What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Mirror Image]

Now:

[asin]B000E1P26C[/asin]

Beautiful so far. Listening to Quatre Poemes d'Edmond Haraucourt.

[westknife]

[PaulSC]

Volkonsky's a fascinatng composer, but I'm not familiar with him as a performer. What's his Bach like?

Continuing:

Bach: The Welltempered Clavier II (André Volkonsky, harpsichord)

[Coco]

Messiaen - Petites Esquisses d'Oiseaux, Preludes, Quatre études de rythme (Yvonne Loriod, piano)

No great Messiaen fan, but the early Preludes (his first published works) are wonderfully sensual — they have as their ancestor both Debussy's fluid pianistic style and emphasis on the individual "sound image", and the elusive and shifting modality of Fauré's last pieces. The later études could be argued to be the progenitor of an entire school of composition — it's a shame that he didn't stay in this mode for long; nothing he did afterwards matches the intellectual density of these pieces.

[Sadko]

Volkonsky's a fascinatng composer, but I'm not familiar with him as a performer. What's his Bach like?

Let me try to put it into words: Absolutely serious, no "effects", sounds as if everything is coming organically out of his understanding, fluid, melodic rather than percussive. Alone the fact that I am enjoying listening to the whole two books at once tells something. It feels like being on a private visit to his house and listening to him playing for himself, the photos also convey this atmospere for me. What looked a bit unspectacular in the beginning - the longer I'm listening it is becoming more and more a virtue.

Edit: He can easily convey long arcs of developments and voices, without giving the feeling it was any effort or difficulty.

[Coopmv]

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I have this excellent CD in my baroque collection ...   

[listener]

SIBELIUS Violin Concerto
Hu Kun, violin       Royal Philharmonic         Yehudi Menuhin, cond.
BRAHMS    Symphony 1
Cleveland Orch..     Christoph von Dohnanyi, cond.
prepping for live concert tomorrow, Augustin Hadelich doing the Sibelius
coming next week   Nielsen  Symphony 4, Mozart piano conc. 27and a piece by Takemitsu.
and on the first disc KHACHATURIAN  Violin Concerto that I'll listen to as well.

[PaulSC]

Let me try to put it into words: Absolutely serious, no "effects", sounds as if everything is coming organically out of his understanding, fluid, melodic rather than percussive. Alone the fact that I am enjoying listening to the whole two books at once tells something. It feels like being on a private visit to his house and listening to him playing for himself, the photos also convey this atmospere for me. What looked a bit unspectacular in the beginning - the longer I'm listening it is becoming more and more a virtue.

Edit: He can easily convey long arcs of developments and voices, without giving the feeling it was any effort or difficulty.

Ah, that sounds like Bach I'd enjoy. But the recordings seem like rarities -- you're lucky to have them!

[Sadko]

Ah, that sounds like Bach I'd enjoy. But the recordings seem like rarities -- you're lucky to have them!

Book II is available on Amazon UK as a CD, there is also one that is not specified (I or II), but the ASIN on another Amazon site says book II, so beware in case you want to buy it.

Edit: I'm reaching the end now, and I must say there are some quite horrible tracks near the end of the last CD, heavily out of tune harpsichord or more likely tape problems, and some very obvious cuts joining unmatching sound bits. I forgot this, the last listening was quite a while ago.

[PaulR]

#10

[DavidW]

I have the utterly sublime Haydn's Salve Regina on repeat tonight. 0:)

[Mirror Image]

Now:

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Listening to Choros No. 6. These are kaleidoscopic works that I think all 20th Century fans should hear. Brian, if you're reading this, consider this set. The Schermerhorn on Naxos is also good for the Bachianas Brasileiras.

