What are you listening 2 now?

[Mirror Image]

The tribulated Penderecki is looking for consoling from uncle Alan? 

Hah, well everyone needs a breather from the 'doom and gloom' from time to time.

NP:

Kancheli
Morning Prayers
Vasiko Tevdorashvili (voice), Natalia Pschenitschnikova (alto flute)
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
Dennis Russell Davies

[Mirror Image]

Bacewicz: Violin Concerto No. 3

Fantastic composer, fantastic work and fantastic soloist and orchestra. What could go wrong?

Both discs featuring Bacewicz's VCs are outstanding.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Kancheli
Symphony No. 5, "To the Memory of My Parents"
Tbilisi SO
Kakhidze

[DavidW]

Hey do you like 80s music?  Great, let me put this on then!



It has been a very long time since I listened to Schnittke.

[Mirror Image]

Hey do you like 80s music?  Great, let me put this on then!



It has been a very long time since I listened to Schnittke.

Great stuff! I may have to revisit this recording, too. But not tonight. Andre wrote some positive notes about this Jurowski performance not too long ago.

[JBS]

Item number 2 of my Benny Goodman binge has arrived, so...

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Roslavets
Piano Trio No. 4
Trio Fontenay

[DavidW]

[Symphonic Addict]

String Quartet No. 3

After hearing the captivating Bridge's String Quartet No. 4, I decided to follow with this similarly compelling quartet. Angular music. It's almost random in sonorities and gestures, there is no a pattern, you don't know what to expect. Music that, despite being complex, gives me a special kind of pleasure.

[Symphonic Addict]

Hah, well everyone needs a breather from the 'doom and gloom' from time to time.

Quite true, and I consider Hovhaness a good doctor on it. 

Both discs featuring Bacewicz's VCs are outstanding.

Oh yes, mandatory music for any Bacewicz fan.

NP:

Roslavets
Piano Trio No. 4
Trio Fontenay

Yet another work I could consider like a "dark" favorite piece. I can detect influences of Berg and Scriabin in this work.

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Yet another work I could consider like a "dark" favorite piece. I can detect influences of Berg and Scriabin in this work.

And yet I didn't quite enjoy it like I do Berg or Scriabin. I mean some of the ideas were quite good, but I just found myself unable to engage with it like I would in the afore mentioned composers' music.

NP:

Penderecki
Symphony No. 2, "Christmas Symphony"
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Jacek Kasprzyk



This is an outstanding performance of an outstanding work. Wow!!!

[Symphonic Addict]

And yet I didn't quite enjoy it like I do Berg or Scriabin. I mean some of the ideas were quite good, but I just found myself unable to engage with it like I would in the afore mentioned composers' music.

I rank Roslavets's orchestral and chamber music highly. I don't care for his piano music, neither do I for Scriabin's. I prefer the orchestral Scriabin over the solo piano one. An unpopular opinion, I guess, but I can live with it. 

[Mirror Image]

I rank Roslavets's orchestral and chamber music highly. I don't care for his piano music, neither do I for Scriabin's. I prefer the orchestral Scriabin over the solo piano one. An unpopular opinion, I guess, but I can live with it. 

I'm kind of the reverse in that I like Scriabin's 3rd symphony, Prometheus, The Poem of Ecstasy and the Piano Concerto, but I listen to his solo piano music more. This is my first listen to any of Roslavet's music in years, so I will definitely be listening to more of his music from my collection.

Last work for the night:

Ravel
Miroirs
Alexandre Tharaud

[Madiel]

Johannes Brahms
Schicksalslied, op. 54
Alto Rhapsody, op. 53
Begräbnisgesang, op. 13
Nänie, op. 82
Gesang der Parzen, op. 89

Jard van Nes, mezzo-soprano
San Francisco SO & Chorus - Herbert Blomstedt (rec. 1989)

What lovely creations these symphonic choral works are! A sort-of extension of his choral style in the German Requiem, but more in the vein of symphonic poems with chorus. Usually these works are individually paired with his symphonies, but it makes so much more sense to have them together.

Blomstedt and San Francisco are simply beautiful in this music, works which seem right up his alley. This set is almost complete, but is missing Brahms' Triumphlied. That makes Sinopoli's recording on DG an excellent companion.

Thanks, these works are always hovering on my "to-do" list, I will have to try Blomstedt.

[vandermolen]

Stephen Paulus: Grand Concerto for Organ and Orchestra:
From the Naxos notes: 'Employing hymn fragments, the Grand Concerto is a work of sweeping gestures and melodies as well as wide contrasts of mood and texture.' Certainly, I found it very enjoyable and, at times, moving. I have already played it twice this morning (it lasts for 27 minutes).

[Que]

Morning listening:

[vandermolen]

The Art of Constant Lambert:
Lambert conducts 'Miracle in the Gorbals' by Arthur Bliss - (a very powerful, driven and poetic performance from 1946):

[Mandryka]

String Quartet No. 3

After hearing the captivating Bridge's String Quartet No. 4, I decided to follow with this similarly compelling quartet. Angular music. It's almost random in sonorities and gestures, there is no a pattern, you don't know what to expect. Music that, despite being complex, gives me a special kind of pleasure.

If you have access to it, and are in the mood, I'd be interested in what you think of The Composers Quartet interpretation of that quartet.

[Harry]

Georg Philipp Telemann.

The Grand Concertos for mixed instruments.
Volume II.

La Stagione Frankfurt, Michael Schneider.
New acquisition (2021)

It really starts well with the first concerto TWV 53:D 4, scored for two solo violins, Bassoon, strings and BC. The first movement "Andante" charms you out of your socks, which actually continues constantly. A real treasure trove, in terms of the music and most certainly in the performance. Very good sound.

[Irons]

Edgar Bainton (1880-1956)
Symphony No.3 (1956)
Bainton's valedictory masterpiece and, for me, one of the highlights of the Dutton catalogue.
Definitely another one for Lol's (Irons's) collection 
Bainton, a British/Australian composer was working on it in the 1950s when his wife sadly became ill and died and he left the work aside. A kindly friend gently challenged him to pick up the pieces and Bainton completed the work not long before he died. Unlike Arnell's bracing and uplifting 3rd Symphony, Bainton's is more darkly reflective but very moving:

Photo of Bainton and daughter.

PS In contrast I think that Rutland Boughton's 'Oliver Cromwell' Symphony is a terrible bore.

I have nothing by Bainton on my shelves, Jeffrey. I see he has a pretty hefty discography with Chandos as well as Dutton pitching in.

Current listening: Maconchy 5th String Quartet.