What are you listening 2 now?

[foxandpeng]

My listening last night:

Mahler 7 Vanska, really great!  Like wow, he just nails the 7th.  Never a dull moment, every musician brings their A game.


Carter's String Quartets 2-4.  Phenomenally performed, wonderful music that balances dramatic tension with atmosphere.  Pacifica Quartet is one of my favorite ensembles.  Their Mendelssohn and Shostakovich are also great.


This morning Rautavaara Symphonies 5-6.  Heavy on atmosphere and color.

Nice selection

[AnotherSpin]

[Lisztianwagner]

Karol Szymanowski
Symphony No.4

Pianist: Arthur Rubinstein
Alfred Wallenstein & Los Angeles Philharmonic

[DavidW]

Ligeti SQ #2 LaSalle Q

[Henk]

My listening last night:

Mahler 7 Vanska, really great!  Like wow, he just nails the 7th.  Never a dull moment, every musician brings their A game.


Carter's String Quartets 2-4.  Phenomenally performed, wonderful music that balances dramatic tension with atmosphere.  Pacifica Quartet is one of my favorite ensembles.  Their Mendelssohn and Shostakovich are also great.


This morning Rautavaara Symphonies 5-6.  Heavy on atmosphere and color.

Can't get into Mahler. I have given up on him. Rautavaara is more my cup of tea. Will check the Carter. Probably listened to it, but not very memorable.

[foxandpeng]

Vagn Holmboe
Chamber Symphonies 1 - 3
John Storgårds
Lapland Chamber Orchestra
Dacapo

[André]

Violin concerto. The rest of the disc will follow in due course: piano concerto and symphony no 8. All three works were composed in the period 1941-42.

.

Von Klenau's output is scarcely recorded, but everything out there is worth listening to.

[DavidW]

Can't get into Mahler. I have given up on him. Rautavaara is more my cup of tea. Will check the Carter. Probably listened to it, but not very memorable.

There is a lot I love about Rautavaara... but I realized that I've only scratched the surface of his concertos!  I need to fix that.

[Henk]

There is a lot I love about Rautavaara... but I realized that I've only scratched the surface of his concertos!  I need to fix that.

I have not yet listened to the concertos at all. The box-set (Ondine) is still unopened. Maybe next winter. I wouldn't play Rautavaara in summer, maybe I should try..

[Symphonic Addict]

Dyson: Violin Concerto

Shocked to know that this is the only recording of this concerto, a work that deserves much more exposure. It does sound English, although not very related to any other composer, its ideas and construction provide it distinctiveness enough. It's especially interesting to me as the first movement or a portion of it sounded in E-flat minor.

[Bachtoven]

When technical wizardry and expressivity unite.

[André]

I've never understood why this version never quite acquired the fame of later recordings. The LA Phil under the disguise of the Columbia SO play like heroes, the recording is wide-ranging (great low winds and brass) and Walter brings the Natür element in the 1st movmt like no other conductor. Anyone who responds to Kubelik-BRSO in this work will find a warmer, just as fresh account with Walter. And the middle movements have NEVER been bettered: they don't sound like a folklorized take on Jewish life: they're just music from a different world/era. Once heard it's hard to figure how it could be done differently with the Western World orchestras of today. Their phrasing just doesn't bend and breathes the same way.

My no 1 rec is still Nézet-Séguin with the nonpareil BRSO in incredibly open, wide-ranging sound.


My take on the current Middle-East situation vs arts is that one should not conjoin them. We have been there before (Germany). We should celebrate genius without apologies. Arts beget geniuses, politics breed division.

[Bachtoven]

Superb!

[Symphonic Addict]

F. Scharwenka: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor
Schmitt: Introït, Récit et Congé, for cello and orchestra

Scharwenka's Piano Concertos are some of the best ones from the 19th century (the 4th was written in 1908, though) and they're "fairly well" represented on disc on both Hyperion and Chandos. Some ideas in the piano writing remind of Chopin. The 2nd movement with its catchy melody is particularly fun.

The Schmitt is a pretty interesting and quirky rarity and it's quite well recorded here. Neat cover art as well.

[JBS]

Brian might want to not read this post.

Almost at the end of this set


CD 17
5 in A
32 in C
11 in E Flat

[AnotherSpin]

Op. 106



Fazil Say's marvellous recording completes the cycle of listening to the Hammerklavier Sonata. It was a wonderful experience, lasting several months, which I would happily recommend to anyone if I thought there was any point in such recommendations.

[steve ridgway]

Schnittke: Concerto Grosso No. 6

[steve ridgway]

Messiaen: Éclairs Sur L'Au-delà...

[AnotherSpin]

Violin concerto. The rest of the disc will follow in due course: piano concerto and symphony no 8. All three works were composed in the period 1941-42.

.

Von Klenau's output is scarcely recorded, but everything out there is worth listening to.

I don't remember hearing about Paul von Klenau before. Now listening for the first time, a strong sense of a proper healthy tradition, music that arose in the search for the ideal, rather than the contrived commitment to destruction so prevalent in the 20th century. Thank you!

[vandermolen]

Vaughan Williams: Violin Sonata
New release (Biddulph)
1955 recording
Joseph Szigeti/Carlo Bussotti
This was well reviewed in the Journal of the RVW Society so I snapped up a copy.
Szigeti was in his early 60s at the time of the recording and it is not as polished as it might be but, as with Peers Coetmore's recording of (her husband's) Moeran's Cello Concerto (Lyrita) it has a special quality about it which gives it a unique authenticity. It is one of my favourite pieces of chamber music: