What are you listening 2 now?

[vandermolen]

Neat!  I found some musical excerpts on her website.  http://www.elisabettabrusa.it/listen/

Excellent! Hope you enjoyed them PD.

[vandermolen]

After Jeffrey's "nudge" listened to the Three Northern Ballads. All three excellent with perhaps the first shading it. Impressive percussion which I could not decide is down to Bax or the recording which is very good indeed, better then Thomson on the same label IMO. Volume 1 is on it's way.

Steinberg: 4thSymphony.

Big, bold and muscular.

Am a great fan of that Steinberg Symphony.

[Irons]

Great, although Symphony No.2 is my favourite.
TD
Vaughan Williams: the craggy 'Fantasia on the Old 104th'
This work was coupled with Boult's recording of Symphony No.9 in the VW symphonies boxed set acquired when I was 17 and thus has a special appeal to me. I'm not sure that it has been recorded since.

There is an early recording of the Fantasia on the Concert Hall label. Looking up John Hunt's Concert Hall discography a Robert Hull conducting the Rochester Chamber Orchestra in the early 1950's made three LPs 'Works by 20th Century Composers'. The first included Flos Campi (published 1952) and the third Fantasia on the Old 104th (published 1955). The other works are all by American composers with the exception of Honegger's 2nd Symphony.

https://youtu.be/RZI3qFW1htI

[Roasted Swan]

Now playing: Kokkonen Symphony No.4 - I find Berglund's performance the most searching and moving of the three recordings in my collection - I find the coda of Kokkonen's final symphony to be very moving - a great ending to his symphonic cycle - another example (IMO) of 'modern music' with a soul (like Kabelac's 'Mystery of Time').

in the light of your comment above you might find this picture interesting......  The whole programme was Kokkonen 4th Symphony, Ravel Piano Concerto and Sibelius 5th Symphony.  Now that IS a concert I'd liked to have been at!

[vandermolen]

There is an early recording of the Fantasia on the Concert Hall label. Looking up John Hunt's Concert Hall discography a Robert Hull conducting the Rochester Chamber Orchestra in the early 1950's made three LPs 'Works by 20th Century Composers'. The first included Flos Campi (published 1952) and the third Fantasia on the Old 104th (published 1955). The other works are all by American composers with the exception of Honegger's 2nd Symphony.

https://youtu.be/RZI3qFW1htI

Interesting - many thanks Lol.

[vandermolen]

in the light of your comment above you might find this picture interesting......  The whole programme was Kokkonen 4th Symphony, Ravel Piano Concerto and Sibelius 5th Symphony.  Now that IS a concert I'd liked to have been at!

That is MOST interesting RS. How did you come upon the programme?

[Roasted Swan]

Thanks RS. That website is most interesting. Extraordinary that Eileen Joyce, Beecham and Jack Brymer are buried there as well. I do have that BBC Radio Classics CD featuring Rubbra's 4th Symphony but haven't heard it for ages and will listen to it again very soon.

Here's a newspaper clipping from the time of Delius' interment;

[Roasted Swan]

That is MOST interesting RS. How did you come upon the programme?

Just trawling around e-bay.  I collect signatures of composers/conductors I admire and I liked the fact these were in the same place - literally at the same time!

[Symphonic Addict]

Sibelius: Symphony No. 7
Berlin SO/Sanderling

The trombone parts remind me a bit of the pivotal horn solo in the introduction to the finale of Brahms 1.

It's similar, but Sibelius' approach is more majestic and elevated.

[Symphonic Addict]

Steinberg: 4thSymphony.

Big, bold and muscular.

That's a good one. Do you know his symphonies 1 and 2? No. 2 is particularly impressive.

Hopefully the other symphonies will be recorded some day.

[Symphonic Addict]

I liked the first two more than the Sixth. The former are quite fresh and natural-sounding, the latter sounded rather contrived and academic to my ears.

Stanford's quartets contain very fine music. IIRC I was taken by the No. 4 the most.

[Traverso]

Brahms


Symphony No.1

Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam

[vandermolen]

That's a good one. Do you know his symphonies 1 and 2? No. 2 is particularly impressive.

Hopefully the other symphonies will be recorded some day.

Me too

[André]

Juliane Banse is excellent in the Seven Early Songs. Sensual and expressive, with a bright, luscious tone. In the Altenberg Lieder both conductor and singer Alessandra Marc are totally different from the classic Price/Abbado version on DG. Marc has a deep, almost crepuscular lower register, but her high notes are not as pure as they should. Price's pearly, oboe-like tones sound with astonishing instrumental purity. Marc/Sinopoli are dark and morbid, Price/Abbado refined and dream-like. Both offer valid approaches, but the DG version remains unsurpassed in its chiseled perfection.

For some reason the tracks are incorrectly listed in the booklet and on the back of the disc envelope. We are supposed to hear the Three Pieces op 6, followed by the concert scene Der Wein. On disc we have the pieces in reverse: Der Wein, and in conclusion the orchestral work. That's a lot of decadent high soprano singing on symbolist poems back to back. I would have preferred the layout as advertised, with the op. 6 before Der Wein.

Quite superb interpretations from the Teldec artists, but I prefer the DGG disc both as concept and execution (Altenberg Lieder, Three Pieces op. 6, and Lulu-Suite).

[Todd]

[Iota]

Violin Concerto No.5


Another impeccable performance from Faust and crew. Although purportedly written when Mozart was 19, such subtlety and sophistication shines through it could easily be missing chunks from the late operas.

[Traverso]

Mahler

Symphony No.9

[vandermolen]

Here's a newspaper clipping from the time of Delius' interment;

Read with much interest - many thanks.

[André]

Quartets 2, 5 and 6 (1949, 1955 and 1961).



6 Orchestral Songs (Alessandra Marc), A Survivor from Warsaw (John Tomlinson), Accompaniment to a Film Scene, Chamber Symphony op 9 (original version for 15 players).

Both discs are extremely rewarding. The music is not easily approachable perhaps (except the Holmboe sq no 2 and the Schoenberg songs) but every item is a major statement that grabbed my attention.

Tomlinson in A Survivor may not be the most histrionic speaker to have done the piece (I have 8 or 9 versions) but it is sane, in a part that almost begs for verbal distortion and overstatement.

This was my first ever chamber version of Schoenberg's op 9. For some reason it is not as frequently recorded as Schoenberg's 1935 arrangement for large orchestra. I find it more propulsive and colourful that way. I guess Sinopoli is to be thanked for leading the members of the SD through the thickets of what is still a thorny composition. Even with only 15 players this is difficult music to navigate, let alone in a conductorless performance.

The Kontra Quartet in the Holmboe works sounds very good. The works are fascinating and each has its own character. No suspicion of sausage machine music making here.

[Madiel]

Mozart symphonies 7, 'Alte Lambach' and 55.

Using a mix of conductors. All rather enjoyable. Bright and dynamic works.