What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[bhodges]

Yesterday, on the Met's Saturday afternoon broadcast:

Shostakovich: The Nose (Gergiev/Paulo Szot/Met Orchestra) - My second time hearing this score, and wow.  What a brash score--suiting the absurd-yet-sober story--and some spectacular orchestration.  The percussion interlude about 15 minutes into the piece sounds incredibly modern, and some of the vocal writing is striking--almost like using the voice as a percussion instrument. 

I can tell already that this is on its way to becoming one of my favorite operas. 

--Bruce

[George]

Mozart
Piano Sonatas
Peremuter

Meh.

[mahler10th]

What beautiful works...what delightful and powerful things he touches.

[Drasko]

Krystian Zimerman playing Beethoven's Pathetique

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzQlx0ZtmMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZK4zTc1HnU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wkrNm7dNBg

and Greshwin's Three Preludes, as encores

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLzXm984h54

[SonicMan46]

Bach - Cello Sonatas on the 'Violoncello da Spalla' - for those interested, more discussion in the 'old musical instrument' thread - but I now have 3 versions of these suites, including the one under discussion, and have just ordered another!  So trying to decide if I want to keep this one vs. others - thus a repeat listening - hey I like this and the instrument is so unique that this is a KEEPER!  I'll decide later on the other 3 versions played on a regular cello - 

 

[PaulR]

Yesterday, on the Met's Saturday afternoon broadcast:

Shostakovich: The Nose (Gergiev/Paulo Szot/Met Orchestra) - My second time hearing this score, and wow.  What a brash score--suiting the absurd-yet-sober story--and some spectacular orchestration.  The percussion interlude about 15 minutes into the piece sounds incredibly modern, and some of the vocal writing is striking--almost like using the voice as a percussion instrument. 

I can tell already that this is on its way to becoming one of my favorite operas. 

--Bruce

Hey Bruce,
I was in the Audience for the Nose yesterday!  The set, the costumes, and the performance, as you know, was amazing.  Glad I came down from Buffalo to see it at the Met  (not so much for the damn weather that canceled my flight.)

Anyway, on the train I listened to:

[Brahmsian]

It's been an "all Stravinsky" day for the past two days.  All from the Big Sony Box:

Petrouchka
Apollo
Jeu de Cartes
Pulcinella
Orpheus
Agon (liked it much better having listened to this a second time)

Now listening to some of the chamber music (Duo Concertante fro violin and piano, Serenade in A, Concerto for 2 solo pianos, Piano-rag music, Sonata for 2 pianos, Sonata for Piano)

[offbeat]

1-5 Violin Concerto #1 op.35 26:09

oh this looks too good to miss - whats yr verdict ?

[mahler10th]

BADINGS
Symphony 12

I can't stop listening to this.  What a landscape.  Beautiful.  Violent.  Listen closely and you may even hear warplanes in the sky at the beginning.  There is something brutal under the magic, an ever present threat in a remarkably reflective 'symphony of sound colours.'  It's a symphony full of colour alright, but the colours aren't always pretty.
10 / 10

[George]

Schubert: Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946
Academy of Music (Budapest, 27 April, 1963)

This one is new to the Richter discography. It features a lot of those big contrasts (dare I say some banging) found in his early Schubert. I am glad to have it, but can't help but think he'd do better with this one had he recorded it in the seventies. Sound is pretty distorted too, not helping matters. For some reason he seemed to drop it from his repertoire. 

[kishnevi]

The disc that started such a buzz about Bowen, and rightly so. A lot of critics have compared him to all manner of great Romantic piano composers, and they are right - his music learns from all of the greats and synthesises it into music that I am grateful for existing. Who would've thought that somebody if not as great as, but in some ways comparable to Chopin, Scriabin and company was composing into the 1950s?

There is also a 2 CD release of his piano sonatas on Hyperion, performed by Danny Driver.

