What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Coopmv]

WIDOR  STILL and WIDOR
"shall thy bounds be set"

WIDOR  Organ Symphonies 5 (with that Toccata), 10 "Romane"
Daniel Chorzempa,  St.Sernin, Toulouse
STILL  From the Black Belt    Darker America
Music for Westchester S.O.    Siegfried Landau, cond.
Ulysses KAY   6 Dances for String Orchestra   
Westphalian S.O., Recklinghausen          Paul Freeman, cond.

Chorzempa is the only American organist I like.

[Coopmv]

Now playing CD1 from this set, which arrived some 2 weeks ago ...

[Coopmv]

Now playing CD2 from this set ...

[Brian]

Start with the 13th Canon (based on Schubert's Lied "Der Leiermann") from 13 Kanons op.113. It is essential Brahms, and essental listening, I think. ("He was effectively writing Romanticism's epitaph"--MacDonald.) The text isn't the one Schubert used but a Rückert poem:

Monotonous is love's sorrow,
A song with but one note;
Yet aways when I heard it,
I had to hum along.


Malcolm MacDonald, in his book, Brahms, says of the piece:

"The canon seems to me to escapulate many of the significant things about Brahms as a composer. It shows him as standing in an intensely personal relationship to the music of the past. On the one hand he has become an absolute master of the forms of strict contrapuntal writing; on the other he forges deliberate links with his predecessors, and invests their vision with a new, and personal interpretation.... Above all this little work is symbolic. The ancient form, the Schubert tune. the Romantic melancholy combine to provide a powerful symbol of musical continuity. The Rückert text is important too. By setting it, Brahms was making an ironic comment on his own personal life, as one who had hummed along to the chorus of love but always stood apart from it."

I also love the Gesänge für Frauenchor, 2 Hörner und Harfe op.17. Give that a try.

Sarge

Listened to them both this afternoon, Sarge. Particularly loved the Canon. On a superficial, first-impressions level, it was a haunting piece. In fancy I could hear Brahms walking through the halls of worship of his ancestors...

[George]

Beethoven
Op. 2
Schnabel
Naxos

[Coopmv]

Now playing another recent purchase from MDT for a first listen ...

[val]

FRANÇOIS COUPERIN:       Tenèbres du Premier Jour    / Les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr

A recent and very beautiful version of one of the supreme religious works of the Baroque. The voices are nice, sometimes ecstatic. A version at the level of the one directed by Rousset.
The CD includes pieces of Marc-Antoine Charpentier and, in special, the sublime Miserere of  Michel Lambert.

[Sergeant Rock]

Listening to Mahler playing Mahler: the Welte-Mignon piano rolls: first movement Fifth Symphony, last movement Fourth Symphony, and two songs:




Sarge

[Conor71]

Mozart: Piano Trio No. 3 In Bb Major, K 502



Ive been enjoying Mozart's Chamber Music of late - this is a recently aquired disc .

[Brahmsian]

Mozart: Piano Trio No. 3 In Bb Major, K 502



Ive been enjoying Mozart's Chamber Music of late - this is a recently aquired disc .

Conor, that is a great disc, from the musically worst composer! 

[Brahmsian]

I only listened to a little bit of the choral music, Liebeslieder Waltzes according to my journal. Found them a bit dull. What music (or which disc) do you recommend as a starter?

Brian,

Try some of the Works for a Cappella Choir (try the Vol.4 and Vol.8 discs in particular), and try the two discs for female chorus (discs 58 and 59, if I'm not mistaken).

Haven't found them dull at all, and I'm usually not drawn to works for just voices.  I guess they've just struck a chord for me (pardon the pun). 

[SonicMan46]

A small box from JPC arrived the other day and just getting to the contents today; up now:

Eberl, Anton (1765-1807) - Piano Trios et al w/ Playel Trio St. Petersburg; 2-disc set recorded in 2000/02 on period instruments, now released as a bargain package in a slim jewel box!

