What are you listening 2 now?

[JBS]

This afternoon

Starts with a 20 minute concerto for guitar, middles with 10 minute concertinos for clarinet and bassoon, ends with a slightly thorny half hour long violin concerto.

W-F's two piano trios.
The name of the ensemble is simply a listing of the three members's names.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" in E Minor, Op. 95, B. 178, also In Natures Realm and Othello, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Karel Ančerl

I bet that's a great disc! 

PD

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony in D Minor, 1869 Ed. Leopold Nowak, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Ivor Bolton

[Todd]

Basque pianist Josu Okinena's Liszt recital is the most resolutely antivirtuosic recording of the composer's music I have heard.  All eleven selections are slow to begin with, and Okinena emphasizes that by stretching out note values in some places, pauses in many places, and just generally aiming for musical stasis.

He's got a Satie disc out and the Brahms Cello Sonatas, as well, along with with a smattering of Basque composer recordings.  I may just have to investigate.  And if ever there was a pianist who should record Musica Callada, it's this dude.

[Papy Oli]

Bruckner Symphony in D Minor, 1869 Ed. Leopold Nowak, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Ivor Bolton

Didn't know they had Tunnock teacakes in Salzburg!! 

[SonicMan46]

Mendelssohn, Felix (1809-1847) - Piano Concertos - Stephen Hough & Ronald Brautigam on modern pianos in the first two pics (Brautigam on a Fazioli piano from 1994); then in 2016, he performs on a reproduction fortepiano made by Paul McNulty in 2010 after an 1830 Pleyel instrument in the Paris Music Museum.  Dave

   

[Symphonic Addict]

Dvorak: Piano Trios 3 and 4

Whilst the first two trios are suffused with melodic richness, the 3rd is more sober in that regard (surprisingly). But things get much better with the Dumky. One of his most original and more melancholy pieces and the melodies are to die for. I was taken by the 2nd movement the most, just heart-wrenching. That trio is my favorite without hesitation.

[Todd]

[JBS]

[foxandpeng]

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Complete Symphonies
Symphony 8
Richard Hickox
LSO
Chandos


RVW #8 has always found a place in the lower end of my preferences... recently, 2 3 4 5 6 and 7 have come out higher, but maybe it's time to re-evaluate that. There are no RVW symphonies that are bad, poor, without interest, devoid of value - I love it, in fact. Anyway, enjoying this very much today.

[foxandpeng]

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
Mark Elder
Hallé

Yeah. Outstanding.

[Linz]

Jean-Féry Rebel Tombeau Sonates en trio, Ensemble Rebel

[foxandpeng]

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Symphony 2 'London'
Mark Elder
Hallé


If you are doing the 1936 version of #2, you should probably ask Mark Elder to give it a go.

This is great.

[kyjo]

I am a big fan of 7th Symphony too. Odd and for me disappointing that such an accomplished symphonist chose to ignore writing for string quartet.

Whilst I do agree with you, Lloyd was so "at home" writing bold, epic, and colorful symphonies that I'd have a hard time imagining him writing for the much more intimate and sometimes austere medium of the string quartet. The only chamber works we have by him are his Violin Sonata and Lament, Air, and Dance (violin&piano), which are fine works if not on the level of most of his symphonies. I would've certainly been interested to hear a "bigger" chamber work like a piano quintet from his pen, however!

[Symphonic Addict]

A shame that these works (along with his 2nd) don't continue in the memorable vein of the 1st. The music exudes cheerfulness galore and manages to provide an entertaining listen, but it gets somewhat repetitive in the end. A special moment that stood out was the beginning of the 2nd movement in the 4th with its crystalline magic helped by the orchestral piano.

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, 1894 Original Version. Ed. Leopold Nowak, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Dennis Russell Davies

[kyjo]

Dvorak: Piano Trios 3 and 4

Whilst the first two trios are suffused with melodic richness, the 3rd is more sober in that regard (surprisingly). But things get much better with the Dumky. One of his most original and more melancholy pieces and the melodies are to die for. I was taken by the 2nd movement the most, just heart-wrenching. That trio is my favorite without hesitation.

