What are you listening 2 now?

[aligreto]

Albrechtsberger: Concertos for Jew's Harp [Stadlmair]





Concerto for Jew's Harp, Mandora & Orchestra in F maj.

This CD contains some wonderfully pleasant, entertaining and inventive music, particularly the F maj. concerto. The Jew's Harp is an unusual concerto instrument and I really like the scoring for the mandora in these works. The sound quality is also very good and the instruments are well balanced so one readily hears all of the musical lines.

[vandermolen]

Are you sure this is not Katsushika Hokusai? 

Definitely Not 

[vandermolen]

In this I quite agree with you!

She was the mother of one of my students. I met her at parent's evenings and recall her as being very nice (Felicity Palmer).

PS No I didn't - I confused her with Felicity Lott!

[vandermolen]

Shostakovich Symphony No.12 'The Year 1917'

[Harry]

She was the mother of one of my students. I met her at parent's evenings and recall her as being very nice (Felicity Palmer).

Oh I have no doubt Jeffrey she was a nice and caring lady, but this was about her voice  

[vandermolen]

Oh I have no doubt Jeffrey she was a nice and caring lady, but this was about her voice  

I confused her with Felicity Lott Harry 

[aligreto]

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 12 Op. 127 [Gewandhaus Quartett]





This presentation in the opening movement is assertive but not aggressive. Musically, the work is probing, searching and questioning and this performance certainly probes those elements.
The slow movement is thoroughly a work of stark beauty with its poignancy and pathos in the music and this presentation treats these elements with great tenderness and delicacy.
The Scherzo is another probing and searching piece of music. This time, however, it is a little more animated and tension filled than the opening movement.
The final movement opens in an assertive vein. The music is attacked with vigour. The musicians work hard and successfully to build up the tension and drama in the work and they work steadily towards a fine conclusion.

[Lisztianwagner]

On youtube:

Ernst Krenek
Karl V, part I

Gerd Albrecht, ORF-Choir & Radio Symphonie Orchester Wien

[prémont]

JS Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 4-6 [Belder]




All of the performances in this set are light and airy with good pace and clarity and are well performed. The performances are all suitably brisk and energetic. The brass soloists in Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 are particularly fine. No. 3 is buoyant and very well driven; quite powerful really.  No. 4 takes one's breath away at times; those recorders sound just marvellous and the whole work has great presence. No. 5 is well paced and balanced; the harpsichord cadenza in the opening movement is terrifically and sometimes fiendishly played. No. 6 has great transparency in the lines. It also has great presence. The sound is also very good if just a little thin and dry but that is a minor quibble in what is a terrifically exciting set.

I agree with you in this. Belder's set is generally underrated.

[Harry]

Arrived yesterday. New release.

Hans Huber.
Eine Lustspiel Overtüre.
Erste Serenade, "Sommernächte".
Zweiter Serenade, "Winternächte."
Römischer Carneval, Humoreske für Grosses Orchester.

Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn, Yannis Pourpourikas.

Finally this label picks up Hans Huber's music in State of the Art sound. I am a great admirer of his music, especially his 9 Symphonies and the works on this CD. The Sterling CD's on which most of Huber's orchestral works are recorded are not with the best orchestras neither is the sound very good. So fingers crossed that they follow this CD up with his Symphonies, wish full thinking I know, but a fellow may hope. Both serenades belong to Huber's best work, and for the first time I hear all orchestral detail, and how well he orchestrated. I am happy with it. I know the orchestra well, and they do fine with the music.

[Papy Oli]

More!

Ancerl's Gold Series.

#16

Prokofiev - Peter & The Wolf op.67

[aligreto]

Handel: Italian Secular Cantatas [Murray/Christophers]





Clori, mia bella Clori HMV 92

[aligreto]

I agree with you in this. Belder's set is generally underrated.

Yes, I had not listened to it in quite a long time and I was somewhat surprised that I had not remembered it to be quite as good as it actually is.

[Papy Oli]

Ancerl's Gold Series.

#19

Dvorak - Symphony No.6

[aligreto]

Mélodies sur des poèmes de Baudelaire [Lott/Johnson]





Baudelaire's poems set to music here by Duparc, Fauré, De Breville, De Séverac, Sauget, Capdevielle, Charbrier & Debussy.

[Todd]

Disc four.

[Traverso]

A subtle but big difference! 

Indeed Fergus,the difference is that one has already arrived or still on its way.

[Brian]

Isa Krejci's Symphony No. 3 - first-ever listen - one of the most frivolous works I have heard recently, to be frank. All three fast movements are circus-like and jokey, with loads of piccolo solos, triangle tinkles, cymbal crashes, and short, goofy little melodies. In the middle there is a slow movement with muted strings and lovely solos, which provides a little bit of "real" musical material and talent. Then the finale jumps right back into the shallow end, including a piccolo riff that somehow transitions right into an orchestral fugue (!) that ends with the orchestral piano playing a "ding-dong" rhythm.

17 minutes of wackiness that honestly tested my patience at times. It's like Shostakovich's Ninth, but without any sort of point or any hint that the humor might be sarcastic or cruel. I hope Krejci's first symphony is different.

[Todd]

17 minutes of wackiness that honestly tested my patience at times.

And you can rest assured that the performance is as good as you could ever hear. 

[Harry]

New acquisition, came in today from JPC.

Richard Flury.
Orchestral Music.
Volume III.
Symphony No. 1 in D minor.
Symphony No. 4 in C major.
BBC SO, Paul Mann.

Already the Third volume in this series, and I grow quite addicted to Flury's music!
This Swiss composer is to my ears a very important and worthwhile composer. He is a good orchestrator, is brimful with good ideas, and never is repetitive. Creates out nothing everything. Tonal, with a neo romantic sweep, and involving warmth in abundance. Still Flury is not loved on GMG, or maybe he is thought to be a second tier composer, well be it as it may, he is not for me. I think him Grandiose.
Very good performance and sound.