What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Dundonnell]

Can I jump in here for him.  In Russia it is common to call people, formally, by their first and patronymic name.  I suppose Karl is indulging in a bit of his Russophilia.

I thought that he had promised to stop this silly nomenclature nonsense

[Dundonnell]

By that you're implying that I sometimes play bad music?

No...he is stating that your current taste in music is impeccable

When you get a compliment on this board at present relish the experience

[Harry]

From the big box box, this fine specimen of excellence....

[Christo]

When you get a compliment on this board at present relish the experience

Nudge, nudge 

[karlhenning]

@ all: 

[M forever]

  AKA Prokofiev! His name is Prokofiev Karl   , his name is Prokofiev!

Actually the correct form of the name in the Latin alphabet is Prokofieff. As with Rachmaninoff, this is not the spelling English speakers with knowledge of Russian are used to, but in both cases, these spellings reflect historical circumstances of the composers' lifes and careers which go beyond and contain information beyond the locally correct forms of transliteration.

Therefore, Prokofieff's works are listed under this form of the name in his publisher's catalog even though that is an English company. But again, what matters here aren't local transliteration variations, but the historical circumstances reflected in the spelling of the name(s).

[karlhenning]

Hindemith
Symphony in E-flat
NY Phil
Lenny

[mn dave]

Who were some Purcell contemporaries worth checking out?

[karlhenning]

Hindemith
Konzertmusik for Brass and Strings, Opus 50
NY Phil
Lenny

[mozartsneighbor]

Mozart and Beethoven's Quintets for Piano and Winds
Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major

[marvinbrown]

Actually the correct form of the name in the Latin alphabet is Prokofieff. As with Rachmaninoff, this is not the spelling English speakers with knowledge of Russian are used to, but in both cases, these spellings reflect historical circumstances of the composers' lifes and careers which go beyond and contain information beyond the locally correct forms of transliteration.

Therefore, Prokofieff's works are listed under this form of the name in his publisher's catalog even though that is an English company. But again, what matters here aren't local transliteration variations, but the historical circumstances reflected in the spelling of the name(s).

  Pardon my ignorance here for I do not speak Russian but how is it that ff in both names is written v ? Is ff pronounced v ?

  marvin

[karlhenning]

Mozart and Beethoven's Quintets for Piano and Winds

The Mozart especially is a magnificent piece!

[The new erato]

Who were some Purcell contemporaries worth checking out?

From England; John Blow. His Venus & Adonis is a wonderful work.

PS I hope it is not meant to be spelt John Bloffff, if a v is double f, a w should be a quadruple f.

[karlhenning]

Try this one again:

Rakhmaninov
Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Opus 27
Phila
Ormandy

[mn dave]

From England; John Blow. His Venus & Adonis is a wonderful work.

PS I hope it is not meant to be spelt John Bloffff, if a v is double f, a w should be a quadruple f.

Thanks, Odd. Any from other countries?

[mozartsneighbor]

The Mozart especially is a magnificent piece!

It really is -- in a letter to his father, in which Mozart described the Quintet's first performance, he declared it to be his best work yet!

Now:
Debussy, Estampes, Sviatoslav Richter

[Que]

Gabriela Beňačková (Slovak soprano):

Operatic recital - arias from: The Barted Bride, Rusalka, Armida, Jenufa, Eugene Onegin, War and Peace, Katerina Ismailova, The Queen of Spades. (Supraphon)

Q

[karlhenning]

Nielsen
Symphony No. 6, Sinfonia semplice
Royal Scottish Orchestra
Bryden Thomson

[not edward]

Nielsen
Symphony No. 6, Sinfonia semplice
Royal Scottish Orchestra
Bryden Thomson

That's one of my favourite Nielsen Sixths. I'm not generally a fan of Thomson's conducting but I think this is one place where he gets pretty much everything right: I must revisit it soon.

Giving this recording a revisit:



Another former RSNO chief conductor that I don't typically like but who seems to do a better job than usual here. The Enfant perhaps lacks some subtlety but I think it does capture the spirit of the piece well; I also really enjoy the recording of the Divertissement, though I'd love to hear it under a different orchestra and conductor. The Andante and Symphonic Song are lesser works and I think given rather tentative performances here.

Also, a first listen to this collection:



David Wilson-Johnson is, I think, a little too English (for want of a better term) for A Survivor from Warsaw's good (not that this work lacks good recordings) but I liked him in Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte; however the main interest for me was Rolf Schulte in the violin concerto. On first listening, it's a weighty, romantic, generally rather slow reading (in contrast to Hahn/Salonen's recent hyper-swift traveral), though I found Craft's direction perhaps a little staid. I'll definitely have to give this one more attention, though.

[M forever]

  Pardon my ignorance here for I do not speak Russian but how is it that ff in both names is written v ? Is ff pronounced v ?

I think the Russian в is typically unvoiced at the end of a word, like "f", but since my knowledge of Russian is very rudimentary, other people can give more precise information about these pronunciation nuances.

In these particular cases, the ending "ff" instead of "v" is actually the French way of spelling Russian names. I am not sure why that is. In Prokofieff's case, it may reflect the long period of time he lived primarily in Paris (1920-1935) or it may be because Russian composers were published in the West before WWI by Koussevitzky's Edition Russe de la Musique, and then Koussevitzky himself was first based in Paris before he moved to Boston.