What are you listening 2 now?

[Symphonic Addict]

Tempo variabile - Symphonic metamorphosis No. 4

Stunning. Almost as good as some of his symphonies.




Midvinter, for chorus and orchestra

Sounds like a depiction of a Swedish rural landscape. So lovely.

[André]

Agreed, and from now on it belongs to my favorites that includes Tam O' Shanter and Peterloo.

+1. The Smoke is excellent, too.

[André]

Trumpet, trombone and tuba concertos.

I will soon embark on a listening binge of all 13 symphonies. At least, I intend to. Que sera, sera.

[Symphonic Addict]

Bach exploits all the possibilities that the theme can offer. It's impressive. The variations I liked the most are 6, 14, 20, 23, 28 and 29 (yes, the fun ones!).




Suites from 'El Sombrero de Tres Picos'

This music is so exciting, and unmistakably Spanish. It's a total joy.

[Symphonic Addict]

Trumpet, trombone and tuba concertos.

I will soon embark on a listening binge of all 13 symphonies. At least, I intend to. Que sera, sera.

Don't forget the unnumbered Sinfonia in memoriam. I'm very fond of it.

[Daverz]

Halloween listening:

Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande - Dohnanyi conducting

[Que]

Morning listening:



I thought this repertoire would - for me - be better suited to Graindelavoix 's approach.
But Schmelzer is trying something new here as well, as is his want.
I tried to like it, but failed....I got seasick from the mixing of different musical styles....

I know many absolutely love it, but it seems Schmelzer's avant garde is an acquired taste.

https://earlymusicreview.com/jean-hanelle-cypriot-vespers/

http://www.classicalacarte.net/Production/Production_02_17/GCDP32112_02_17_diapason.htm

http://www.medieval.org/music/early/cdc/gls32112.html

Q

[Que]

Q

[Irons]

Some Yuri Falik,
a mixed bag of an old LP, besides being apparently a homage to USSR transformer stations ...

A strange cover indeed. The 3rd seems Falik's most popular SQ but I'm not sure his best.

[Mandryka]

Morning listening:



I thought this repertoire would - for me - be better suited to Graindelavoix 's approach.
But Schmelzer is trying something new here as well, as is his want.
I tried to like it, but failed....I got seasick from the mixing of different musical styles....

I know many absolutely love it, but it seems Schmelzer's avant garde is an acquired taste.

https://earlymusicreview.com/jean-hanelle-cypriot-vespers/

http://www.classicalacarte.net/Production/Production_02_17/GCDP32112_02_17_diapason.htm

http://www.medieval.org/music/early/cdc/gls32112.html

Q

FFS, just listen to the motets! It's the Jean Hanelle motets which make the recording so interesting and it's easy to skip the rest.

[vandermolen]

Bliss: Meditations on a Theme by John Blow'
I felt that, in these depressing times, I needed to hear something spiritually uplifting and this certainly fits the bill - in a very fine performance - the best since Hugo Rignold's Classic CBSO Lyrita recording IMO:

[Biffo]

Josquin: Missa D'ung aultre amer - The Tallis Scholars directed by Peter Phillips

[Que]

FFS, just listen to the motets! It's the Jean Hanelle motets which make the recording so interesting and it's easy to skip the rest.

I did!   

And I agree with James Ross on Early Music Review: the traditional chants on the recordings actually come off best.
I really dislike what Schmelzer did with the Hanelle motets....
Jean Hanelle was one of Dufay's predecessors and possibly his teacher, and was employed at the Tournai Cathedral for 15 years before he ended up at the (French) court on Cyprus. And his motets are supposed to sound like this? 
You got to be kidding me... 

Q

[Que]

Of course the entire series is amazing...

Q

[Mandryka]

And his motets are supposed to sound like this? 


Q

Yes

The easiest way to begin acclimatizing to this soundscape of the motets is to follow along with the printed Latin text and translation in the booklet. (I am
very proud we can offer the first translation of the
Latin troped hymns, prepared by Leuven professor
Jeannine De Landtsheer.) One of the strangest experiences for me was to realize that the two texts sung
together at the same time are easily and clearly distinguished from each other in the listening process.
Although they blur in a certain way,they make space
for each other, creating a sort of third, not yet discerned meaning, a meaning to ruminate on... I suggest the listener repeats this exercise: first read the
simultaneous texts so that the significance of the
words is more or less clear, then listen for yourself. It
took me time to understand that the text placement
in the manuscript was not random but very carefully
organized, creating a balanced structure with points
of rest and continuity.The tropes open up the meaning of the original antiphon text, and the experience
of the two texts sung at the same time is hallucinatory, creating a meaning not yet grasped or understood. This is the idea of figurae in the exegetical art
of "tropology": they shift the meaning of the words
we knew and which are in our memory, now starting
to move and to be filled with enargeia so to speak...There are many analogies to make with how
contemporary Italian painters like Fra Angelico, influenced by Dominican scholastics, made visible the
invisible. Georges Didi-Huberman (6) describes how
figurae in the paintings of Fra Angelico don't have a
figurative meaning, but are figures of the invisible,
and in this sense rather disfigurations like marble
painting, becoming the figure of the mystery of
Incarnation.

[Todd]

[Harry]

Backlog 2014. Sterling Records 2001.

Norbert Burgmüller-Symphony No. 1 in C minor.
Hugo Staehle-Symphony No. 1 in C minor.

Orchester des Staatstheaters Kassel, Marc Piollet.

Burgmüller is on my list of fav composers, and Staehle is not far from that position either. Full blown romantic music, composed in an accesible style.
Burgmüller has many pointers towards other composers. Its quite thing if you can escape the influence of say Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and even Mendelssohn. Apart from that Burgmüller shows an astonishing maturity and inspiration in his first symphony. Staehle was the last pupil of Spohr. In his music there are remnants of Mendelssohn. Both composers fit together in musical artistry, and are eager to prove their worth. I for one like both symphonies. The sound is good, and the performances are excellent.

[Florestan]

I'm not really loving it... despite the Pleyel.

Q

Got it but not yet listened to it. In your opinion what's wrong with it?

[Florestan]

Well, I like it. Not that I've listened to all of it, but it has tons of personality, it's uplifting, light, the piano is sufficiently strange sounding to épater la bourgeoisie, which is always good.   The cover of the CD kind of sums up the feel - dances for feet more than for souls. That's on the basis of half a dozen mazurkas you understand.

Interesting, thanks.

(Although épater la bourgeoisie has been such a common place for the last 150 years that it's become a moniker for complacency.  Heck, I consider myself an educated bourgeois.  )

[vers la flamme]

Krzysztof Penderecki: St. Luke Passion. Antoni Wit, Warsaw National Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra

Can't get enough of this work lately... About as good as 20th century sacred music gets. I need to hear Utrenja next...