What are you listening to now?

[anothername]

[ritter]

....
Stravinsky's Pulcinella, LSO/Abbado

Good morning, Gio! Abbado's recording of Pulcinella is extraordinarily good IMO...and Teresa Berganza is to die for in it...

[RebLem]

On Wednesday, 17 January 2018, I listened to 4 CDs.


1)  F. J. Haydn (1732-1809):  Tr. 1-4, Sym. 52 in C Minor (20'50)  |Tr. 5-8, Sym. 53 in D Major "L'Imperiale" (22'23)  |Tr. 9-12, Sym. 54 in G Major (24'38)--Adam Fisher, cond., Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orch.  Rec. 1994-5 Haydnsaal, Esterhazy Palace, Eisenstadt, Austria.  This is CD 15 of a 33 CD Brilliant set of the complete Haydn Syms. by these forces.  Licensed from Nimbus Records.

I found Sym. 53 to be especially affecting.  Unlike most Haydn symphonies, it starts off with a largo, and has, at least in the beginning, a funereal aspect to it.


2)  Bela Bartok (1881-1945):  Tr. 1-3, Piano Concerto 1, Sz. 83 (1926) (23'24)  |Tr. 4-6, Piano Concerto 2, Sz. 95 (1931) (28'28)  |Tr. 7-9, Piano Concerto 3, Sz. 119 (1945) (24'12)--Andras Schiff, piano, Ivan Fischer, cond., Budapest Festival Orch.  Rec. 4/1996 @ Italian Cultural Institute, Budapest.  An Apex CD, which is a Teldec budget label.


These three works have been recorded by many fine pianists and orchestras.  I first heard the First Concerto, my  favorite of the three, from Rudolf Serkin and George Szell.  Bartok's work was rather dissonant for his time, but his piano writing became progressively more conservative as time went on.  Although he became a faculty member at the Royal Academy in Hungary in 1908, he never taught composition; he was always a professor of piano.  Among his students were Fritz Reiner, Georg Solti, Gyorgy Sandor, and Lili Kraus.  Although he wrote in many forms, including a truly great Violin Concerto (1938), the center of his compositional and musical life was definitely the piano.  His Mikrokosmos is one of the two great courses in piano playing in the repertoire.  (The other is Schumann's Fur Die Jungend).  These concerti in may ways constitute the core of the 20th century piano concerto repertoire, and this series is among the very best, despite stiff and able competition from Sandor, Kovacevich, Bronfman, & Ashkenazy, and Pollini in the first two.


3)  Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields perfprming 3 20th century works for string orchestra:  Tr. 1, Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings (1945) (26'06)  |Tr. 2, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951): Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night), Op. 4 (1899) (29'18)  |Tr. 3-7, Anton Webern (1883-1945): Five Movements for string quartet, Op. 5 (1909): version for string orchestra (1929) (10'51).  Rec. 1968 (Tr. 1), 1974 (Tr. 2-7).  No  information on recording venues.

4)  Franco Mannino cond. the National Arts Centre Orch., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  No information on recording dates or venue except that it was in Canada.  CD published 1996-CBC Enterprises.  |Tr. 1-2, Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Sym. 8 in B Minor "Unfinished" (25'02)  |Tr. 3, Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings (1945) (29'56).

Of the five performances in the two CDs above, the Schubert Unfinished is the least distinguished.  Its pretty much a compentent, routine run-through, nothing special about it.  And, I didn't find anything very inspiring about the Webern piece in the Marriner recording either, though that is more Webern's fault than Marriner's.  The other works here, on both CDs, are very special indeed.

This Marriner performance of Verklarte Nacht was, in its previous LP incarnation, the first version of the work I ever heard, and still, to my way of thinking, the very best.  I suppose Marriner did it just to show that the ASMF was not just a baroque and classical specialist ensemble, that they were versatile players whose repertoire was wider than people might suppose.  Here, it has a sense of drama, a sense of a beginning, a middle, and an end that may other performances lack.

