What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[SonicMan46]

Thanks for reminding me of the SQ, I will play them again tonight.
Of course the "other" compositions are also in my posession, and if you love these SQ, you will love the Symphonies, and his fine Violin concerto.

Harry - thanks for the 'Thumbs Up' on the Saygun Symphonies - guess I'll need to add those to my every expanding 'wish list'! 

[Harry]

Harry - thanks for the 'Thumbs Up' on the Saygun Symphonies - guess I'll need to add those to my every expanding 'wish list'! 

Well at least they are very cheap, compared to the full price SQ, and one disc only 43:00 of music!

[SonicMan46]

Well at least they are very cheap, compared to the full price SQ, and one disc only 43:00 of music!

Harry - agree on that 'short' 2nd disc (of course, the 4th SQ was 'incomplete') - Saygun must have written something else worth 20 mins. or so for a 'filler' piece, though? 

[George]

I agree, George, you have to have a certain frame of mind. I don't know if you ever tried listening to Mahler's Kindertotenlieder or Shostakovich's SQ no.7 when sad...Peterrson can provoke a reaction even more negative. That's judging from my relatively recent acquisition/listening to his 7th...during a down time for me.

I've listened to DSCH's last two SQ when really upset. I found it to be cathartic.

[rubio]

I listened to Bruckner's Symphony 9 from the below set today (from 1944). It's a really intense and driven performance. Still I prefer Giulini in this symphony; especially due to the inferior sound of the Furtwangler account. I also think Furtwangler's war-time Bruckner 5 (on Opus Kura) is preferable both performance-wise and sound-wise.

[Que]

I listened to Bruckner's Symphony 9 from the below set today (from 1944). It's a really intense and driven performance. Still I prefer Giulini in this symphony; especially due to the inferior sound of the Furtwangler account. I also think Furtwangler's war-time Bruckner 5 (on Opus Kura) is preferable both performance-wise and sound-wise.

I think it's primarily the sound that is the problem with the 9th - I love the performance.
The sound quality should be comparable with that of the 5th (same recording technique, only two years later).
If Opus Kura comes up with a transfer of the 9th, I expect the same improvement in sound as with the 5th. The 5th sounded on DG as dim and dull as the 9th! 
The French Furtwängler Society already issued a transfer of the 9th from Melodiya LP's - like Opus Kura did with the 5th - but I haven't heard it (you first have to join! ). Maybe Melodiya comes up with a new transfer too!

Anyway, I agree the sound on DG leaves much to be desired.

Q

[rubio]

Yeah, it would really be nice if this performance would come with the same sound as the Bruckner 5th. Have you heard some of the Furtwangler war-time Beethoven on Opus Kura? Have they recieved the same degree of improvement from the DG/Music&Arts recordings?

[Harry]

I've listened to DSCH's last two SQ when really upset. I found it to be cathartic.

Well that's interesting George.
It brought good then?

[Danny]

Shostakovich Symphony No. 2 conducted by Haitnik with the LSO.

My first time hearing this symphony!

[Bogey]

Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network
http://www.operainfo.org/broadcast/operaMain.cgi?id=500000000000122&language=1

Il Trittico
Three One-Act Operas

Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Giuseppe Adami(Il Tabarro), and Giovacchino Forzano (Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi).
Maria Guleghina, Salvatore Licitra, Juan Pons, Barbara Frittoli, Heidi Grant Murphy, Stephanie Blythe, Olga Mykytenko, Massimo Giordano, Alessandro Corbelli, James Levine

Beautiful spring day here and doing some weeding of flower beds so have the radio playing.    

[BachQ]

Schumann, Symphonies 2 / 3 (Zinman / Baltimore).

[George]

Well that's interesting George.
It brought good then?

It absolutely did. I usually don't listen to cheery music when I am down, I listen to music that closely matches how I feel. This way I can truly feel what I am feeling rather than run from it. I feel that the only way to get past my feelings is to go through them.

If I am in an inbetween mood, I am more influenced by the music, 'cause I don't really feel one way or the other in the first place. Music has taken me to darkest places of my consciousness and therefore, I no longer fear those places.

[BachQ]

Be prepared George these work from Pettersson are by no means easy, and have the tendency to make you sad, if you are not well prepared.

