What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[pjme]

Don't know this guy at all, but sounds fascinating.  What caught my eye is Jurowski's name, and another imaginative CPO cover!

--Bruce

Be careful, it is the regular, propably well made, but ever so slightly boring late Romantic stuff( sorry Harry!! , I bought that symphony (LP) years ago and re-sold it after a couple of hearings) . I found  nothing exceptional about it.

Peter

[karlhenning]

Is Domedagsprofeterna Swedish for "Dog Day Afternoon Eternity"?

[karlhenning]

Well, what I'm listening to now is a travel agent on the phone, and an associate on a cell phone at Penn Stn conferenced in, who is trying to change a train ticket he's only just bought . . . .

[karlhenning]

Well, now what I'm listening to is the gratitude of the associate, formerly at Penn, and now relaxed and on a moving train . . . .

[karlhenning]

Good heavens, but listening again to the Firesign Theatre's expertly bizarre snippet of the opening of the Beethoven C Minor Symphony, and the Grieg Piano Concerto, by the
"Whispering Yeast Symphonette, The Famous Whispering Yeast All-Animal Whistling Choir, and yours truly, Dwight Yeast."

[Don]

Be careful, it is the regular, propably well made, but ever so slightly boring late Romantic stuff( sorry Harry!! , I bought that symphony (LP) years ago and re-sold it after a couple of hearings) . I found  nothing exceptional about it.

Peter

I'm surprised you threw in the towel after just two hearings.

[karlhenning]

There are always other towels, Don.

[BachQ]

Listening to the Buchbinder/Harnoncourt take on Brahms D Minor piano concerto, which arrived today.  Buchbinder is more than competent, but Harnoncourt takes the "expansive" approach by slowing the tempo noticeably, making this one of the longest first movements (24'24") ever recorded.  This is slower than Bernstein/Zimerman. 

Nevertheless, the movement is marked "Maestoso", so there is a certain gravity and majesty that accompanies this languorous tempo.  In short, one needs to be in the mood for this approach, so I will re-listen as appropriate.  I may learn to love this version, or, then again .........

[wilhelm]

[pjme]

I'm surprised you threw in the towel after just two hearings.

It was more than two hearings, of course. Even poor old  Wilhelm deserved that ! (and yes, that symphony may even be better than I remember.For the moment I can live without it.)

Peter

[Harry]

It was more than two hearings, of course. Even poor old  Wilhelm deserved that ! (and yes, that symphony may even be better than I remember.For the moment I can live without it.)

Peter

Good for you, I don't!

[not edward]

Bruckner 7 (BPO/Celibidache).
As long as the spell is working, I can marvel at the beautiful sound on display here. But eventually it breaks and I become so frustrated with the slow tempi (86 minutes for the whole symphony) and one-dimensional interpretation that I end up wanting to chew my own legs off. Or something.

[Lilas Pastia]

My reaction to that Peterson-Berger disc (Sy 3 + Earina Suite) is somewhere in the middle: I like it and never consider selling it. But it is indeed ever so slightly boring late-romantic music. I suppose I have a sweet tooth for that stuff. Actually I find the Suite more interesting, esp. in the sense of not having to adhere to the hallowed symphonic model Peterson-Berger so obviously strives to conform to. I have another disc of that series, and my reaction is the same.

Fellow contemporary swedes von Koch, Nystroem, Olsson and Alfven may have stronger personalities, but P-B is quite likable in his own way.

One set I did sell is that Buchbinder-Harnoncourt Brahms PCs. Blaaaah...

d minor, I'm glad you like Kuerti's Brahms PC 1. He's of the old school and plays Brahms the way he should: uncompromisingly, unsmilingly, but with tons of commitment.

[karlhenning]

Vaughan Williams
Symphony No. 9 in E Minor
Bournemouth Symphony
Kees Bakels

[Lilas Pastia]

Elliott Carter 21st century orchestral-vocal works.

Soundings for piano and orchestra, Reflexions and Three Illusions for orchestra are out and out winners. Time will tell if they deserve the title masterpiece, as so many of Carter's works do: the VC, Clarinet Concerto, Symphonia, Concerto for Orchestra, Duo, Quartets and half a dozen others.

The vocal works here (with orchestra) are more conventional and less successful. To my ears, that is. I've never taken to poetry and atonal music. I take exception with Berg's achingly lovely Altenberg Lieder. Carter struggles to balance the seesawing vocal line and the freer orchestral commentary. The text is sung over large intervals, alternating predictable high-low-high-low pitches on totaly unmemorable lines such as "It is what it is, as I am what I am")...

