  Symphony 36 - Linz
Vienna Philharmonic,     Istvan Kertesz, cond.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

HAVERGAL BRIAN, Symphony No. 3 (1931, Lionel Friend, BBC Symphony Orchestra (live recording))


I haven't listened to this work for a long time. But it's like meeting a long lost friend. A massive and colourful work from Brian's first mature period, with two concertante pianos. This live recording I prefer to the one on Hyperion. It was re-broadcast a few years ago on BBC Radio Three, and I noticed the (slight, but still crucial) difference because of the violin solo in the slow movement.

[CD]

(1 and 3)

[Harry Powell]

"Tristan und Isolde"
Suthaus, Schlütter, Furwängler (Berlin, 1947)

This is the real Thing.

[Sid]

That is extraordinary! You can really hear the basis for the indigenous music of Appalachia (of which most of the settlers came from Scotland and Ireland) in that example. Thanks for posting!

That makes sense. I was just listening to a recording of contemporary US composer Beaser's Mountain Songs for flute and guitar, & I thought it had a decidedtly "Celtic" feel. So what you're saying makes perfect sense to me now...

[prémont]

Inspired by Brian:



via NML. 

This is already on my wish-list.
How is the scoring of these "original" versions?
No trumpets? Another soloist in the b-minor Suite?

[Scarpia]

This is already on my wish-list.
How is the scoring of these "original" versions?
No trumpets? Another soloist in the b-minor Suite?

I have that Hugget version with the reconstructed second suite for oboe and the all of the trumpet parts stripped away.  So, so dull!     You'll never get my Harnoncourt and Gardiner recordings away from me.

[Mirror Image]

Now:

[asin]B002S4RK40[/asin]

A new acquisition. Listening to Symphony No. 5. Excellent so far.

[listener]

CDs tonight:  DITTERSDORF Sinfonias on Ovid's Metamorphoses 1-3: The Four Ages of the World, The Fall of Phaëton, The Transformation of Actaeon into a Stag
Failoni Orchestra,   Hans-Peter Gmür cond.
SHOSTAKOVICH   Symphony 1, L'Age d'Or Suite
London Symphony Orchestra      Jean Martinon cond.

[Sid]

RAWSTHORNE - "Practical cats" suite for narrator & orchestra & other works
Simon Callow, narrator/RPO/David Lloyd-Jones
(Epoch records)

I just borrowed this from the library & listened to the "Practical Cats" suite, with words by T. S. Elliot. The music reminded me a bit of Prokofiev & there was also a bit in there that sounded very similar to "Land of Hope & Glory" by Elgar. I liked Callow's narration, particularly the bit about cats having three names (a "real" name, a "nickname" & the name that they only know ) The poem about the old cat Deutoronomy was also good. I will listen to the rest of the disc tonight. I find that I'm kind of getting into the less "serious" & "weighty" music now because I feel a bit down & need a bit of a boost. I've listened to the more "serious" (particularly modern & contemporary) music for a large part of three years & it's time to take a break. I also borrowed Australian composer Miriam Hyde's piano concertos, and a disc coupling Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge songs with Ireland's "Overlanders" film suite. It'll be good getting into these later...

[asin]B0013LELGO[/asin]

[Henk]

A pity he doesn't appeal to you. Though I can't say you're making much of an effort either. Never mind. The only thing I dislike is judging something you have no interest in and you know absolutely nothing about. I personally won't ever dismiss a composer I haven't the slightest intention of getting to know better. I think that's fairer. As for Brian not being a genius and, thus, only able to borrow - again, why joke weakly when you don't care? Let Havergal Brian be, and listen to and comment on the music you love. Much more worthwhile.

Why can't I say I don't like Brian and say what I think about it? Did it effect you?

In general, I just want to be sure to a certain degree if it will be rewarding to getting to know music better. Has not much to do with "intention" imo.

Henk

[Henk]

Actually, it's not entirely true that I don't have musical prejudices. I'm still not a big fan of composers like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, which are composers I'm sure you enjoy. It is possible that people just don't like the sound of a composer's music or perhaps the era it came out of for example. Henk, however, from what I've read of his posts is a big fan of the 20th Century, which is my favorite era of music too, but I just found it kind of odd that he would not take a composer like Brian (who composed in the 20th Century) seriously because of the number of symphonies he wrote. I mean this doesn't have much to do with anything.

It was just a question I wondered about, put in a provocative way, not an authoritative statement.

[Willoughby earl of Itacarius]

Nice well written music for strings, not really complicated, works that charm more than they impress, still nice to have this.  Sound is a little fatty, but well detailed. The  performance misses the ultimate refinement, that could have lifted it beyond mere charmers. But its okay, it will please most of the people that listen to it.
It was recording in 1981 on Paula Records. Can't say that I have ever heard from this label. The ensemble that played it was founded in 1973.

[Sergeant Rock]

Havergal Brian Symphony #8 B flat minor, Groves conducting the RLPO




Sarge