What are you listening 2 now?

[Le Buisson Ardent]

NP:

Fauré
Préludes, Op. 103
Lucas Debargue

From this set -

[Le Buisson Ardent]

Last work for the night:

Mendelssohn
Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt, Op. 27
CBSO
Edward Gardner

[steve ridgway]

Berg: Violin Concerto

[Que]

A disc from my own collection. A great recording - now I've heard many more of them, still one of the best by Gothic Voices.

[vandermolen]

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.5 conducted by Vaughan Williams
This, rather sibelian, live performance is as good as any that I have heard.
I'd loved to have heard a recording of him conducting his 6th Symphony.

[Roasted Swan]

I've rarely heard performances of anything that attempt to sound so different from all others. These are bracing, excitable, sometimes electrifying performances, with the significant proviso that the amazing x-ray clarity is achieved at the expense of the music's dynamic range. Note values are strictly adhered to, with not a microsecond added for emphasis. Allegro movements are fast and speed up to fever point in the codas. Rests become micro-pauses, and micro become nano-pauses. The music has barely time to breathe but still manages to come across as noble and romantic.

The orchestra achieves marvels of cohesion and precision, with balances that make every strand clearly audible (wind detail is amazing). Big fortissimos usually involve the brass and timpani burying the strings and winds and require a slight expansion of the basic tempo to make their effect. Nézet-Séguin shirks those extra decibels for the sake of clarity and rythmic propulsion. It's like a basketball game played by heavily caffeinated 5'6'' japanese players: it will be lightning fast but those vaulting slam dunks just won't be there. As a supplementary set to a more traditional one, this is a very interesting quartet of performances in which the conductor's focus on rythm blows away the cobwebs.

This sounds very similar in approach/scale to Dausgaard's excellent set with the stunning Sweddish CO on BIS which I enjoyed a lot not so long ago.  Of course the BIS SACD sound is excellent too and the set is very comprehensive - just about all Schumman's orchestral music excluding the concertante works.  Do you know that set to be able to compare?? [love all your descriptions by the way!]

[Mandryka]

Has anyone else heard this extraordinary recording?

[Que]

Bach's transcriptions of music by Vivaldi and others.
Alessio Corti's Bach recordings have been reissued on the Italian "Concerto" label.

[Traverso]

Bach

It's been far too long since I listened to a recording with Gustav Leonhardt. Today the so-called worldly cantatas of Bach which musically hardly differ from his Sacred cantatas. The recordings he made later for Philips are technically much better and this also applies to the recording sound, in short quality time.

[Traverso]

Louis Couperin



An aristocratic banquet for refined minds who are in no hurry. No music for vacuuming or other domestic chores.
Something that happened to Leonhardt during a visit to America comes to mind.
I think, if I remember correctly, that he had just finished recording Bach's Messe in H-moll and he had brought a copy of the LP for the host of the house which was gratefully accepted and played immediately. The people chatted animatedly while sipping alcoholic refreshments. Leonhard, a deeply religious man, was astonished at how these sacred works were so trivialized for him. Any music of any significance must be listened to in its fullness. I have listened to music with others many times but at times I interrupted the conversation because the music was so overwhelmingly beautiful. Usually it resulted in an indignation at how I could interrupt the conversation so abruptly, they thought they were more important and that is rarely the case.
It's great to share this with others without egos getting in the way Long live the music!

[Harry]

SISTERS OF THE MOON.
Works by:
Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836).
Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847).
Amy Beach (1867-1944).
Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979).
Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009).
Iluminada Pérez (1972).
Susana Gómez Vázquez (1995).
Claudia Montero (1962-2021).
Florence Price (1887-1953).

SUSANA GÓMEZ VÁZQUEZ, PIANO.
Recording: July 2023, Auditorio de Zaragoza, Sala Mozart, Zaragoza, Spain.

A new release and very interesting. Unknown female composers, and a few known ones. quite a adventure. Susana Gomez Vazquez, is a sensitive musician, weaving a micro cosmos of filigree melodies. The music flows easily. The recording is SOTA. Could not find a back cover for all the works, which was too much to typ.

[Harry]

RICHARD FLURY.
STRING QUARTETS NOS. 2 AND 3.
See back cover for details.

Recorded on 15–16 April 2021, in the SRF Radio Studio, Brunnenhof, Zurich (String Quartet No.2) and in December 2022 in the Reformed Church, Oberbalm, Canton Bern (String Quartet No. 3).


