What are you listening 2 now?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Scriabin, Valery Kastelsky.

[Bachtoven]

Whew! Some seriously good playing here.

[Que]

These are not dreamy Goldbergs, but energetic, elegant and brilliant. Still balanced and steadfast in the Leonhardt tradition, handed down by Rousset's teacher Bob van Asperen.
Rousset went in different directions in Bach later on, but IMO this is a happy mix of personality and tradition with a splendid result.

[Madiel]

Haydn: keyboard sonata no.11 in B flat



Described as the most imposing of the early sonatas.

Beginning disc number 6 of the 11-disc set. So making progress.

[Irons]

Bizet: L'Arlesienne Suite No.1

Not last word in refinement but for energy, dynamic range and "Living Presence" Mercury are unbeatable to this day.



Out of all formats I find the most jaw-dropping dynamic to be mono LP. Something is lost in the stereo process.
"HI-FI Facts" from back cover - The three suites by Bizet were recorded on November, 1956 in the newly constructed Henry and Edsel Ford Auditorium in Detroit. For this recording a single microphone of extreme sensitivity was placed approximately fifteen feet above and slightly forward of the head of the conductor. A normal concert setup was maintained throughout the sessions. The recording was made on Fairchild tape machines and transferred to disc through 200 watt McIntosh amplifiers to a specially designed Miller cutting head operating on an automatic variable pitch Scully recording lathe. Each step in Mercury's Living Presence recording technique is calculated to duplicate with the utmost fidelity the original masterly performance by Mr. Parry and the Detroit Symphony players.

[Harry]

Dora Pejačević 1885-1923
Chamber Music.
See for details back cover.



The elegiac, yet extremely cantabile Cello Sonata (1913) with its deeply moving "Adagio sostenuto" is particularly inspiring and noteworthy. The Piano Trio in C major (1910), transports the soul to other, darker realms, which spoke to me clearly. The 5 Pieces for Violin & Piano, which have nothing to do with light salon music, of which some reviewers wrote, are a pleasant surprise, depicting a quality of composing remarkable in itself. Trio RoVerde owe nothing to Pejačević's music and deliver deeply probing and very soulful readings of these masterpieces. Good sound. A fine addition to my Pejacevic collection.

[Cato]

Dora Pejačević 1885-1923
Chamber Music.
See for details back cover.



The elegiac, yet extremely cantabile Cello Sonata (1913) with its deeply moving "Adagio sostenuto" is particularly inspiring and noteworthy. The Piano Trio in C major (1910), transports the soul to other, darker realms, which spoke to me clearly. The 5 Pieces for Violin & Piano, which have nothing to do with light salon music, of which some reviewers wrote, are a pleasant surprise, depicting a quality of composing remarkable in itself. Trio RoVerde owe nothing to Pejačević's music and deliver deeply probing and very soulful readings of these masterpieces. Good sound. A fine addition to my Pejacevic collection.

Beautiful, and the music is also beautiful!    

I will need to investigate Dora Pejačević further!

Right now, speaking of elegiac: Karl Henning's Symphony #3 for Strings.

[Traverso]

Bach

An Irdische Schätze..such fine music

[Cato]

If you have not experienced this unusual work, well, today is the day to do so!   


Cadence Fantastique by Nikolai Tcherepnin !

[Madiel]

I've come home early from a NYE party because I wasn't having a good time. Now I have to find the right music to round out the last half hour of the year. Not sure yet. It'll probably be 19th century chamber.

Edit: Dvorak, piano quintet no.2

[ritter]

I've come home early from a NYE party because I wasn't having a good time. Now I have to find the right music to round out the last half hour of the year. Not sure yet. It'll probably be 19th century chamber.

Edit: Dvorak, piano quintet no.2

Wishing you a happy new year, Madiel. You'll be the first GMGer stepping into 2025.

[Florestan]

Wishing you a happy new year, Madiel. You'll be the first GMGer stepping into 2025.

+ 1

[Madiel]

Wishing you a happy new year, Madiel. You'll be the first GMGer stepping into 2025.

Well, I'm only about 1 kilometre east of the guy who runs the whole place...

Plus we have a New Zealander who beats us by a couple of hours. But thanks.

[Madiel]

It's 2025 now but I'm going to give the parties time to wind down (apparently I live in an area where we like illegal fireworks too, sigh, but that was only a couple of minutes).

Schubert string quintet. Janine Jansen and friends. I don't think I've listened to this for a while.

[brewski]

Of a couple of competing livestreams for New Year's Eve, I'm going with Salonen live from Hamburg (at noon, EST). The concerts he did with the Philadelphia Orchestra earlier this year — one with Sibelius 5 and the other with the complete Daphnis et Chloé — were among the year's most memorable events.

Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Pekka Kuusisto, violin
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

R. Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra
Bryce Dessner: Violin Concerto
Ravel: Boléro

And a very Happy New Year to all.

-Bruce

[Christo]

Both of Respighi's violin concertos (finished, another early one in A was completed and recorded in 2003) are performed here flawlessly.

The first here (Concerto all' antica, 1908) is completely in the "old style" that we often encounter with Respighi, but this is one of his most beautiful in that style: pastiche, no doubt, and just delightful. The Concerto gregorano (1921) is in my opinion one of the most beautiful violin concertos -- i.e. of the 10 very most beautiful -- ever. Concluded by the Poema autunnale (1925), also "late Respighi" -- the best Respighi, in my opinion: pretty much everything from the Fontane di Roma (1916) on.

Concerto gregoriano for violin & orchestra [32:16]
[1] I. Andante tranquillo 9.15
[2] II. Andante espressivo e sostenuto 10.32
[3] III. Finale (Alleluia): Allegro energico 12.28
 
Concerto all'antica for violin & orchestra [30:35]
[4] I. Allegro 12.45
[5] II. Adagio non troppo 8.44
[6] III. Scherzo: Vivace – Tempo di minuetto – Vivace 9.06
 
[7] Poema autunnale for violin & orchestra 13.30

[Traverso]

Offenbach

Vert-Vert
Kakadu
Ouvertüre





And now we just have to wait and see how New Year's Eve will go, with the possible war noises of heavy fireworks that have the force of a grenade, missing fingers, eye injuries, well you name it...

[ritter]

Richard Strauss: Josephslegende. Giuseppe Sinopoli conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden.

[Iota]

Debussy: Images oubliées
Aldo Ciccolini (piano)

Exquisite pieces. Something distant/lonely about Ciccolini's reading I like.

Debussy certainly knew how to write a good dedication, I love the one that accompanies this (google translate if required).

Que ces Images soient agréées de Mlle Lerolle avec un peu de la joie que j'ai de les lui dédier. Ces morceaux craindraient beaucoup « les salons brillamment illuminés » où se réunissent habituellement les personnes qui n'aiment pas la musique. Ce sont plutôt « conversations » entre le piano et soi ; il n'est pas défendu d'ailleurs d'y mettre sa petite sensibilités des bons jours de pluie.

[Traverso]

Verdi

Noi Siamo Zingarelle....