[Sid]

Last night, listened to these discs borrowed from the library:

Richard MEALE
Incredible Floridas (Homage to Rimbaud) - sextet for piano, winds, strings and percussion
Seymour Group/Anthony Fogg, director
ABC Classics

MONTEVERDI
Vespers of 1610 (disc 2 of 2)
Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini, director
Naive

I borrowed the Meale disc (which is coupled with other ensemble works by Ross Edwards & Roger Smalley, which I haven't listened to yet), because it's coming up in a recital I plan to go to in May here in Sydney. Incredible Floridas is a homage to the French visionary poet Arthur Rimbaud, inspired by his poem "The Drunken Boat." It was premiered on the 100th anniversary of that poem, in 1971. The late Richard Meale was one of the most significant Australian composers of the c20th, who started writing in an atonal style but later went back to tonality. Incredible Floridas comes from his atonal phase, but like Messiaen, most of Meale's works still have a strong remnant of tonality. Like fellow Australian Barry Conyngham (who studied under Takemitsu), Meale was also interested in Asian and Far Eastern music. The work starts with the players softly saying the opening words of Rimbaud's poem and the music seems to develop out of nothingness. Throughout the work, each of the players is a soloist in their own right, and all of the half hour long score is underpinned by taught percussion work. It's difficult to describe this music, maybe poetic is the word, but Meale's style in this work definitely has affinity with Messiaen and Takemitsu (& also note that the instrumentation is similar to Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maitre, but there is no vocal soloist). I'm looking forward to seeing this work done in the flesh, it definitely warrants more exposure and recognition, many critics and musicians say this is Meale's finest score.

Then I listend to the second disc of the Monteverdi Vespers, for the first time. I thought it was even better than the first disc, especially the two concluding Magnificats which are (appropriately) magnificent. Monteverdi's counterpoint in particular is unlike anything else I have heard before. It's so multilayered and complex, but at the same time even upon the first listen I felt that I had known this work for years. Perhaps this sense of familiarity comes from the chromatic harmonies that Monteverdi and others pioneered, techniques which were not to be fully investigated and explored further by future composers until Beethoven in his late works and beyond. There is a part in the second Magnificat where two female vocalists sing one after the other, the effect is that of an echo. The recording engineers captured this brilliantly, it really feels to me as if I was there in Rome where this was recorded (in the Farnese Palace, which is the French Embassy today). Handel's Messiah was my entry to Baroque vocal music a few years ago (when I first heard it in full, then saw it live last December), and the Vespers has been the major follow up - to be followed by Bach's B Minor Mass. The discoveries seem to get better & better...



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[Conor71]

Now Playing:

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Falla: Orchestral Works

First listen of this newly purchased Disc

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

His name reminded me of Prince Andrey Volkonsky from War and Peace, and I found that he actually was Prince Andrey Mikhaylovich Volkonsky, but did not use the title.

Volkonsky was a fascinating guy who did much to promote the Early Music revival in the USSR, at a time when such music was frowned upon due to its religious significance. I once talked to a member of the Estonian early music group Hortus Musicus, who told me that they got their start when Volkonsky donated a whole pile of manuscripts to them.

[The new erato]

The Songs of Life and Death are a wonderful and moving Requiem, excellent sound.

[val]

BEETHOVEN:   Piano Sonata opus 31/3            / Clara Haskil  (1957)

This is the most picturesque of Beethoven's Sonatas. Despite some minor imperfections, due to a live recording, Haskil gives the best version I ever heard of this beautiful work.

My second choice is Friedrich Gulda, more perfect, very elegant, but without the same degree of imagination that Haskil shows even in the little details.

[Brian]

Listening to Choros No. 6. These are kaleidoscopic works that I think all 20th Century fans should hear. Brian, if you're reading this, consider this set. The Schermerhorn on Naxos is also good for the Bachianas Brasileiras.

Last night I decided to do a run-through of all the Bachianas Brasileiras as soon as I woke up.  So I've logged on to Naxos Music Library and am starting with the supremely beautiful No 1...

[Sergeant Rock]

Scriabin Piano Concerto F sharp minor, Maazel, Ashkenazy, LPO




Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Schnittke, String Quartet #3, Lark Quartet




Sarge