Agreed.  A doctor's prescription should be a prerequisite for Pettersson (much of it, anyway) . . . . . . because this stuff is as potent as a drug . . . . . .

[Harry]

Allan Pettersson.

Symphony No, 11.

Radio Philharmonie Hannover des NDR/Alun Francis.

This is good, this is real good. The beginning is impressive in it self with a finely chiseled framework of little thoughts being tied together in a emotional attempt to avoid disaster when two measures before No.22 the merge begins and conflicting matter is erupting like a volcano, and the strings desperately trying to ease the turmoil, which is partially successful, when five measures before No. 48, rest sets in by way of woodwinds and a little percussion, when the flute downscales the tension even more, but a underlying tremor is still shaking the framework, and keeps increasing the speed, and the illogical lines of brass begin to disrupt the image again, and strings move in in a marchlike tempo, percussion becomes more adamant and insist its presence, as two measures before No. 59, again a attempt is made to calm the stormy waters, but in vain, again the marchlike theme comes back again, and wanders through the music like a elephant in a porcelain shop. Doom is eminent and forcibly dawning upon us. Barrenness and emptiness in mind and body.
One measure before No. 83, the strings take over again in agitated staccato lines to increase the eerie mood, and something like a attempt to build up a fugue like melody, is almost a religious uttering, a little silence, and then the drone of percussion that is accompanying the threatening of the strings, and constant attempts to create balance and harmony, which in the last concluding measures comes like a relieve.

[Que]

Yeah, it would really be nice if this performance would come with the same sound as the Bruckner 5th. Have you heard some of the Furtwangler war-time Beethoven on Opus Kura? Have they recieved the same degree of improvement from the DG/Music&Arts recordings?

Rubio, I took this to the Furtwängler thread! 

Q

[BachQ]

Allan Pettersson.

Symphony No, 11.

Radio Philharmonie Hannover des NDR/Alun Francis.

This is good, this is real good. The beginning is impressive in it self with a finely chiseled framework of little thoughts being tied together in a emotional attempt to avoid disaster when two measures before No.22 the merge begins and conflicting matter is erupting like a volcano, and the strings desperately trying to ease the turmoil, which is partially successful, when five measures before No. 48, rest sets in by way of woodwinds and a little percussion, when the flute downscales the tension even more, but a underlying tremor is still shaking the framework, and keeps increasing the speed, and the illogical lines of brass begin to disrupt the image again, and strings move in in a marchlike tempo, percussion becomes more adamant and insist its presence, as two measures before No. 59, again a attempt is made to calm the stormy waters, but in vain, again the marchlike theme comes back again, and wanders through the music like a elephant in a porcelain shop. Doom is eminent and forcibly dawning upon us. Barrenness and emptiness in mind and body.
One measure before No. 83, the strings take over again in agitated staccato lines to increase the eerie mood, and something like a attempt to build up a fugue like melody, is almost a religious uttering, a little silence, and then the drone of percussion that is accompanying the threatening of the strings, and constant attempts to create balance and harmony, which in the last concluding measures comes like a relieve.

I really like Symphony no. 11 . . . . . . And it's not as depressing as 7 or 9.

[Harry]

Vagn Holmboe.

Symphony No. 6, opus 43/M 155.

Aarhus SO/Owain Arwel Hughes.

This must be for me the most outstanding work by Holmboe so far. The introduction "Adagio-allegro-Adagio" is devastatingly beautiful, and magnificent in its greatness. The closing measures are out of this world, around 17:00 onwards.
And what a blast of sound is entering the arena with the second movement "Allegro molto e con fuoco". Its sheer drive and energy take you by surprise, this finely constructed movement is a little miracle in itself.
Definitively a firm favourite with me.
Sound and performance can't be faulted.

[BachQ]

HvK conducting Bizet's Carmen . . . . . .

[Harry]

I really like Symphony no. 11 . . . . . . And it's not as depressing as 7 or 9.

Absolutely true, you could even say that it is almost cheerful, comparing it to the 7th or the 9th.

[Harry]

HvK conducting Bizet's Carmen . . . . . .

That's a good egg my friend.