What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Sadko]

What pieces are on that disc? I had a CPO disc of Bruckner piano works, that I didn't like at all, due to an especially dead-sounding fortepiano and some uninspired playing. Also, half the works on the disc were early parlor-music style stuff that was completely forgettable. There is a later Sonatensatz that is really quite good. Is that on this disc?

Right now listening to Dohnyani/Cleveland Dvorak 9.

The works are:

Sonate g-moll, 1. Satz (Entwurf)
Stille Betrachtung an einem Herbstabend
Steiermärker
Lancier-Quadrillen Nr. 1 - 4
Klavierstück Es-dur (*)
Fantasie G-dur
Erinnerung
Adagio 7. Symphonie für Klavier


I like them all except (*), which I find a bit boring. I guess it is partly Shiraga's playing that makes it all enjoyable, and the sound is the opposite of what you had: spacious, warm, full modern piano sound.

Edit: I like her so much, I think I want to know more of her recordings. Of the Bruckner symphony transscription recordings I like this one best.

[MishaK]

The works are:

Sonate g-moll, 1. Satz (Entwurf)
Stille Betrachtung an einem Herbstabend
Steiermärker
Lancier-Quadrillen Nr. 1 - 4
Klavierstück Es-dur (*)
Fantasie G-dur
Erinnerung
Adagio 7. Symphonie für Klavier


I like them all except (*), which I find a bit boring. I guess it is partly Shiraga's playing that makes it all enjoyable, and the sound is the opposite of what you had: spacious, warm, full modern piano sound.

Great. I'll have to look out for that disc. It's the Steiermärker and Lancier Quadrillen that I can't stand. The Fantasie, Erinnerung, Stille Betrachtung and Sonata movement are excellent. The latter is most clearly Brucknerian.

[Opus106]

HIP Clarinet* rocks!

kthxbye



*K. 622 | Pay | OAE | Mackerras

I simply melt, listening to those low registers of the instrument.

[Lethevich]

.[asin]B000F0H4KY[/asin]

Bits and pieces. It felt unusual to buy a non-super budget Brilliant Classics issue at the time, but I've played this so much over the past few years.

[Sadko]

.[asin]B000F0H4KY[/asin]

Bits and pieces. It felt unusual to buy a non-super budget Brilliant Classics issue at the time, but I've played this so much over the past few years.

I'm listening to samples from JPC - interesting!

(This forum is dangerous, for shelf space and budget!)

Edit: Now it even reminds me of gamelan music, even more interesting, and more dangerous!

[Lethevich]

If you're concerned about purchasing a whole set (there is another on "Composer's Voice" - which could be a sublabel of Donemus, not sure), Canto Ostinato is his finest work and there exists a few single recordings of it. Its duration varies greatly - the two piano version on Emergo is just one CD, the four piano version on Et'Cetera is three CDs. His pieces are somewhat aleatoric, allowing performers to decide how many repeats each section gets before they advance.

[PaulR]

Violin Concerto

[Sadko]

If you're concerned about purchasing a whole set (there is another on "Composer's Voice" - which could be a sublabel of Donemus, not sure), Canto Ostinato is his finest work and there exists a few single recordings of it. Its duration varies greatly - the two piano version on Emergo is just one CD, the four piano version on Et'Cetera is three CDs. His pieces are somewhat aleatoric, allowing performers to decide how many repeats each section gets before they advance.

JPC have the Brilliant set for 20 Euros, sounds quite good for 11 CDs.

[listener]

J.S. BACH Cantata 35  Geist und Seele wird gewirrt
                Cantata 42  Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats
Herrmann Scherchen      Vienna Radio Orch., with lots of work for Herbert Tachezi, organ, the Sinfonias are mini-concertos.
Stich-Randall, Forrester, Young, Boyden  SATB
Maureen Forrester gets all the solos in no.35 - wonderful singing!
COPLAND   The Red Pony  suite   THOMSON   Louisiana Story: Acadian Songs and Dances
The Little Orchestra Society      Thomas Scherman, cond.
MENDELSSOHN Songs without Words   selection
Walter Gieseking, piano

[Sadko]

MENDELSSOHN Songs without Words   selection
Walter Gieseking, piano

How are these from Gieseking?

[Lethevich]

JPC have the Brilliant set for 20 Euros, sounds quite good for 11 CDs.

Oh, I didn't know that the price had gone that low. I'm sure that the Et'Cetera Canto would cost about the same, rendering it poor value. The style of performances in the Brilliant box are slightly different to other releases - the pianos are recorded quite closely and the playing sounds rather 'pointalistic' for want of a better word - clearer and sometimes with something of a chug to the sound at times where other recordings may sound a little more sweeping with additional acoustic bloom. At the start of, say, Section 14 in Canto, this gives the Brilliant version a very crystaline sound, wheras in others it flies by with less of an impact.

