What are you listening 2 now?

[ritter]

Pierre-Laurent Aimard plays Book 1 of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier.

[Madiel]

Vivaldi: starting on the 3rd volume of violin concertos.



(One of my favourite cover images in the series)

The theme of this volume is "the dance". Of the 7 works, 6 are in major keys which is a bit of a different proportion to most volumes.

I put this in the player with a hint of trepidation given that the other volume with I Barocchisti showed a tendency for everything to be hard, fast and loud. And there's a fair amount of the hard and fast here - admittedly the first 2 concerti on the disc have a first movement marked Allegro molto - but thankfully a lot less of the loud. Some of that is probably down to the different nature of the music (concerti instead of arias), but it's a bit easier on the ear.

I don't know that any of the first 3 concerti sounded especially dance-like. Perhaps RV 268 in E major has a particular bounce to it, I'm definitely liking that one. But certainly none of them are inconsistent with the 'dance' notion and they're all entertaining enough.

[Traverso]

Mozart

Divertimento in F major, k.247
Serenade in D major, K.320 "Posthorn"

[Todd]

Father-son shootout.

[Harry]

ANTON ARENSKY.
Chamber Music.
SQ 1&2, plus Piano Quintet in D Major Op.51;
Ying quartet, and Adam Neiman, Piano.

In Russian late Romanticism, Anton Arensky is an important link between the fundamentally different currents of the First Petersburg School, which represents a national Russian direction, and the more Western-oriented Moscow School. The music of Rimsky-Korsakov's pupil, who died young, has a deeply romantic character in which Russian independence also shines through. Given that these performances are really near to what Arensky meant to say, impeccably performed, with a precision as sharp as a razor, and wonderful articulation, the effort of concentrated attention to detail and playing as one body pays off an accumulation of dividends. These performances are easily the best I ever heard of all three works on this disc, SOTA sound included. I insist of recommending it, despite poor budgets some people complain about    

[Brian]

Rachmaninov
Concertos
Kocsis
de Waart

I hadn't listened to No. 2 in years. Maybe 5 years?! I'm struck by how, despite the fast tempos and blistering virtuosity, this performance can be very subtle when it wants to be. The big melodies in the first two movements aren't as blown-up and Hollywoody as usual, and the cello section in particular sounds like it is playing chamber music. Very, very appealing.

[Wanderer]

(for the cover image, blame Amazon) 

[hopefullytrusting]

Starting the morning out right with HyunJung Kim playing Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPcl6vJ16yI

You can definitely tell Prokofiev has matured considerably between his Op. 1 and his Op. 14 - this work is not only far more ambitious - he also isn't pouting and throwing a tantrum like a toddler - not that that wasn't enjoyable, it was. This work is considerably longer and is much more focused melodically. You could tell he had a clear idea what he wanted to achieve, and he set out to accomplish that.

Dynamically - it actually uses dynamics, which is a lovely improvement - again, there is nothing wrong with writing i only declarative sentences, but it can begin to drag when repetition is transformed into redundancy; diversity aka variety is the spice of life, and that remains true here.

While my ear is not the most keen, this sonata feels almost like a set of variations, but my musical memory is that of a goldfish outside of things like the opening of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, which I cannot forget - most other music is stored deep, deep within the recesses of my mind, far beyond conscious recollection, so I will know that I have listened to the work, but I likely will not remember the work itself - it is why I can openly weep at the end of Mahler's 2nd Symphony, even if I listen to it back-to-back-to-back - I just don't retain it.

Back to this sonata, the skill difference between sonata 1 and sonata 2 is significant, but, as with all my selections - the pianist, the piano, the sound, the acoustics, the recording is all excellent - you have to to do a little searching, but this is not the 20th century - we no longer have a piano desert - we are flush with excellent performers of pretty much every instrument in the orchestra.

Ironically, while this sonata is superior to 1, I do not like it as much. It feels to controlled, almost contrived, and it doesn't feel like Prokofiev to me - there is no biting irony, no sarcasm - this feels more like a sonata he made for school - it probably was given its opus number - I don't look up anything about these pieces or composers or players, as there is nothing for me there - I'm only concerned with the listening experience and the "freewriting" that emerges alongside it.

For me, it is too long, and I don't have an issue with length, as some pieces need to be long like Mahler's symphonies - they need to be that long if you are going to get an emotional payout, but the piano lacks the vibrancy of an orchestra - it can only do so much, and it cannot do it for as long, especially as dullness and flatness cannot be avoided the closer you get to the threshold of the law of diminishing returns - you can only push it so far before that debt must be paid, and it is paid by our ears by hearing music which is unflattering to both them and us, and no flash or flourish can rescue us from that once it has settled in.

Prokofiev does what he can to stave off the sunk cost fallacy, but he pushes it too far - likely due to overconfidence, a common symptom of genius - when you are better than everyone else in the room it can be hard to know when to stop, especially if you had success prior, but no matter our success we should always be wary of our own hype.

