What are you listening 2 now?

[vers la flamme]

Bohuslav Martinů: Symphony No.5. Karel Ančerl, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Stunning performance!

[Tsaraslondon]

Hat tip to @Tsaraslondon and I concur with his positive assessment. The only caveat I have is that the music, being sung in languages I can't understand and mostly in the melancholy / wistful vein, tends to sound samey after a few songs. This is a disc best savored in small doses.

I was listening to the CD, which came with full notes, texts and translations that no doubt add to enjoyment. Nowadays, with streaming platforms, digital downloads and, even in CD issues, the companies seem to think we have no interest in what is being sung and just let the music wash over us. One of my great pleasures has always been to sit down and listen to an opera or recital disc, booklet in hand, and be fully involved in the programme. I'm not sure that's possible if you don't know the material and don't know what the singer is singing about. I listened in one sitting and didn't find it samey at all.

[Tsaraslondon]

No complaints about the voices or the singing itself, but this recital has a peculiarly lifleless and somewhat studio-bound feel about it. We are given duets from Semiramide, Anna Bolena, Norma, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Aida, Madama Butterfly and La Gioconda, which should give us a fairly vaired programme, but, whether it's the fault of the rather soggy conducting of Anton Guadagano, nothing really catches fire and the temperature is tepid throughout. Consequently the best items that are the least dramatic, like the Barcarolle from Les contes d'Hoffman and the Flower Duet from Madama Butterfly.

Verrett is one of my favourite singers and she is not that well represented on disc, but I have a feeling this is making for the jettsion pile.

This was the original cover.

[Harry]

Mieczyslaw Karlowicz.
Orchestral Works, volume III.
Returning Waves op.9, Symphonic Poem
A Sorrowful Tale, Preludes to Eternity.
Episode at a Masquerade op.14, Symphonic Poem.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda.
Recorded in 2005, at the Studio 7, New Broadcasting House, Manchester.
TT= 63 minutes.

Despite that several critics find the pieces on this disc not of much worth, I strongly disagree with that. The ones I read are nonsensical and utterly beside the point. These compositions are in line with his other works, no more or less, and Noseda gives it a superb performance, well recorded too. I feel like sitting in a luxury bath, warm and comfortable. The detailing in this recording is pretty awesome.

[Papy Oli]

Another run through this gorgeous set:

[Florestan]

One of my great pleasures has always been to sit down and listen to an opera or recital disc, booklet in hand, and be fully involved in the programme.

It's great you can do that. I tried it but failed. It spoiled my purely musical experience. I was not able to concentrate both on listening to the music and reading the ibretto: either I lost nuances in the former or interest in the latter. So I prefer to read the synopsis before listening. Besides, I speak French fluently and my Italian is serviceable enough, so I understand at least the gist of what's being sung and if the diction is impeccable I understand almost everything --- and of course, I already know by heart the action in the most famous operas, including the German ones. For art songs, it would be even worse: listening to a song sung in a language unknown to me while following along an English o rFrench translation would turn my brain and ears upside down. I prefer to listen to the song and form my own opinion about the general mood(s) it conveys simply by the feeling of the music itself, and only after compare my impressions with the actual text. I must say that on average I am not in error, at least not by much.

I'm not sure that's possible if you don't know the material and don't know what the singer is singing about.

Well, if one is a prima la musica poi le parole guy, as I am, it is possible to a certain extent, see above.

EDIT: In this respect, it's Masses, Requiems and Stabat Mater's that I understand 100%, because I know the Latin texts by heart. 

[Lisztianwagner]

Frederick Delius
Sea Drift

Roderick Williams (baritone)
Sir Mark Elder & Hallé Orchestra

[vandermolen]

Bohuslav Martinů: Symphony No.5. Karel Ančerl, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Stunning performance!

That's a great Martinu collection.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Roussel: Ariane et Bacchus. Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Kazuki Yamada.

[aligreto]

I have been dipping into this CD over the last few days





This is an early Naxos CD which serves as a sampler of this music from other Naxos discs and collections. Anyone who does not know much about Early Music and is looking for a good but simple entry point into this world would do well to give this one a listen. It offers a wide range of both music and composers and all of the music is well presented. All of the music is also very accessible.

[Harry]

Rudi Stephan.
Orchestral works.
Music for violin and Orchestra in one movement.
Music for Orchestra in one movement (1910)
Music for Orchestra in one movement (1912)

Sergej Stadler, Violin.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Oleg Caetani.
Recorded in November 2005. Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University, Melbourne.

This SACD recording is State of the Art, exceptional it is! Rudi Stephan's music has traces of Mahler and Bruckner in its veins, but not that much. The music grabs me right from the start in the music for violin and Orchestra, its pure magic, "Alles ist verzaubert""as if one enters into fairy land. I find his music to be utterly stunning.  Romantic music to the core! Very concentrated performances, every little nuance is heard. What a marvel it is.

[Todd]

[Karl Henning]

If you do decide to do this, I'll be delighted. Now that I have a level of familiarity with all but the last few, it will give me an intelligent touchstone while I live with the cycle alongside other music for the next weeks.

I wound up sidetracked ... stand by ....

However:

CD 10

Claude Debussy
Jeux, poème dansé
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire
André Cluytens

Igor Stravinsky
Le Sacre du printemps, tableaux de la Russie païenne en deux parties
Philharmonia Orchestra
Igor Markevich

Florent Schmitt
La Tragédie de Salomé, ballet in two parts, suite for female chorus and orchestra
Maîtrise et Orchestre de l'O.R.T.F
Jean Martinon

Another thoroughly superb disc, and my first exposure to the Schmitt.

[Harry]

Music for Strings.

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
Herbert Howells: Concerto for String Orchestra.
Frederick Delius: Late Swallows.
Edward Elgar: Introduction & Allegro op. 47.

Sinfonia of London, John Wilson.
John Mills violin.
Michael Trainor violin.
Andriy Viytovych viola.
Richard Harwood cello.

Recording venue Church of S. Augustine, Kilburn, London; 5 January 2022 (Late Swallows) & 23 and
24 August 2021 (other works). TT= 66:00 minutes.

This SACD is very loudly recorded, too much so. The Thomas Tallis has no magic in this recording, it is aggressively played, mostly without feeling or understanding this composition of VW. The quiet moments have to much speed, there is no respite, not at all. There are far better interpretations I am afraid, and one should not buy this CD for the Fantasia, but that's only my opinion of course. So I let the rest go......

[aligreto]

I have been listening to this CD again over the past two days

[Papy Oli]

I have been listening to this CD again over the past two days

I'll join you and Bruggen, Fergus!

[aligreto]

I'll join you and Bruggen, Fergus!

Cheers, Olivier. You could do a lot worse on a wet and windy [weather here] Friday afternoon. Enjoy it.

[Maestro267]

Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 9 & 10
Brodsky Quartet

I learnt late into listening to the Tenth Quartet that it was dedicated to Mieczyslaw Weinberg, which has led now to listening to the piece Weinberg dedicated to Shostakovich's memory.

Weinberg: Symphony No. 12 ("In memoriam D. Shostakovich")
St. Petersburg State SO/Lande

[foxandpeng]

Nicolai Miaskovsky
Complete Symphonies
Symphony 25
Svetlanov
State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia

Quiet Spring afternoon with Myaskovsky. Good to see the sunshine and beginnings of new life emerging, so windows open and NYM is a positive thing!

Once I've traversed this full Svetlanov cycle, I'll begin to circle back and bring in other interpreters to expand my take on those works where it's possible to do that. Many high points in these later symphonies.

[Papy Oli]

JSB / BWV 32