What are you listening 2 now?

[JBS]

Beethoven Op. 109 played (read) by, uh, me, in order to pinpoint all the areas where I make mistakes and also where my interpretation is unsatisfactory. I can't recommend the experience.

Actually I envy you. I can sing a bit, but can't sight read or play an instrument.
True, it's not something you might want others to hear, but as a way of understanding what the composer is doing, there probably is nothing better.

TD
My second big choral work of the day

[Mirror Image]

This new acquisition:

Pärt
Tabula Rasa
Viktoria Mullova (violin), Florian Donderer (second violin)
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Järvi

[jess]

Out of Range by Norwegian composer Jana Winderen

"Out of Range" is an audio work based on ultrasound and echolocation used by bats, dolphins and other creatures who operate beyond the range of human hearing - 'seeing' with sound, or perhaps 'hearing' objects.

more here

This is astonishingly beautiful.

[André]

Actually I envy you. I can sing a bit, but can't sight read or play an instrument.
True, it's not something you might want others to hear, but as a way of understanding what the composer is doing, there probably is nothing better.

TD
My second big choral work of the day

How did you like (or not) the Berlioz, Jeffrey? The line up of soloists is world class, methink.

[JBS]

How did you like (or not) the Berlioz, Jeffrey? The line up of soloists is world class, methink.

I'm still in the middle of it.  The sonics are excellent, a (mostly live) recording.  Performance is so far excellent.  How it stacks up against other recordings, I am not sure. I am fairly sure you would like it...but if you are going to do some Berlioz, I suggest exploring his chansons and melodies beyond Nuits d'Ete.  You would probably find them of more interest than yet one more recording of his big works.

[André]

Quite good, if not on the level of Horszowski, Rubinstein, Anda or Blechacz (first concerto, my favourite of the pair). I like Sequeira Costa's clear-headed, no-nonsense pianism.

[Mirror Image]

Liszt
Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S173
Howard



From this set:



Listening to the first disc of this original 2-CD set.

[Karl Henning]

Actually I envy you. I can sing a bit, but can't sight read or play an instrument.
True, it's not something you might want others to hear, but as a way of understanding what the composer is doing, there probably is nothing better.

TD
My second big choral work of the day

Love the Berlioz!

[André]

I'm still in the middle of it.  The sonics are excellent, a (mostly live) recording.  Performance is so far excellent.  How it stacks up against other recordings, I am not sure. I am fairly sure you would like it...but if you are going to do some Berlioz, I suggest exploring his chansons and melodies beyond Nuits d'Ete.  You would probably find them of more interest than yet one more recording of his big works.

Thanks for the info !

[ChopinBroccoli]

Excellent performance of the first (Ormandy's recording with this same orchestra in the 60s is a gold standard)

The special action is the spooky horror-film that is Symphony No. 3... It's not Prokofiev's greatest work by any means but it's a compelling and weird listen.  Any notion that this famous ensemble wasn't still an amazing unit at this period in its history is pretty easily dismissed by the exceptional, tight playing here.  Fabulous performance.  For a full cycle, Jarvi probably rules the roost but this No. 3 beats his comfortably for my money. 

[JBS]

Just finished a second listen. Recommended to everyone except Gurn.


Not recommended to Gurn because, based on his buying habits, I am assuming he already has it.

[Mirror Image]

Excellent performance of the first (Ormandy's recording with this same orchestra in the 60s is a gold standard)

The special action is the spooky horror-film that is Symphony No. 3... It's not Prokofiev's greatest work by any means but it's a compelling and weird listen.  Any notion that this famous ensemble wasn't still an amazing unit at this period in its history is pretty easily dismissed by the exceptional, tight playing here.  Fabulous performance.  For a full cycle, Jarvi probably rules the roost but this No. 3 beats his comfortably for my money.

To the bolded text, I never thought anything from Ormandy was a 'gold standard'. Also, my favorite Prokofiev symphony cycle comes from Rozhdestvensky, but, to be fair, I think the ballets are better than the symphonies. I don't think the symphonic form was one of Prokofiev's strong points and this is despite my affection for the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th symphonies.

