What are you listening 2 now?

[bhodges]

Schnittke : Concerto Grosso No. 1. It flies around all over the place and sounds like it's about to come off the rails at any moment. Love it .

[asin] B000025WUA[/asin]

It's great, isn't it! Years ago, after hearing the Kronos players live in Schnittke's first three string quartets, I went searching for recordings. Ended up buying the BIS version of the Concerto Grosso, which remains a favorite after all these years.

--Bruce

[JBS]

I just love those old Boulez sets. I wouldn't mind tracking this set down.

Re Boulez Webern Sony

I have it in the white box budget re-issue.  It's not really the "Complete Works".  It's the "Complete Works with Opus Numbers".  IIRC Boulez's DG set is, if not truly complete, at least more complete than this one.

ETA.  The DG box is twice as big as the Sony one
[asin]B00004R9F0[/asin]

The budget box I have is
[asin]B00EC0VW3S[/asin]

It seems to have exactly the same contents as the set with the unboring cover art
[asin]B0000263PF[/asin]

[Christo]

Symphony No. 3

It's mildly interesting, the powerful moments are certainly urgent, and I like that, but I feel it lacks much momentum, paradoxically. There are some too discursive parts, but when it's energetic, it gets it.

No.4 is next.

For me, Symphony No. 3 is an equivalent of Shosta 10, with more wisdom felt. Impressive and completely coherent, yet unspectacular.

[vandermolen]

For me, Symphony No. 3 is an equivalent of Shosta 10, with more wisdom felt. Impressive and completely coherent, yet unspectacular.

Well, I certainly need to hear this again!

[j winter]

Mendelssohn 4, Midsummer Night's Dream -- Mackerras OAE  Very enjoyable

[André]

Very nice.

[j winter]

Schubert 9, Muti WP  Working from home today with a massive head cold, so I need some nice familiar music to keep the spirits up... not the greatest or most unique recording of this piece by any stretch, but the WP is always reliably good in Schubert, solid stuff beautifully played

[Madiel]

Thanks, much appreciated.

In 568/iii there's a sort of nostalgic quality, like bits of tunes blowing in on the breeze, ghost tunes,  valse minuet oublié. I don't think I've ever heard it before. I'm more familiar with 537 because Michelangeli recorded it.

Yes, that's a good description of what Uchida is doing. And I'm torn. It's musical, but I also tend to feel she's pushing too far.

[Madiel]

Imogen Cooper's Schubert is very good.

It's just that she doesn't play anything earlier than 1823, in either of her cycles.

[Tsaraslondon]

Debussy orchestral works, Haitink.   Oldie but a goodie...

Wonderful performances and gorgeous sound. I was listening myself just yesterday.

[San Antone]

Gavin Bryars : The Fifth Century

First listen.

The music of English composer Gavin Bryars has long managed the distinction of being both "accessible and defiantly personal" (The New York Times). A deep yet unsentimental emotional resonance and a patient, contemplative view of time – whether relating to harmonic rhythm or human experience – are complementary characteristics that run through his instrumental, vocal and theatrical catalog like a red thread, the composer inspired by disparate spirits from Wagner and Satie to Cage and Silvestrov. The ECM New Series released multiple recordings of Bryars' music in the 1980s and early '90s, including the classic albums After the Requiem and Vita Nova. The first full ECM album from Bryars in decades is The Fifth Century, which includes the seven-part title work: a slowly evolving – yet immediately involving – setting of words by 17th-century English mystic Thomas Traherne, performed by the mixed choir of The Crossing with saxophone quartet PRISM. The album also features Two Love Songs, luminous a cappella settings of Petrarch for the women of The Crossing.  ECM website

[Symphonic Addict]

For me, Symphony No. 3 is an equivalent of Shosta 10, with more wisdom felt. Impressive and completely coherent, yet unspectacular.

Something like that, but I did expect more 'movement'.

Symphony No. 4 is in the same vein, but I'd think it was a bit better.

[prémont]

This arrived today. Very good booklet. I've listened to the first half hour or so,

It's pretty complex music, and there's a lot of it, although I've never played any of it, I've got to know it better over the past few years. And I keep noticing things here and there - an unexpected ornament, a strange crunchy chord, a prelude which seems more contrapuntally interesting than I had remembered.  I think there's going to be a lot to discover in this one. One thing about WTC 2 is that you never run out of new ideas about how to play it to think about!

In general terms the impression is of someone studious and sobre more than someone "on fire", Booth is like Chorzempa for example, or Leonhardt.

Got it to day and listened to CD I. This is an academic and aristocratic approach well articulated and with rhythmic patterns according to his book about these matters. Still the cerebral part is well balanced with the emotional part. It is one of the most convincing interpretations I ever have heard. Strongly recommended.

The past decade, or even less, has seen the release of some, many,  really thought provoking WTC2s.

Which ones do you particularly think of?

[André]

[Daverz]

Follow up with some Tom Lehrer:

https://www.youtube.com/v/mScdJURKGWM

TD: Don Quixote

[asin] B07X27V877[/asin]

[vers la flamme]

Claude Debussy: Violin Sonata in G minor. Kyung Wha Chung, Radu Lupu. I find it odd that (if I'm not mistaken) each movement ends on the dominant, but that's Debussy's harmony for you.

[Daverz]

Claude Debussy: Violin Sonata in G minor. Kyung Wha Chung, Radu Lupu. I find it odd that (if I'm not mistaken) each movement ends on the dominant, but that's Debussy's harmony for you.

A wonderful, classic CD.

TD: I'm grateful for MusicWeb for bringing this 2015 release to my attention

[asin] B00SKEPCWO[/asin]   

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Jan/Mahler_sy9_4811109.htm

The Seoul orchestra plays beautifully and the sonics make my stereo sound brilliant.  The final movement is as moving as one could want.

...and now playing: Kempe's delightful suite from Hänsel und Gretel

[asin] B003D0ZNL0[/asin]

[JBS]

Tonight's agenda
This new arrival
[asin]B07ZLHWRQV[/asin]
Sandwiched between two CDs from this
[asin]B004MGMIA8[/asin]

[SimonNZ]

[Mirror Image]

Re Boulez Webern Sony

I have it in the white box budget re-issue.  It's not really the "Complete Works".  It's the "Complete Works with Opus Numbers".  IIRC Boulez's DG set is, if not truly complete, at least more complete than this one.

ETA.  The DG box is twice as big as the Sony one
[asin]B00004R9F0[/asin]

The budget box I have is
[asin]B00EC0VW3S[/asin]

It seems to have exactly the same contents as the set with the unboring cover art
[asin]B0000263PF[/asin]

I own the DG set and it is gorgeous. I found (and bought) the older Boulez set as I don't like those cheap Sony reissue boxes.