What are you listening 2 now?

[Karl Henning]

Giacinto Scelsi
Natura renovatur
Munich Chamber Orchestra

"Papa"
Symphony № 4 in D, Hob. I:4
Heidelberg Symphony
Thos Fey

Symphony № 5 in A, Hob. I:5
Academy of Ancient Music
Christopher Hogwood

[brewski]

For anyone who loves the saxophone, last night the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society livestreamed its first-ever recital for saxophone and piano, with Valentin Kovalev and Amy Yang. The last piece, by Takashi Yoshimatsu, has an engaging bit of audience participation, and the duo also offered an encore, by Astor Piazzolla. The stream is available for 72 hours.

Debussy: Rhapsodie for Saxophone and Orchestra (Arr.)
Brahms: Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2 (Arr.)
R. Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 73 (Arr.)
Say: Suite for Saxophone and Piano, Op. 55 (Sel.)
Yoshimatsu: Fuzzy Bird Sonata

-Bruce

[Karl Henning]

For anyone who loves the saxophone, last night the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society livestreamed its first-ever recital for saxophone and piano, with Valentin Kovalev and Amy Yang. The last piece, by Takashi Yoshimatsu, has an engaging bit of audience participation, and the duo also offered an encore, by Astor Piazzolla. The stream is available for 72 hours.

Debussy: Rhapsodie for Saxophone and Orchestra (Arr.)
Brahms: Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2 (Arr.)
R. Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 73 (Arr.)
Say: Suite for Saxophone and Piano, Op. 55 (Sel.)
Yoshimatsu: Fuzzy Bird Sonata

-Bruce

One of the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas, eh? Most interesting.

[brewski]

One of the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas, eh? Most interesting.

Oof, that's why it sounded familiar! (Thanks, I didn't even make the connection.)

-Bruce

[prémont]

LvB sonatas. Paul Badura-Skoda.

Not the period set but never-the-less a great set all the same.

[Karl Henning]

Haven't listened to this in a spell:

LvB
Piano Concerto № 4 in G, Op. 58
Glenn Gould, pf
NY Phil
Lenny
h/t to @Number Six

[Brian]

Repeated listens to multiple recordings, including this new one, confirm my conviction that "Santa Cruz de Pacairigua" especially is a populist masterpiece of the same merit and splendor as "An American in Paris."

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Not the period set but never-the-less a great set all the same.

Steinway?

[prémont]

Steinway?

Bösendorfer Imperial

[Karl Henning]

It's decades, perhaps, since I've listened to this:

Walton
Variations on a theme by Hindemith
Bournemouth Symphony
Andrew Litton

[Mandryka]

The Regis Missa Ecce Ancilla Domine.  Excellent music spoiled by a slightly wimpy performance style. Come on, singers! Give it some welly! 

Ah -- just pumped up the volume -- that helps.

[Karl Henning]

It's decades, perhaps, since I've listened to this:

Walton
Variations on a theme by Hindemith
Bournemouth Symphony
Andrew Litton

Oh, this is tasty!

[Number Six]

Baroque Lute Music, vol 1: Kapsberger
Paul O'Dette

Rocked this one last night. It was niiiiiiiice. 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Bösendorfer Imperial

Not a very humble name!

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, Edition prepared by Furtwaengler based on Haas and earlier editions, Berliner Philharmoniker, Wilhelm Furtwangler, 1949

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Wagner, Ormandy.

[foxandpeng]

Symphonies 6 (2001) and 3 (1968).

I listened to this disc (#3 in the set) in May 2023. I noted the 3rd symphony '?' and the 6th 'A'. Of course '?' is not a notation, but an indication I couldn't make anything out of the work. Same reaction 18 months later. The 3rd is a short work (barely over 1 quarter of an hour) in 5 sections played without a break. It ends quietly and inconclusively.

The 6th is another matter entirely. It's a huge piece (A full hour long) in 4 separate movements. It owes a lot to cinematic devices (Ennio Morricone-style), and the most prominent influence I found was - surprisingly but unmistakingly - that of Mikis Theodorakis (especially his protean symphonic/choral/vocal cycle Canto General). Ravel's Bolero is also somewhere in the background (the snare drum ostinatos in I). It's hard to figure how close to crossover this music is, but a populist work it certainly is. Its open air, Copland-meets-Grofé tunes and insistent, hypnotic rythms lend it a kind of easy exhilaration that had me tapping my feet along in the wonderfully propulsive 3rd movement. A chorus sings in the background of the 2nd and 4th movements. They're apparently a mix of love songs by Indian poet and Nobel Prize winner Ravindranath Tagore (translated in Latvian), as well as Latin hymns. They add a layer of colour and dynamic shadings to the orchestral palette. This is music that casts a spell. One may resist at being musically mesmerized, but there's no denying the sincerity of the spell-caster. Whether one levitates or not is a matter of one's mood at the time of listening.

Musicweb has devoted a full article to the works and performances from that set.
Link: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Mar/Kalnins-syms-LMIC087.htm. TBH I couldn't make head or tails of the reviewer's description of the 3rd symphony.

The whole set is quite unlike anything I've heard. Anyone with a likeness for Pärt, Hovhanness, Hanson, Kancheli, film music from westerns (Dimitri Tiomkin), John Williams and Howard Shore will find enjoyment here.

I'm a huge fan of these symphonies. With you on the comparisons.

[André]

Bruckner Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, Edition prepared by Furtwaengler based on Haas and earlier editions, Berliner Philharmoniker, Wilhelm Furtwangler, 1949

That's a stupendous performance. Recorded in Berlin's Titania Palast (a movie theater and the only 2000-seat place in Berlin left standing after the War). On some labels the previous night's performance (March 14, 1949) appears. It's NOT as good. It was a semi-public performance in the Gemeindehaus that served as a general repeat for the 'real' performance at the Palast. The intensity of the March 15 concert is incredible.

[Karl Henning]

Dvořák
Piano Quartets, Opp. 23 & 87

[brewski]

About to hear some Dvořák here, too, live from Carnegie Hall! In an interesting coincidence, I'm hearing Shaham in the same piece live tomorrow night with the Philadelphia Orchestra, on a program that concludes with Prokofiev's Symphony No. 6.

Czech Philharmonic
Semyon Bychkov, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin
Dvořák: Violin Concerto
Mahler: Symphony No. 5

https://www.wqxr.org/story/czech-philharmonic2024/

-Bruce