My first experience w/ this short-lived Viennese composer who spent time in St. Petersburg; late classical composing well done w/ inventive melodies and some Russian themes surfacing - if rated on Amazon, I'd probably do 4* (but feel the music is worth 5* & the recording engineering maybe 4*) - worth hearing for those interested in this period - 

[not edward]

When I mention this as being probably my favourite Eroica, people have a tendency to look at me as if I just offered up a dog turd for dinner. Truth be told, it's not so much the exhilarating speed I like this performance for, but the sense that Scherchen conceives each movement as a single gesture, while still shaping every phrase beautifully.

[Antoine Marchand]

Start with the 13th Canon (based on Schubert's Lied "Der Leiermann") from 13 Kanons op.113. It is essential Brahms, and essental listening, I think. ("He was effectively writing Romanticism's epitaph"--MacDonald.) The text isn't the one Schubert used but a Rückert poem:

Monotonous is love's sorrow,
A song with but one note;
Yet aways when I heard it,
I had to hum along.


Malcolm MacDonald, in his book, Brahms, says of the piece:

"The canon seems to me to escapulate many of the significant things about Brahms as a composer. It shows him as standing in an intensely personal relationship to the music of the past. On the one hand he has become an absolute master of the forms of strict contrapuntal writing; on the other he forges deliberate links with his predecessors, and invests their vision with a new, and personal interpretation.... Above all this little work is symbolic. The ancient form, the Schubert tune. the Romantic melancholy combine to provide a powerful symbol of musical continuity. The Rückert text is important too. By setting it, Brahms was making an ironic comment on his own personal life, as one who had hummed along to the chorus of love but always stood apart from it."

I also love the Gesänge für Frauenchor, 2 Hörner und Harfe op.17. Give that a try.

Sarge

Excellent recommendations, Sarge. Thank you very much.

I enjoyed both works, but especially the the Gesänge für Frauenchor, 2 Hörner und Harfe op.17 because it seemed more brahmsian, probably because of the use of the horn, an instrument that I used to consider very close to Brahms (that harp in the first chorus/song is also wonderful). The 13 Kanons Op. 113 are also excellent, but more a kind of exercise in style. 

[bhodges]

Excellent recommendations, Sarge. Thank you very much.

I enjoyed both works, but especially the the Gesänge für Frauenchor, 2 Hörner und Harfe op.17 because it seemed more brahmsian, probably because of the use of the horn, an instrument that I used to consider very close to Brahms (that harp in the first chorus/song is also wonderful). The 13 Kanons Op. 113 are also excellent, but more a kind of exercise in style. 

Those songs for women's chorus, horns and harp are among my favorite Brahms works, and I'm delighted to know of another recording of them. 

--Bruce

[Opus106]

How I missed the second-rate Romantic works all this while!

For many months I've stuck to just a few composers, or broadly to late-Baroque, late-Classical, and late-Romantic and early 20th Century.

Camille Saint-Saëns
Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 22
Jean-Philippe Collard|Royal Philharmonic Orchestra|André Previn

[Scarpia]

Brahms

14 Folk Songs for Choir a Cappella, WoO34
12 German Folk Songs for Choir a Cappella, WoO35

Amadeus-Chor
Nicol Matt, conducting
Brilliant Classics

After discussion of the rare vocal music on this set, well let's say I may have purchased it.  I'm still deciphering the emails from that French web site.  It lists for 24.99 Euros on the site, but that includes VAT.  For shipment to the US it is a bit over 20 Euros, although shipping is just over 8 Euros.   

The DG "complete" Brahms doesn't seem like a contender.  It may have more big names in the performer list (and a lot a recordings that are already widely available), but doesn't seem to include much of the rarely heard or recorded repertoire that the Brilliant set has.

[listener]

BIZET   Piano Music   including the Variations Chromatiques and  Chants du Rhin
      Annie d'Arco, piano                 
STRAVINSKY   The Rite of Spring                   Chicago S.O.    Solti
      another listen prior to hearing it live tonight.    I'll bet Chicago's brass are better.

[Scarpia]

Hmmm, I think that Solti/Rite of Spring Cover is a perfect reflection of the artificial, jacked-up sound Decca produced in those CSO recordings.   

[abidoful]

BIZET   Piano Music   including the Variations Chromatiques and  Chants du Rhin
      Annie d'Arco, piano

Veryyyyyyyy interesting!! Are Bizet's piano works  worth of listening?