What are you listening to now?

[San Antone]

Harrison Birtwistle
The Tree of Strings (2007)
9 Movements for String Quartet (1991-6)
Arditti Quartet [Aeon, 2012]

I have that recording and think it is very good.  I enjoy Birtwistle's music in general, but the string quartets were especially illuminating for me.

[Turbot nouveaux]

I have that recording and think it is very good.  I enjoy Birtwistle's music in general, but the string quartets were especially illuminating for me.

I am getting to the point where the works on this disc are familiar enough to me that I am recognising at least some of 'what's coming next', always a critical point for me in appreciating contemporary music. The 'Tree of Strings' is hugely enjoyable.

I do admire the Arditti Quartet's work immensely and have had the good fortune to have heard them live in recital a number of times now, most recently a couple of weeks ago with the Ensemble Modern in Ferneyhough and some other composers I didn't know previously.

[aligreto]

Berg: Lulu, Act 3 [Boulez]....

[Parsifal]

Looks like something I should get - I love all those works and the Florestan Trio is always a treat to hear.

I love everything they have done, and this is no exception.

[aligreto]

Very nice! Just out of curiosity, is this your first venture into Berg's sound-world? I know you didn't ask me, but I find Lulu a bit lopsided and, for me, it is always a chore to get through the opera. Wozzeck, on the other hand, is one of my favorite operas. I rank it up there with other favorites like Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle or Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande.

I do not mind the question at all. Civilised conversation should be what a forum is all about 

Almost, but not quite. I had bought a CD recently with the Lulu suite [Boulez] on it, which led me to the full opera. I also have one version of the Violin Concerto [Szeryng/Kubelik] which I like.
Thank you for the recommendation on Wozzeck; I have, and like, versions of both Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle or Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande.   

[San Antone]

I do admire the Arditti Quartet's work immensely and have had the good fortune to have heard them live in recital a number of times now, most recently a couple of weeks ago with the Ensemble Modern in Ferneyhough and some other composers I didn't know previously.

What a treat!  Lucky you.

[aligreto]

The Concertino:



It has got to be good.

That CD was a recent purchase for me and I can recommend in without reservation.

[Que]

.[asin]B005P3N0QI[/asin]
Q

[Karl Henning]

The Esterhazy retinue were the ultimate bourgeois avant la lettre and Haydn was fond of surprising them with all kinds of tricks and traps such as false endings, bassoon farts, retuning in the middle of a movement, etc. He became famous for (among many other things) his ingenious, bottomless bag of tricks. These « special effects » should not be smoothed over, but be given their full due. 

Thanks.

[Brian]

Piano Concerto No. 1 with Lukas Geniušas

[Mahlerian]

Ligeti: Musica Ricercata
Mei Yi Foo
[asin]B0075VGA1U[/asin]

[André]

The 'teardrops' episode in the finale of Quartet II never fails to move me. The pizzicati are supposed to represent the composer's tears as he laments his daughter's death (she drowned while swimming out at sea). Powerful yet strangely understated. In his intimate music Leifs was uncharacteristically undemonstrative. The emotion is there, but you have to be attentive, it's not attention grabbing. This quartet is a requiem for four stringed instruments. It is titled Vita et mors, and ends with the living's presence transformed into memories.

Quartet III is a kind of musical reflexion on some of El Greco's most famous paintings. As befits the subject, the music is strange, contorted, anguished, uncomfortable, alternating between suppressed wails and violent clashes. Not for the faint of heart.

[Todd]

[aligreto]

Langgaard: Music of the Spheres [Rozhdestvensky]....





Simply wonderful and intriguing music.

[Mahlerian]

Reger: Sonata for organ in D minor
Franz Lehrndorfer
[asin]B01GQWSWFK[/asin]

[Josquin13]

Today's listening--

Martinu's 3 Cello Sonatas--Josef Chuchro (cello) and Josef Hala (piano)--from a 1984 recording on Supraphon. I found the 3rd sonata the most interesting of the 3, at least today.  The whole CD is on You Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GODkGVGy9Xw

Then I listened to Allan Pettersson's 7th Symphony, twice--the Swedish R.S.O. premiere, conducted by Sergui Comissiona.  After listening to the entire 42 minute symphony, I found the sound on the You Tube clip to be slightly muted, so I listened again to the last 30 minutes of the symphony via a YT clip of the film that was made at the concert, and found the sound more present, i.e., I could hear the whole score more clearly in the last 15 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=45&v=ymq1bruOayo

Here's the full performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxQyUzOXPiY

I find Pettersson's 7th symphony to be one of the most beautiful, lyrical, haunting, moving (in the final 15 minutes), searingly intense and powerful symphonies composed in the 20th century. Pettersson ability to compose for a full orchestra is also impressive, and at times, astonishing. What I like most about Comissiona's interpretation (versus others) is that he fully gets the romantic elements in this symphony, and therefore is able to bring out its lyricism & varied emotions better than conductors that focus more intently on its modern aspects. (Not surprisingly, Pettersson asked Comissiona to premiere his next symphony, the 8th.)  (I also like Leif Segerstam's recording, but my 1st choice remains Comissiona).

When I think about how horribly Pettersson physically suffered in his life, I find myself in awe of him, and inspired, that he was somehow able to get himself to his writing desk each morning to compose, and find the strength and will to create music of such incredible depth, imagination, and beauty--a masterpiece.

[ritter]

This historic document (live recordings from 1965 in Moscow):

[asin]B00QW8CSC2[/asin]
An all-French program, including Honegger's Symphony No. 2, a  symphonic (I mean this in the sense of the size of the ensemble, as un-HIP as you can imagine) suite from Rameau's Dardanus, La Mer, and the second suite from Bacchus et Ariane. Charles Munch leads very well-paced performances, but the sound and the execution by the USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra leave a bit to be desired. Not something I think I'll return to often. 

[aligreto]

Janacek: Sinfonietta [Belohlavek]....





This is a very fine version of this wonderful work.

[Sergeant Rock]

Victor Bendix Symphony No.3 A minor




Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Victor Bendix Symphony No.1 C major "Fjeldstigning" (Mountain Climbing)




Sarge