So you're not much of a fan of the 3rd trio, I take it? Whilst it's certainly a darker and more serious work than the other three trios, I don't find that it lacks in melodic richness - above all in the slow movement, which has one of the most heart-wrenchingly beautiful passages in Dvorak's entire output in the middle where the violin soars into the stratosphere. I agree with you about the Dumky, of course - there hardly exists a more melodically indelible, colorful, and formally unique work in the entire chamber repertoire!

[Symphonic Addict]

Doráti: Symphony No. 1

Holy smokes, what a wild ride! It's beyond me why this bold, rhythmically driven, coruscating, thrilling work is not better known. There is another recording on BIS, but this incredibly taut rendition is much better and it had me at the edge of my seat. Glad I revisited it today in such a splendid performance!

[Symphonic Addict]

So you're not much of a fan of the 3rd trio, I take it? Whilst it's certainly a darker and more serious work than the other three trios, I don't find that it lacks in melodic richness - above all in the slow movement, which has one of the most heart-wrenchingly beautiful passages in Dvorak's entire output in the middle where the violin soars into the stratosphere. I agree with you about the Dumky, of course - there hardly exists a more melodically indelible, colorful, and formally unique work in the entire chamber repertoire!

Of course, I like the work very much. But somehow I was expecting melodies of a similar caliber like in the first two trios. It's the 1st movement that lacks a more discernible tune and that lingers in the mind.

[kyjo]

Børresen: Symphonies Nos. 2 Havet (The Sea) and 3



It's great to revisit these two highly enjoyable late-romantic Danish symphonies. I probably wouldn't have guessed the 2nd was about the sea had I not known its subtitle, but that hardly matters since the music is filled with melodic freshness and sweeping vitality. The 3rd may be a bit less memorable than the 2nd (save for its rumbustious, catchy finale), but it has the added interest of being slightly darker and more harmonically complex. Interestingly, there are some rather Elgarian touches along the way! Superb performances by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony under that fine conductor Ole Schmidt.


Dvořák: Symphony No. 2



The first two movements might not be very melodically memorable by Dvořák's standards, but there's certainly plenty of inventiveness that catches the ear throughout. The scherzo and finale are simply on a higher plane of inspiration, especially the expansive and rather extraordinary scherzo. Rowicki and the LSO take a muscular, fiery approach to Dvořák, which I appreciate - nothing of innocuous peasantry here!


Melartin: Symphony No. 4 Summer Symphony



Some members here have commented on the "triteness/banality" of some of the melodic material in this symphony. I can understand where they're coming from, but I find the work as a whole to be quite endearing and life-affirming, if not quite on the same level of his masterful 3rd Symphony. The slow movement, which its rapturous wordless vocalises for three (I think) sopranos, contains some passages that sound very close to Mahler in one of his earlier Wunderhorn works. The performance here is certainly more than passable, but I can imagine some more polished orchestral playing and a greater sense of forward momentum really bringing this work to life.


Nielsen: Symphony No. 3 Sinfonia espansiva



I wanted to hear another Nordic symphony with wordless voices in its slow movement, so this was the natural choice.   (I could've also gone with Alfven's 4th.) Great as this whole symphony is overall, the inexorably propulsive and thrilling first movement steals the show for me every time whenever I hear it. These recent BIS recordings totally deserve all the accolades they've been given - the sound quality is beyond stunning, and oh those horns!!


Edgar Meyer: Violin Concerto



A classical YouTuber named Charles Coleman (yes, there is another besides DH!) nominated this as one of the greatest recordings of all time and said that he liked the Meyer concerto even better than the Barber (), so I simply had to hear it. Well, the Barber Violin Concerto is IMO one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written, and the Meyer certainly didn't challenge it in my affections. I generally found the more animated, folksy sections (evocative of the composer's Appalachian heritage) to be more engaging than the slower, more atmospheric ones. In particular, I found the rather static first half of the second movement to be rather interminable, but it eventually gathers steam and the final few minutes quite thrilling and virtuosic. Needless to say, the solo part is quite flawlessly executed by Hilary Hahn.