What are you listening 2 now?

[Mapman]

Hanson: Symphony #3
Schwarz: Seattle

My first listen to this; I'm impressed. I especially enjoyed the 2nd movement. (And @classicalgeek, this is a great disc that you bought recently!)

[vers la flamme]

Morton Feldman: Crippled Symmetry. California EAR Unit

Love this.

Made it all the way through with rapt attention. I'm doing pretty good with Feldman these past couple days. Unless I'm really in the mood, I oftentimes give up somewhere in the middle with some of his more massive pieces. Now there's a few more I think I should revisit, on the premise of "striking while the iron is hot"...: For John Cage, For Samuel Beckett, possibly PVVC which I found unbearably depressing the last time I heard it.

Now, something by Feldman's "grand-teacher"...:



Anton Webern: String Trio, op.20; Symphony, op.21. Juilliard String Quartet (minus one violin); Pierre Boulez, London Symphony Orchestra

By Webernian standards these are long forms, but still very precise music where every note counts. The second movement of the Trio sounds about as chaotic as Webern gets, while the Symphony is about as orderly as he ever gets. I don't have the score in front of me, but I seem to recall that he employs a canonic form in the first movement and variation form in the second movement.

Edit: Now one more recording of Webern's Symphony:

[vers la flamme]

Barbara Monk Feldman: Duo for Piano & Percussion. GSBR Duo

First listen to anything by this composer, widow and former student of Morton Feldman. The influence of her husband is apparent, but I think her music sounds a little bit friendlier than his. I'm reminded a bit of Brian Eno. Quite beautiful.

[JBS]

Price: Violin Concerto #2
Goosby; Nezét-Seguin: Philadelphia

The slow theme is gorgeous (and slightly similar to Deep River).

My one complaint with that CD is the choice of Bruch as discmate.
The Bruch is well performed, but it seems to be an odd pairing.

[JBS]

Mahler  Symphony No.9  (Maderna / BBC SO)

One of my favorite M9s.

[vers la flamme]

One of my favorite M9s.

I've heard very good things about it. How is the sound?



Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.3 in E-flat major, op.55, the "Eroica". John Eliot Gardiner, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique

Quite a change from all that Feldman today, but it felt right, and it sounds damn good right now!

[Madiel]

Mozart: Symphony no.1. Because the postman's been...

[JBS]

I've heard very good things about it. How is the sound?

Typical BBC sound.
To be honest, my equipment is a very basic CD player, so only the most obvious problems make themselves heard. [This is why cheap equipment is good.]  I don't remember any with this recording.

[vandermolen]

Hanson: Symphony #3
Schwarz: Seattle

My first listen to this; I'm impressed. I especially enjoyed the 2nd movement. (And @classicalgeek, this is a great disc that you bought recently!)

I think that it's the greatest of Hanson's symphonies, although you have to hear the Koussevitsky recording which is very special.

[vandermolen]

Edgar Bainton: Symphony No.2

[Florestan]

[Madiel]

Haydn: String quartet in C, op.9/1



It wasn't possible to sample this recording before purchase, though I'd sampled some others in the Leipzig Quartet's series. A pleasing start. Maybe, on the stylistic spectrum, a little similar to the Kodaly? It's hard to tell from one quartet to be honest. Or the Mosaiques, in that they play period instruments without trying to make everything sound obviously period.

The opening Moderato movement has only moderate energy, but then that's what is supposed to happen. So I was admittedly wondering how the Presto finale was going to go... and it's got plenty of spark. There's a certain sophistication to the playing, but I really like how they're willing to go a bit rustic at certain moments.

Recording quality is right in my wheelhouse. A little resonance without being too much for a quartet recording.

EDIT: Having a second consecutive listen, and very happy with this.

[vandermolen]

Hubert Clifford: 'Symphony 1940' - a inspiriting and memorably eloquent work with a movingly defiant (in its historical context of the London Blitz) ending:

[vandermolen]

Rawsthorne: Piano Concerto No.2:

[Florestan]

The composer's name is printed in a font three times smaller than the performer's. 

[Harry]

Understandable, she is much prettier as Galuppi ever was  

[Florestan]

Understandable, she is much prettier as Galuppi ever was  

True, but even so, a little more respect for the man would not have been out of place. After all, he's much more famous than she'll ever be, 

[vandermolen]

Arthur Bliss: Introduction and Allegro
RPO Barry Wordsworth (this fine double CD set also features the earlier LSO version conducted by Bliss himself).

[Harry]

The Forgotten Kingdom.
The Tragedy of the Cathars.
Part I "The Emergence and Heyday of Catharisme"-East and West- 950-1204.
La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Hesperion XXI, Jordi Savall..

A travel in the past. Tis all well done.

[Madiel]

True, but even so, a little more respect for the man would not have been out of place. After all, he's much more famous than she'll ever be, 

Galuppi is not very famous these days. I know him mostly as the guy whose name was used to sell Vivaldi when Vivaldi went out of fashion.