What are you listening to now?

[prémont]

Some ricercari from Andrea Gabrieli's Bk 2 by Roberto Loreggian.  These pieces work by subtle rhythmic variations, and that gives each toccata a unified feeling. It doesn't work by contrasts of mood, or climaxes, there is no narrative.

How to make it come off the page? I can't be sure, but I don't think Loreggian succeeds. My feeling is that part of the reason is that the performances are too homogeneous. If I compare the Andrea Gabrieli of Richard Stembridge with that of Roberto Loreggian, in the former there's a better sense of how to pace the music and phrase the music and punctuate the music with pauses, in a way which has the listener hanging off the edge of his seat. A greater sense of structure.

But it's easy for me to talk, and maybe the Stembridge style can't be done in Book 2. I enjoyed Loreggian's Bk 1 toccatas much more.

I have not heard Christopher Stembridges version, but as to all the ones I own (Loreggian included) I feel an impending danger of inducing monotony in Andrea Gabrieli's toccatas. They are obviously very difficult to blow life into. I do not hear the same problems with Merulo's, Frescobaldi's or Rossi's toccatas.

[amw]

How is this? I am a bit reluctant about acquiring Bach recordings by Japanese artists, because I think one often can hear, that they do not have this music in their blood. On the other hand they sometimes add some impressive simplicity to their interpretations.

I only listened in detail to partitas 4, 5 and 6 and enjoyed them a good deal, although I think I may have been expecting the other Watanabe (Takashi) whose Goldberg Variations are one of my references. Performance is fairly mainstream with few mannerisms and clear rhythms despite a certain amount of rubato. Yoshio W is a student of Leonhardt and Brüggen, and sounds like it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l2ZAcHpsiY

[asin]B000MGAZ98[/asin]
The clear-eyed forward motion and absolute refusal to wallow, despite the elegiac tempo, makes this the most unbearably moving performance of the 3rd movement I've ever heard. Pity it's the Haas edition.

[Karl Henning]

I don't listen to Cage enough, but right now I got Apartment House 1776 spinning:





It's a beautiful, spacious and quite surreal work. Always a pleasure! 

I'm biting my tongue, to suppress the obvious jest, especially as I appreciate Cage, myself.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Que]

Some more from this set:



Current incarnation (with downsized booklet) here.

Q

[Harry]

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2017/05/norman-ludvig-1831-1885-symphony-no-1-3.html?spref=tw

His music is to a certain extent melodious, albeit not very inventive.

[Karl Henning]

A studied ambivalence.

[Mister Sharpe]

Ken B., bless his soul, inadvertently reminded me I have this to listen to today  :

[asin]B004RCM85C[/asin]

[cilgwyn]

On now. Arrived today.
I thought this was in the emi Sibelius Historical Recordings box set,so I got rid of it! The Amazon seller sent this out very quickly. Beecham's Sibelius is up there with my favourites,which include Abravenel's Utah SO recordings,which I actually prefer to Berglund's BSO set! Although,the Utah can't match his brass for sheer power.

[Harry]

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2017/05/berkeley-lennox-1903-1989-symphonies-no.html?spref=tw

One of my favourite 20th century composers.

[Madiel]

.[asin]B00A228Y6I[/asin]

Thoughts? I asked about this series on the "recordings you are considering" thread, and got no takers.

[Mandryka]

I have not heard Christopher Stembridges version, but as to all the ones I own (Loreggian included) I feel an impending danger of inducing monotony in Andrea Gabrieli's toccatas. They are obviously very difficult to blow life into. I do not hear the same problems with Merulo's, Frescobaldi's or Rossi's toccatas.

I think the problem is more serious in Bk 2 than in Bk 1, Stembridge chooses very little from Bk 2 and he chooses judiciously. Loreggian benefits from a good organ, it has to be said.

[Karl Henning]

Flagello
Missa sinfonica (1957)
Ukraine National Radio Symphony
Jn McL. Williams

[asin]B0012CJ772[/asin]

[Madiel]

First listen to Schumann Violin Sonata No.2.

[asin]B001AVUAC6[/asin]

EDIT: That was excellent.

[Todd]

[Karl Henning]

Weber/Berlioz
Invitation to the Boogaloo, Op.65
Cz Phil
Ančerl

[Karl Henning]

Malipiero
Symphony № 5 « Concertante in eco » (1947)
Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Antonio de Almeida

[Harry]

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2017/05/cooke-arnold-1906-2005-orchestral-works.html?spref=tw

Top recommendation.
Reference recording.
State of the Art sound.

[Ken B]

Kilar, Portrait of a Lady  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ecJCjC8KNU

Monkey Greg alert!

[Mandryka]

 

More comparisons of ricercari from Andrea Gabrieli's Bk 2 - this time Loreggian and Wilson. And this makes me think that I was being a bit unfair to Loreggian this morning, and part of my frustration was just my mood, and probably the silly attempt to listen to a dozen ricercari on the trot.

I just prefer the intimacy of the harpsichord over the flamboyance of the organ, it just seems to me that Wilson's expressiveness is so much more humane than Loreggian's. And paradoxically the counterpoint seems more alive.

Wilson plays three ricercari from Bk 2, one of them much slower than Loreggian, and that helps.

[Mahlerian]

Sessions: Symphony No. 2
San Francisco Orchestra, cond. Blomstedt
[asin]B00000423N[/asin]