What are you listening to now?

[Zeus]

Continuing the celebration of today's victors survivors...

[asin] B003T8BWRK[/asin]
My Mexican Soul
Alondra de la Parra & Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas
Sony

A fab album, btw.

[aligreto]

Deirdre Gribbin: Venus Blazing [Maloney]





A Violin Concerto in three movements, this powerful work is filled with tension and drama. The scoring is relatively sparse but very effective and the musical language is captivating, atmospheric and has an intense edge in an other-worldly setting. The final movement is particularly exciting and stimulating. Genuinely a work of the highest order.

[aligreto]

German Requiem.

Oops. Thought this was the World Cup thread.

[Alek Hidell]

Disc ten of the Boulez Erato box. This is more my speed than the previous disc, though this one too has a vocal work that I can certainly live without (A Mirror on Which to Dwell, a setting of six Elizabeth Bishop poems). But I like the rest of it, especially the opening Oboe Concerto with Heinz Holliger sitting in the hot seat playing what sounds like a wretchedly difficult part.

(There was some talk recently in the "Greatest Living Violinists" thread about how versatile Gidon Kremer is, playing everything from Baroque to modern. Holliger is the same, though of course on a different instrument, playing everything from Bach and Mozart to the most forbidding modern stuff. I admire that in musicians; it's the chief reason why I admire, say, Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland in jazz.)

[Daverz]

Holliger is the same, though of course on a different instrument, playing everything from Bach and Mozart to the most forbidding modern stuff. I admire that in musicians

He's also a very good conductor.  His Schumann is very fine, for example, and I'm fussy about my Schumann.

[Alek Hidell]

He's also a very good conductor.  His Schumann is very fine, for example, and I'm fussy about my Schumann.

And he's also a composer, but I have to say I'm not very familiar with it or his conducting. Definitely an all-around guy!

(I may have to check out his Schumann. Are you talking primarily about his series on the Audite label?)

[Daverz]

(I may have to check out his Schumann. Are you talking primarily about his series on the Audite label?)

Yes.  I really like No. 2.  I had forgotten about his composing, perhaps because his music may be a bit too challenging for me.

[Madiel]

German Requiem.

Oops. Thought this was the World Cup thread.

That might be the best response I've seen anywhere.

[Christo]

[amw]

And he's also a composer, but I have to say I'm not very familiar with it or his conducting. Definitely an all-around guy!

(I may have to check out his Schumann. Are you talking primarily about his series on the Audite label?)

His Schumann is my reference set, also his recordings of various 2nd Viennese school things. As a composer he's in my top three or so, barring dead people. (him, Sciarrino and Rebecca Saunders would be the 3) Also he apparently plays some kind of wind instrument.

[Que]

Morning listening - conclusion:



Q

[king ubu]

His Schumann is my reference set, also his recordings of various 2nd Viennese school things. As a composer he's in my top three or so, barring dead people. (him, Sciarrino and Rebecca Saunders would be the 3) Also he apparently plays some kind of wind instrument.

... so they say 

His most important teacher (whom he mentions again and again) was Sándor Veress, whose former students in Hungary include Kurtág and Ligeti, in Switzerland (where he taught from 1950 to the early 80s) they include Roland Moser, Jürg Wyttenbach and others.

One thing Holliger "got" from Veress was how to re-work traditional music, and some of Holliger's most accessible stuff includes such "folklore imaginaire" that at its best is just stunning. Check out "Beiseit" and "Alb-Chehr" (both on an ECM disc) ... his areas of interest extend into literature: poets Hölderlin, Robert Walser - I'm a huge fan of the later, not sure he's known at all in the english-speaking world, also not sure his texts do translate -, painter Louis Soutter (who as a violinist also was a member of one of the orchestras led by Ansermet at some point in time) ... and most recently he put his Lenau songs into a most amazing opera, "Lunea".

I don't know his stuff nearly as well as I feel I should, but I'll keep slowly exploring it and digging deeper!

[springrite]

And he's also a composer, but I have to say I'm not very familiar with it or his conducting. Definitely an all-around guy!

(I may have to check out his Schumann. Are you talking primarily about his series on the Audite label?)

I love his compositions!

[milk]

[prémont]

Morning listening - conclusion:



Q

What is your conclusion then?

[Harry]

CD 14 from this box. Vernet plays on the Treutmann organ in  Grauhof-Goslar, and the Silbermann organ in Freiberg.
6 chorale von verschiedene Art. (Schubler Chorale)
17 chorale aus der Leipziger original handschrift.
Praeludium et Fuga in C BWV: 546.

Despite the reverb in both churches the sound is actually quite good. Vernet's playing is consistent, but he never walks far out of the beaten tracks. Expression can sound as a routine, but not consistently, and sameness in projecting Bach's organ music is something to consider when acquiring this set. It is not a constant factor, but it slips in now and then. But as a whole this interpretation has a lot going for it.The Praeludium in C might sound a bit pompous and laboured, but detail is wonderfully alert. Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645, has a intimate grandeur, that gives me the ultimate reason why I bought this set. The whole CD is filled with praiseworthy moments and less so. But recommended nevertheless.

Cheers, Harry

[Harry]

Changed my name from Pjotr back to Harry, too much confusion otherwise. Hope this will stop the confusion.

[cilgwyn]

Very interesting; I have three works in Mahler under his direction, which I like, but I have nothing of him conducting Beethoven.

Playing,now. The Wyn Morris Beethoven cycle continues. Dubbed the "Welsh Furtwangler". There was a time when you seemed to find these IMP cd's in places like Woolworths and WH Smiths. I like André's description of Wyn Morris'  conducting. "A potent mix of big, bold playing, allied to interpretive gruffness. Splendidly recorded, too". Very fiery. Yet,I like the more serene passages in the Sixth symphony. I think Wyn Morris could have been a much more famous conductor? (We'll never know!) His biographies and obituaries make very interesting reading. His personality seems to have been as gruff and fiery as his Beethoven. He seems to have destroyed his own career by rubbing everyone up the wrong way. He also got some publicity,I remember,for getting Margaret Thatcher to narrate a recording of Copland's Lincoln Portrait. I don't want to get into politics here,but I think I will give that one a miss! Some of the Beethoven cd's can be found very cheaply,indeed. I'd recommend trying,say,the cd of 4 & 5 or 7 & 8,first (you get two for your money) but No 3 is often very cheap. Leave No 6,to last,maybe? Collect that one if you warm to his approach? You can also get a box set,I believe? I've got the original cd's. There does seem to be a renewal of interest in his work,recently. His conducting got rave reviews and critical acclaim at the time. It was all downhill,then! The only Mahler recording I have by him is of No 5. I like that very much. I remember the s/h cd I bought had scratches and scuff marks all over it,but always seems to play! There does seem to be a bit of a renewal of interest in his conducting,lately. Most of the comments I've read are very positive. I have read that he used modern orchestras,but had a HIP approach. I wouldn't know about that;but I like what I'm hearing!

[Mookalafalas]

Changed my name from Pjotr back to Harry, too much confusion otherwise. Hope this will stop the confusion.

Ah, that's been you all this time! I had no idea. Pjotr struck me as more chatty than Harry. Just my imagination?
TD:
  Presently working through this box

[Madiel]

I decided it was time to try the bonus DVD from Lettberg's Scriabin set.

[asin]B000W4E3OS[/asin]
The interviews are decent, but the "multimedia project"... for me the visuals enhance the musical excerpts not one jot. It looks rather cheap.