What are you listening 2 now?

[Karl Henning]

I did not know those two Kodály pieces well before listening to the Orpheus CD and immediately fell in love with them. Hungarian Rondo is a charming little trifle but oh so charming.

A beauty of a disc!

[vandermolen]

David Diamond: 'Music for Romeo and Juliet' - a beautiful, lyrical and affecting score:

[SonicMan46]

Nocturnes 19th Century - John Field, Frederic Chopin, & Many Contemporaries w/ Bart van Oort on a variety of fortepianos (1823 Broadwood, Field; 1842 Pleyel & 1837 Erard, Chopin; and 1837 Erard for the rest) - 4- disc set - reviews attached (2 excellent and one 'mixed' by Jonathan Woolf on MusicWeb, who often is irritating in my reads of his comments).  Dave

[Brian]

Wildly unhistorical, boundlessly romantic and almost mystical, Olafsson practically rewrites the music with his dynamic choices - and literally rewrites the music in several cases with piano arrangements of harpsichord works and even a string quartet movement. Galuppi, Cimarosa, Bach, and Haydn round out the list. Olafsson jumps around between movements at times, and orders the pieces for transition effects, such as an utterly magical melting of a D minor Cimarosa sonata into the D minor Mozart fantasia K. 397. The playing is precious, idiosyncratic, uber-polished, super interested in Mozart's weird/harmonically daring side, and as clean as a museum piece. You may read this as a warning. I love it.

[Klavier]

Wildly unhistorical, boundlessly romantic and almost mystical, Olafsson practically rewrites the music with his dynamic choices - and literally rewrites the music in several cases with piano arrangements of harpsichord works and even a string quartet movement. Galuppi, Cimarosa, Bach, and Haydn round out the list. Olafsson jumps around between movements at times, and orders the pieces for transition effects, such as an utterly magical melting of a D minor Cimarosa sonata into the D minor Mozart fantasia K. 397. The playing is precious, idiosyncratic, uber-polished, super interested in Mozart's weird/harmonically daring side, and as clean as a museum piece. You may read this as a warning. I love it.

I like it, too, but some of the smoothed over dynamic contrasts reduce the enjoyment a bit, and he omits over a page of the D minor Fantasy! Yes, it was left incomplete, but he could have played it to the point where Mozart left off, and if he didn't like the standard completion, he could have come up with his own. Still, there's much wonderful playing throughout the recording.

[Klavier]

Some of you may know her through her excellent Scriabin Sonatas recording. The featured attraction here is a solo piano transcription of Scriabin's "Poem of Ecstasy." Whew, an extra hand or two might be helpful! It actually works very well. The other pieces are good and very well played. The last track cuts off prematurely by over 2 minutes, though on Qobuz.

[Mandryka]

Wildly unhistorical, boundlessly romantic and almost mystical, Olafsson practically rewrites the music with his dynamic choices - and literally rewrites the music in several cases with piano arrangements of harpsichord works and even a string quartet movement. Galuppi, Cimarosa, Bach, and Haydn round out the list. Olafsson jumps around between movements at times, and orders the pieces for transition effects, such as an utterly magical melting of a D minor Cimarosa sonata into the D minor Mozart fantasia K. 397. The playing is precious, idiosyncratic, uber-polished, super interested in Mozart's weird/harmonically daring side, and as clean as a museum piece. You may read this as a warning. I love it.

Thanks for making me aware of this one. Let me ask, what makes you say that he's "super interested in Mozart's weird/harmonically daring side"?  Which pieces should I listen to for the daring weird harmonies. To me it sounds like a regular equally tuned piano so far.

[classicalgeek]

Some Janacek

Janacek for me too! I'm not as familiar with his piano music as I'd like to be.

Janacek
Sinfonetta; Taras Bulba
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Rafael Kubelik
(on Spotify)

[JBS]

Beethoven

Chorfantasie

One of the clearest echoes of the past, for me, is without a doubt the composer Beethoven. Clearly outlined among his contemporaries.
The choral fantasy is often judged as a weak work, a view that I do not share.
I went looking for a nice performance and I found it on youtube.
The two eminence grise give a convincing interpretation of this work that has not lost its meaning.
It is not a sentimental piece, on the contrary it is a powerful example of what Beethoven's motive has been, he clearly wanted to elevate, something which I think he has clearly succeeded in.
If you look enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/v/cSfMH9Y5bi8

Thank you. It was really a bit of hackwork (made to order for the forces on hand for a concert, and he really improvised the solo piano part at the premiere, only writing it down later) but glorious, and neatly structured by adding in each component of musicians layer by layer, with the piano canoodling on its own to start and waiting for the last few minutes to show off the full array. [Can you tell I like the work?]

So it served as a nice interlude between two very different CDs (both first listens).

