What are you listening to now?

[aligreto]

Takemitsu: Bryce....





I really like the sonic world created in this work.

[HIPster]

Spending some time with this enjoyable four disc set:
[asin]B000VZN7KE[/asin]

A true Baroque Bargain.

[San Antone]

Symphony No. 8 in E-Flat - Part II: Closing scene from Goethe's Faust

[Mister Sharpe]

Symphony No. 8 in E-Flat - Part II: Closing scene from Goethe's Faust

LOVE that photograph.  I mean, I REALLY LOVE THAT PHOTOGRAPH!

[Mister Sharpe]

Making applesauce this afternoon and needed a lively companion.  This proved perfect :

[asin]B000060OO3[/asin]

And then, back to more streng verbotenen Werke:

[André]

Stale Kleiberg. Norwegian comooser (b. 1958).

Symphony no 1, "The Bell Reef" (1991); chamber symphony no 2.

[San Antone]

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Leonard Bernstein, James King, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

[aligreto]

Rautavaara: Sonetto....





Quite an inventive work.

[ludwigii]

I'm listening to the first cd of this box set, which contains :

Joaquin Rodrigo

Concierto Serenade, for harp
Concierto Pastoral, for flute
Concierto Heroico, for piano


At the first look, what i like best is the first, in particular the central movement deserves (truly remarkable !)
The piano concerto is not bad.

[asin]B000BVXC7G[/asin]

[Sergeant Rock]

Bax Symphony No.2 E minor and C major (1924-26), Fredman conducting the LPO




Sarge

[ritter]

Inevitably... 

[asin]B000002ZOU[/asin]
Franz Liszt: Shepherds' Song at the Manger and The Three Holy Kings - March (orchestral movements from the oratorio Christus, transcribed for piano by the composer).

[listener]

BRAHMS: Violin Sonata no.1   Trio for violin, piano and horn
Gyorgy Sebok, piano   Arthur Grumiaux, violin   Francis Orval, horn
BRITTEN: Temporal Variations  RÖNTGEN: Oboe Sonata no.1  RUBBRA: Oboe Sonata in c, GRABERT:Oboe Sonata in g
RUBBRA: Duo for cor anglais and piano
Peter Bree, c.a. & oboe    Paul Koenen, piano

[André]

Ludvig Irgens-Jensen:

- Tema con variazioni (1925). Oslo Philharmonic, Odd Gruner-Hegge.
- Passacaglia (1927) and Partita Sinfonica (1938). Oslo Philharmonic, Ole Kristian Ruud.

Good, very solid music. Not smiling or life-affirming. Irgens-Jensen seems to have been a serious character, not prone to expansiveness.

[Mahlerian]

Bartók: Piano Concertos
Krystian Zimerman, Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Leif Ove Andsnes, Berlin Philharmonic; Helene Grimaud, London Symphony Orchestra; all cond. Boulez


Though it may be considered the Cinderella of the bunch, I have something of a preference for the First Concerto, great though the other two certainly are.  I also think it gets the best performance here, and the Third the least convincing performance (perhaps due to the conductor's lesser sympathy for the work's idiom?), but that may just be me.

[Kontrapunctus]

This set arrived today, and I listened to the first 6: so far, so good! He composed them in 1937/38, a few years before Hindemith and Shostakovitch composed their cycles. Great playing of what sounds like quite demanding music, and the sound is very good, too.

[ritter]

..and another piano transcription from Christus: the Pastorale (also from Part I).

[asin]B0049BX0M6[/asin]
And now, the son-in-law follows the father-in-law, with the Siegfried-Idyll from this CD:


I've always admired the art of Gianandrea Gavazzeni, that grand seigneur of post-WW2 Italian opera. He also was a very perceptive and eminently readable writer on music...

[Brian]

Haydn - Sonata No. 53 in E minor
Brahms - Four Pieces Op. 119
Borodin - Little Suite
Glinka/Balakirev - The Lark
Schubert - Hungarian Melody

The Haydn is played with great sensitivity. Still only on track 1 but this promises to be a marvelous CD.

[ritter]

And with Christian Gerhaher (man, what an extraordinary singer !) performing Mahler's Rückert-Lieder (man, what extraordinary music!), I bid you all goodnight! 

[asin]B00DYFCZ5Q[/asin]Kent Nagano conducts the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.

[San Antone]

And with Christian Gerhaher (man, what an extraordinary singer !) performing Mahler's Rückert-Lieder (man, what extraordinary music!), I bid you all goodnight! 

[asin]B00DYFCZ5Q[/asin]Kent Nagano conducts the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.

That set has been on my Wish List for months, if not years. 

[San Antone]

A different but interesting recording from Christian Gerhaher & Co.

Terezín/Theresienstadt
Anne Sofie von Otter, Bengt Forsberg, Christian Gerhaher, Daniel Hope





The Swedish mezzo-soprano, Anne Sofie von Otter, is known as one of the most versatile stars of her generation. She is always in search of new musical challenges, whether with the songs of Cécile Chaminade or of Benny Andersson. Here, von Otter has chosen a project with a serious and historically significant background. She interprets pieces written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp by a group of Jewish composers who were imprisoned there and yet managed to foster a rich cultural life even under the most extreme conditions. On this album, Anne Sofie von Otter is joined by one of the greatest lieder singers of today, Christian Gerhaher, and their longtime pianists Bengt Forsberg and Gerold Huber, respectively. Together they present songs by Viktor Ullmann, Hans Krása, and so-called cabaret songs. DG's recently signed violinist Daniel Hope contributes the Sonata for Solo Violin by Erwin Schulhoff.