What are you listening 2 now?

[Todd]

Disc three.  Filled with delights.

[Florestan]

Best op 25/3 I've ever heard. Objectively speaking. He's good at the funny side of Chopin, Chopin the clown.

Most intriguing. Chopin's personality did have a clownish, even mischievous, side especially during his teens --- but fun is not a quality I usually associate with his music. I must investigate Lortat.

[VonStupp]

RVW
Riders to the Sea
Merciless Beauty
Epithalamion

Norma Burrows & Margaret Price, soprano
Helen Watts, contralto, Philip Langridge, tenor
Benjamin Luxon & Stephen Roberts, baritone

Jonathan Snowden, flute, Howard Shelley, piano
The Bach Choir, Endellion String Quartet
Orchestra Nova of London & London PO
Meredith Davies & Sir David Willcocks

@vandermolen recommended this to me many moons ago; now getting to it.

Riders to the Sea is tragic with a capital T. Love the singers here across the board; a luxury.

Epithalamion would pair nicely with other surprisingly candid wedding night cantatas. The ones that came to mind were Stravinsky's Les Noces or Orff's Trionfo di Afrodite; perhaps even Pinkham's own Wedding Cantata or Argento's Miss Havisham's Wedding Night would do nicely too.
VS


Pulling Up the Nets in Stormy Seas, Hermanus Koekkoek

[Iota]

I like Julia Fisher.

So do I, but it's been a while, and sometimes it's a question of mood. Alas I now won't have time to find out today whether hers is the Goldilocks recording of the moment. 

[Lisztianwagner]

Malcolm Arnold
Symphony No.5

Richard Hickox & London Symphony Orchestra

First listen ever to Arnold's music; very suggestive work so far.

[Iota]

Best op 25/3 I've ever heard. Objectively speaking. He's good at the funny side of Chopin, Chopin the clown.

Most intriguing. Chopin's personality did have a clownish, even mischievous, side especially during his teens --- but fun is not a quality I usually associate with his music. I must investigate Lortat.

As well as Op 25/3, I'd say Op 25/5 in the kind of drunken outer sections, and at a push Op 25/4 in its persistent, disorientating syncopated state are other etudes that could be described as 'funny' Chopin.

[vandermolen]

RVW
Riders to the Sea
Merciless Beauty
Epithalamion

Norma Burrows & Margaret Price, soprano
Helen Watts, contralto, Philip Langridge, tenor
Benjamin Luxon & Stephen Roberts, baritone

Jonathan Snowden, flute, Howard Shelley, piano
The Bach Choir, Endellion String Quartet
Orchestra Nova of London & London PO
Meredith Davies & Sir David Willcocks

@vandermolen recommended this to me many moons ago; now getting to it.

Riders to the Sea is tragic with a capital T. Love the singers here across the board; a luxury.

Epithalamion would pair nicely with other surprisingly candid wedding night cantatas. The ones that came to mind were Stravinsky's Les Noces or Orff's Trionfo di Afrodite; perhaps even Pinkham's own Wedding Cantata or Argento's Miss Havisham's Wedding Night would do nicely too.
VS


Pulling Up the Nets in Stormy Seas, Hermanus Koekkoek

One of the great VW CDs IMO. (nice painting of VW in the booklet as well). I like the sound of 'Miss Havisham's Wedding Night'!

[Mandryka]

As well as Op 25/3, I'd say Op 25/5 in the kind of drunken outer sections, and at a push Op 25/4 in its persistent, disorientating syncopated state are other etudes that could be described as 'funny' Chopin.

But Lortat does it all the time. Just listen to the central section of 10/3 even - Tristesse it ain't! More like hilarité!

What a revelation - Chopin was a joker. I'll listen to the sonata later, I bet he puts the fun in funeral march.

[Todd]

Finishing off an all-First Viennese School day (so far) with this recording of the big guy's VC and Romances.  Mediocre is the best single or multi-word description.

[Linz]

Boris Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 3 "Sevastopol" Vladimir Fedoseyev, Grand Symphony Orchestra of All-Union National Radio Service & Central Television Networks
Crimean Sketches, Op. 9, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Same orchestra

[Karl Henning]

[Madiel]

Haydn: quartet op.20/1 in E flat



This is damn fabulous.

And I think I have the time to do all of op.20 today if I want to...

[SimonNZ]

[Madiel]

I'm going for it. Op.20/6 in A major.

[Karl Henning]

[Symphonic Addict]

Malcolm Arnold
Symphony No.5

Richard Hickox & London Symphony Orchestra

First listen ever to Arnold's music; very suggestive work so far.

Oh, really? You're in for a real treat then. Arnold's music is endlessly fascinating, I hope you enjoy each work you listen to from him. I don't know many pieces by him I don't like.

[Symphonic Addict]

Ben-Haim: Music for strings

A light yet captivating work.

[Symphonic Addict]

Prokofiev: Cello Sonata

Stunning and inspired composition, it has lyricism, quirkiness, ideas that catch the ear.

[Symphonic Addict]

Wirén: String Quartet No. 4

It says a lot in its relatively short length (18:33 min). Great piece.

[AnotherSpin]

@Spotted Horses and @AnotherSpin

I just thought I'd listen to Ben Pienaar in my favourite sonata, 19 (D major)

I don't have a real problem with the interpretation in the first movement or the rhythm, the rubato. The second movement seems much less successful to me .

The big problem throughout is his touch - it's boots on the keyboard! Same touch, same colours, same timbres all the time, always rough hewn.  I know it's deliberate, and I know he can't afford the best pianos. But it's a serious bummer as far as I'm concerned.

This stuff was written for beautiful old instruments, full of nuance and delicacy and colours. If that's eliminated from the music, what's left doesn't do much for me.

That's where the problem lies. Every listener has an idea of the perfect Haydn. And when someone plays too differently, and what we hear doesn't match what we expect, we feel uncomfortable. But, it's not science. There can't be precision, there can't be strict conformity.

When I started listening to Pienaar, my first reaction was that something was wrong. But I didn't stop listening, and nothing terrible happened.

Sonata in D major, No. 19 - Pogorelich's interpretation is more pleasing to you, perhaps?