What are you listening 2 now?

[Traverso]

Mozart

String Quartets KV 421 & KV 428

[Brian]

Diving into this new release featuring the birthday boy:

[Papy Oli]

Earlier on:

Beethoven - SQ No.10
Smetana Qt

Now:
Gilbert & Sullivan - HMS Pinafore
Scottish Opera, RIchard Eggar

[Karl Henning]

[Spotted Horses]

Beethoven Piano Sonata No 23, Appasionata, Annie Fischer.

Wow, impressive performance, and this Beethoven's characteristic "storming the heavens style." I haven't listened to middle period Beethoven for a while and this was impressive.



Coming to the end of Book I of the Well Tempered Clavier, Crossland. B major was wonderful, B minor was a let down. The prelude in B minor (one of my favorite pieces by Bach) was so slow and wan and sotto voce, it didn't work for me.



Decided to pull up an alternative, Leonhardt. Very satisfying, but I was surprised he didn't play the repeats in the prelude.

[AnotherSpin]

[Symphonic Addict]

Kats-Chernin: Concertino for violin and ensemble, Concerto for percussion and orchestra 'Golden Kitsch' and Concerto for 8 double basses and orchestra 'The Witching Hour'

This is quite the compilation: 10 discs that gather together piano music, orchestral works, concertos, etc. As for the music, I love it. Kats-Chernin unleashes her inner child in these works. The sense of fantasy, naivety and colour that runs through these works is lovely, including minimalistic gestures. The Concertino is more gritty and discordant, though.

[Todd]

[Brian]

Diving into this new release featuring the birthday boy:

This is technically excellent*, magnificently recorded, featuring a beautiful-sounding Steinway. Pure ear candy. BUT. There are really only two moments of distinctive personality. In Op. 110, the repeated chords that lead to the reprised fugue are played staccato, with great restraint, and don't explode out of the piano like some performances do. In Op. 111, he favors a high-contrast approach between a very fast first movement (8:12) and very slow second (17:40) that stays remarkably measured and mellow until the boogie breaks out. And when the boogie does hit, he speeds up dramatically: too rushed for its own good, the syncopations de-weirded.

Otherwise, there are little moments where Wee might go for a little greater contrast than normal, but not a lot of new or original choices. He's mostly content to do straightforward, polished, "museum-quality" Beethoven. There's a lot of great beauty to it, but unlike something like Alkan where he can absolutely rule the music, here he is on very well-traveled territory.

I would be quite curious to hear what our sonata experts think of that moment in Op. 110.

*except that Wee slips juuuuust a little bit on the trills in the finales of Opp. 109 and 111...just enough so you know he's human.

[Daverz]

Foerster: Cyrano de Bergerac, suite for large orchestra, Op. 55 (1903)

Ostrčil: Calvary, Variations for Large Orchestra, Op. 24 (1928)

Via Qobuz

[Philo]

Inspired by the impressionism thread: a trio of French string quartets

[Linz]

A Choral Christmas

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Hovhaness guitar concerto No. 2.

[Linz]

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op.93
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op.68 "Pastoral"
Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer

[prémont]

This is technically excellent*, magnificently recorded, featuring a beautiful-sounding Steinway. Pure ear candy. BUT. There are really only two moments of distinctive personality. In Op. 110, the repeated chords that lead to the reprised fugue are played staccato, with great restraint, and don't explode out of the piano like some performances do. In Op. 111, he favors a high-contrast approach between a very fast first movement (8:12) and very slow second (17:40) that stays remarkably measured and mellow until the boogie breaks out. And when the boogie does hit, he speeds up dramatically: too rushed for its own good, the syncopations de-weirded.

Otherwise, there are little moments where Wee might go for a little greater contrast than normal, but not a lot of new or original choices. He's mostly content to do straightforward, polished, "museum-quality" Beethoven. There's a lot of great beauty to it, but unlike something like Alkan where he can absolutely rule the music, here he is on very well-traveled territory.

