What are you listening 2 now?

[Madiel]

Dvorak - the middle set of Moravian Duets (B.60 & 62)

[Traverso]

I like the setting in that photo. It seems to be very appropriate for the music.
I hope that you enjoyed the music, Olivier. I feel that it is a particular sound world onto itself.

It sure is,the Strrauss wind music for example. 

The Mozart "Gran Partita"is one of the most beautiful works I know and the recording in this box is a classic in my opinion.,the same goes for the Dvorak Wind Serenade . 

[Traverso]

Mozart

[Operafreak]

Chopin: Études, Op. 25 & 4 Scherzi- Beatrice Rana (piano)

[aligreto]

Holst: Suites Op. 28 [Braithwaite]





Suite in E flat Op. 28/1
Suite in E flat Op. 28/2 "A Hampshire Suite"

[aligreto]

It sure is, the Strauss wind music for example. 

The Mozart "Gran Partita" is one of the most beautiful works I know and the recording in this box is a classic in my opinion. the same goes for the Dvorak Wind Serenade . 

All wonderful music indeed, Jan.

[Madiel]

Not a peaceful end to the evening, but...

Trying out this recent release of Vine's first piano sonata, which I know, to see if this album might be a good way to hear the others. I'm not sure whether the 3rd and 4th are even available anywhere else. An edit might tell you my conclusion...



EDIT: Pretty good, though not quite as thrilling as I remember Sergei Babayan to be (my favourite of the recordings I've heard).

Also, there are other recordings of every sonata. I should have known to look at Carl Vine's own website which is easily the best resource for finding out about recordings of his work. But some of the others are a lot more obscure and might be hard to come by. And this is definitely the first recording of all 4 together, though there are recordings of the first 3 when there were only 3. And there's no guarantee that Vine won't write a fifth. 

[Papy Oli]

Great choice Olivier,enjoy...

Your praise for this box just made me curious, Jan !

I hope that you enjoyed the music, Olivier. I feel that it is a particular sound world onto itself.

I enjoyed what I sampled, Fergus, even if a little Mozart can go a long way for my tastes.
I'll sample some of the other albums though, Mozart and others.

[Irons]

Although I feel that I had heard the piece before, I don't believe I listened attentatively, whenever that may have been, so we'll call it:
First-Listen Friday!

Holst
Egdon Heath, Op. 47
LSO
Previn

Well, and this is exquisite, probably my favorite Holst work now.

My two favourites; This and aligreto's post above, Suite de Ballet. Although now I have a third, Somerset Rhapsody. Even a complete ignoramus like myself on the mechanics of music are able to appreciate how skilfully Holst weaves two tunes together in the Rhapsody.

[Traverso]

Your praise for this box just made me curious, Jan !

I enjoyed what I sampled, Fergus, even if a little Mozart can go a long way for my tastes.
I'll sample some of the other albums though, Mozart and others.

Listen to this track Olivier 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twce0mXnamo

[Papy Oli]

Listen to this track Olivier 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twce0mXnamo

Very nice, thank you!

[Spotted Horses]

I don't know or have much in terms of Mozart's wind instruments music, only a handful of concerti for Oboe, Horn and Clarinet on a couple of CDs.

Thought I'd check this Netherlands Wind Ensemble.

I see microphones in that photo. They can't have made the recording outdoors?

[Mandryka]

Leaving my comfort zone slightly, though I can occasionally enjoy Haydn. In fact I decided to broach the Boccherini barrier because I was exploring Mozart's influence on Haydn's quartets and came up with very little, maybe no influence at all - but the name Boccherini constantly came up in discussions about Haydn. Can't say I really hear it, but maybe the influence isn't hearable.

Quartetto Italiano is also a bit off the beaten track for me, I've always associated them with very intense and serious music making. For better or for worse, serious and intense describes how they treat Boccherini.

But hell, I know this is a racist thing to say, but Italians have the song in their genes and that lyricism comes out here. Totally beguiling after lunch.

