What are you listening to now?

[steve ridgway]

Revisiting this:

http://www.youtube.com/v/pbbDOtIzuH0

. . . you yourself harbor mildewy garments.

I'm not at all keen on poetry but suspect the less I like something the more chance there is of it becoming wildly popular. You might even get a Nobel Prize for Literature .

[Karl Henning]

I can hope!

[Traverso]

First listen - no idea what's going on but liked it .

[asin]B000002C06[/asin]

Boulez edited the piece constantly, perhaps interestingly, to listen to the final version on DG.

[Karl Henning]

Boulez edited the piece constantly [...]

Almost as if he doesn't like his own work 

[Traverso]

Almost as if he doesn't like his own work 

Was it a kind of plastic surgery,perhaps?

[steve ridgway]

We played this at the Evensong last night, although this recording is a rehearsal from this Sunday past.

http://www.youtube.com/v/cQDe3kN14sQ

From what I remember of Baptist Church this sounds entirely appropriate and professionally composed so I'd expect it to have been well received 0:).

[steve ridgway]

Boulez edited the piece constantly, perhaps interestingly, to listen to the final version on DG.

That sounds intriguing. I have a couple more Boulez bargains to listen to first though, not sure I want to invest in a 13 CD set just yet.

[steve ridgway]

Ooh nice metallic percussion in the Rituel .

[asin]B000002703[/asin]

[Traverso]

That sounds intriguing. I have a couple more Boulez bargains to listen to first though, not sure I want to invest in a 13 CD set just yet.

I understand,I bought mine for 20 euros,I never regret that I did.

[Biffo]

Dvorak: Symphony No 7 in D minor - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Semyon Bychkov - from a concert given on 28 September 2018

[Karl Henning]

Ooh nice metallic percussion in the Rituel .

Most of the time, this is my favorite Boulez piece.

[Karl Henning]

I understand,I bought mine for 20 euros,I never regret that I did.

A good price.  Experience suggests that 13 discs of Boulez won't be for everybody . . . .

[Traverso]

A good price.  Experience suggests that 13 discs of Boulez won't be for everybody . . . .

You're probably right, but on the other hand, my experience is that when you're just going to listen it's not that bad. There are a few tough notes like that piano sonata, but on the whole it's certainly not inaccessible.
As has been said before it is like learning a new language and are you prepared to do so ?

one must sow before you can reap

[Zeus]

Cras: Piano Quintet, String Quartet
Sine Qua Non Quartet, Jean-Pierre Ferey
Skarbo



Via Spotify.

[Karl Henning]

You're probably right, but on the other hand, my experience is that when you're just going to listen it's not that bad. There are a few tough notes like that piano sonata, but on the whole it's certainly not inaccessible.
As has been said before it is like learning a new language and are you prepared to do so ?

one must sow before you can reap

Questions of my own preparation aside, I like a good deal of the Boulez I have heard.  I have no problem with understanding Hemingway's English, but I may or may not think much of the content.  It is, likely, no particular reflection on Boulez that, where I have felt drawn to listen to as much of (for instance) Stravinsky's work as I can, I do not feel a similar motivation with the Frenchman.  I do not have a firm answer to the question:  is 13 discs of Boulez too much for me?  Maybe.  Or, it may be just right.

I'll start by listening to the Boulez I have already got.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I would have gotten the complete set, except that by the time it came out I had most of his works on various recordings. The only Boulez pieces I don't care to hear are the ones where electronic manipulation of sound is involved (which is a not insubstantial fraction).

[aligreto]

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade [Mackerras]





For me, this is a strong, powerful performance from the opening bars. This performance is packed with many elements: dream like lyricism, powerful picture painting and storytelling abound in a rich tapestry of sound. The playing is wonderful and evokes the mood of the various tales rather well.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade [Mackerras]





For me, this is a strong, powerful performance from the opening bars. This performance is packed with many elements: dream like lyricism, powerful picture painting and storytelling abound in a rich tapestry of sound. The playing is wonderful and evokes the mood of the various tales rather well.

Haven't listened to it for many years, but I remember that one did not do it for me. My favorites are Karajan and Ansermet





Wagnerized and Frenchified, respectively.

[aligreto]

Haven't listened to it for many years, but I remember that one did not do it for me. My favorites are Karajan and Ansermet





Wagnerized and Frenchified, respectively.

I have a number of versions in my collection but I must admit that I have not heard either of those two versions.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I have a number of versions in my collection but I must admit that I have not heard either of those two versions.

I like them because they more-or-less span the performance traditions, Germanic to French. You can tell they're going to be very different just from hearing the opening violin solo. In the Berlin recording it is all legato, in the Ansermet it is all spizzicato.

It's not a piece I feel I need oh-so-many different interpretations of.