What are you listening 2 now?

[Harry]

As Mandryka already pointed out, this recording contains another anonymous English mass: the Missa veterem hominem, like the Missa caput on vol. 4 also from the 1440s and closely related. Good stuff...

Have that complete series in my CD library, time for me to listen again.

[Iota]

Very impressive. Jewel in the crown of this recording is the anonymous English Missa Caput, composed probably in the 1440s.

My interest piqued by the wiki article on the Missa Caput, I had a couple of listens to this. The suggestion in the article that it might be the work of John Dunstaple, even from my limited knowledge of his works, seems a fairly persuasive one. Whenever I listen to his music, the clarity of the polyphony gives me the distinct impression of the bare boughs of a tree etched against a white sky, a rigorous yet melodic kind of beauty, that seems to fit here.

This quote from the Wiki article particularly caught my attention, quite something to have had such a significant hand in what came after, if true.

The most significant feature of the mass for the development of music on the continent was its freely composed bass line. The possibilities must have been obvious to composers, since many immediately imitated the procedure, which allowed for harmonic freedom unchained to the tenor, a voice which formerly inhabited the lowest range alone. Freely composed, the bass could control harmony in a way that made possible the chord progressions and gradual shift to functional tonality that took place a hundred years later.

[pjme]

Schoenberg: Four Songs For Voice And Orchestra

And the singer is....?

I increasingly love Schoenbergs pianoconcerto. I have Ushida/Boulez, but was happily surprised to find these versions on YT.

From Hungary:

From Russia

[foxandpeng]

George Antheil
Symphony 1, 'Zingareska'
Hugh Wolff
Frankfurt RSO
CPO

Antheil symphonies are always great, even when it isn't Chandos 🙂

Probably still my first choice American composer.

[Madiel]

Nielsen, Saul and David, Act Two.

I already knew this before listening, but it's quite strange that Act Two has a lengthy prelude when there's no overture at the start of the opera.

Edit: So, David's fight with Goliath happens offstage and we're told about it at length. Not the best dramatic result.

[Roasted Swan]

For no reason except that it was cheap (75p!) and I was supporting a Charity Shop - always a good excuse to buy another CD..... - I picked up this BBC Music Magazine cover disc;



A pair of live performances from 2012.  Could they really be that good/interesting....??  The rather wonderful answer is yes - they really are excellent.  Warmly received by an enthusiastic Cardiff audience they must have been compelling live listening.  Nothing that extreme but just very intelligent interpretations very well played - and good BBC enhineering to boot.  The Nielsen was especially fine I thought.

[Traverso]

Debussy

Préludes Book 1  (1956 mono)



This is his second recording

[Todd]

#2.

[Linz]

Antonio Vivaldi The four seasons, Freiburger  Barockorchester, Gottfried von der Goltz

[kyjo]

Some years ago I tried my hand (ear) at Maxwell-Davies by buying some of his 'Naxos quartets'. I wasn't moved. It didn't do much one way or another. A few years later I gave another try at his music by going for some symphonies (2, 3, 6). Big, long, bulky, 50-shades-of-grey things that didn't leave an impression. Last month I decided to give one last chance at Maxwell-Davies' music by going for some of his 10 Strathclyde concertos.

The title of the series refers to the region of Scotland that used to form a kingdom in the Middle-Ages (roughly from 500-1100 AD). Sometime in the 1970s Scotland was organized in Regional Councils and the name Strathclyde was ressuscitated (etymologically meaning Valley of the Clyde River, which runs through Glasgow). It's the region of southeastern Scotland that has Glasgow as its main city. The SRC commissioned the concertos from Maxwell-Davies, the composer intending them as study pieces. They were all dedicated to and premiered by soloists of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

I's more fun to read about the Middle Ages kingdom and recent scottish politics than listening to this music. I found them severely lacking in colour (shades of grey like I said, what with double bass and bassoon as solo instruments). I also found them rather formless and devoid of musical incident. The last piece on the disc is titled A Spell for Green Corn: the MacDonald Dances. I thought they'd be based on the familiar tune Old MacDonald Had a Farm, which would have brought much needed cheerfulness. I was wrong. It's yet another dedication thing, this time to local fiddler Donald MacDonald. Its folk like theme is gently lilting and its subsequent working out rather tame - none of Malcolm Arnold's irresistible gaiety, inventiveness and catchy rythms. The 20-minute piece ends with a mild flourish.

I find Maxwell-Davies' music serious to the point of dourness. That may just be me being a boeotian though. Try him and live to tell the tale.

100% agreed. Truly depressing and colorless music, to say the least...

[Traverso]

Schubert

piano sonata D845
3 Klavierstücke D946

[steve ridgway]

And the singer is....?

Yvonne Minton.

[Karl Henning]

First listen


The Amazon page has a brief clip from one of Mrs Philarmonica's sonatas

https://www.amazon.com/Philarmonica-Matteis-Purcell-Ayrton/dp/B0CHYSDD71/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr1_2

Irreverently snd tangentially, my first thought was Michael Jackson, Off the Wall.

TD: The Fitzwilliam Quartet:

[Traverso]

Schubert

3 Klavierstücke D 946

I think I still prefer his older analogue recordings for philips

[Symphonic Addict]

Peter Benoit: Flute Concerto (Gaby van Riet, flute; Frédéric Devreese, conductor)

A Romantic concerto with some classicist gestures and it's a substantial addition to the canon. I wonder why it's not better known. Perhaps because it wasn't written by an Austro-German or French composer?

The person who designed the front cover had a bad day when made it.




Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Piano Concerto in A minor

A terrific performance of another nearly forgotten masterpiece. It was a tremendous surprise when I discovered it several years ago and it continues impressing me.

[Lisztianwagner]

For RVW's anniversary:

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Herbert von Karajan & Philharmonia Orchestra

[Linz]

b]Bruckner[/b] Symphony No. 4 In E Flat Major, 1880 (aka 1878/80) - Ed. Robert Haas, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink

[André]

A good pretext to listen to a kind of orchestral playing that has disappeared: sharply characterized orchestral sections (they play one another instead of attempting to blend), slashing string attacks, piquant wwinds, penetrating brass tone, zippy rythms.

The set takes 136 minutes. The same program played today in just about any country would clock in about 10-20 minutes longer. Today's favoured style of orchestral sound requires blended orchestral choirs. That produces a different, lusher sound, with more 'air' around phrases. This is especially striking in the Prokofiev and Roussel works of that set, where Martinon  and the orchestra are in their element, producing exhilarating, stunningly spirited playing. Martinon was a huge champion of Prokofiev. He recorded symphonies and orchestral pieces with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, the Lamoureux, the ORTF (a full symphony cycle). His Prokofiev is spiky, astringent, driven but also full of colour and eloquent phrasing.

Conductors like Paray, Munch, Markevitch, Albert Wolff and Martinon were trained that way - and trained french orchestras to play in that style. Cluytens and Monteux were very much of the same persuasion, although their personalities often injected a warmth the other conductors did not have to the same extent.

 

[Bachtoven]

Brilliant playing and excellent sound. I'm about to bravely attempt his transcription of Brahms' Op.117 No.2.

[Linz]

 Johann Christian Bach Symphonies Concertantes, Vol. 4, Anthony Halstead, The Hanover Band