Flury himself was a gifted violinist, and these works - written for his own pleasure and for musician friends - follow the classical definition of the string quartet as a conversation between four equal partners, with Flury's many years of practical music-making producing quartet textures that are thoroughly idiomatic, even masterful. Both works speak a rich late-Romantic language, similar to that of composers such as Korngold, Schmidt and Zemlinsky, and encompass a pleasing range of emotions, from touching introspection to bucolic serenity.

I am a great admirer of Flury's music, since the first release of his Orchestral works. His Chamber works are of an equal pleasure, and it's marvelously performed by the Colla Parte Quartet. Excellent sound.
I listen of late more to chamber music, because I have a lot on my plate, and people are building in my neighborhood, making a lot of noise, so I listen in between when the noise abates. Will pick up Orchestral music as soon as I possibly can.

[brewski]

I saw the finals, what an amazing rendition of the Rachmaninov Fourth Concerto by Junyan Chen!

In tomorrow's second part of the finals: Brahms 2 and Prokofiev 3.

Thank you for citing this, since I wasn't able to catch it (and alas, won't be able to watch the second part live, either). But as is often the case, they archive everything, so I will look forward to watching later.

-Bruce

[Lisztianwagner]

Thanks to @Cato for sharing this recording in the Schönberg thread:

Arnold Schönberg
Die Jakobsleiter

Bruno Maderna & Radio Philharmonie Orchestra, Hilversum Choir

Jakobsleiter: conducted by Bruno Maderna

[Florestan]

I have listened to music with others many times but at times I interrupted the conversation because the music was so overwhelmingly beautiful. Usually it resulted in an indignation at how I could interrupt the conversation so abruptly

You'd have hated living in the Classical era, Jan! 

[Traverso]

You'd have hated living in the Classical era, Jan! 

I know what you mean, the unpleasant thing about Beethoven's music was that there was something coercive  in his music that was experienced as very annoying,very pushy and rude.

[Harry]

Maria Herz (1878–1950)

Piano Works.
See back cover for details.
Aude St-Pierre, Piano.
Recorded at Kleiner Sendesaal and Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal, WDR, Cologne, Germany October 2021 (Track 25–28) March, 2023 (Track 1–24).

The works of Maria Herz, who was born in Cologne and died in exile in America, stand out as special treasures among the abundance of good music by female composers that has finally returned to the public's attention in recent years. The Canadian pianist Aude St-Pierre presents piano music by this extraordinary composer. Herz's development from her early Chopin Variations and the Ländler op. 2 to her Sonata in F minor is simply breathtaking and foreshadows the never-realized future of a composer who was silenced too soon.

Fascinating, that's all I can say. Graceful, reflective playing, recording in aural perfection.

[Florestan]

I know what you mean, the unpleasant thing about Beethoven's music was that there was something coercive  in his music that was experienced as very annoying,very pushy and rude.

Actually, no, that's not at all what I meant, but nevertheless, I like how you put it.   

[Harry]

WILLIAM BYRD
The Great Service & English Anthems
Stephen Farr, organ.
His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts.
Alamire, directed by David Skinner.
Recorded in All Hallows Gospel Oak, London, 7–10 January 2024.
Recorded at 192khz/24-bit resolution.

After centuries of oblivion, Byrd's Great Service, first revived in the early 20th century, represents a high point in English choral music. With its complex polyphony and poignant text settings, Byrd's masterful use of ten voices reveals his unrivaled ability to capture the essence of the Anglican liturgy. This CD offers a comprehensive exploration of Byrd's rich, spiritual and historical musical merits.

Alamire performance takes a while before it gets under your skin. the choir is quite large, and they have a somewhat louder form of expression as what I am used to. But they usually never overstep the boundaries of what is acceptable. They have a way of fine tuning the music, with detail of rich textual clarity, often quite amazing. Don't run away at the first notes. Perseverance brings rewards. Very good sound, and beautiful artwork by Julian Hindson.

[ritter]

A couple of weeks ago I listened to for the first time to John Cage's early ballet The Seasons (on YouTube, a live 2004 recording from London with the BBC SO conducted by Lawrence Foster). I liked the piece enough to order a cheap 2nd-hand copy of the ECM album of the American Composers Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies that has that work, two versions Seventy-Four for orchestra (I've just listened to version 1 and didn't like at all  ), the Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra, and the Suite for Toy Piano (in its original version, and orchestrated by Lou Harrison). Margaret Leng Tan is the pianist.