I cannot recommend this.

[Brian]

Rachmaninov
Concertos
Kocsis
de Waart

I hadn't listened to No. 2 in years. Maybe 5 years?! I'm struck by how, despite the fast tempos and blistering virtuosity, this performance can be very subtle when it wants to be. The big melodies in the first two movements aren't as blown-up and Hollywoody as usual, and the cello section in particular sounds like it is playing chamber music. Very, very appealing.

Update: My phone has identified Piano Concerto No. 3's first movement as "She's a Rainbow" by the Rolling Stones.

[Roasted Swan]

ANTON ARENSKY.
Chamber Music.
SQ 1&2, plus Piano Quintet in D Major Op.51;
Ying quartet, and Adam Neiman, Piano.

In Russian late Romanticism, Anton Arensky is an important link between the fundamentally different currents of the First Petersburg School, which represents a national Russian direction, and the more Western-oriented Moscow School. The music of Rimsky-Korsakov's pupil, who died young, has a deeply romantic character in which Russian independence also shines through. Given that these performances are really near to what Arensky meant to say, impeccably performed, with a precision as sharp as a razor, and wonderful articulation, the effort of concentrated attention to detail and playing as one body pays off an accumulation of dividends. These performances are easily the best I ever heard of all three works on this disc, SOTA sound included. I insist of recommending it, despite poor budgets some people complain about    

Oh dear - respecting differences of taste of course.... I really disliked the choices made here especially by the 1st vioin.  Not a question of technique - these folk clearly can play but I found the crude use of slides (portamenti) very off putting.  Of course others might well find this to be expressive and effective.  But definitely stream before you buy I reckon - Sorry Harry!!

[Florestan]

[Spotted Horses]

Bacewicz, String Quartet No 5, Lutoslawski Quartet



I listened to the recording by the Silesian Quartet yesterday, today I am returning with another performance. I would say both recordings are very satisfying. The Lutoslawski Quartet performs the third movement, corale, more slowly, which heightens the tension. One annoyance is that excessive dynamic contrasts. There are parts of the third movement which are played so softly I have to turn up the volume to what would otherwise be a dangerous level to hear anything.

[Harry]

Oh dear - respecting differences of taste of course.... I really disliked the choices made here especially by the 1st vioin.  Not a question of technique - these folk clearly can play but I found the crude use of slides (portamenti) very off putting.  Of course others might well find this to be expressive and effective.  But definitely stream before you buy I reckon - Sorry Harry!!

No certainly no sorry needed.   I liked the choices they made, found them very effective, without changing the intent too much. I had no problems with the portamenti, as you said I found them Expressive and Effective, but I understand your reservations of course. My recommendation is based on what I like, and that's not everyones cup of tea, how ever nice the tea might be. So ignore me and carry on

[AnotherSpin]

[Florestan]

[AnotherSpin]

[Lisztianwagner]

Arnold Schönberg
Von Heute auf Morgen

Christine Whittlesey (Die Frau), Claudia Barainsky (Die Freundin), Annabelle Hahn (Das Kind), Richard Salter (Der Mann), Ryszard Karczykowski (Der Sanger)
Michael Gielen & Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt

[ritter]

First listen to this recent purchase:



Grandi numeri is a late work (2010) by Bussotti, and conducts of 12 pieces for variable combination of piano(s), violin, trombone, clarinet and voice. Bussotti is said to have regarded the visual aspect of the score as an integral part of the work. Here's an example:



It's all great fun, but  rather close, in its eclecticism, to what I imagine a seventies "happening" would sound like.

Nice to hear Dallapiccola's Quaderno musicale di Annalibera quoted in the seventh section.

[Linz]

Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 3 in D Minor, 1878 Version Ed. Fritz Oeser (Scherzo coda not included) Based on 1880 Stichvorlage
Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, Takashi Asahina

[Todd]

Prokofiev does what he can to stave off the sunk cost fallacy, but he pushes it too far - likely due to overconfidence, a common symptom of genius - when you are better than everyone else in the room it can be hard to know when to stop, especially if you had success prior, but no matter our success we should always be wary of our own hype.

Prokofiev really hits his piano sonata stride in his war sonatas for me, individually or collectively, and here there are some juicy choices.  Richter, of course, but also Wang (perhaps the best current Prokofiev player), Ashkenazy, Pogorelich and Abduraimov (Sixth), FFG, Bronfman, Beroff, Sandor, and others.

To that end:



Here, I find it an opportune time to adopt a new, visual rating system.  I will go with pizzas.  The rankings are as follows:

1.)   Multi-meat (with six-plus meats preferred)
2.)   Pepperoni
3.)   Cheese
4.)   Vegetarian
5.)   Anchovy and pineapple

An asterisk indicates use of hot honey, so a cut above.

FFG is meaty.

Update: My phone has identified Piano Concerto No. 3's first movement as "She's a Rainbow" by the Rolling Stones.

Modern tech is foolproof.