But the most important work on both discs is the Strauss.  Generally speaking, interpretations of this work are like performances of the Marcia Funebre from Beethoven's Eroica Symphony in that two different approaches seem to predominate.  In the Eroica, some conductors emphasize grief over the hero's passing, as in Klemperer and post-war Furtwangler readings, for example. Others choose to concentrate of celebrating the glories of the hero's life.  Metamorphosen doesn't celebrate anything in any version.  But conductors still divide over how to express the enormity of the tragedy, but concentrating on the inner life of the individual viewing it.  Does one grieve over the tragedy of the destruction and death, or celebrate the triumph of  the human spirit in the end through it all?  Klemperer and Marriner, it seems to me, take the former view in their interpretations of this piece (Klemperer's interpretation is on a 2 CD set coupled with his Wagner Siegfried Idyll and his Mahler Ninth).  Karajan and Kempe take the latter approach.  I personally have always preferred the former.  I learned to live the work from the Klemperer recording; it has long been a touchstone for me.  Mannino seems to seek a synthesis between the two, which I find very appealing.  Not enough to override my love for the Klemperer or Marriner recordings, you understand, but appealing nevertheless.  Karajan and Kempe have always seemed to me bloated and overblown.  But I think everyone who loves this piece should listen to the Mannino performance, too.  It has much to offer.

[The One]

[GioCar]

Good morning, Gio! Abbado's recording of Pulcinella is extraordinarily good IMO...and Teresa Berganza is to die for in it...

Good morning Rafael. I cannot agree more. All Abbado's albums with the LSO are among his best legacies on records IMO.

[Florestan]

An eminently enjoyable "refreshment of the soul". 

[Karl Henning]

Shostakovich Piano Quintet

Sweet!

And, welcome!

[Karl Henning]

An eminently enjoyable "refreshment of the soul". 

I rejoice for thee  0:) 

[Spineur]

Re-discovering Offenbach with this new release

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To most people Offenbach was the amuseur en chef du second empire, some kind of musical buffon who wrote some catchy tunes.

But he was also a very delicate and subtle composer described by Rossini as the little Mozart of the champs élysées.  This CD is a collection of melodies written in his youth (before he turned 27)  in a style closer to what was played in french salon than at the opera comique.

A really lovely set of music never recorded before and sung by one of my favorite mezzo Myriam Sakissian now french national from an armenian family and born and trained in russia.

[mc ukrneal]

Re-discovering Offenbach with this new release

[asin]B07715313N[/asin]

To most people Offenbach was the amuseur en chef du second empire, some kind of musical buffon who wrote some catchy tunes.

But he was also a very delicate and subtle composer described by Rossini as the little Mozart of the champs élysées.  This CD is a collection of melodies written in his youth (before he turned 27)  in a style closer to what was played in french salon than at the opera comique.

A really lovely set of music never recorded before and sung by one of my favorite mezzo Myriam Sakissian now french national from an armenian family and born and trained in russia.

That looks very nice indeed!

[NikF]

Roussel: Le Festin de l'Araignee - Martinon/ORTF National.

[Florestan]

I rejoice for thee  0:) 

Thank you, most nobly born Sir!   

TD

[NikF]

Staying with ballet...

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[Florestan]

Re-discovering Offenbach with this new release

[asin]B07715313N[/asin]

Wishlisted, many thanks.

[Karl Henning]

http://www.youtube.com/v/TDwy11PAjx8

[Tsaraslondon]

I actually felt rather faint and unwell this afternoon, as I wrote in the post just before. But thank you for your concern.

And yes I think Harteros is a terrific singer and her recording of the Four Last Songs is one of my personal favourites. I never warmed up to the recording I heard of Popp singing it, unfortunately for me!

And btw I am very much enjoying Nina Stemme's recording here.

I did some comparative listening of some well known recordings a couple of years back, and came up with this.

