What are you listening 2 now?

[Symphonic Addict]

Rubbra: Symphony #7
Boult: LPO

It's a good symphony. I'm not sure that I like it as much as the 6th, though. (I'll have to listen to both works a few more times before I can really say.) For now, I enjoyed the 2nd movement the most. It's also fascinating how the symphony ends with a calming fugue. (Those aren't words that I would normally think to put together.)

I much prefer other of his symphonies to the 7th. I find it too solemn and with little inner contrast to be honest.

[Symphonic Addict]

Dvorak: Symphony No. 9

No doubts it receives here an incandescent rendition!

[Madiel]

Antonín Dvořák
String Quartet 6 in a minor, op. 12
String Quartet 7 in a minor, op. 16
Panocha Quartet

For this morning, a pair of SQ's in A minor:
VS

For me, no.7 is where mature Dvorak starts coming through. And no.8 is where he's really got it.

[Symphonic Addict]

Langgaard: Symphony No.4

Love it!

[aligreto]

Poulenc: Eric Le Sage Plays Poulenc - From CD 6:






Sonate pour clarinette et piano [Meyer/Le Sage]

Wonderfully flowing and exciting writing for both instruments constitutes the opening section of the opening movement. This is followed by a superbly lyrical and magical passage by way of contrast. The third section becomes more alert and invigorated once again.
The second, slow movement opens with a wonderful aria-like theme on the clarinet which is then taken up by the piano and subsequently very engagingly developed.
The final movement is a highly animated and exciting affair. Both voices are wonderfully agitated and there is great inherent forward momentum in the music.

[Lisztianwagner]

Franz Liszt
Piano Sonata

Pianist: Sviatoslav Richter

[71 dB]

Paillard J.S.Bach box discs 9 & 10: The Brandenburg Concertos.

Very good solid performances.

[Linz]

Beethven's 5th Piano Concerto and Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 20 in D minor K466 Youri Egorov on the Piano Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra

[Symphonic Addict]

Weinberg: Piano Trio in A minor
Mendelssohn: String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat major

[VonStupp]

For me, no.7 is where mature Dvorak starts coming through. And no.8 is where he's really got it.

We seem to be of similar minds here. Whereas in the symphonies I didn't much care for Brahms' heavy influence in 5 & 6 (4 & 7 are perhaps my favorites), there is a noticeable uptick of quality and polish in the quartets around SQ8 (which I was particularly taken with). Re-listening to SQ9 right now.

You seem to have a relationship with Dvořák's quartets; do you have preferred recordings/performances?

[Linz]

Solti Romantic Russia Borodin, Glinka and Mussorgsky London Symphony Orchestra Glinka Russlan and Ludmilla overture, Mussogsky Khvanashina Prelude, Night on Bare Mountain, Borodin Prnce Igor, Overture and Polovvtsian Dances

[Madiel]

We seem to be of similar minds here. Whereas in the symphonies I didn't much care for Brahms' heavy influence in 5 & 6 (4 & 7 are perhaps my favorites), there is a noticeable uptick of quality and polish in the quartets around SQ8 (which I was particularly taken with). Re-listening to SQ9 right now.

You seem to have a relationship with Dvořák's quartets; do you have preferred recordings/performances?

It's more of a relationship with Dvorak generally. Partly I'm fascinated by what I jokingly call the "Burghauser limit", how low can you go with the B numbers before you hit the lower quality material (and the period that Dvorak himself destroyed material, or revised it later).

Few composers seem to have had such a major and rapid "lightbulb moment" where he found his style and voice. And just kept getting better from there. I like knowing the context of works and where they occur in a composer's development, and Dvorak is a goldmine for that.

In part that's because he was so meticulous in recording when he was working on something, which also plays into the mess of the published opus numbers. Untangling that was another thing I was most interested in. I wish we could start using Dvorak's own opus numbers because they're written on the manuscripts!

In general I think far too few of Dvorak's works are popular. The last few symphonies, really only one quartet, one piano trio, one opera. And a lot, lot more of it is worthy of admiration.

As for the actual quartets I own the Prague set on DG and generally I'm happy with that. I've sampled others but I haven't felt motivated to buy an alternative. There are times when the zippier performances of the Panocha feel TOO zippy for me. I largely think the reason I'm not that fond of the earlier quartets is due to the music not the performances. I did study the options for the first half dozen a bit, which is how I found out things like the Prague play the original full no.1 and the Panocha play the later heavily edited one - which in that case is probably to the Panocha's benefit.

[Symphonic Addict]

Weinberg: Piano Trio in A minor

I didn't recall how stupendous this trio is, brilliant from beginning to ending.


Now:

Ives: Piano Trio
Bridge: String Sextet

[JBS]

[Operafreak]

Bach: Piano Concertos /Alexandre Tharaud (piano)/Les Violons du Roy, Bernard Labadie

[Symphonic Addict]

Pizzetti: Piano Trio in A major
Taneyev: String Trio in B minor

Not the most captivating cover art on the Pizzetti, but the music is simply lovely, and that's what matters. Pure charm.

This Tanevev String Trio must be the least interesting one on the CD. It left me underwhelmed.

[Symphonic Addict]

Martin: Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises, for piano trio
Françaix: Variations sur un thème plaisant, for piano and winds

Frank Martin is featured by writing some very serious music, but not here. What a sparkling and joyous work!

Except for his L'Apocalypse selon St. Jean, I don't know any work by Françaix that doesn't exude good humour and wit. A quite fun work. BTW, the very composer plays the piano part.

[Operafreak]

 Janáček: Glagolitic Mass

Czech Philharmonic, Jiří Bělohlávek

[vandermolen]

Love it!

It's my favourite of the Langgaard symphonies.

[vandermolen]

Madetoja: 'Tragic episode and Rapids shooting from the opera Juha'.
This is one of the great Madetoja CDs (also featuring the epic 2nd Symphony) and this eleven minutes work is especially fine (I think that Christo is an admirer as well):