What are you listening 2 now?

[Roasted Swan]

I bought this disc some time ago but only listened to it for the first time today;



The delay has been because I'm not so fond of Little's playing in recent years - her vibrato has got wider and her tone - to my ears - lacks the focus she had in her early recordings.  But the repertoire here is right up my street.  In fact I do Little a dis-service - on this disc she plays superbly and is very well supported by Andrew Davis and the BBC PO.  The elephant in the room is to what a degree the Coleridge-Taylor is the weakest work here.  I have these two other versions in my collection already;

 

Both McAslan and Marwood are fine players and give good accounts but neither they nor Little can paper over the cracks of what is a fairly run of the mill work.  Especially so when heard alongside/in conjuction with the couplings here.  The Delius Suite is early for sure but he achieves an expressive intensity and melodic memorability simply beyond Coleridge-Taylor.  And the Haydn Wood shows a composer who understood the violin and how to write virtuosically for it in a way that Coleridge-Taylor simply cannot come close to.  McAslan also recorded the Haydn Wood here;



but this Chandos/Little performance is finer in every respect and it emerges as a genuinely impressive work. 

Yet it is the Coleridge Taylor being played at the 2023 Proms but the Haydn Wood and Delius works have never featured (in fact the Delius Violin Concerto awaits its Proms Premiere as well!).  Really anyone with any kind of objective musical sense can hear that although the Coleridge-Taylor is an attractive and charming work it is not a major piece.  Hard not to reach the conclusion that its inclusion in the Proms and on a recent new disc is not really to do with its musical worth.

[Karl Henning]

Schubert Piano Sonata in c minor D958, Pollini



Listening as a contrast to Badura-Skoda's recording on Fortepiano.

I've had this recording since it was a new release in 1987, and it still makes an impression. Not as sharply characterized as I my hazy memory led me to believe. Pollini uses his considerable technique to make the music sound clear and effortless. Thoroughly enjoyed.

I've really enjoyed this, too.

[Florestan]

The real hidden gem here is the Somervell VC. A melodious, sunny, uplifting and life-afirmming piece.

[Florestan]

Just finished listening to this extraordinary new release. Wow, such masterful playing and arrangements.

Very interesting.

[Linz]

Respighi Concerto a cinque, Poem autunnale and Concerto all'antica, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma
Vadim Brodski violin
Andrea Noferini cello
Chiara Bertoglio piano
Désirée Scucugglia piano
Antonio Palcich organ

[vers la flamme]

Modest Mussorgsky, orch. Maurice Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition. Seiji Ozawa, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Well damn, this is a REALLY good recording. Absolutely stellar, virtuosic playing from the whole orchestra, especially the winds and brass, and overall a really big, expansive sound. I found this at a local record shop today, glad I picked it up. Now I'm very curious to hear more of Ozawa's recordings in Chicago from the '60s, as well as some of Jean Martinon's recordings, Martinon of course being music director in Chicago during the same period that Ozawa was conducting a lot of his earliest recordings there.

[Bachtoven]

If he'd called it Music On Guitar it would be rather more accurate.

He arranged it, so now it is for guitar! 

[Roasted Swan]

The real hidden gem here is the Somervell VC. A melodious, sunny, uplifting and life-afirmming piece.

You are right - Somervell's "Thalassa" Symphony is still waiting for a decent recording too.....

[Bachtoven]

A new composer for me. Parts are quite acerbic, others are a little more melodic. I'll need to listen to it again to decide if I actually like it. Qobuz.

[Lisztianwagner]

Sergei Rachmaninov
Piano Concerto No. 3

Vladimir Ashkenazy
André Previn & London Symphony Orchestra

[Symphonic Addict]

Joseph Marx
Orchestral Works
Suisse Romande - Neeme Järvi

Lollipops🍭! Otherwise, the angular leaping melody in Bourrée Fantasque was his only surprise.
VS

Joseph Marx or Emmanuel Chabrier? 

[VonStupp]

Joseph Marx or Emmanuel Chabrier? 

Ha! Thanks! - Chabrier. I don't think I could ever characterize Marx's works as lollipops!
VS

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Joseph Marx or Emmanuel Chabrier? 

I think this is well-explained by the Schrödinger's cat experiment.

[vers la flamme]

Modest Mussorgsky, orch. Maurice Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition. Seiji Ozawa, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Well damn, this is a REALLY good recording. Absolutely stellar, virtuosic playing from the whole orchestra, especially the winds and brass, and overall a really big, expansive sound. I found this at a local record shop today, glad I picked it up. Now I'm very curious to hear more of Ozawa's recordings in Chicago from the '60s, as well as some of Jean Martinon's recordings, Martinon of course being music director in Chicago during the same period that Ozawa was conducting a lot of his earliest recordings there.

Continuing the CD with Benjamin Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Still blown away by how good this CD is.

[Cato]

as well as some of Jean Martinon's recordings, Martinon of course being music director in Chicago during the same period that Ozawa was conducting a lot of his earliest recordings there.

THIS LP was an all-around fave of mine!

[Bachtoven]

Excellent playing and sound.

[Mapman]

Some more of my favorite discoveries this year:

Kabalevsky: Violin Concerto


Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915

[vers la flamme]

Ludwig van Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte, op.98. Fritz Wunderlich, Heinrich Schmidt

Got myself on this big Beethoven kick lately

[Todd]

[vers la flamme]

Richard Strauss: Oboe Concerto in D major, TrV 292. Alexei Ogrintchouk, Andris Nelsons, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Picked this up at a local shop today. This work benefits from the excellent late 2010s BIS sonics. It sounds beautiful.