What are you listening 2 now?

[Karl Henning]

CD 6:

Copland
Sextet
David Oppenheim, cl
Leonid Hambro, pf

Ellis Kohs (1916-2000)

Chamber Concerto for Viola and String Nonet
Ferenc Molnar, solo va
Robt Mann, Robt Koff, Francis Chaplin & Ralph Shapey, vns
Raphael Hillyer & Spinoza Paeff, vas
Chas McCracken & C. Ziegler, vcs
Stuart Sankey, cb

The Copland (as some of you know) is one of my favorite pieces. The Kohs, too, is superb.

[Karl Henning]

CD 3:

Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin (from Dostoyevsky's The Devils), Op. 146
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, bar
Volodya Ashkenazy, pf
Today is Dostoyvesky's bicentenary

Seven Romances on Poems of Aleksandr Blok, Op. 127
Elisabeth Söderström, sop
Volodya Ashkenazy, pf
Christopher Rowland, vn
Ioan Davies, vc

Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarotti, Op. 145
Jn Shirley-Quirk, bar
Volodya Ashkenazy, pf

[classicalgeek]

Nice! If you get a chance to listen to Stig Westerberg's recording of the 2nd symphony, then please do so. As much as I liked Järvi (in the BIS recordings, I don't know his Stenhammar on DG), dare I say Westerberg is even more in-tune with the composer. Also check out the piano concerti.

+1 re: Westerberg.

The LP of that was the first thing I ever heard by Stenhammar, and it completely blew my socks off.

I was ready to listen to Järvi's DG recording of the Second Symphony, but it sounds like I need to give Westerberg a spin! Westerberg's recording of the Second is on Spotify, but really hard to track down on CD, unfortunately.

Great to see you getting into Stenhammar - a great composer. The 1st Symphony is enjoyable enough, but his finest works mostly come from his maturity IMO - e.g. the 2nd Symphony, 2nd Piano Concerto, Serenade, the cantata Sången, the string quartets, and the piano work Sensommarnätter. These works all bear Stenhammar's distinctive and compelling harmonic stamp.

Thank you so much for the recommendations! I got the sense the First Symphony, as much as I loved it, wasn't his most representative work. It wasn't derivative, of course, but it did remind me of other composers in spots, particularly Bruckner. Looking forward to diving in to more mature Stenhammar today!

[classicalgeek]

Now for something different

Herreweghe's recording made me fall in love with the piece. Gorgeously played and sung throughout. Excellent choice!

[SonicMan46]

Wranitzky, Paul (1756-1808) - Symphonies (2 discs) of 4 works w/ Bohumil Gregor and the Dvorak Chamber Orch - short bio below (more at Naxos). From the brief summary below, he was extremely prolific despite his early death.  Dave

Paul Wranitzky (Czech: Pavel Vranický) was a Moravian-Austrian classical composer. His half brother, Antonín, was also a composer. At 20, he moved to Vienna, and from 1790 conducted both royal theater orchestras. He was highly respected by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven; the latter two preferred him as conductor of their new works. Wranitzky was a prolific composer. His output comprises ten operas, 44 symphonies, at least 56 string quartets (some state as high as 73), and a large amount of other orchestral and chamber music. (edited, Source)

 

[vandermolen]

John Kinsella
Symphony No.3 'Joie de Vivre'
In Memoriam.
RIP John Kinsella - a great composer:

[Maestro267]

More from the Staatskapelle Berlin box:



CD 9: Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Weber and Brahms' Fourth Symphony, conducted by Sergiu Celibidache (January 1966). The disc also includes Dvořák's Slavonic Dance No. 8, but I skipped that bit..

I'm curious to hear what their recordings from the 1600s are like. I thought recording was impossible then but I guess they found a way around it back then.

Thread duty: Delving into this Beethoven box. Currently on the gorgeous String Trio No. 5 in C minor, Op. 9/3. Perlman, Zukerman and Harrell.

[André]

Symphonies 1 and 2. Probably the rest tonight. That is, if I can stand the assaults of the Mad Timpanist for three more symphonies...

[classicalgeek]

More Stenhammar!

Stenhammar
Serenade in F major
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi
(on Spotify)



Tuneful and delightful, and as much a Symphony as a Serenade. I was reminded of Richard Strauss at times, with a touch of Sibelius in the wistful Notturno movement. Once again, it's apparent Stenhammar loves writing for horns!

Stenhammar
Symphony no. 2
Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Stig Westerberg
(also on Spotify)



The Second Symphony was a tougher "nut to crack" for me... I think I'm going to need to listen again to get the full measure of the piece. It definitely had its moments of brilliance, though,

[JBS]

Landed yesterday. First listen now.



ETA: the book has two other illustrations by Joseph Alanen, whose "Forging of the Sampo" is used on the cover

Attack on the Sampo

Arrival of the Heroes at Pohjola's House

[André]

Beethoven's 5th. Exciting and biting, but exhausting. Relentlessly loud brass playing, which I don't especially care for, big slurs from the strings on the climactic phrases of the coda in I and IV, which I actually enjoyed. This is certainly characterful, but too much like a blackened piece of meat for my taste.

[vandermolen]

Landed yesterday. First listen now.



ETA: the book has two other illustrations by Joseph Alanen, whose "Forging of the Sampo" is used on the cover

Attack on the Sampo

Arrival of the Heroes at Pohjola's House

Looks great! Hope to receive it soon.

[SonicMan46]

Symphonies 1 and 2. Probably the rest tonight. That is, if I can stand the assaults of the Mad Timpanist for three more symphonies...

Hi André - yes, the comments on the 'drum guy' have been made in several reviews, e.g. "The timpanist, in particular, brings something to this music that has simply never been heard before, and needs to be heard to be believed." in one of the Fanfare reviews attached w/ some contrasting thoughts in the other; in another review I read, the timpanist may have 'double vision' and sees ff instead of just one f -    Dave

[Brian]

I can't wait to hear the Savall timpanist in the scherzo of the Ninth. 

[Linz]

I am listening to the Vienna Version of Symphony 1 with Gerd schaller conducting

[SonicMan46]

Wranitzky, Paul (1756-1808) - String Trios & Sextets w/ the performers on the cover art (top 2) - just own a half dozen discs of this well-respected contemporary of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven - after reading some excellent reviews, I decided to order the Naxos symphony recordings at the bottom w/ Marek Štilec and the Czech CPOP - he wrote a lot more chamber music that I'd enjoy exploring, but not much seems available on Amazon USA?  Dave

 

 

[JBS]

Looks great! Hope to receive it soon.

It was.
First impression is that the Sibelius is the weakest link here. But that simply may be because the rest is totally new to me, so they impressed more.

[vandermolen]

It was.
First impression is that the Sibelius is the weakest link here. But that simply may be because the rest is totally new to me, so they impressed more.

Interesting - Klami's 'Kalevala Suite' is a great favourite of mine.

Just finished: John Kinsella: Symphony No.4 'The Four Provinces'
I found the powerful ending, as the prevailing wind motto theme sweeps across Ireland and out to sea (as I like to imagine it) overwhelming, having just heard of Kinsella's death:

[classicalgeek]

More Vaughan Williams non-symphonic orchestral music (on Spotify):

Flos Campi
Christopher Balmer, viola
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley

Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
Jacques Orchestra
Sir David Willcocks



Simply GORGEOUS, especially Flos Campi - thanks to John/MI for suggesting I give this work a fresh listen!

[Linz]

Now for this