Thread duty:
Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 9 Op. 14/1
Murray Perahia

[Daverz]

An excellent Late Romantic work, though 3 is still my favorite of the Schmidt symphonies.  The new Sinaisky recording is excellent, but a little opaquely recorded compared to the Järvi.

[Antoine Marchand]

Bach - Cello Sonatas on the 'Violoncello da Spalla' - ... hey I like this and the instrument is so unique that this is a KEEPER!  I'll decide later on the other 3 versions played on a regular cello - 

 

Wise decision, Dave, without any doubt...

If I am not forgetting anyone, I have 12 versions of these Suites, in no particular order: Bylsma I, Ter Linden I & II, S. Kuijken (cello da spalla), W. Kuijken, Schiff, Cohen, Wispelwey I & II, Suzuki I, Terakado (cello da spalla) & Gastinel and the last Friday arrived another one: Wolfgang Boettcher (Nimbus). 

Now playing CD1 of Boettcher's set for the first time: Suites 1007, 1008 & 1009.

[Antoine Marchand]

I'll be interested to hear what you think of Santiago Rodriguez's Rachmaninoff.

Hi, George. I'm very interested in Santiago Rodríguez, so soon I will listen to his discs...

[George]

Hi, George. I'm very interested in Santiago Rodríguez, so soon I will listen to his discs...

Cool. 

[listener]

Alexander MOYZES (1906 - 1984)  "the founder of the Slovak school of composition"
solo piano music: Brigand Rhapsody (inspired by the legend of Jánošik, Slovakia's Robin Hood);  2 Studies in the form of Prelude and Fugue; Divertimento; Sonata in e minor
Jazz Sonata for Two Pianos
-  very conservative,  might remind you of Schulhoff, with more folk influence

KORNGOLD cpo vol. 2 Orchestral Works
Much Ado About Nothing (Viel Lärmen um nichts) Suite; Symphonic Overture - Sursum corda; Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

[mahler10th]

Good morning fellow Europeans.
It's that time of day again...for us, anyway...
I have decided to convert my hall into a Monastery, complete with cloisters and arches, so I can contemplate things and go for walks with God rather serenely.  To help me do this I have put this in the tray for inspiration.
Breathtaking connections are made through such beautiful music.
I'll build the Monastery next year instead...

[Que]

Wise decision, Dave, without any doubt...

If I am not forgetting anyone, I have 12 versions of these Suites, in no particular order: Bylsma I, Ter Linden I & II, S. Kuijken (cello da spalla), W. Kuijken, Schiff, Cohen, Wispelwey I & II, Suzuki I, Terakado (cello da spalla) & Gastinel and the last Friday arrived another one: Wolfgang Boettcher (Nimbus). 

I definitely need that Sigiswald Kuijken as well - it's on the wishlist! My own collection of Bach's cello suites has grown larger than I anticipated, since I generally avoid too many multiple recordings - though these works are worth it. Sofar: Casals, Bijlsma II, Cocset, Beschi, and Pandolfo on viola da gamba. Sigiswald's violoncello da spalla would fit in nicely!

Listening now:



Rousset plays a terrific instrument by Jean-Claude Goujon, Paris 1749, modified by Jacques Joachim Swanen, 1784.

A very good morning.

Q

[Harry]

One of the discs I treasure these last past weeks, excellently recorded and performed this music gives pleasure and good cheer. Not a penetrating recorder here, but soft and mellow, a balm to your ear. Authentic performances on a very high level. Fiorenza is a fine composer that would need some more exposure, and this disc is a excellent way to start.

[Christo]

I was really surprised hearing this music by Arnold Cooke, but so far as I am concerned he is a genius. He is a excellent orchestrator, that gives the music the extra impulse to be more as the total sum of notes. I found the Concerto in D for String Orchestra devastatingly beautiful, not to say the Suite which even got me more by the throat. I have to buy the rest of his music available. Fine recording and performance.

Great to learn, I wholeheartedly agree - of course.  Except that I would rate his First Symphony even higher than both accompanying pieces.