What are you listening 2 now?

[Maestro267]

Maybe it's the ethnically correct spelling, idk...

Also, surely it's a quintet then.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Saint-Saëns
Symphony No. 2 in A minor, Op. 55
Orchestre National de France
Cristian Mǎcelaru

From this set -



I have to say I've been thoroughly impressed with this new cycle from Mǎcelaru. He's totally committed to the composer's idiom and elicits great playing from the Orchestre National de France. Superb audio quality, too.

[Spotted Horses]

Came across a relatively recent purchase of Roussel's Piano Concerto, a rarely recorded work.



This work comes across not as a typical piano concerto, but as a Symphony (maybe Sinfonietta) with Piano. A wonderfully peculiar, genre-bending opening movement, an intense slow second movement and a boisterous finale. A discovery.

[Operafreak]

Some Saint-Saëns

[SonicMan46]

Brahms, Johannes - Piano Quartets w/ the groups shown below - will keep both but if just one, then hard to beat Hamelin and the Leopolds.  Dave

 

[kyjo]

Searle: Symphony No. 2



Gripping, dark, serialist in the right dose. This symphony has some loud climaxes, and they're recorded magnificently in this CD.



Landowski: Piano Concerto No. 2 (I couldn't find a decent cover art)

I wonder why this composer is not better known. Quite a find! I like the sonorities and textures presented here.

Searle's 2nd is certainly one of my favorite works written in a 12-tone/serialist vein! Dark, gripping, and epic stuff, and surprisingly accessible too. And I need to investigate more of Landowski's music! I recall listening to his first symphony a few years ago and it reminded me a bit of Dutilleux's earlier works in its atmospheric yet coherent style.

[kyjo]

Nikos Skalkottas' Classical Symphony 
    Stefanos Tsialis, Athens State Orchestra

Someone's been following a certain YouTube channel!

[kyjo]

Ernest Moeran's Symphony in G minor 
    Adrian Boult, New Philharmonia Orchestra

Great recording of a lovely work!

+1!

[SonicMan46]

Brahms, Johannes - Piano Concertos w/ Stephen Hough; my only recording of these works but lauded in the attached reviews, especially by Fanfare and MusicWeb - do I need another performance?  The two 'historic' ones are shown below w/ Gilels from the early '70s of interest - now there are other more recent recordings that include both works but don't seem to come up to Hough's performance; also there are plenty of pianists doing one or the other but then that's two separate CDs - what are some of the favorites in the forum?  Dave

   

[kyjo]

Ottorino Respighi's Metamorphoseon 
    John Neschling, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège

Pounds the table!!! Magnificent stuff!

[Artem]

Henze Nachtstucke und Arien and Webern Passacaglia

[André]

Brahms, Johannes - Piano Concertos w/ Stephen Hough; my only recording of these works but lauded in the attached reviews, especially by Fanfare and MusicWeb - do I need another performance?  The two 'historic' ones are shown below w/ Gilels from the early '70s of interest - now there are other more recent recordings that include both works but don't seem to come up to Hough's performance; also there are plenty of pianists doing one or the other but then that's two separate CDs - what are some of the favorites in the forum?  Dave

   

I prefer to go for separate discs for the concertos: Gilels/Jochum, Donohoe/Svetlanov are electrifying in 1, a diffucult to nail piece. For no 2: Backhaus/Böhm, Gilels/Jochum/Concertgebouw (not the BP), Rösel/Berg, Magaloff/van Otterloo. Also quite good are Anda/Karajan, Rubinstein/Ormandy, Richter/Leinsdorf. I'm not a fan of Serkin or Fleisher in these works.

