What are you listening 2 now?

[Number Six]

Chopin: Nocturne, Nos. 1-11
Claudio Arrau

[Klavierman]

I just started listening to this. His playing and the sound quality are both superb. (Rather closely mic'd in a large church.)

[Klavierman]

Chopin: Nocturne, Nos. 1-11
Claudio Arrau

One of my favorites!

[Madiel]

Bach: Ich lasse dich nicht, BWV 157



Funeral music. The opening duet has these gorgeous, aching suspensions in it, especially the ones sung by tenor Christoph Genz.

[JBS]

This is a 2014 re-issue of a 1992 recording....

....that has also been re-issued by Brilliant

[Madiel]

Haydn possibly: Keyboard sonata no.8 in A



The liner notes don't fully spell out why there's considerable doubt about this one, but it is kind of funny because the liner notes acknowledge that Haydn recognised it as his own work some 40 years after it was published. I think there's a few cases of this, where Haydn at the end of his life was saying yes to works and nobody is that confident that he really had a memory of writing something. In this case the same sonata was later published by somebody else as being by Ignaz Pleyel.. but if my maths is right, Pleyel would have been about 6 at the time of the first publication. We know for sure in some cases that publishers put the wrong composer's name on something, often deliberately... and maybe after that many decades you start to believe it yourself.

Not bad music by any means, but perhaps it is a little more direct in style than most Haydn. That could be because it's an early work or it could be because it's by somebody else. Po-tay-to po-tah-to.

[Den glemte sønnen]

Last work of the night --- Bruckner's 7th with Hiroshi Wakasugi conducting the NHK SO from this Japan issued set:



I wonder if @André or @Cato know this set? It's excellent and gets my full recommendation. I went through it when I received it, but I've slowly been revisiting some of the performances and they're even better than the first-time I heard them (if that was possible).

[Madiel]

Thanks to YouTube I'm listening to an early Alicia de Larrocha album that hasn't been re-released. In its original form it was the first of a series called "Famous Pages" (Paginas Celebres). Though weirdly it somehow got to America as "Piano Recital No. III" with the order of the series switched around.



And yes it's very much about famous pages. You've got Fur Elise, you've got Rachmaninov's C sharp minor prelude, Debussy's Clair de Lune, the 'Rondo all turca' from one of Mozart's piano sonata, and a few of Chopin's most popular tunes. So her first album of non-Spanish album is very much an attempt to show she can do your light classical favourites. And to my ears, despite the average sound quality, she can do them rather well.

[steve ridgway]

Stockhausen/Ensemble Musique Vivante: Aus den sieben Tagen (Setz die Segel zur Sonne and Verbindung).

An amazingly inspired piece of improvisational noise, one of my fave recordings with Stockhausen's name on it .

[Harry]

My Qobuz library is restored. A few anomalies remain but I will straighten that out. Pfffffffffffffffffffff.

[Que]

The Gothic Voices recording I skipped before, but was recently recommended by Harry.

My Qobuz library is restored. A few anomalies remain but I will straighten that out. Pfffffffffffffffffffff.

Congratulations! 

[steve ridgway]

Xenakis: Dammerschein - Elgar Howarth, Orchestre National de France, 1995. A crushing performance, the death metal of classical .

[Que]

Switched to another recording by Gothic voices. A very nice one.

[Madiel]

Haydn: Mass in time of war (aka the 'Kettledrum' mass)



I want to get more familiar with at least the 6 late masses. For this one I do like the whole work, but it really is that Agnus Dei that stands out. The choir asking for the Lamb of God to have mercy while the metaphorical guns fire.

[Florestan]

Haydn: Mass in time of war (aka the 'Kettledrum' mass)



I want to get more familiar with at least the 6 late masses. For this one I do like the whole work, but it really is that Agnus Dei that stands out. The choir asking for the Lamb of God to have mercy while the metaphorical guns fire.

If you're considering a complete set of Haydn's masses, that one does the trick quite nicely.

[Iota]

Stravinsky: Agon
Orchestra of St. Luke's, Craft

The transparency and genius of Stravinsky. I don't think I've ever actually seen it (which I should rectify on you tube), but listening is such a visual experience on its own.

[Madiel]

If you're considering a complete set of Haydn's masses, that one does the trick quite nicely.

Well yes, I know. I own it. Familiarity is not equal to first listen.

[Madiel]

Dvorak: String quartet no.8 in E major



EDIT: Someone remind me in a couple of years that 8, 10 and 13 are probably my favourites.

[Cato]

Last work of the night --- Bruckner's 7th with Hiroshi Wakasugi conducting the NHK SO from this Japan issued set:



I wonder if @André or @Cato know this set? It's excellent and gets my full recommendation. I went through it when I received it, but I've slowly been revisiting some of the performances and they're even better than the first-time I heard them (if that was possible).

No, I have not heard of this conductor!  Thank you for the recommendation!

He apparently specialized in Bruckner, Richard Strauss, and Wagner.

Born in 1935, he died 16 years ago with a good number of recordings in his legacy.

YouTube offers various examples:

Bruckner's Third Symphony

Beethoven's Third Symphony

Brahms' Fourth Symphony

[Que]