What are you listening 2 now?

[Christo]

Even more than Klaus Egge's Symphony No.1?

On equal foot with the Symphony in D minor (1942) by Ludwig Irgens-Jensen. I never found time for Klaus Egge yet, hope to play it soon.

[Uhor]

Bax's 4th symphony Handley


Beethoven's Septet, very Mozartean no wonder @Florestan likes it!  Even though it had been several years, I still remembered it once it started playing.

If you like both Bax and Beet try this

[kyjo]

A Christmas tradition for me - Finzi's incomparably beautiful In terra pax:



Truly heart-warming stuff by a composer whose music never fails to move me...

[Mookalafalas]

Harbison's 2nd Symphony. Written in 1987. Reminds me of Frank Zappa's late stuff, which would have come out earlier, I believe. Fun, chromatic, surprising.

[Madiel]

I'm halfway through Mozart's Il re pastore.



The album liner notes (viewable online) are superb. The performance seems good. The music is... Of interest for history and context as much as anything. Not really my thing, a very traditional kind of opera of the time precisely because that's what Mozart's employer wanted. The music's not bad, but this sort of opera where people stand around and sing da capo arias is not something that excites me.

[steve ridgway]

Mahler: Symphonie Nr. 6 A-moll "Tragische"

Checking out a vinyl rip on archive.org to see if I want to spend any money.

[Que]

Morning listening:



A Christmas mass that is constructed from music from the Papal Chapel in Avignon, home of the Papacy from 1309 to 1376. The result is a combination of the style of the Notre Dame School and the later Ars Nova.

Excellent performance by Diabolus in Musica back in 1999 for the tiny French label Studio FM, now run by ADF-Bayard Musique.

[AnotherSpin]

In my search for the perfect Bruckner, I spent years looking for little available recordings of exotic orchestras with unknown conductors. Yet everything one needs lies right in plain sight.

[Harry]

Carl Friedrich Abel, (123-1787)

Sonatas for Viola da Gamba, & BC, and Duets for viola da Gamba and Cello, from the Second Pembroke collection.
See for details back cover.
2 CD'S.
Recorded, 2014, at Rittergut, Ermlitz, Bel Etages des Herrenhauses, Main floor of the Mansion.


It is a musical sensation: fourteen hitherto unknown viol works by Carl Friedrich Abel (10 sonatas for viola & basso and 4 duets for viola & cello) from the estate of his pupil Lady Elizabeth Herbert, Countess of Pembroke and Montgomery, were purchased - unnoticed by the public - by a private collector at a Sotheby's auction in 1994. The hidden treasure turned out to be Abel's opus ultimum, which he himself performed at the Hanover Square Concerts shortly before his tragic death on June 20, 1787, and with which he astonished his warmest admirers. Sonatas played without haste, and forward drive. Nevertheless while they do not strike me as Abel's "Opus Ultimum", they are pleasant enough, and well composed. Good sound too, and fine instruments used. For those that love the viola da Gamba, there is enough to discover. They work fine on the second Christmas day, recovering from all the hubbub of the festivities.

[Que]

Time to admit that once I dig deep in my collection, there is a lot of Christmas music... 

I wonder if I ever listened to it before, perhaps once. I believe I got it in a sale, put in on the pile to save for Christmas and then forgot all about it...



This recording evokes the mood of Christmas night in France during the Baroque. It combines Sébastien de Brossard's Missa Quinti Toni pro Tempore Nativitatis Domini with several "Noëls" - short organ pieces based on popular Christmas carols - by various composers, a typical French tradition.

Delectable! 

[Irons]

Schubert: Piano Sonata, D.664.



Recorded at the Wagram, Paris in one of the coldest winters on record. Richter's sessions, as was his habit, began at 9pm through to 3am without a break.
Richter plays Andante of D. 664 with wonderful delicacy.

[Florestan]

Beethoven's Septet, very Mozartean no wonder @Florestan likes it!