[Brian]

Thanks for making me aware of this one. Let me ask, what makes you say that he's "super interested in Mozart's weird/harmonically daring side"?  Which pieces should I listen to for the daring weird harmonies. To me it sounds like a regular equally tuned piano so far.

Oh I meant the choices of the shorter works like the fantasia excerpt we were discussing above and the amazing Gigue. And the way he slows some of the more probing slow movements to a crawl, so they are more like 70s minimalist pieces almost than classical.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Some Janacek

I haven't heard of the "Intimate Sketches" before.  Looking at Wiki, it seems that they were published long after his death.  How did you find them to be Dave?

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Janacek for me too! I'm not as familiar with his piano music as I'd like to be.

Janacek
Sinfonetta; Taras Bulba
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Rafael Kubelik
(on Spotify)

Hello CG,

Janacek's piano music is wonderful (o.k., well, I'm slightly prejudiced as I love his music overall).  I am not familiar with the recordings that Dave has listened to (will try and check out), but there are some amazing performances by the inimitable Rudolf Firkusny and also by Ivan Moravec (though he didn't record nearly as much of Janacek's music as R.F. did).  Just a suggestion. 

PD

[Symphonic Addict]

I always seem to forget about composers like Vermeulen who get little mention here, so thanks for the reminder! I think Johan (Christo) is a fan of his music. There's much fine music from the Low Countries that's all but nearly forgotten, and that's a shame.

Vermeulen is a quite consistent composer to my ears, probably my favorite Dutch symphonist (along with Hendrik Andriessen). He didn't write too much music, but what we have has purpose. His 7 symphonies contain "spicy" music, they're not easy listens at first, and I like that. It compels you to keep trying and the rewards do come in the end.

[Symphonic Addict]

There's this guy. Whose centennial seems to have been almost completely overlooked. [I got this set a few years ago, so it wasn't issued for his centennial.]


I must admit the music didn't spark any enthusiasm in me.

I know a Chandos and a CPO discs devoted to his music and I do find them quite attractive. Lush music that doesn't sound necessarily derivative from other related composers.

[Symphonic Addict]

Emil Tabakov
Complete Symphonies
Symphony #2 and #6
Plovdiv PO
Toccata

Continuing to inhabit austere and bleak soundscapes with these wonderful symphonies. I think one of the reviews I read a while ago of Tabakov's music suggested sardonic laughter in the face of painful realities and mortality. Something like that. Point is, it wouldn't surprise me if he had a bust of Nietzsche or icon of Edvard Munch/Epictetus looming over his composing desk.

Great music.

These are symphonies I need to explore soon. The bits I've heard from some works are quite shattering to say the least.

[Klavier]

These are symphonies I need to explore soon. The bits I've heard from some works are quite shattering to say the least.

I would say No.7 is the most shattering and intense.

[classicalgeek]

Hello CG,

Janacek's piano music is wonderful (o.k., well, I'm slightly prejudiced as I love his music overall).  I am not familiar with the recordings that Dave has listened to (will try and check out), but there are some amazing performances by the inimitable Rudolf Firkusny and also by Ivan Moravec (though he didn't record nearly as much of Janacek's music as R.F. did).  Just a suggestion. 

PD

Thank you for the suggestion - I actually have Firkusny's DG recording queued up on Spotify! And I really like Moravec's Chopin, so I'll see if I can find his Janacek too.

Just finished listening to this (on Spotify):


Great stuff! There are few composers as distinctive as Janacek - once you hear one of his pieces, you just *know* who wrote it!

[DavidW]

I haven't heard of the "Intimate Sketches" before.  Looking at Wiki, it seems that they were published long after his death.  How did you find them to be Dave?

PD

I haven't listened to it yet (it as at the end of the album), just In the Mists and On an Overgrown Path.

[Symphonic Addict]

I would say No.7 is the most shattering and intense.

Good to hear! I can't miss it then.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Thank you for the suggestion - I actually have Firkusny's DG recording queued up on Spotify! And I really like Moravec's Chopin, so I'll see if I can find his Janacek too.

Just finished listening to this (on Spotify):


Great stuff! There are few composers as distinctive as Janacek - once you hear one of his pieces, you just *know* who wrote it!

Great stuff! There are few composers as distinctive as Janacek - once you hear one of his pieces, you just *know* who wrote it![/quote]
Oh, yeah!     I have a CD of him "Live in Prague" which I love in which he has certain pieces/movements from his works there--along with other works.  I truly love this CD (on Hänssler).
Hope that you enjoy Firkusny's recordings....looking forward to your comments here.

And, yes, like you, I love Moravec's Chopin!   

Best wishes,

PD

p.s.  Sorry, but I must have messed up in terms of quoting!