I've spent the afternoon with these much loved songs, comparing and contrasting five favourite versions. They were.










And here, in reverse order, is my assessment and rating.

5.The Norman I hadn't heard for ages, and, to tell the truth, had never really liked it. I realise now that, for me, the problem isn't Norman, who sings gloriously, if as usual in a somewhat generalised manner, but the unconscionably slow speeds. Fruhling isn't too bad, but September is quite slow and then the performance just gets slower, so slow that the music loses any sense of flow or line, and by the time we come to Im Abendrot we've practically come to a complete halt. Tennstedt (for Popp) is slow too in the final song, but he still manages to make the music flow and sing. So Norman comes 5th.

4. Fleming. This is her second recording, and the beautiful voice has acquired a new richness in the lower register that is most attractive. Nor has she lost her ability to soar and float above the orchestra. She sings intelligently off the words too, but she does have an annoying habit of introducing jazzy little swoops and slides, which, to my mind, vitiate enjoyment. Thielemann is a warmly sympathetic conductor.

2= Hard to choose between Janowitz/Karajan and Popp/Tenstedt for second and third place, so I'll make them second equals. Popp I have a special affection for as I heard her do the songs with Tennstedt at the Royal Festival Hall at about the same time this recording was made. (Tod und Verklarung was also on the programme). She too sings well off the words, her tone pure and silvery. Janowitz makes slightly less of the words, but is vocally superb, her gleaming soprano soaring above the orchestra.

1. Ultimately, though, I come back to Schwarzkopf and Szell, who remind us that these are, after all, Lieder and not merely vocalises. They probe more deeply into the valedictory nature of the songs, and the recording has a rich autumnal glow, eminently suited to their approach. In the last song, when Schwarzkopf sings So tief im Abendrot the effect is of a cathartic release, as if the whole cycle had been leading up to that moment. I don't hear that in any other performance, and for this reason, Schwarzkopf/Szell still, for me, eclipse all competition.

That said, I never tire of these wonderful songs, and hugely enjoyed my afternoon. Four of them I return to on a regular basis. The fifth (Norman) I still have equivocal feelings about.

I don't much like the Stemme recording, as hers is a voice I've never really taken to, and I have yet to hear Harteros.

Of others I've heard Te Kanawa was bland (in both versions), Della Casa lovely, but too fast.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

#morninglistening to #FrancoisCouperin's #Apotheosis on @harmoniamundi / @piasclassicsusa

http://a-fwd.to/5D5K7S2

w/@lesartsflo's #WilliamChristie & @talenslyriques' #ChristopheRousset

[Todd]

Emili Brugalla's Musica Callada.  Brugalla touts his autodidactic background, though he also studied in Spain with Bruno Canino and Maria Curcio, and later associated with Maria Joao Pires in some fashion.  Though Brugalla shaves about seven minutes off Mompou's overall timing, he starts off sounding slower, or at least less tense in the first piece, though afterward, his playing sounds faster and becomes a bit tense.  He seems to pedal quite a bit more (the Calme ending to the second book is pronouncedly different, for instance) and hold notes a bit longer, ending up with a less incisive sound, and it sounds more homogenous.  Whereas Mompou sort of plays with great austerity and simplicity, he better divides the sparse melodies and accompaniment while Brugalla sounds more blended.  One byproduct of the faster playing is that Brugalla does not utilize pauses and sustains to such a fine and communicative degree as Mompou, and if the dynamic gradations do not sound as stark or wide ranging, with true piano rare, they are slightly more refined within the range played.  The final book is appealing, and certainly sparer and calmer, but the noticeably faster tempi render less effective.

Though I got the MP3 download, the sound quality surpasses the Mompou set, though it is not SOTA. 

[Karl Henning]

http://www.youtube.com/v/k9bo-T47bmg

[Mirror Image]

http://www.youtube.com/v/k9bo-T47bmg

Very cool, Karl. Do you know the String Sextet per chance?