Edit: Hmm, I'm starting to sound obsessive. Well, no worries - I'm going to be (edit: bed) now so I'll stop pushing you

[Sadko]

That made me think of:



(Wayan Lotring and his gamelan orchestra performing)

which I'm playing now. The old man on the cover is playing himself. The booklet says: "I saw a small puny man who held out a trembling hand to me". But finally they talked him into performing again, and this is the recording. No signs of weakness in it for sure.

Edit: And by the way, you didn't sound obsessive to me, detailed recommendations are interesting and welcome

[listener]

How are these from Gieseking?

re Mendelssohn
recorded Sept.1956, must be his last.  Mono.
Some old-fashioned left hand ahead of the right, but tempos a little lethargic for my taste, dynamics stay subdued, no playing to the gallery. Still sounds good after 50 years (think of  how 1906 recordings sounded in 1956).  I'll be getting to his complete Mozart set shortly.

[SonicMan46]

Antonin Dvorak.  Piano works solo, CD III.  Radoslav Kvapil.

O, boy these are really essential recordings to have, it doesn't matter how many interpretation you already have....

 

Harry - well, based on your insistence, I purchased the Dvorak box w/ Kvapil and agree that this is wonderfully played piano music and w/ great sound for the period of the recordings - if one just wanted a single box, this would certainly be a strong recommendation! 

For me the last few nights the 5-CD box added above (right):

Mozart - Piano Sonatas w/ Michael Endres - now I really did not need another complete collection of these works but Todd's endorsement in another thread prompted the purchase; and indeed these are beautifully played renditions - 

[PaulR]

Orpheus in the Underworld.

[SonicMan46]

Another 'new' arrival:  Haydn - Basset Horn Trios w/ Le Trio di Bassetto - these are 5 baryton trios of Haydn transcribed to 3 basset horns plus the pinging of glasses to simulate the plucking of the 'sympathetic strings' of the baryton  - fascinating recording and great listening! 

[Sid]

Mozart
"Hunt" & "Dissonance" Quartets
Chilingirian Quartet
Regis

Stravinsky
The Soldier's Tale (version in English)
Octet for wind instruments
John Gielguid/Tom Courtenay/Ron Moody
Boston Symphony Chamber Players
DGG Eloquence


Got these two yesterday & gave them a first listen last night. These Mozart quartets were two of the six dedicated to Haydn. I particularly find the slow movements to be very emotionally moving & direct. There is quite a bit of dissonance in the "Dissonance" quartet, but it is not as "in your face" as in say Beethoven. It's introductory adagio segment - the first two minutes - sounds like Schoenberg (no kidding) & returns to this quieter kind of tense mood in the slow movement. I enjoyed Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale, which I had never heard before. Like Faust, this is a morality play (& the devil wins in the end as usual). Stravinsky apparently got the idea for writing a piece for voices and chamber ensemble from Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. Much of the music here reminded me strongly of Stravinsky's Violin Concerto, as there are prominent parts for violin (the soldier trades his violin to the devil, which sounds to me to be a representation of his soul). I liked the three actors' narration, Gielgud was the narrator as well as speaking the thoughts of the soldier (Courtenay) out aloud, and Ron Moody was a very fiendish and crafty devil. Stravinsky's Octet for winds is also an enjoyable work, which includes a Brazilian samba (or is it a Jamaican rhumba?) in it's finale. I'll listen to the second disc in the set later this weekend...

[asin]B00069PCTY[/asin]

[asin]B0043WBZP0[/asin]

[listener]

Richard STRAUSS  Piano Sonata in b, op. 5      Stimmungsbilder, op. 9
Carol Colburn, piano
The sonata sounds like it is looking for more in the opening of the Beethoven 5th Symphony, and the fascination with the opening motif is like a dog worrying a stick.  Mendelssohn comes to mind in the later movements, and there is no excess of texture like in his later works.

[mahler10th]

This is award winning stuff and rightly so - but Pierre Boulez gave a (IMO) much better played live performance in the BBC Proms 2008 (er...or 2007, can't remember )

[Mirror Image]

This is award winning stuff and rightly so - but Pierre Boulez gave a (IMO) much better played live performance in the BBC Proms 2008 (er...or 2007, can't remember )

I actually enjoyed Tilson Thomas' recording of Sinfonietta much better than Mackerras' recording on Decca, but I have not heard Mackerras' second recording on Supraphon. Mackerras is still the undisputed master of Janacek's music though IMHO.