What are you listening 2 now?

[Harry]

Engelbert Humperdinck.
String Quartets & Piano Quintet.
Diogenes Quartett.
Recorded: Grünwald, August Everding Saal, 2007.

Humperdinck has earned his fame in a totally different oeuvre, but honestly his Chamber works are nothing short of fantastic.
The music world associates Humperdinck first and foremost with his fairy-tale opera Hänsel und Gretel, and occasionally his Königskinder finds its way onto opera performance programs, but those works are of no interest to me. Chamber music accounts for only a relatively small portion of his oeuvre but cannot for this reason be underestimated in its importance. Humperdinck may have had a certain disinclination toward the composition of chamber music, but this is not in evidence in his works of this genre, and he used them as opportunities for occupying himself with the classical forms and for garnering compositional experience, routine, and practice in performance by writing them. Taken together, Humperdinck's chamber music, above all the previously unknown piano quintet with its catchy themes of popular traditional character and its wondrously melodious middle movement, today represents a valuable contribution to the late-romantic literature off the beaten path of the familiar and much-performed repertoire.
Conclusion is: Late romantic melodic bliss, string indulgence, this music is simply beautiful, and perfectly performed and recorded.

[Luke]

Continuing to think of you, Luke. Keep on, keeping on.

Thank you so much. It really does help to know that there are positive thoughts coming from all over. I always imagined that at times like this even music would be no comfort, but what I've found is that the very best music - late Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert, Janacek, Tippett's Corelli Fantasia, Sibelius' Luonnotar, Elgar Violin Concerto... - is really the only thing that can reach me at times when things seem very bleak, as they did in that hospital car park a couple of nights ago. At those moments that music is something to hold on to: the best of humanity, tenderness, rigour, compassion, beauty... People who share that appreciation with me are hard to find, though, so they are precious to me too, even if I know them only online - and so I really value their friendship and support right now.

[Traverso]

Still regret not trying to stuff that in my suitcase as well when visiting Japan... Though it is quite odd that it has never been reissued.

Indeed, the same goes for the Couperin and Rousset recordings. The Dowland can still be found second hand for an acceptable price but that does not apply to the Couperin box. The prices that are sometimes asked, you remember that Michael Rabin box, ridiculous if people are paying for it.

[Traverso]

I streamed them from Qobuz, imported them so to say, no taxes, import duties no hassle, complete PDF files, I am so happy that almost all is at hand,        buying CD's is over for me. But what to do with all the CD's that gather dust?

Dust is our ultimate destiny, look at it with a friendly eye. 

[vandermolen]

Humphrey Searle: Symphony No.1

What do you think of it Lol?

[Traverso]

Gilbert & Sullivan

Patience

[Harry]

What do you think of it Lol?

Good afternoon Jeffrey!

I am not Irons of course, but Searle is high on my list of favourite orchestral composers, as early as the CPO discs were released. which I hold in high esteem.

[Harry]

Felix Mikhailovich Blumenfeld
Symphony in C, opus 39.

Georgy Catoire.
Symphony in C minor, opus 7."A la mémoire des chers dèfunts"

Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Martin Yates.
recorded: 2012 at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

Two composers who are almost forgotten, certainly in the case of Felix Mikhailovich Blumenfeld, and as always I truly think this is to be regretted. Dutton is to be applauded for recording it, and Martin Yates the champion of the forgotten composers, should be applauded even harder, for this wonderful event, with a superb orchestra, so nothing goes wrong. Recommended.

[JBS]

So I started the 2024 release of Vivaldi's Four Seasons from Jordi Savall and his gang.

It's got Italian voiceover narration all over it, at least in the first track. (I skipped ahead, and it seems to be a thing everywhere on this recording.)

Nope. Sorry. Not interested.

As a young teen, one of the first LPs I got was a recording on the Columbia Odyssey label of the Four Seasons. The final tracks were a reading of the sonnets (with no music). I no longer remember who the performers were: 14 year old me was familiar only with the big names like Stern and Bernstein and I was not familiar with the names on the LP jacket*. Looking through Amazon listings, it was likely to have been one of these two


My mother hearing the sonnets being read asked why I was listening to the Pope.

