What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Sadko]

Déodat de Séverac

Baigneuses au soleil
Cerdaña
Sous les lauriers-roses
Les Naïades et le Faune indiscret

Billy Eidi, piano

[Todd]

Starting my Saturday right.

[Lisztianwagner]

Jean Sibelius
Symphony No.5

[TheGSMoeller]

Weill: Kleine Dreigroschenmusik

[Coopmv]

Now playing CD1 from the following twofer, a recent arrival for a first listen ...

[listener]

a new purchase, so it is fortunately at the top of the stack...
VILLA-LOBOS and Friends -  piano music from Brazil played by Nelson Freire
Barroso Neto:  Minha Terra
Fernandez, O L: Três Estudos em forma de sonatina, Op. 62
Guarnieri, Camargo:  Dança Negra      Ponteio No. 24  Toccata
Levy, A:   Tango Brasileiro
Mignone:  Valse élégante    Quatro Peças Brasileiras: Maroca (No. 1)    Congada (Danca brasileira)
Oswald, H:  Valse Lente
Santoro:  Paulistana Nos. 1,   Toccata
Villa-Lobos:   Carnaval das Crianças (Children's Carnival)
Chôros No. 5 'Alma Brasileira' for piano    A Mare Encheu     Valsa da Dor
Saudades das Selvas Brasilieras (Longing for the Brazilian Forests)
Pobre Cega (Cirandinha No. 5)    A Canoa virou    A Lenda do Caboclo
A Prole do Bebê, book 2: O Gatinho de Papelão    New York Skyline

[Bogey]

[Que]

.[asin]B000MGB7Z4[/asin]

This is an eye opener.

One takes an Ḗrard, or in this case two, and play Rachmaninoff/Rachmaninov straight and elegant instead of over-sentimental and bombastic, and he actualy sounds like a wonderful and interesting composer of his day and age.

This disc has rekindled my interest for Rachmaninoff for the first time after I doted on his piano concertos when I was in my late teens...quite an achievement.

Q

[Lisztianwagner]

Claude Debussy
Nocturnes

[asin]B000BUEGEU[/asin]

[Gold Knight]

On Spotify:

Sergei Rachmaninov--Symphony No.2 in E Minor, Op.27 and Symphony No.3 in A Major, Op.44, both featuring Mariss Jansons leading the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

[Brian]

George! Where are you? This week guess what I've been hearing for the first time!



*heart melts*

By the way, this Supraphon re-release has been newly (2012) remastered and contains a 4-page interview with Moravec himself on what it's like to hear the recording again after 50 years.

[madaboutmahler]

To bring the night to a close:
[asin]B000BUEGEU[/asin]
Rapsodie pour saxophone et orchestra

I love this piece so much! Such brilliant, uplifting music! Listening to it brings back memories of when we played it in WYO earlier in the year, was such good fun! Good night everyone!

[North Star]

Well, I enjoyed very much what I've listened to so far, Raekallio is an excellent Prokofiev's interpreter. The 1st sonata was quite passionate, intense and with climaxes of great explosive power, very well-played; also No.8 was very beautiful, expressive, and I liked a lot how Raekallio handled the variations of speed and timbre in the first movements; anyway my favourite Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No.8 is still the Richter.
Very good performance in Romeo & Juliet, the pieces work wonderfully played by piano.

I presume that you mean the DG recording of Richter? He's great in this repertoire. I'm listening to that one from Spotify now (not for the first time), and it is a great recording.
And yeah, the last movement of Romeo & Juliet especially is quite hauntingly beautiful.

[bhodges]

From the Concertgebouw Anthology 1990-2000, the final disc. This program (perhaps in a different order) would make an interesting concert.

Takemitsu: A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden (John Adams conducting, 18 April 1998)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 (Kurt Sanderling, 11 June 1999)
Schreker: Vom ewigen Leben (Claudia Barainsky soprano, Gerd Albrecht, 10 March 2000)

[asin]B0056WOZQM[/asin]

--Bruce

[pbarach]

Listening to a bunch of Lou Harrison pieces. He's a new composer for me.

[Conor71]

Bach: Fugue In G Major, BWV 576


Im going to spend the day listening to Bach keyboard works again - I will be listening to these 3 sets :

[Coopmv]

Now playing CD2 from the following twofer, a recent arrival for a first listen ...

[kishnevi]

Hope we'll hear from you about FF Guy's Moonlight in the Beethoven thread - the CD version of that sonata is maaaybe my favorite performance from him so far.

Regarding this, purchased yesterday and listened to this evening, along with the recording of the Moonlight Sonata that is part of Guy's cycle on ZigZag.
[asin]B006P0FI74[/asin]

Answering here because the most interesting part of the DVD is not the Beethoven.

What may not be apparent from the DVD cover is that Guy was fairly young when this was filmed.  The copyright date on the DVD is 2000, but Guy looks like a high school student in this one.  It's a relatively short DVD--50 minutes, including one Beethoven sonata (Moonlight), the first English Suite of Bach, and a Brahms Ballade (Op. 10 No. 1 in d minor),  the Brahms apparently being an encore.  The performance took place at Autueil.    Guy goes in for not-really audible vocalizing and facial  (and sometimes full body) contortions throughout the program.

The Bach is entirely missable--not mechanical, but nothing extraordinary.  The comparison of the two Beethoven performances show Guy has found over the years how to make the entire work more coherently--for instance, the first movement sounds, in the later recording, like one long arc,  something the teenage Guy did not quite manage to do.  There's nothing actually wrong with the DVD performance;  it's just that the mature performance is a much better one.

The true pearl of this performance (although it's probably not worth getting the DVD for this alone) is the Brahms, in which Guy is able to bring out a good deal of aural poetry.  Based on the DVD, one would have predicted that Brahms would be Guy's forte, even if he actually focused on Beethoven and Liszt in the intervening years.

[Gold Knight]

Jean Sibelius--Symphony No.1 in E Minor, Op.39 and Symphony No.4 in A Minor, Op.63. Both works feature the Utah Symphony led by Maurice Abravanel.

[Brian]

Thanks for that post, Jeffrey! And...

Based on the DVD, one would have predicted that Brahms would be Guy's forte, even if he actually focused on Beethoven and Liszt in the intervening years.

...let's hope that Brahms may still be on the way.