What are you listening 2 now?

[Florestan]

No 2. Very good.



Paganini's first movements have a marked tendency to bombast and pomposity, but the adagios are sublime and the finales frolicsome and buoyant. Quarta plays Il Canone with gusto.

[Mirror Image]

Op.115 is only 3 years after Tapiola. After 1931 there's basically nothing except rearrangements of previous work. So yes, he did keep doing those arrangements from time to time, but for about 25 years that was all.

Looking at his oeuvre, it looks like there aren't any new compositions after 1929.

[Traverso]

Haydn

Symphony No.88

[Que]

Apologies, but no decent picture to be found...

Claude Debussy
Préludes, Images, Children's Corner (Érard 1894)
Jan Michiels
EUFODA 1276 - 2CD (1998)

Q

[Scion7]

A 1977 recording of unrelenting dexterity.
She is missed.

[Irons]

That's a fine disc. I read an interview with Yo Yo Ma in which he said that he'd like to re-record the Finzi Cello Concerto which he hardly knew when he recorded it for Lyrita. It is still a great recording IMO.

NP:
Kastalsky's Requiem.
My appreciation of this eclectic but still original work continues to grow.

I do wonder Jeffrey how Richard Itter managed to get such a fine young American cellist as Yo Yo Ma to record the Finzi concerto. A special event indeed if he recorded it again, cannot see it happening though as producers with the drive and enthusiasm of Itter are rare.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Poulenc
Gloria, FP 177
Rosanna Carteri (soprano)
Choeurs de la R.T.F, Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française
Georges Prêtre

[vandermolen]

Malcolm Williamson: Symphony No.1 'Elevamini' (RLPO/Sir Charles Groves)
Williamson's masterpiece I think. It reminded me of something and I couldn't think what, and then I realised that it was Bernstein's 'Jeremiah' Symphony. I remember my excitement at discovering 'Elevamini' on a fine old double LP set (below) purchased at Farringdon's Records at Cheapside, London (those were the days). The Violin Concerto (not on the CD) has a deeply moving finale. There is also an excellent recording of 'Elevamini' on Chandos with local boy Rumon Gamba conducting. The other work that I'd recommend (on a separate Lyrita CD) is the Organ Concerto dedicated to Boult. I believe that Williamson is an underrated composer:

[Artem]

Symphony No. 2. This work has been a revelation on repeated listening.

[Harry]

Emile Jacques Dalcroze.

Janie.
Impressions Tragiques.
Tableaux Romands.

Moscow SO, Adriano.
Sergei Ryabov, Violin.

Very impressive!

[Mirror Image]

Symphony No. 2. This work has been a revelation on repeated listening.

I should revisit that work. Lutoslawski's symphonies haven't exactly hit me like so many of his other have.

[71 dB]

Revisiting Fauré's solo piano music...  0:)

[asin]B00002607R[/asin]

[Madiel]

Looking at his oeuvre, it looks like there aren't any new compositions after 1929.

I think that's the last opus number, yes. And then a couple of tiny things that didn't get an opus number.

[Mirror Image]

I think that's the last opus number, yes. And then a couple of tiny things that didn't get an opus number.

[Roasted Swan]

Malcolm Williamson: Symphony No.1 'Elevamini' (RLPO/Sir Charles Groves)
Williamson's masterpiece I think. It reminded me of something and I couldn't think what, and then I realised that it was Bernstein's 'Jeremiah' Symphony. I remember my excitement at discovering 'Elevamini' on a fine old double LP set (below) purchased at Farringdon's Records at Cheapside, London (those were the days). The Violin Concerto (not on the CD) has a deeply moving finale. There is also an excellent recording of 'Elevamini' on Chandos with local boy Rumon Gamba conducting. The other work that I'd recommend (on a separate Lyrita CD) is the Organ Concerto dedicated to Boult. I believe that Williamson is an underrated composer:

Farringdon Records!  Our paths might well have crossed.  When I was a student at the Guildhall - which had just moved into the (then) new Barbican Centre around 1979/80 Farringdon Records (and the wonderful of the manager of the CM department in the basement - Tony - became both a mecca and an Aladdin's Cave for me.  Much happy time and much of my student grant spent there!

[André]

Emile Jacques Dalcroze.

Janie.
Impressions Tragiques.
Tableaux Romands.

Moscow SO, Adriano.
Sergei Ryabov, Violin.

Very impressive!

+1 !

[Traverso]

Mozart

Symphony No.25-29 & 33

[Mirror Image]

Bartók
Violin Sonata No. 2, Sz 76
Isabelle Faust (violin), Florent Boffard (piano)

[André]

Munch and his Bostonians played the 9th in a concert on December 20, 1958. The studio recording was made the following day. I have both. There are differences between the performances: apart from skipping the first repeat in the scherzo, the concert performance is faster throughout, clocking in at 57:30 vs 62:30 for the studio recording. Over 3 minutes if one doesn't count the scherzo repeat. That's a lot especially if one considers that the slower one is already some 5-8 minutes faster than most versions !

Today I went for the commercial disc from RCA (also available in the album 'Great Conductors'). Munch goes for maximum contrast between an hyperactive, dramatic, almost savage account of I and an exultant, irrepressibly joyful release of earthly emotions in IV. Attacks are fiercely incisive. Tutti are explosive. Timpani thunder ferociously in I. The scherzo goes by smartly, although I found it lacking in dynamic shadings. The Adagio is gorgeously lyrical, although not unduly hurried (14:15). The New England Conservatory Chorus sing lustily under their legendary chorus master Lorna Cooke de Varon. Fine, committed soloists. The 1958 sound is sometimes crammed, the tutti barely managed by the engineers. That's noticeable on earphones, less so on speakers. There's a nice stereo separation though.

Maybe I'll go for the concert performance in the coming days. If memory serves it is an absolutely wild ride where things barely hang together (but they do) - a once in a lifetime experience for those who were in the audience, I imagine.

[Mirror Image]

Sibelius
Symphony No. 6 in D minor, Op. 104
Lahti SO
Vänskä