What are you listening 2 now?

[VonStupp]

Anton Bruckner
Rondo in C minor, WAB 208
    Raphael Quartet

Intermezzo, WAB 113
    Bartholdy Quintet

VS

[Linz]

Franz Schubert Deutsche Messe, D. 872
Sandra Tratting Soprano Lucia Schwartz alto, Bernhard Berchthold tenor, Christian Hilz Bass,
Tölzer Kabbenchor, Wiener Akademie, Matin Haselböck
Mass No. 5 in A-Flat Major, D. 678
Celina Lindsley Soprano, Gabriele Schreckenbach alto, Werner Hollweg tenor, Walton Grönroos bass
RIAS-Kammerchor, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Marcus Creed

[Daverz]

Chamayou intersperses pieces by John Cage among the Satie works.  It works very well.  He has an all-Cage disc out as well.

[VonStupp]

Anton Bruckner
String Quartet in C minor, WAB 111
String Quintet in F Major, WAB 112
Leipzig Quartet

Quite a difference between these two Bruckner chamber works.
VS



Vorfrühling in der Penzinger Au (1887), Robert Russ

[steve ridgway]

Kagel - Zwei Akte

Nice long piece for harp and saxophone  .

[AnotherSpin]

[Traverso]

Bach

I continue with this excellent set

CD 2

[Que]

[Que]

[Mister Sharpe]

Lovely and fun-loving; I never tire of these or, more generally, of their composer.  When I pulled this out to listen to this morning I remembered I made a mental note years ago to hear Telemann's comic opera Pimpinone which remains in the "TO DO" file.  I have a feeling it's going to impress (performance suggestions are welcome!)   

[Madiel]

I think it's my first deliberate listen to non-opera classical in about 2 months. And apparently I haven't listened to some pieces on this album for 13.5 years, so it's effectively a fresh listen.

Vivaldi: "Dresden" violin sonatas



That's a slightly different album cover to the edition I have, but close enough.

Starting with RV 26 in G minor

[Iota]

   
Berg: Piano Sonata Op.1
Maurizio Pollini (piano)

I'm not always attuned to Pollini's way of doing things, but here for me he reveals himself unequivocally as a great pianist. His laser-like structural sensibility, his mastery of execution, the underpinning of grandeur in his reading, and perhaps most of all his sheer sense of commitment to the music, allow the Berg a perfect platform on which to project all its glories.

[Karl Henning]

Stravinsky - Les Noces

I like the strong rhythms and choral singing in this .

Aye!

TD:

[Karl Henning]

[VonStupp]

FJ Haydn
Symphony 91 in E-flat Major
Symphony 92 in G Major 'Oxford'
Sinfonia Concertante in B-flat Major, Hob. I/105
Austro-Hungarian HO - Ádám Fischer

A nice bit of variety with Haydn's later four-instrument concerto. Moving on to the London Symphonies.
VS

[SonicMan46]

Barber, Samuel - Orchestral Music w/ Marin Alsop on 6 CDs - at the bottom also own the first 2 discs; older but alternate versions of all three works on the cover art; John Browning in the solo piano music is a classic recording, BUT just saw the last recording w/ Leon McCawley which has received good reviews - anyone familiar with him?  Dave


 

   

[Harry]

Pictures from Finland
Works by Selim Palmgren, Leevi Madetoja, Robert Kajanus, Jean Sibelius, and Väinö Raitio.
Oulu Sinfonia – Rumon Gamba
Recording: 2024, Madetoja Concert Hall, Oulu Music Centre, Oulu, Finland
Streaming: 192 kHz/24 bit (downloads only)


In the wake of Overtures from Finland, maestro Rumon Gamba and the Oulu Sinfonia return with another evocative tribute to the Finnish musical landscape—Pictures from Finland, a rich gallery of tone poems and orchestral sketches drawn by the hands of both familiar masters and lesser-known visionaries.

Though Jean Sibelius needs no introduction, it is the "odd ones out" that stir the deeper fascination here: Selim Palmgren, Robert Kajanus, and Väinö Raitio—all deserving of our attention. This album, in many ways, is a quiet act of reclamation—a gesture of respect for the marginalised voices of Nordic romanticism and modernism, each with their own distinctive accent and palette.

Palmgren, a refined pianist and consummate orchestrator, paints in the lush tonal colours of late romanticism. His Aus Finnland, Op. 31 evokes a windswept, wistful lyricism—a kind of nostalgic pastoralism that never cloys. Kajanus, better known as a conductor and early champion of Sibelius, reveals his own striking musical imagination in the compact Allegro symphonique and the atmospheric Suomenlinna—works that pulse with character and purpose.

Most intriguing is Väinö Raitio, a composer of broader gestures and broader horizons, who sought to drag Finnish music into modernity with dreamy textures and French-tinged colours. His Fantasia estatica unfurls like a twilight reverie, simmering with mystery and a touch of decadence—a piece that speaks more to Debussy or Scriabin than to his compatriots.

Leevi Madetoja, of course, remains the inheritor of Sibelius's national legacy. His works are economical in form but rich in spirit. Marian murhe (Mary's Sorrow) for female choir and strings—a 1917 meditation on grief—is arguably the emotional nadir of the disc, though one whose austere beauty may not appeal to all listeners. I found it less persuasive than his orchestral contributions, but its sincerity cannot be questioned.

Throughout, the Oulu Sinfonia under Gamba responds with both affection and precision. Their playing is unforced, elegant, and deeply idiomatic—allowing the music to bloom at its own pace, like morning light across snow. If the recorded sound feels at times a touch distant, it is never lacking in detail or atmosphere. One senses the hall's acoustic warmly framing every phrase.

In sum: Pictures from Finland is a lovingly curated album, one that invites the listener to wander off the well-trodden Sibelius trail and into the quieter glades of Finnish music history. A balm, a window, and a worthy follow-up in every respect.

Postscript.
Among the lesser-known lights of Finnish music, Väinö Raitio (1891–1945) remains an enigmatic figure. A modernist in a largely nationalist era, his harmonic language leaned toward the mystical and expressionistic, influenced by Scriabin and Debussy, and often swimming against the Sibelius tide. His orchestral works shimmer with colour and daring, but their advanced idiom left them neglected for decades—until recent revivals began to redress the balance.

Robert Kajanus (1856–1933), by contrast, was a national pioneer. A composer, conductor, and close ally of Sibelius, he founded the Helsinki Orchestral Society (now the Helsinki Philharmonic) and helped establish Finland's musical infrastructure. His works, steeped in folklore and romantic grandeur, have a strong civic character—music meant to inspire and bind a people. Yet even he has long stood in Sibelius's imposing shadow.

Both men, in their way, helped shape Finland's musical identity—Kajanus as the architect, Raitio as the dreamer.

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 3 in D Minor, 1889 Version (aka 1888/89) Ed. Leopold Nowak
BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, Kurt Sanderling

[Linz]

Mily Balakirev King Lear music for Shakespeare's tragedy
Tamara, Symphonic poem
The State Academic Symphony Orchestra, Evgeny Svetlanov

[Lisztianwagner]

Igor Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring

Pierre Boulez & Cleveland Orchestra