[André]

[listener]

Josef BAYER:  Die Puppenfee   - ballet music  1888
Rheinische Philharmonie    Peter Falk, cond.  (not the Columbo actor)

[bhodges]

Live from Minneapolis, a tribute to choral conductor Dale Warland, who turns 90 in April. Some 80 singers (alumni of his group) doing a magnificent job.

https://www.yourclassical.org/story/2022/03/04/join-us-for-a-celebration-of-dale-warlands-90th-birthday

--Bruce

[SonicMan46]

I prefer to go for separate discs for the concertos: Gilels/Jochum, Donohoe/Svetlanov are electrifying in 1, a diffucult to nail piece. For no 2: Backhaus/Böhm, Gilels/Jochum/Concertgebouw (not the BP), Rösel/Berg, Magaloff/van Otterloo. Also quite good are Anda/Karajan, Rubinstein/Ormandy, Richter/Leinsdorf. I'm not a fan of Serkin or Fleisher in these works.

Hi André - thanks for the comments - guess the 'lumpers vs. splitters' philosophy - tend to like to simplify my collection w/ sets and boxes and except for a handful of composers, I don't need numerous duplications, just me - Gilels seems to come up often so will take a better looked at what may be available and with whom?  Dave

ADDENDUM: just trying to find alternate Gilels performances from Jochum w/ the Berliners - quoted is an extraction from a long review of the BIG DG Jochum box about the performances in question - looks like André is in agreement; unfortunately, Amazon USA does not have much more w/ Gilels (excluding some LP offerings - sold my Denon turntable to my BIL in 1984 -  ).  BTW, the Stephen Hough recording in my collection is superb for those wanting to 'get started' w/ these works.

The two piano concertos with Gilels and the Berlin Philharmonic from 1972 have long ranked as classic accounts, even gold standard reference versions, for many collectors, and Frank gave them his strong endorsement in 10:2. For me—and I am normally a major fan of Gilels as well as Jochum—they are serious disappointments. First off, Gilels's playing throughout is far too percussive; the sound of his piano is persistently clangorous and unattractive. Second, I have very strong views regarding interpretation of the First Piano Concerto, my absolute favorite of all piano concertos. A virtually inviolate rule is that any performance in which the first movement lasts longer than 22 minutes has a DOA toe tag on it. (The one exception that comes to mind is Zimerman/Rattle, though the eccentrically distended Zimerman/Bernstein almost pulls it off as well.) The Maestoso indicator for that movement refers to interpretive mood, not to tempo as is all too often mistakenly assumed, and in the last couple of decades performances of that movement have grown increasingly slower and more torpid, like so many mortally wounded elephants staggering off to the dying grounds. At 24:15, Gilels and Jochum simply lumber painfully on, draining the movement of all the drama from its cataclysmic life-and-death struggle (the movement's close always brings to my mind Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Moriarty going off the cliff's edge in their deadly embrace). However, those who do not share my interpretive criteria here will likely side with the majority opinion. (Extracted from James A. Altena's Fanfare review of the Jochum DG large box)

[Linz]

Bruckner 8 Donald Runnicles BBC Scottish Symphony

[Karl Henning]

And what is the Schulhoff like?

I meant to remark; thanks for the prompt.

This, from the booklet, does not actually answer your q.:
Ervin Schulhoff enrolled at the Prague Conservatory at the age of 10 as an exceptional talent upon Antonin Dvořák's recommendation. Later on he studied abroad, including in Leipzig, where his teacher was Max Reger. After World War One, during which he fought on the Russian front with the Czechoslovak Italian legions, he lived several years in Germany, where he embraced avant-garde music. Karel Ančerl recalled what Schulhoff told him about the successful premiere of his Suite for Chamber Orchestra in Berlin in the 1920s. "Upon returning to Prague, he felt quite unhappy about the success because the performance failed to cause a scandal. So as to provoke an uproar, he added to the score various non-musical instruments, car horns and what not. Employing these sounds the suite was performed in Germany again, causing an outcry, with the audience responding with hissing and booing. Schulhoff returned happy and satisfied, saying that he had never had such success previously. The people bellowed, whistled, almost thrashed him." in response to the rising Nazism in the 1930s, Schulhoff became an ardent admirer of the Soviet Union. In 1932, he set the Communist Manifesto as an "oratorio" for mass gatherings in the open air. Even though reflecting Schulhoff's true belief and created long before the emergence of Socialist Realism, the piece does harbor the traits of the doctrine. In this connection, we should bear in mind the power of text set to music. There are words that elevate the composer's spirits really high, while others have the very opposite effect Schulhoff's life ended tragically. When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, he decided to immigrate to the Soviet Union, but before his petition for citizenship was approved he was detained and deported to the Wülzburg prison camp where three years later he died.