I would be quite curious to hear what our sonata experts think of that moment in Op. 110.

*except that Wee slips juuuuust a little bit on the trills in the finales of Opp. 109 and 111...just enough so you know he's human.

Thanks, interesting. I had this recording on my radar, but after reading your review, it seems it might not be that compelling after all, and I already have plenty of recordings of these works.

[Roasted Swan]

Kats-Chernin: Concertino for violin and ensemble, Concerto for percussion and orchestra 'Golden Kitsch' and Concerto for 8 double basses and orchestra 'The Witching Hour'

This is quite the compilation: 10 discs that gather together piano music, orchestral works, concertos, etc. As for the music, I love it. Kats-Chernin unleashes her inner child in these works. The sense of fantasy, naivety and colour that runs through these works is lovely, including minimalistic gestures. The Concertino is more gritty and discordant, though.

Its an excellent set - and even more appealing when it can be downloaded as either FLAC or Hi-Res via Presto for just £11.52 or £13.57 - not bad for 10 discs-worth running to over 11 hours of fine music and performances....

[Madiel]

This is technically excellent*, magnificently recorded, featuring a beautiful-sounding Steinway. Pure ear candy. BUT. There are really only two moments of distinctive personality. In Op. 110, the repeated chords that lead to the reprised fugue are played staccato, with great restraint, and don't explode out of the piano like some performances do. In Op. 111, he favors a high-contrast approach between a very fast first movement (8:12) and very slow second (17:40) that stays remarkably measured and mellow until the boogie breaks out. And when the boogie does hit, he speeds up dramatically: too rushed for its own good, the syncopations de-weirded.

Otherwise, there are little moments where Wee might go for a little greater contrast than normal, but not a lot of new or original choices. He's mostly content to do straightforward, polished, "museum-quality" Beethoven. There's a lot of great beauty to it, but unlike something like Alkan where he can absolutely rule the music, here he is on very well-traveled territory.

I would be quite curious to hear what our sonata experts think of that moment in Op. 110.

*except that Wee slips juuuuust a little bit on the trills in the finales of Opp. 109 and 111...just enough so you know he's human.

I am firmly of the view that it's a mistake to keep expecting performers to deliver novelty, when Beethoven has not revised the music on the page any time recently.

Musical notation is not, in most cases, so exact that there is no room for variation. But the quest for constant novelty in music can only end up encouraging performers to disobey the score in order to deliver something "different".

[Madiel]

Kats-Chernin: Concertino for violin and ensemble, Concerto for percussion and orchestra 'Golden Kitsch' and Concerto for 8 double basses and orchestra 'The Witching Hour'

This is quite the compilation: 10 discs that gather together piano music, orchestral works, concertos, etc. As for the music, I love it. Kats-Chernin unleashes her inner child in these works. The sense of fantasy, naivety and colour that runs through these works is lovely, including minimalistic gestures. The Concertino is more gritty and discordant, though.

I wasn't aware that ABC's Kats-Chernin obsession extended to a 10-disc box. But nor am I surprised.

[Papy Oli]

Its an excellent set - and even more appealing when it can be downloaded as either FLAC or Hi-Res via Presto for just £11.52 or £13.57 - not bad for 10 discs-worth running to over 11 hours of fine music and performances....

Re Kats-Chernin.

Isn't she the one that did that quirky tune for our (UK) Lloyds TSB train cartoon ad a few years back? I might be wrong.

[VonStupp]

Johann Neruda
Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major (1750)

FJ Haydn
Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major, Hob. VIIe::1

Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major, WoO 1

Alexander Arutiunian (1950)
Trumpet Concerto in A-flat Major

Harry James
Trumpet Concerto

Lucienne Renaudin Vary, trumpet
Lucerne SO - Michael Sanderling

I think I have come to enjoy the 'tighter' sound of an E-flat trumpet in the earlier works. The B-flat doesn't do as much for me. The Arutiunian was a delightful surprise.
VS