What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Que]

This guy Image Unavailable wrote almost as much music as Anonymous.

Fixed. A note to our posters: the ASIN link function only works with the ASIN of the CD format NOT with the ASIN of the MP3 format.

Q

[Florestan]

Enescu's Symphony #3 (Mandeal/Budapest PO)-- really awesome!  I need to hear this again and again!  Never even heard this composer before but golly!!

Are you sure it's not Bucharest PO? 

[abidoful]

Siegfried-Idyll, original chamber version
Glenn Gould (cond.)

[DavidW]

Are you sure it's not Bucharest PO? 

Oh yeah!   I had to go to the radio's website since I don't have a good memory for that kind of thing... and they got that wrong, they also misspelled Enescu as Enesco.  Well they try.

[Conor71]

Now Playing:


Bach: Trio Sonatas [Disc 01]

Good morning, first Classical listen of the day - I love this set! 

[Mirror Image]

Terrific disc, that one. 

I endorse this message.

[Mirror Image]

Oh yeah!   I had to go to the radio's website since I don't have a good memory for that kind of thing... and they got that wrong, they also misspelled Enescu as Enesco.  Well they try.

I own the Arte Nova recordings (with Mandeal and "George Enescu" Bucharest Phil.) and they are pretty decent, but pale in comparison with the Rozhdestvensky. I wish Rozhdestvensky would have continued his series with this composer though.

[Conor71]

Now Playing:

[asin]B002ZBTWMY[/asin]

Xenakis: Chamber Music

Hehe, don't know if this is a good idea so early in the morning but here goes!

[Mirror Image]

Now:

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Gorgeous recording and masterful conducting and playing from Boulez and the BPO.

[Coopmv]

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I bought this twofer over 2 years ago.  Edwin Fischer's tempo is a tad faster than most other piano versions ...

[Coopmv]

Kirkpatrick may be an acquired taste, however I had the advantage to have the opportunity to listen to several of his Bach recordings in the late 1960es. In these days there was no HIP nor PI,  and Walcha was the only alternative of any distinction, as Ahlgrimm´s recordings were unavailable in my country at that time, and Galling is no match for Walcha and Kirkpatrick. Both Walcha and Kirkpatrick are in the light of the (later) HIP movement somewhat idiosyncratic, but we did not know better. What I appreciate in Kirkpatrick´s playing is his colourfulness and his rhytmic energy. I find his playing intense rather than "hectic". I also admit that I find his approach better suited to the Suites (incl. Partitas) than to the strict counterpoint loaden works (first and foremost the WTC), and actually I used to own his harpsichord recording of WTC book II  (released by DG yellow label LP mid 1960es) but parted with it long time ago, finding it heavy and stiff. Retrospectively Walcha and Kirkpatrick were stylistically somewhat "disabled" by the instruments they used (rather similar generic two-manual instruments with 16´, 8´, 8´, 4´ and lute stop from Ammer and Neupert respectively) , and I think this must be taken into account when judging their efforts. And they certainly use the possibilities of their instruments to the full. And at least the 16´stop seems to be an "authentic" trait, contrary to the first and second generation HIPsters´  8´, 8´, 4´ tyranny.  So take your time. I am confident, that you will acquire the taste for Kirkpatrick´s Bach suites if not necessarily for his Goldbergvariations.

I bought this box and his WTC I & II over two years ago and found his performance introspective and perhaps even analytic.  Kirkpatrick was professor of harpsichord at Yale for many years and I often look at him as the American Leonhardt ...

[Coopmv]

Now playing CD3 - Piano Concertos of Schumann and Tchaikovsky from this set for a first listen ...

[not edward]

I'll probably pass on Rochberg right now. There are too many irons in the fire so to speak. Not only that, but I want to hear spectacular music, not "good" music.

I'd call Rochberg's 2nd symphony spectacular, personally. (I blow rather more hot and cold on the rest of his output, but I think that's unquestionably one of the Great American Symphonies.)

[Mn Dave]

Now:
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[Sid]

Now Playing:

[asin]B002ZBTWMY[/asin]

Xenakis: Chamber Music

Hehe, don't know if this is a good idea so early in the morning but here goes!

Well, if it works for you (at any time of the day or night!), it's a good idea. Xenakis was a master. I have owned that set since last December, and I particularly like the solo instrumental (piano, cello) and work for children's choir and chamber ensemble "Polla ta dinha." There's both refinement and crudity there - his music can be kind of a mix of many things, as Boulez criticised him for, but I don't think he understood what Xenakis was basically on about. Just like the greatest masters of previous times, Xenakis' music was about emotion, passion, craftsmanship, precision, rigorous technique, and I could go on for ages. Geniuses like Monteverdi and J. S. Bach to name two knew this, as did Xenakis (& undoubtedly Boulez too, but he is coming from a different "angle," he also has his own unique voice). I'm fine with listeners who don't understand or can't grasp Xenakis' music, like that of other great composers he leaves many questions unanswered, many stones unturned. There are passages in his music that have just a profound impact on me as even the great Beethoven, but most of the time I can't tell you exactly why, I just feel it in the music, in the most sensitive detail or toughest dissonance. I just don't understand those people who dismiss guys like Xenakis as "not music" or something like that. These people are totally wrong, they are not in reality but in another realm. But then again, these people even dismiss many of the immortal composers at the drop of a hat, so their opinion is worth little to me anyway.

I'm looking forward to hearing Xenakis' percussion work Pleiades played by Synergy Percussion here in Sydney next month. I have never heard this work, which some consider to be his masterpiece. I'm sure looking forward to it, I think Xenakis was a genius in making instruments sound different to anyone else. Just like the great masters, the man was very emotional, he was unique, he was a visionary...

[Mn Dave]

#10
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[Coco]

. I just don't understand those people who dismiss guys like Xenakis as "not music" or something like that. These people are totally wrong, they are not in reality but in another realm. But then again, these people even dismiss many of the immortal composers at the drop of a hat, so their opinion is worth little to me anyway.

Seconded.

[Coco]

Listening:

Leoš Janáček - On an Overgrown Path

Paul Crossley, piano

[Mirror Image]

I just don't understand those people who dismiss guys like Xenakis as "not music" or something like that. These people are totally wrong, they are not in reality but in another realm. But then again, these people even dismiss many of the immortal composers at the drop of a hat, so their opinion is worth little to me anyway.

What people are you referring to, Andre? I don't like Xenakis' music, but I respect the courage he had to break out on his own and do his own thing. I'm not dismissing Xenakis out-of-hand, because there are several of his generation whose music I enjoy like, for example, Ligeti whose attention to texture is just unbelievable. Ligeti, even though he's considered avant-garde (or whatever you want to call his music), he composed very accessible music. Now granted, his music is not "easy," but I'm attracted to the sonorities of his music. The Ligeti Project, on Teldec, opened my ears to this composer.

In due time, I'm going to be journeying into Boulez's sound-world.

[Mirror Image]

Now:

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Listening to Hovhaness' Symphony No. 2 "Mysterious Mountain". I'm seriously surprised RCA didn't remaster this recording and put it out on it's hybrid SACD series. Sometimes I wonder what in the world record companies are thinking? Anyway, great performance here.