My notes—Conclusion: B+
Discussion: At its best, its quality reminds me a bit of Aleksandr Nevsky, as "superior musical propaganda" putatively "of the people." I also think a bit of the first two Shostakovich symphonies, as music rising above inferior, blatantly political texts. In this case, not brilliant art, though arguably a shade better than a mere curiosity.

[JBS]

I meant to remark; thanks for the prompt.

This, from the booklet, does not actually answer your q.:
Ervin Schulhoff enrolled at the Prague Conservatory at the age of 10 as an exceptional talent upon Antonin Dvořák's recommendation. Later on he studied abroad, including in Leipzig, where his teacher was Max Reger. After World War One, during which he fought on the Russian front with the Czechoslovak Italian legions, he lived several years in Germany, where he embraced avant-garde music. Karel Ančerl recalled what Schulhoff told him about the successful premiere of his Suite for Chamber Orchestra in Berlin in the 1920s. "Upon returning to Prague, he felt quite unhappy about the success because the performance failed to cause a scandal. So as to provoke an uproar, he added to the score various non-musical instruments, car horns and what not. Employing these sounds the suite was performed in Germany again, causing an outcry, with the audience responding with hissing and booing. Schulhoff returned happy and satisfied, saying that he had never had such success previously. The people bellowed, whistled, almost thrashed him." in response to the rising Nazism in the 1930s, Schulhoff became an ardent admirer of the Soviet Union. In 1932, he set the Communist Manifesto as an "oratorio" for mass gatherings in the open air. Even though reflecting Schulhoff's true belief and created long before the emergence of Socialist Realism, the piece does harbor the traits of the doctrine. In this connection, we should bear in mind the power of text set to music. There are words that elevate the composer's spirits really high, while others have the very opposite effect Schulhoff's life ended tragically. When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, he decided to immigrate to the Soviet Union, but before his petition for citizenship was approved he was detained and deported to the Wülzburg prison camp where three years later he died.

My notes—Conclusion: B+
Discussion: At its best, its quality reminds me a bit of Aleksandr Nevsky, as "superior musical propaganda" putatively "of the people." I also think a bit of the first two Shostakovich symphonies, as music rising above inferior, blatantly political texts. In this case, not brilliant art, though arguably a shade better than a mere curiosity.

Thanks. I assume you mean DSCH 2 and 3, although that's not quite what you wrote.
I will keep the Ancerl box on the list, after digesting the current Pile.
Meanwhile, speaking of the Pile

CD 99
One of a half dozen CDs compiling recordings by various opera singers c 1928-1935, sound varying according to (I assume) the original source material used for the transfers. The majority of the singers are unknown to me--of 5 ladies on this CD, the only name I recognize is Lily Pons*--and the orchestra wavers between the names Royal Opera Orchestra, Convent Garden Orchestra, and Orchestra. The texts are all either English or Italian, with one exception (an aria from Rossini's Stabat Mater), so we have Brahms in English, Carmen and Zauberflote in Italian, etc.

*The other four are Florence Austral, Marguerita Carlton, Dusolini Giannini, and Irene Minghini Cattaneo. Mme. Pons is noticeably lighter voiced and more pyrotechnical than the others.

[Karl Henning]

Thanks. I assume you mean DSCH 2 and 3, although that's not quite what you wrote.

Just so, I misspoke.