What are you listening 2 now?

[Spotted Horses]

Martinu, Les ritournelles, Koukl



A suite of 5 brief pieces, which seem to alternate from a vaguely impressionistic style to Martinu's kaleidoscope neobaroque style. Good performance, enjoyed.

[Irons]

My inclination would strongly favour "b".  Given the overt passion of his music, Bax's retiring nature - which boardered on extreme precluded any 'performing' career.  Any direct attention directed at him persoanlly seems to have been an anathema.

Along with earning a crust not an issue.

[Mister Sharpe]

My inclination would strongly favour "b".  Given the overt passion of his music, Bax's retiring nature - which boardered on extreme precluded any 'performing' career.  Any direct attention directed at him persoanlly seems to have been an anathema.

Thanks, your inclination has the ring of authenticity.  I remember reading somewhere, too, that he much preferred talking about literature rather than music, think of how intolerable a performing career would have been for such a person!

[Mister Sharpe]

Back to back Bax this morning.  I wonder for how many of us certain composers (or performers) seem less like old, cold and distant dispensers of sound, than living, breathing, even intimate, companions.  Bax and a handful of others seem that way to me, so full of life does he seem, though he probably wouldn't have relished that distinction! Now, someone like Moeran, on the other hand, might well have embraced it. 

 

[brewski]

Dvořák: Cello Concerto
Zemlinsky: Die Seejungfrau

Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello
Giedrė Šlekytė, conductor
SWR Symphonieorchester

(Livestreamed June 27, 2025)

[Florestan]

This was my very first Bax piano repertoire CD, purchased in '89 or 90 and it foretold the acquisition of many more. My wife and I quickly grew addicted to the hard-driving rhythms in many of these works, the duo pianos' cross-talk, and their wonderfully evocative themes. The piano was Bax's instrument and it shows:  he was a virtuoso, a renowned sight-reader, and a great career was predicted for him, though it was not a path he chose for himself. His personal predilection was composing, of course, but one does wonder if performance was not an option owing to a.) just too much hard work!; b.) Bax's shy, retiring nature; or c.) a & b. If Bax's thick, complex orchestration has sent you scurrying, you might give these eminently more accessible works a spin.

Never knew Bax wrote such stuff. Will investigate, thanks for the tip.

[Florestan]

Back to back Bax this morning.  I wonder for how many of us certain composers (or performers) seem less like old, cold and distant dispensers of sound, than living, breathing, even intimate, companions.  Bax and a handful of others seem that way to me, so full of life does he seem, though he probably wouldn't have relished that distinction! Now, someone like Moeran, on the other hand, might well have embraced it. 

 

Your enthusiasm is contagious. I've never been a Bax fan although every time I listen to his music I like it. My soulmate composers are Mozart, Schubert and Chopin.

[Florestan]

Probably the most Mozartian post-Mozart serenades, a feast of tuneful and life-affirming musicality, two of Dvorak's most inspired pieces. I never tire of them.

[Karl Henning]

Back to back Bax this morning.  I wonder for how many of us certain composers (or performers) seem less like old, cold and distant dispensers of sound, than living, breathing, even intimate, companions.  Bax and a handful of others seem that way to me, so full of life does he seem, though he probably wouldn't have relished that distinction! Now, someone like Moeran, on the other hand, might well have embraced it. 

 

The Elegiac Trio was what sold me on Bax!

TD:

[VonStupp]

FJ Haydn
Symphony 82 in C Major 'Bear'
Symphony 83 in G minor 'Hen'
Symphony 84 in E-flat Major
Austro-Hungarian HO - Ádám Fischer

This trio of Paris Symphonies sounds like a solid leg up for Haydn.
VS

[Linz]

Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Concerto in D major op. 61, Wolfgang Schneiderhan violin
Berliner Philharmoniker, Eugen Jochum

[Lisztianwagner]

Edward Elgar
Cello Concerto

Jacqueline du Pré (cello)
John Barbirolli & London Symphony Orchestra

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony in D Minor, 1869 Ed. Leopold Nowak
National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Georg Tintner

[DavidW]

Edward Elgar
Cello Concerto

Jacqueline du Pré (cello)
John Barbirolli & London Symphony Orchestra

Ah, that is a desert island recording!

[Linz]

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Francesca Da Rimini, Symphonic Fantasy after Dante, Op. 32
Serenade for String in C Major, Op. 48
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski

[DavidW]

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

R. Strauss: Don Juan; Tod und Verklärung. Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire · Hans Knappertsbusch.

[Linz]

Karl-Birger Blomdahl The Three Symphonies
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leif Segerstam

[Mister Sharpe]

...two of Dvorak's most inspired pieces. I never tire of them.

Me neither.  But I would add his Carnival Overture to the list. (I have a thing for carnival music, inc. esp. Schumann's, Berlioz's, Ernst's, Stravinsky's (in Petrushka), Milhaud, et al) 

[VonStupp]

Jean Sibelius
Rakastava, op. 14
Scènes Historiques: Suite 1, op. 25
Scènes Historiques: Suite 2, op. 66
Valse Lyrique, op. 96a
Scottish NO - Alexander Gibson

I don't know Sir Alexander's Sibelius symphony cycle, but I have a good number of orchestral recordings of Sibelius from the conductor.

Can't say I remember these Historic Scenes either, but I do recall hearing a choral version of Rakastava (this is the string orchestra one).
VS



Great Black Woodpecker by Akseli Gallen-Kallela