What are you listening 2 now?

[Florestan]

a few years back (okay maybe several).

Is there a difference between "a few" and "several"? I should have thought they were equivalent.

[DavidW]

Is there a difference between "a few" and "several"? I should have thought they were equivalent.

Several is usually used as more than a few.

[Florestan]

Several is usually used as more than a few.

I see, thanks.

[springrite]

Several is usually used as more than a few.

I thought several is more than few but less than a few...

[ritter]

I'd say that several is more than "a few", but less than "quite a few". 

[Spotted Horses]

Several is usually used as more than a few.

I think of "a few" and "several" as being numerically indistinguishable (both mean a small number more than two but fewer than many) but with a different emphasis. If you say you have "a few" questions you are emphasizing they they are not many, if you say you have "several" questions you are emphasizing that the questions are significant. (At least, that's how I interpret it.) It boils down that few emphasizes less than many and several emphasizes more than a two.

[DavidW]

To be precise it was 2009:
https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,14462.0.html

Edit: it took likes Karl took a whopping two years to actually start the discussion, so we didn't actually have it until 2011.

Agon was the discussion and this was my introduction to Craft's Stravinsky:

[Brian]

A discussion group for a specific monthly piece is a great idea, maybe we should bring it back!

[DavidW]

Thread duty:

[Linz]

Dietrich Buxtehude 6 Cantatas, Orchestra Anima Eterna and The Royal Consort with Collegium Vocale

[springrite]

A discussion group for a specific monthly piece is a great idea, maybe we should bring it back!

Or maybe instead of A specific monthly piece, we can have a few, or several monthly pieces.

[Florestan]

I think of "a few" and "several" as being numerically indistinguishable (both mean a small number more than two but fewer than many) but with a different emphasis. If you say you have "a few" questions you are emphasizing they they are not many, if you say you have "several" questions you are emphasizing that the questions are significant. (At least, that's how I interpret it.) It boils down that few emphasizes less than many and several emphasizes more than a two.

This is illuminating, thanks.

[Brian]

Or maybe instead of A specific monthly piece, we can have a few, or several monthly pieces.

Ha   

I like that idea too though...if we chose related pieces with similar themes, like two short requiems, or Liszt and Ravel "Jeux d'eau", or Bach/Shostakovich preludes and fugues...

[foxandpeng]

Michael Nyman
Symphonies 5 and 2
Josep Vicent
The World Orchestra

Phew. That was hard work. I like minimalism and evolving music blocks developing a theme, but this music was a bit fraught and 'in your face'. Symphony 5 in particular - first two movements were just a little much - rest and recovery don't get enough of a foothold in the 3rd movement to vary the emotions. I'm all for a bit of 'seat edge' fractiousness, but it was less like Penderecki and more unpleasant, IMO. Thing is, I'm not sure Nyman is that skilled.

Perhaps I am missing the point.

Symphony 2 was marginally better. Maybe. The finale was just relentlessly repetitive with little interest, concluding with a bizarre shift into a final couple of minutes of tuneful Americana (?).

I don't think this will be a new favourite. Happy to be convinced otherwise if there are any Nyman fans out there. You are probably shouting into a mirror for your 2nd hour of evening entertainment by now, though...

[ritter]

Some Spanish local color to complement a sunny February day at the other end of Europe.

Dedicado a su amigo el Excmo. Sr. D. Rafael alias @ritter.

With much delay (I was in Lisbon on business for three days, with a very full schedule each day), thanks @Florestan for the post! And that disc (hitherto unknown to me) looks interesting...

BTW, I fleetingly met the conductor Juan de Udaeta many years ago...

TD:

Listening to the first extant recording ever of Bellini's Norma, conducted by the great Vittorio Gui.

[Karl Henning]

I'm giving Malcolm Arnold's Symphony No.4 another chance. I have to say I didn't like it at all the first time I heard it. I'm going through the Naxos box in order.

I don't think I've listened to the Fourth. I started the cycle, but then got sidetracked. 

[Karl Henning]

How is this? Love both works enormously, but don't know this recording.

-Bruce

My thinking was, "Martinů & Kubelík: what's not to like?"

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, 1872 First concept version. Ed. William Carragan, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Markus Poschner 

[Karl Henning]

Are they as famous and popular as Swan Lake, Giselle or The Firebird? I don't mean on GMG but in the world at large.

To listeners of WCRB. I'd hazard the guess, yes. 

[Todd]

Disc two.