*Which is why I'm fairly certain it wasn't the recordings conducted and played by Stern or Zuckerman, or the one conducted by Bernstein, although all three of them were issued by Columbia.
Bernstein's recording (with John Corigliano Sr as soloist) did have the sonnets printed on the back of the LP jacket. (Embiggening will allow you to read them.)


Edit: Further poking around reveals it was none of the above, but in reality this one, which used an arrangement by Malipiero.
 

So Columbia in the 1960s/70s had 6 different recordings of the Four Seasons.

[Spotted Horses]

Bacewicz, Piano Quintet No 2, Silesian Quartet+



Again, I didn't find it quite as satisfying as the Messages Quartet on DUX, although still quite good. I really should circle around and listen to the recordings with Kremer on DG.

After listening to Dorati's Two Portraits (to clear my palette after the unsatisfying Fricsay recording) I developed a bit of a fixation of Bartok Violin Concerto No 1/Two Portraits (the two pieces have the same first movement, but different finales). I enjoyed Steinbacher/Janowski on Pentatone, although the first movement is not as intense in it's climaxes. There's also a recording by Frank Peter Zimmerman/Gilbert/BPO which is quite good.

[Que]

I streamed them from Qobuz, imported them so to say, no taxes, import duties no hassle, complete PDF files, I am so happy that almost all is at hand,        buying CD's is over for me. But what to do with all the CD's that gather dust?

In terms of quantity your dust gathering problem is bigger than mine. 

[Traverso]

Messiaen

Turangalila Symphony

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. 5 in B Flat Major, 1878 Version Ed. Leopold Nowak, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Wolfgang Sawallisch

[JBS]

Third or fourth time I'm listening to this



George Walker: Address for Orchestra (1959)
George Crumb: A Haunted Landscape (1984)
Silvestre Revueltas: La Coronela. Ballet (1940)

The most interesting of the three is the Revueltas, the last work he composed. The final movement may have been composed by Blas Galindo; the entire work was orchestrated by Candelario Huizar for its premiere in 1940, and then everything, including whatever sketches and scores had been done by Revueltas, disappeared. Conductor Jose Limantour reconstructed the score about 20 years later, but it's not clear what he was working from, so it's an open question how much is Revueltas and how much is Galindo or Huizar or Limantour. But Revueltas's voice is clearly present for most of the work.

[vandermolen]

Good afternoon Jeffrey!

I am not Irons of course, but Searle is high on my list of favourite orchestral composers, as early as the CPO discs were released. which I hold in high esteem.

Thanks v much Harry!

[Karl Henning]

As a young teen, one of the first LPs I got was a recording on the Columbia Odyssey label of the Four Seasons. The final tracks were a reading of the sonnets (with no music). I no longer remember who the performers were: 14 year old me was familiar only with the big names like Stern and Bernstein and I was not familiar with the names on the LP jacket*. Looking through Amazon listings, it was likely to have been one of these two


My mother hearing the sonnets being read asked why I was listening to the Pope.

*Which is why I'm fairly certain it wasn't the recordings conducted and played by Stern or Zuckerman, or the one conducted by Bernstein, although all three of them were issued by Columbia.
Bernstein's recording (with John Corigliano Sr as soloist) did have the sonnets printed on the back of the LP jacket. (Embiggening will allow you to read them.)


Edit: Further poking around reveals it was none of the above, but in reality this one, which used an arrangement by Malipiero.
 

So Columbia in the 1960s/70s had 6 different recordings of the Four Seasons.

Arr. by Malipiero. Most interesting!
TD:
CD 4: Mercurius et Ignis

[ritter]

Arr. by Malipiero. Most interesting!
...

That bit caught my attention as well, but from what I've read, it's more "edited by" than "arranged by" Malipiero...

Good evening, Karl.

[Number Six]

Messiaen

Turangalila Symphony

There's a brand new release of this one with Yuja Wang at the piano. I think it just came out yesterday. 

[Linz]

César Franck Symphonic excerpts from Psyché
Maurice Ravel Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2
Hendrik Andriessen Miroir de Peine, Irma Kolassi (soprano)
Rudolf Escher Musique pot l'esprit en deuil,
Concergebouw Orchestra, Eduard van Beinum

[Karl Henning]

That bit caught my attention as well, but from what I've read, it's more "edited by" than "arranged by" Malipiero...

Good evening, Karl.

That makes sound sense, Rafael!