Reflexions has the most entertaining and evocative series of contrabassoon farts, eructations and sundry borborygms it has been my pleasure to hear. But I'm just baiting you. It's much more than that, a kaleidoscopic exercise in scintillating orchestral sonorities. Great stuff!

[Solitary Wanderer]

Haydn – Trumpet Concerto

H K Gruber – Three Mob Pieces




Disc.2.

[Solitary Wanderer]

Disc.1.

[Lilas Pastia]

Marin Marais: Suittes d'un goût étranger. A 2-disc set with Jordi Savall (Viola da gamba) and friends (incl. Pierre Hantaï at harpsichord). This definitely confirms Marais as one of the giants of instrumental baroque. I have to say I prefer other approaches to this music though. Savall is of the exuberant, clipped phrasing persuasion. I prefer Philippe Pierlot's smoother, more malleable way (he plays V. da G. in the continuo here). Nonetheless, this set will prove immeasurably illuminating in its own exuberant, Ole!- way.

Schubert: Schwanengesang: Jan Kobow, tenor, with Kristian Bezuidenhout, fortepiano. Tenor Kobow has appeared with Philippe Herreweghe, Frieder Bernius, John Eliot Gardiner, Gustav Leonhardt, Jos van Velthoven, Jeffrey Tate, Thomas Hengelbrock, Masaaki Suzuki, René Jacobs and many other baroque music specialists.  This is his second ATMA Schubert recording. I'll go straight out and declare this my vocal disc of the year, 2007. I wasn't sure what nationality Kobow was (Polish, Czech, German?). He was born and trained in Berlin, furthured his musical studies in Paris, etc. These youngsters go places. Anyhow, there are so many remarkable qualities assembled here that I'll dwell only on three:
- first, the vocal and instrumental aspects
- second, the linguistic/pronunciation aspects
- third, the team's adequation with the chosen repertoire.

Kobow has a remarkably even and warm tenor voice. It is light in tessitura, but with strong, gorgeous baritonal undertones. Hearing this tenor in the forte outbursts of the famous Serenade (Staendchen) was revelatory: compared to this solidity and subtlety, Fischer-Dieskau (EMI 1961) sounds like so much bluster and exaggerated emoting. Fortepianist Bezuidenhoot plays a creamily beautiful yet pungent instrument that enhances - rather than merely accompanies - the vocal line. Both are captured to perfection int the warm, natural and crystal clear acoustics.

The most salient feauture of Kobow's interpretation is his truly extraordinary linguistic abilities. I'm used to hear and expect that kind of X-ray clarity and warmth from french singers singing in their native language (Souzay comes readily to mind), but hearing these qualities applied to the german language was pure joy. No affectation, no prissiness, no italicizing. Just perfect enunciation on the voice.

Finally, hearing Schubert's songs performed by that team made me realize how narrow the path, how specialized the idiom a performer may be looking for when trying to 'fit' to the music. In that regard, I will not expect miracles from this team other than eagerly search for their Schöne Müllerin on the same label. I'm confident neither will trespass those slight, elusive boundaries of musical/interpretional adequation.

Mozart: symphonies 39-41. Concertgebouw, Böhm (1955). Many here know the admiration I have for both Böhm and this fabulous orchestra. In this repertoire and at that particular time, I don't think there could have been a better combination. The winds in particular have a personality that leaves all contemporary and future competitors on the starting line.

These versions have strength and alacrity in perfect balance. These three symphonies hold comfortably onto a single cd (77 minutes) whereas the younger Harnoncourt - COE take a full 100 minutes for their traversal. Of course, most of the difference can be traced to a logorrheic adherence to repeats (Harnoncourt), but in those movements where they don't come into play, Böhm is unfailingly the lighter and faster jockey. But this is really comparing oranges and apples (I love Harnoncourt in this repertoire). Suffice to say that some movements (39:1 and the trio of III, 41:II and IV receive what I consider as their most miraculous performances on record.

[Valentino]

Is Domedagsprofeterna Swedish for "Dog Day Afternoon Eternity"?

Doomsday prophets, Karl.

Good morning! It's Vivalditime, but smooth! Autumn:

[Harry]

Duport/Beethoven/Boccherini/Romberg.

Works for Cello & Piano.

Anner Bijlsma, Cello.
Kenneth Slowik, Cello.
Stanley Hoogland, Piano.

A delightful set of small scale goodies, perfectly played and recorded. I emulated already how much I like this Period instrument approach, and it is the same hearing this.
The most substantial work is the E flat major sonata by Romberg, and it enhances my regard for this composer enormously. I have already some recordings by Romberg on MDG, and ordered two of his Symphonies.