What are you listening 2 now?

[vandermolen]

Hanson: Symphony No.1 'Nordic'
This mono recording from 1942 pre-dates the famous Mercury recording (also with the Eatman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra) but has slightly more urgency I think (I've had to play it twice already this morning).

[vandermolen]

Boris Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 3 'Sebastopol'

To these ears, one of the most evocative, thought-provoking, nostalgic (partly), wonderful Russian symphonies from the 20th century. It's that good IMO.

I most definitely agree! 

[Roasted Swan]

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No.8 in C minor, op.65. Vasily Petrenko, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

I think this is the DSCH symphony that I've heard the least. So far so good. The first movement starts out kind of like that of the 5th, but a bit more spaced out.

A genuine masterpiece but a work that demands the listener's complete and undivided attention I find.  Context is everything here I think but has a simple C major chord at the end of a work ever sounded so bleak and despairing?!?

[Que]

Morning listening:



This album (2 discs), still one of Cut Circle's best IMO, contains masses by Marbrianus De Orto and Josquin Desprez on the theme of L'Homme Armé.

The perfomances here of the latter confirms my impression yesterday that the recording by Sei Voci hasn't aged well... I wouldn't mind a fresh complete Desprez mass cycle by one on the ensembles currently active in the Franco-Flemish repertoire!

[Que]

Organs by Giovanni Battista Facchetti (1526) and Franz Zanin (1989-95).

[vers la flamme]

Morton Feldman: Palais de Mari; Triadic Memories. Alfonso Gómez

Palais still has yet to really click for me, though I've heard it half a dozen times in three different recordings. But Triadic Memories is sounding amazing right now.

[VonStupp]

Jules Massenet
Le Cid (Act II Ballet Music)
Scènes Pittoresques
CBSO - Louis Frémaux

I haven't really given Massenet the time of day. Decided to take a few out that are sitting around.

I have a feeling Frémaux and Birmingham make more of this music than would be typical. Less delicate, velvet glove handling, and more guts.
VS

[Traverso]

And indeed there are three different Sybil recordings by Savall, representing the Sybil tradition in different locations  - well worth hearing all three. I have always been surprised that no one else has performed this music on record.

Basically everything where Montserrat Figueras features prominently is magical!

I found this  .....

 

[Lisztianwagner]

I haven't listened to that in at least 30 years.  For what it's worth (next to nothing), I remember finding  the Piano Concerto intriguing, mainly because of Gould, but the orchestral playing being pretty rough.  I would go for Ax or Uchida these days, but I should give this a listen just to be fair to it.

Ax and Uchida are my favourites along with Pollini. Gould was certainly brilliant, it was the first I listened to those recordings and I enjoyed his interpretations, very expressive and moving; yes, maybe the orchestral playing was a bit rough, it didn't exactly have the clarity and the  vivid sonorities of other performances I've heard, like for example Abbado/BPO, but anyway that wasn't annoying in my opinion, it somehow helped expressing the dramatic tension and the restlessness perceivable in the composition. Instead, what was probably a bit more disappointing was the sound quality of the recording, as it often sounded like it was in a close box.

[Todd]

I have always been surprised that no one else has performed this music on record.

There are at least two other recordings:





If memory serves, the Obsidienne is more austere and severe.  That is how I found the work, though I was searching for the Barcelona Mass.

[Mookalafalas]

Been playing through Karajan's 70s box, which I acquired 2nd hand. Enjoying that fat, rich, Berliner sound.

[Todd]

Been playing through Karajan's 70s box, which I acquired 2nd hand.

An excellent purchase.  I am envious.

TD:

[Traverso]

Jérusalem

CD 2

[ritter]

CD1 of Pierre-Laurent Aimard's The Liszt Project: Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor (plus several of the late works), Wagner's Piano Sonata in A flat major ("for the Album of Mrs. Mathilde Wesendonck"), Berg's Piano Sonata, op. 1, and Scriabin's Piano Sontata No. 9, "Black Mass".

[Pohjolas Daughter]

A case where streaming led to purchase.  Magnificent start to finish, with the three different settings of the work being distinctive enough to warrant listening to all three in a row.

Out of curiosity, do you have sense of how often listening to an online stream of an album has lead to you deciding to purchase it?

PD

[Mookalafalas]

An excellent purchase.  I am envious.

  To be honest, I hadn't expected to enjoy it so much.

Playing this now. It's various kinds of fluff, but remarkably fun.  The sound is suspiciously good--as though the different sections had been recorded independently in a studio.

[prémont]

Does anybody know this?

[Todd]

Out of curiosity, do you have sense of how often listening to an online stream of an album has lead to you deciding to purchase it?

Maybe 1-2 recordings/month on average.

[prémont]

Out of curiosity, do you have sense of how often listening to an online stream of an album has lead to you deciding to purchase it?

PD

In my case listening to clips often leads to purchase but also often to the opposite. This is supposedly as it should be.

[Roasted Swan]

Jules Massenet
Le Cid (Act II Ballet Music)
Scènes Pittoresques
CBSO - Louis Frémaux

I haven't really given Massenet the time of day. Decided to take a few out that are sitting around.

I have a feeling Frémaux and Birmingham make more of this music than would be typical. Less delicate, velvet glove handling, and more guts.
VS

Le Cid is tremendous and this is a very good version but for even less glove and more guts(!) the Bonynge/National PO version on Decca origianlly coupled with an equally muscular "Les Patineurs" is better still...



(this is the original LP cover but it has appeared on CD in various guises)