It's funny how radically time changes the perspective. In Beethoven's Vienna his most popular works were the Septet (which he eventually sort of disowned) and Wellington's Victory. 

[Que]

Carl Friedrich Abel, (123-1787)

Sonatas for Viola da Gamba, & BC, and Duets for viola da Gamba and Cello, from the Second Pembroke collection.
See for details back cover.
2 CD'S.
Recorded, 2014, at Rittergut, Ermlitz, Bel Etages des Herrenhauses, Main floor of the Mansion.


It is a musical sensation: fourteen hitherto unknown viol works by Carl Friedrich Abel (10 sonatas for viola & basso and 4 duets for viola & cello) from the estate of his pupil Lady Elizabeth Herbert, Countess of Pembroke and Montgomery, were purchased - unnoticed by the public - by a private collector at a Sotheby's auction in 1994. The hidden treasure turned out to be Abel's opus ultimum, which he himself performed at the Hanover Square Concerts shortly before his tragic death on June 20, 1787, and with which he astonished his warmest admirers. Sonatas played without haste, and forward drive. Nevertheless while they do not strike me as Abel's "Opus Ultimum", they are pleasant enough, and well composed. Good sound too, and fine instruments used. For those that love the viola da Gamba, there is enough to discover. They work fine on the second Christmas day, recovering from all the hubbub of the festivities.

I agree: well composed and pleasant. And the playing is indeed more than excellent and it is well recorded. Buying this set in a sale was me giving Abel one more try, but I didn't find the music going beyond pleasantries and not very engaging or particularly interesting.

[vandermolen]

A Christmas tradition for me - Finzi's incomparably beautiful In terra pax:



Truly heart-warming stuff by a composer whose music never fails to move me...

For me too Kyle although I haven't played it yet this year.

[Lisztianwagner]

Arnold Schönberg
Gurre-Lieder

Yvonne Naef, Ralf Lukas, Gerhard Siegel, Andreas Schmidt, Robert Dean Smith, Melanie Diener
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Leipzig Radio Choir
Michael Gielen & SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg

[Traverso]

Jehan Alain

CD 1

Jehan Alain an older brother of Marie-Claire Alain who died in the First World War, but not after first killing 15 German soldiers.
It's a pity that he passed away from us at such a young age.

[Florestan]

Jehan Alain

CD 1

Jehan Alain an older brother of Marie-Claire Alain who died in the First World War, but not after first killing 15 German soldiers.
It's a pity that he passed away from us at such a young age.

Well, quite possibly those 15 German soldiers were as young as Alain, quite possibly they also had a younger sister waiting for them at home and quite possibly they were as innocent as Alain. Quite possibly they were not as promising musicians as Alain, but nevertheless it's a pity they died at such a young age, too. 

[Traverso]

Well, quite possibly those 15 German soldiers were as young as Alain, quite possibly they also had a younger sister waiting for them at home and quite possibly they were as innocent as Alain. Quite possibly they were not as promising musicians as Alain, but nevertheless it's a pity they died at such a young age, too. 

Of course you're right...

[Florestan]

The next to last disc --- the two piano sonatas.

An excellent box performance-wise with so-so sound. Live recordings, but were it not for the audible sound of score pages being turned (which I actually liked) and the rapturous applause at the end of each piece (which Fiorentino fully deserved), you wouldn't know it. Not the first choice for Rachmaninoff's complete piano works (that would probably be Ashkenazy or Shelley) but a very good one nonetheless (and completely complete too, including some juvenilia which I'm not even sure Ashkenazy or Shelley play, I haven't checked).

My next Rachmaninoff project will be Artur Pizarro's similar traversal on Odradek (3 vols, 7 CDs, presumably SOTA sound).

[DavidW]

Haydn Op 50 "cd 1" Festetics Q:


From my little FiiO player.  Festetics Q is my favorite, but I was looking forward to playing Kodaly Q which I really thought was loaded on my little player.  Must have ran out of room!