[Mirror Image]

This entire Penderecki Wit recording:

[Florestan]

What surprises me is that these discussions always revolve around Karajan - a then young, eager and ambitious conductor who thought party membership would further his career, but not a nazi - and Furtwängler - an old but naïve grandee that wanted to "save" German culture by keeping conducting, and certainly not a nazi.

While the real nazi was Karl Böhm....

Plus, one never hears any such discussions around Kabalevsky or any other Soviet composer who enthusiastically embraced the cause of the Communist Party of the USSR. 

In post-WWII, pre-1989 Romania being a non-devout, strictly formal member of the Communist Party was the norm --- Party membership was not mandatory but one could not have advanced their career, be it conductor, engineer or professor, without Party membership. I'm convinced that was the case in Nazi Germany too. But there's a whoke world of difference between being a formal card-carrying member of the Party and being, or profess being, an enthusiastic supporter of the sacred cause.

[Traverso]

I see microphones in that photo. They can't have made the recording outdoors?

Of course not, the recordings  are made in the concerthall " De Doelen" in Rotterdam 
The used picture must be made at a festival ,I have no further information.

[Karl Henning]

First listen to this recording of Chopin's better works for piano and orchestra.

Verily!

[Todd]

What surprises me is that these discussions always revolve around Karajan - a then young, eager and ambitious conductor who thought party membership would further his career, but not a nazi

Karajan made it a point to join the Nazi Party twice.  He was a Nazi.  That is a fact.  If he joined the party twice primarily or only to further his career, that does not absolve him of his party membership.  Karajan was also a great conductor.  Bohm was also a Nazi.  He was also a great conductor.  Other German artists joined the party and/or willingly worked with the Nazis.

They are all dead now.  It is OK to listen to their music making and enjoy it. 

Plus, one never hears any such discussions around Kabalevsky or any other Soviet composer who enthusiastically embraced the cause of the Communist Party of the USSR.

That should be brought up as well.  And then a similar assessment of the artistic quality of such artists' work can be applied.

It should also be pointed out that more recent artists, some still living, are Communist by choice.  Claudio Abbado was a Communist.  Maurizio Pollini is a Communist.  Yet I still listen to their recordings.  I can even listen to (non-Communist) Thielmann and Gergiev.  Of course, I have no problem whatever separating art from the artist.

[VonStupp]

WA Mozart
Mass in C Major 'Coronation', K317
Litaniae Laurentanae, K195
Exsultate, Jubilate, K165

Ileana Cotrubaș, soprano
Helen Watts, contralto
Robert Tear, tenor
John Shirley-Quirk, baritone
Erna Spoorenberg, soprano (Exsultate)

Schola Cantorum of Oxford - Andrew Parrott
George Malcolm & Philip Ledger, organ
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
Sir Neville Marriner (rec. 1972 & 1967 Exsultate)

Perhaps my favorite pair of Mozart Mass recordings, with the one below, in no small measure due to Ileana Cotrubaș' simple, clear soprano that sits in the spotlight.

I am generally more amenable to Marriner in these big choral works pre-Amadeus for some reason. I was quite impressed with the Schola Cantorum of Oxford, which I am unsure if I have heard elsewhere.

VS

WA Mozart
Great Mass in C Minor, K. 427

Ileana Cotrubaș, soprano
Kiri Te Kanawa, mezzo
Werner Krenn, Tenor
Hans Sotin, bass

John Alldis Choir
New Philharmonia Orchestra
Raymond Leppard (rec. 1974)

[Florestan]

It should also be pointed out that more recent artists, some still living, are Communist by choice.  Claudio Abbado was a Communist.  Maurizio Pollini is a Communist.  Yet I still listen to their recordings. 

Good point.

Actually, historically speaking artists (in general, not only musicians) have never been especially noted for their political astuteness. The list of those who enthusiastically embraced / embrace utopian and/or murderous ideologies is long and distinguished