What are you listening 2 now?

[Karl Henning]

Tippett's....


(BTW I'm a lonely voice in liking Tippett's texts, they are as individual as his musical style but aesthetically of a piece with it, brave in their imagery and diction and unabashed in their flawed humanity - no other neater, nicer librettist would do, as Eliot himself sensed)

That's a piece I need to revisit!

[Traverso]

Purcell

[Harry]

Benjamin Godard (1849-1895).
Complete violin sonatas.
Nicolas Dautricourt, Violin, Dana Ciocarlie, Piano.
Recorded: à la Salle Byzantine du Palais de Béhague (Paris) 2015.

Overwhelmingly impressive, and emotionally perfectly expressed. Godard wrote gorgeous chamber music, music that lingers forth in your soul, long after you've heard it. Amazing that such music flies mostly under the radar with classical music lovers. For me this will be a part of my core listening for years to come. The performance and recording cannot be faulted. For me this is a discovery with far stretching consequences. And I never mind the outcome of such consequences.

[Vox Maris]

What do you think? I always prefer Mahler as interpreted by Ádám compared to Mahler as interpreted by his brother.

A rather impressive cycle so far. I also find the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker to be a more fuller, rounder orchestra than the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

[Vox Maris]

NP:

Mendelssohn
Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20
Antje Weithaas, Christian Tetzlaff, Isabelle Faust, Lisa Batiashvili, Rachel Roberts, Ori Kam, Tanja Tetzlaff, Quirien Viersen, Gustav Rivinius

[Vox Maris]

Saint-Saëns: Piano Quartet

One of those works without a real Slow movement. It has an andante maestoso ma con moto but it's too fast to be a real Slow movement.

What performance?

[Traverso]

Beethoven

Symphony No.5

A very long time ago that I listened to this recording for no other reason than to keep it fresh and alive.

 

[Vox Maris]

Inspired by a 'Top 3' favorite RVW symphonies thread on another forum...

NP:

Vaughan Williams
A London Symphony
LPO
Boult

From this Warner/Tower Records Japan hybrid SACD set -



I own several iterations of Boult's EMI cycle, but this one sounds the best of them all (and the others don't sound bad at all so this is saying a lot).

[DaveF]

I'm a lonely voice in liking Tippett's texts

Not completely lonely, but they are, are they not, rather a mixture of genius and trash (as I believe Eliot said of Kipling's poetry)? When shall the usurer's city cease / And famine depart from the fruitful land is beautiful enough to come from a Psalm; on the other hand, there's just one ovipositor too many in The Mask of Time 

[Vox Maris]

Since Christmas is near, why not some Christmas music --- I played Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ several nights ago, so now I'll play this Ormandy recording:

[Spotted Horses]

Listened to the Lutoskawski piano sonata again. Ewa Kupiec



It occupies the space between hypnotic and mesmerizing, to be technical about it.

I listened to the smaller pieces on Volume 3 of cpo's Bacewicz orchestral music series. The Partita, An orchestral piece called In una parte, and Uwertura Polska. All are interesting, but don't seem to be destined to become my favorite of Bacewicz. I would say that there is certain lack of urgency in the performances in this cpo series.

[Vox Maris]

Listened to the Lutoskawski piano sonata again. Ewa Kupiec



It occupies the space between hypnotic and mesmerizing, to be technical about it.

I listened to the smaller pieces on Volume 3 of cpo's Bacewicz orchestral music series. The Partita, An orchestral piece called In una parte, and Uwertura Polska. All are interesting, but don't seem to be destined to become my favorite of Bacewicz. I would say that there is certain lack of urgency in the performances in this cpo series.

I've actually been rather disappointed with this CPO series in general. I don't think it's the performances, but the works themselves. I don't find them to be too terribly interesting. Her concerti, works for string/chamber orchestra, chamber music and solo piano are more of my thing when it comes to this composer.

Also, I rather dig Lutosławski's solo piano music. I don't know that Kupiec disc, but this one is rather good:

[Karl Henning]

Listened to the Lutoskawski piano sonata again. Ewa Kupiec



It occupies the space between hypnotic and mesmerizing, to be technical about it.

I listened to the smaller pieces on Volume 3 of cpo's Bacewicz orchestral music series. The Partita, An orchestral piece called In una parte, and Uwertura Polska. All are interesting, but don't seem to be destined to become my favorite of Bacewicz. I would say that there is certain lack of urgency in the performances in this cpo series.

Some cpo efforts I have found underwhelmingly workaday.

[Vox Maris]

NP:

Penderecki
Symphony No. 2, "Christmas"
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
Andrzej Boreyko

[Vox Maris]

Now playing Sibelius' 7th with Bernstein leading the New York Philharmonic --- from this 2-CD set:



It doesn't matter what time it is, what day it is or what season it is, Sibelius' music will accompany me through it all.

[AnotherSpin]

[Vox Maris]

NP:

Strauss
Eine Alpensinfonie, Op. 64
Gothenburg SO
Nagano

[Bachtoven]

Wonderful playing and sound. While there's little sense of him performing in a room, the sound is very clear, and the engineers basically make him sound as if he's playing in one's listening room.

[Karl Henning]

Wonderful playing and sound. While there's little sense of him performing in a room, the sound is very clear, and the engineers basically make him sound as if he's playing in one's listening room.

Sweet!

[Linz]

Bruckner Overture in G Minor, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Symphony No. 6 in A Major, 1881 Version. Ed. Robert Haas  Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Franz Konwitschny