[Mirror Image]

Ligeti
Études, Books I & II
Aimard

[Mirror Image]

First-Listen Wednesday:

Ligeti
Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano, "Hommage à Brahms"
Marie Luise Neunecker (french horn), Saschko Gawriloff (violin), Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)

[ChopinBroccoli]

To the bolded text, I never thought anything from Ormandy was a 'gold standard'. Also, my favorite Prokofiev symphony cycle comes from Rozhdestvensky, but, to be fair, I think the ballets are better than the symphonies. I don't think the symphonic form was one of Prokofiev's strong points and this is despite my affection for the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th symphonies.

Ormandy's Prokofiev recordings are all outstanding

His Shostakovich were almost always exceptional (especially the first and the cello concerto with Rostropovich)

His Mussorgsky "Pictures" might be the best ever

His Tchaikovsky was always excellent

His Rachmaninoff cycle is one of the best

The guy was great in Russian music

Other composers he did exceptional work of include Sibelius, Saint-Saëns, Vaughn Williams, Ives and Dvorak

His orchestra was one of the most ridiculously skilled on the planet

He gets killed for three reasons:
1) he didn't excel in the core Germanic repertoire... usually offering beautifully played but puzzlingly neutral interpretations (especially not doing more to reign in the opulent, lush "Philly" strings in material from the Classical era)

2) He was a little chubby guy with a relatively unremarkable personality by conductor standards in contrast to younger, pompadour sporting colleagues like Lenny and Karajan or intimidating or severe contemporaries like Szell or Reiner ... he also sold a lot of records... easy target

3) like Szell and Bernstein, he suffered from Columbia engineering that hurt his chances with the audiophile contingent... ironically, when he moved to RCA in the 70s they were far removed from their "Living Stereo" glory years

The man was at the helm of one of the world's elite orchestras for 44 years and made a huge number of recordings.  There are some absolutely great ones in there if one simply takes the time to look.

[Mirror Image]

Ormandy's Prokofiev recordings are all outstanding

His Shostakovich were almost always exceptional (especially the first and the cello concerto with Rostropovich)

His Mussorgsky "Pictures" might be the best ever

His Tchaikovsky was always excellent

His Rachmaninoff cycle is one of the best

The guy was great in Russian music

Other composers he did exceptional work of include Sibelius, Saint-Saëns, Vaughn Williams, Ives and Dvorak

His orchestra was one of the most ridiculously skilled on the planet

He gets killed for three reasons:
1) he didn't excel in the core Germanic repertoire... usually offering beautifully played but puzzlingly neutral interpretations (especially not doing more to reign in the opulent, lush "Philly" strings in material from the Classical era)

2) He was a little chubby guy with a relatively unremarkable personality by conductor standards in contrast to younger, pompadour sporting colleagues like Lenny and Karajan or intimidating or severe contemporaries like Szell or Reiner ... he also sold a lot of records... easy target

3) like Szell and Bernstein, he suffered from Columbia engineering that hurt his chances with the audiophile contingent... ironically, when he moved to RCA in the 70s they were far removed from their "Living Stereo" glory years

The man was at the helm of one of the world's elite orchestras for 44 years and made a huge number of recordings.  There are some absolutely great ones in there if one simply takes the time to look.

Okay and all of this is purely subjective to the listener, isn't it? Is your opinion of Ormandy more valid than my own? I don't really buy into people who bash Ormandy just like I don't buy into the notion that he could 'do no wrong'. There are people who bash Karajan, too, but I don't give a flip about what those people think just like it shouldn't matter if I say I'm not a fan of Ormandy's.

[ChopinBroccoli]

Okay and all of this is purely subjective to the listener, isn't it? Is your opinion of Ormandy more valid than my own? I don't really buy into people who bash Ormandy just like I don't buy into the notion that he could 'do no wrong'. There are people who bash Karajan, too, but I don't give a flip about what those people think just like it shouldn't matter if I say I'm not a fan of Ormandy's.

You gave your subjective opinion

I gave mine

It's a message board.  That's the way it functions.  If you don't wish to discuss anything, then don't quote my post and give an opinion on its content.  Pretty straightforward setup.

[Que]

Morning listening:

[asin]B00DERONQS[/asin]
Very happy with revisiting this recording.

Q

[Tsaraslondon]

The Sleeping Beauty

Tchaikovsky's most symphonically conceived ballet score. There are so many good recordings out there now that Previn's 1974 LSO performance tends to be relegated to the also rans, though it's actually very good. Tempi are chosen more for the concert hall than the theatre perhaps, but it's wonderfully played.

This is also a cheap way of acquiring all three ballets for a very reasonable price.

[Traverso]

Bach

CD2