What are you listening 2 now?

[Mandryka]

I look at this and it seems attractive, then I notice that they are up to volume 41 (not to mention ~20 volumes of keyboard concertos). If I step into this ocean of trills and one six four chords, how will I find my way out?

Well, one thing to say is this: there is a good deal of variety to Emanuel Bach's solo keyboard music. Ocean of trills makes it all sound more homogeneous than it is.

[Spotted Horses]

Well, one thing to say is this: there is a good deal of variety to Emanuel Bach's solo keyboard music. Ocean of trills makes it all sound more homogeneous than it is.

Indeed. I put on the e-minor suite, and the allemande you drew attention to is indeed lovely. (My first impulse was to hit stop when it was harpsichord rather than fortepiano, but I'm glad I didn't follow that impulse.)

[Mandryka]

Indeed. I put on the e-minor suite, and the allemande you drew attention to is indeed lovely. (My first impulse was to hit stop when it was harpsichord rather than fortepiano, but I'm glad I didn't follow that impulse.)

Clavichord not harpsichord. It's just a quiet piano really - pump up the volume.

[Spotted Horses]

Clavichord not harpsichord. It's just a quiet piano really - pump up the volume.

Right, that's why I didn't hate it. Actually the right approach for me is "not" to pump up the volume. It is meant to be soft.

I went back to volume I and listened to the first track, a sonata. Much more my sort of thing, more gnarly. Maybe I will listen to some of it, since my intention of listening to the Haydn Piano Sonatas seems to have petered out.

[AnotherSpin]

Piano Sonata Op.53 "Waldstein". A performance filled with meaning, everything in its place, in perfect balance.

[Linz]

Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 'Babi Yar' Serge Aleksashkin Bass, United Bass Chorus of St. Petersburg, St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Yuri Temirkanov

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Then you need this, because it seems to be the only recording of the full Les Animaux Modeles. All the other recordings I see, including Dutoit and Pretre, are only the suite.


And since it's coupled with the music he wrote for the collaborative ballets, it would be one-stop shopping for you.

TD
Franck's Violin Sonata
Lorenzo Gatto violin
Julien Libeer piano.

This is inspiring me to start a thread...

Luxembourg Philharmonic.

[Karl Henning]

Poulenc: Les Biches

Superb!

[Henk79]

[ShineyMcShineShine]

"Okeanos" must be quite hair-raising and even hair-blowing in concert! The wet woman on the cover is the organist. Excellent playing and very good sound.

[Linz]

Allan  Pettersson Symphony No. 6, Knorrköping Symphony Orchestra, Christian Lindberg

[foxandpeng]

Jouni Kaipainen
Meet the Composer
Symphony 1
Esa-Pekka Salonen
BBC SO

Kaipainen died far too soon. The evolution of his music from this symphony through to his later works has always interested me, and oddly I prefer his more challenging and  earlier music - such as this Symphony #1 - which I've listened to often, and in familiarity have found connection.

[foxandpeng]

Jouni Kaipainen
Symphony 2
Oboe Concerto
Sisyphus Dreams
Sakari Oramo
Finnish RSO
Ondine

Well worth the time.

[Symphonic Addict]

Saint-Saëns: Symphony Urbs Roma and Symphony No. 2

If the real first two symphonies (in A major and No. 1) show him as an accomplished symphonist already, these two confirm his stature as a great composer. The Urbs Roma is a fantastic work with a singular march-like slow movement. That music would be perfect for a detective plot. In the No. 2, Saint-Saëns employs the woodwinds in a masterful fashion.

[VonStupp]

Heitor Villa-Lobos
Chôros 6
Chôros 1
Chôros 8
Chôros 4
Chôros 9

Fabio Zanon, guitar
São Paulo SO - John Neschling

Wonderful!
VS

[foxandpeng]

Saint-Saëns: Symphony Urbs Roma and Symphony No. 2

If the real first two symphonies (in A major and No. 1) show him as an accomplished symphonist already, these two confirm his stature as a great composer. The Urbs Roma is a fantastic work with a singular march-like slow movement. That music would be perfect for a detective plot. In the No. 2, Saint-Saëns employs the woodwinds in a masterful fashion.

I really need to listen to the Saint-Saëns symphonies. I read MI's traversal a while back and put it on my 'to do' list. It is still on there!

[André]

Right, that's why I didn't hate it. Actually the right approach for me is "not" to pump up the volume. It is meant to be soft.

I went back to volume I and listened to the first track, a sonata. Much more my sort of thing, more gnarly. Maybe I will listen to some of it, since my intention of listening to the Haydn Piano Sonatas seems to have petered out.

'Gnarly' appropriately describes one of the more unusual aspects of CPE Bach's music. Interval leaps and harmonic surprises abound. Also, the conversational, argumentative nature of the relationship between left and right hand lines. Very unusual. In that context the 'cute' saraband and the allemande stand out all the more.

[Bachtoven]

[André]

Every once in a while I order something (on Amazon, JPC) and never receive the item. Lost in the mail, I suppose. But I've never received an item that I never ordered. Until 2 weeks ago. This disc popped up in my mailbox with my name and address on the sticker. I never ordered it. Didn't even knew it existed. From Decluttr, an unreliable supplier I sometimes use. They must have received the order and mixed up customer data. Someone somewhere must have claimed a refund, while I got the goods.

Listening to it now, I'm quite happy with this. It has the excellent Dolukhanova in all 4 song cycles (plangent, penetrating tone, well-controlled vibrato). Shostakovich is at the piano in his own Jewish Folk Poetry cycle. Very clear mono sound. Hint of peaking in the 1952 recordings (Shaporin and Ippolitov-Ivanov). No peaking, no distortion in the DSCH (from 1956) and Kabalevsky (1966).

[foxandpeng]

Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony 3, 'The First of May'
Oleg Caetani
Orchestra Sinfonica Di Milano Giuseppe Verdi
Arts


Caetani seems quicker than many interpreters to me, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Pondering more DSCH symphonies for a bit, so here is a good a place as any to help decide that.