What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

Very Nice. I really like von Karajan in Strauss.

Me too. He really understood this music and got inside of it.

[aligreto]

Me too. He really understood this music and got inside of it.

Yes, I very much agree. He is still my go to interpreter for the music of Strauss.

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

NP: Scriabin Études, Op. 42 (Lettberg)

+1  But what has she done for us lately?    Promoting the work of Zara Levina, which I am going to have to investigate :

[SonicMan46]

There's also this:

   

which I've listened through in its entirety during the 2020 lockdown and was an unending source of joy.

And this:  which I also have but didn't listen to --- the same goes for the Derzhavina and Brautigam sets.

Hi Andrei - last few days I've been on Spotify listening to John McCabe & J-E Bavouzet, both excellent (showing V. 9 of Bavouzet and not sure if he is going to release more?) - better than Derzhavina on modern pianos - not sure, all are quite good - cannot see anyone going wrong picking just one of those pianists.  As to Piazzini - not on Spotify, so no opinion.  Now, looking on Amazon, there are a number of others w/ boxes or incomplete but multi-disc offerings, e.g. Rudolf Buchbinder, Jano Jando, and M-A Hamelin (just 3 volumes - more?). 

For today, doing a little comparison of Schorsheim & Bautigam, the former on clavichord, harpsichord, and fortepiano for some variety - not sure that I need to explore this Haydn genre much more; my 3 current boxes meet my needs - NOW, if Chandos brings out a Bavouzet box, can't say what I might do (he received great reviews in Fanfare and ClassicsToday)?

 

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

Putting-off for as long as I can working on the lawn.  "It's too cold."  "Too windy."  "Lawn's too wet."  "I need to listen to this," I'm running out of excuses.  New to me :

[Que]

[André]

Brahms: symphonies 3 and 4.

Very good indeed, if decidedly foreign to mitteleuropa brahmsian opulence. Svetlanov's Brahms is taut, close to being driven, sometimes almost explosive (4:III). I do like the drama he brings to 4:I and the passion he infuses both slow movements with. The finale of 4 is a jaw-dropping ride. Not for every day consumption, but splendidly invigorating. The orchestra's playing is hugely committed, but the horns don't bloom as they should.

[steve ridgway]

Scelsi - Quartetto Per Archi N. 3.

[Florestan]

What do you think of it? I've recently got the complete set but haven't begun to explore it yet.

[Karl Henning]

LvB Symphony № 4 in B^b, Op. 60
Symphony № 5 in c minor Op. 67
NY Phil
Lenny

[Karl Henning]

NP:

Interesting timing!
I'm very much enjoying Lenny's Beethoven (upon which I don't think I really attended earlier) but a change-up is indicated:

Mahler
Symphony № 4 in G
Reri Grist, sop
NY Phil

(This is certainly my first go at Lenny's Mahler, with the exception of a Ninth he led in, I think, Berlin.
Lenny

[steve ridgway]

Pierre Henry - Variations Pour Une Porte Et Un Soupir. There are a few sounds apart from the creaking of doors and sighing - other breath sounds and a metallic twanging, as well as a lot of multi tracking and reverb. It seems to have inspired not one but two separate ballets.

[Que]

What do you think of it? I've recently got the complete set but haven't begun to explore it yet.

What a coincidence that you ask. 
This is from the complete set, which I bought over a decade or so ago.

Revisiting it revealed one of those "inconvenient truths" of a record collector.
Bought it to nail that part of Schubert's repertoire, in nice performances.. done.. You really want to like it.
But I never got really got into it... Did put it away, waiting for better times when it would "click"... which never came.

I just decided to get rid of it , when you inquired.   
Performances are done with great care and detail, but are also dry and analytical.
If there is an ounce of passion in there, I haven't found it. Or any Viennese touch, for that matter.
The D877 sounded like "Verklärte Nacht" ... Oops... wrong time zone.

[Karl Henning]

The D877 sounded like "Verklärte Nacht" ... Oops... wrong time zone.

(* chortle *)

[Florestan]

What a coincidence that you ask. 
This is from the complete set, which I bought over a decade or so ago.

Revisiting it revealed one of those "inconvenient truths" of a record collector.
Bought it to nail that part of Schubert's repertoire, in nice performances.. done.. You really want to like it.
But I never got really got into it... Did put it away, waiting for better times when it would "click"... which never came.

I just decided to get rid of it , when you inquired.   
Performances are done with great care and detail, but are also dry and analytical.
If there is an ounce of passion in there, I haven't found it. Or any Viennese touch, for that matter.
The D877 sounded like "Verklärte Nacht" ... Oops... wrong time zone.

Thanks. Will really have to start listening to it and see what I make of it.

No Viennese touch, no passion in Schubert --- seems like awful to me.

What complete set would you recommend for Schubert SQ's? The other ones I have are Diogenes and Kodalyi but I've never listened to them in their entirety.

[Todd]

[Que]

What complete set would you recommend for Schubert SQ's? The other ones I have are Diogenes and Kodalyi but I've never listened to them in their entirety.

Cannot offer any advice there, I'm afraid....

What I know I like, is Festetics and Archibudelli.
So my instincts tell me to go with period instruments, even though that is pretty scarse in this repertoire.

Q

[Florestan]

Cannot offer any advice there, I'm afraid....

What I know I like, is Festetics and Archibudelli.
So my instincts tell me to go with period instruments, even though that is pretty scarse in this repertoire.

Q

Thanks, anyway. 

[André]

Ohki composed the 8-movement symphonic fantasy To the Hiroshima Panels in 1953. It was later renamed Symphony no 5 'Hiroshima'. Rather similar to Mussorgsky's Pictures, it is a musical portrayal of the Marukis' first 6 Panels, painted between 1950 and 1982. At the time Ohki composed the symphony, the Panels were still a work in progress. They now number 15 and are on display at the Maruki Museum for Pictures of Atomic Bomb, Higashimatsuyama-shi, Saitama, Japan. Here is one of them, Fire, painted in 1950. Ohki used it for the 3rd movement of his symphony:



One can sense the kind of connection between earth and heaven, humanity and metaphysical familiar from the paintings of William Blake. Or a japanese version of Guernica. Ohki's music is not descriptive of the bombing itself, rather the effects on the people in the aftermath, once the blinding flash and deafening roar had given way to fire, death and the procession of ghosts (title of the second movement).

It is a powerful work, very bleak of course, evocative in its very restraint.

[Iota]

Stravinsky: Mass


The combination of Herreweghe and Stravinsky is a deeply attractive one to me. A great performance of a great piece.