What are you listening to now?

[San Antone]

So I don't know if any of you guys like the double bass, but this is pretty fantastic:

[asin]B00U1GGI5E[/asin]
Nicholas Bayley is principal bassist of the BBC Scottish Symphony, formerly principal of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He arranges a Bloch piece himself, adds a great Piazzolla tune I'd never heard before, and bookends the recital with two biggies: a set of works by Reinhold Gliere written for Koussevitsky (and not sounding like Ilya Muromets!!), and a 29-minute sonata by Derek Bourgeois, which asks and then answers the question of what would've happened if Brahms/R. Strauss/Saint-Saens had written a double bass sonata.

Really fun stuff, highly recommended.

Excellent.  Thanks.

[Todd]

Both books of Images.  Some of the best Debussy playing extant, but in poor sound.

[king ubu]

ending the weekend with some of this:

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[Moonfish]

Yesterday

Debussy:
Pelléas et Mélisande       
Shirley/Söderström/McIntyre/Minton/Britten/Wicks/ Chorus & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Convent Garden/Boulez

Interesting opera. I generally favored the instrumental sections over the vocal parts although Söderström's voice as well as many of the gentle, melancholic passages were quite alluring. An opera that one seemingly needs to attune to over time?

[Moonfish]

Corelli: Trio Sonatas Op 3              The Avison Ensemble

Exquisite! 

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Beethoven-Weingartner: Grosse Fugue
Debussy: Martyrdom of St Sebastian
R. Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
R. Strauss: Don Quijote

Boston SO/Monteux

Powerful performances and very enjoyable. The fugue was quite interesting in this orchestral version. The Debussy piece was enchanting (obviously a fragment). Is there a recording available of the FULL performance of The Martyrdom of St Sebastian? I have the Ansermet version and a few others, but not the original.

from:

[Moonfish]

Sibelius:
Belsazars Gästabud
Scaramouche

Gothenburg SO/N Järvi

I enjoy these more low-key dreamy compositions by Sibelius. There is less drama/power and more of an emphasis on harmonies. Belsazars Gästabud felt like floating on a river of dreams.

cd 5 from
[asin] B001AX69C4[/asin]

[Todd]

Op 16.

[Karl Henning]

TD

What do you think?

[Todd]

Wrapping up a first go-round with Maria Lettberg's phenomenally good Scriabin set.

[Wakefield]

Let us forget the word "flashiness". I misunderstood the Word and got you wrong in the first hand, because I do not see Saorgin, Kraft or Spang-Hanssen as flashy in the correct sense of the word - not even compared to Vogel.

Do you have a favorite among the complete cycles of Buxtehude's organ music, Premont?

[Artem]

This was my first time listening to this work.

[Brian]

Continued my journey through Murray Perahia's jumbo box today with the Beethoven Third and Fourth Concertos with Haitink. Three = not my favorite performance; Four = pretty close to being a favorite. (Of course, Three is far from my favorite concerto...)

Also today I worked on ten (!) MusicWeb reviews, which involved listening to, uh, a shitload of different stuff. If you're curious about anything just ask:

Mozart: Sonata for two pianos. Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia
Schubert: Fantasy in F minor, D940. Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 3. Murray Perahia, Concertgebouw, Bernard Haitink
Lutoslawski: Piano Sonata. Veronique Briel
Lutoslawski: Two Studies. Veronique Briel
Lutoslawski: Bucolics. Veronique Briel
Lutoslawski: Three Pieces for Young People. Veronique Briel
Chopin: Barcarolle. Pascal Amoyel
Chopin: Three mazurkas. Pascal Amoyel
*Gliere: Four pieces. Nicholas Bayley, double bass; Geoffrey Duce, piano
*Piazzolla: Kicho. Nicholas Bayley, double bass; Geoffrey Duce, piano
Bloch (arr. Bayley): Nigun. Nicholas Bayley, double bass; Geoffrey Duce, piano
*Montag: Extreme. Nicholas Bayley, double bass; Geoffrey Duce, piano
+*Bourgeois: Sonata. Nicholas Bayley, double bass; Geoffrey Duce, piano
+Saboya: Suite Ernestina. Jose Antonio Escobar, guitar
Montana: Guabina Viajera. Jose Antonio Escobar, guitar
Nazareth: Odeon, Labirinto, Batuque, Carioca. Morten Gunnar Larsen
Gottschalk: Danza. Morten Gunnar Larsen
+Isbitz: Danza No 2. Morten Gunnar Larsen
Stravinsky (arr. Pienaar): Pulcinella Suite. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, trumpet; Daniel-Ben Pienaar
Martinu: Sonatine. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, trumpet; Daniel-Ben Pienaar
Respighi (arr. Pienaar): Gli uccelli. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, trumpet; Daniel-Ben Pienaar
Stenhammar (arr. Pienaar): Interlude. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, trumpet; Daniel-Ben Pienaar
+*Voyage (harp recital: Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Tiersen). Lavinia Meijer; Amsterdam Sinfonietta
Chaminade: Etude humoristique. Johann Blanchard
Copland: Symphony No 3. Oregon Symphony, Carlos Kalmar
Prokofiev: Scythian Suite. Bergen PO, Andrew Litton
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 4. Murray Perahia, Concertgebouw, Bernard Haitink


* = first ever listen
+ = living composer

[Mirror Image]

Sibelius:
Belsazars Gästabud
Scaramouche

Gothenburg SO/N Järvi

I enjoy these more low-key dreamy compositions by Sibelius. There is less drama/power and more of an emphasis on harmonies. Belsazars Gästabud felt like floating on a river of dreams.

cd 5 from
[asin] B001AX69C4[/asin]

I have been less impressed with the Jarvi performances in these sets. I wished he had conducted with a bit more intensity. I just skimmed a bit of the last disc in the Theatre Music set and came to the conclusion that Vanska pretty much left him the dust with the complete performances of The Tempest and Pelleas and Melisande.

[kishnevi]

What do you think?

Re Gallagher Symphony 2
Not sure, but further listens required.  I heard nothing I disliked, but also heard nothing that immediately grabbed me.

The same reaction applies to this CD I have on now.
 

[Que]

Morning listening:



Once upon a time I had more time to do little write ups and I posted my comments in this set HERE....

Q

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Decided to leave the last disc of the Voice & Orchestra set for tomorrow's listening and I figured why not start on disc 1 of this set? Listening to Karelia. Really fantastic so far! I actually own the original issue of this particular performance, but couldn't remember whether I heard the work or not.

[Mandryka]

Bernard Winsemius plays some Sweelinck, this is outstanding in every way I think, hence I'd like to hear more Winsemius. There seems to be three or four disc still available so if anyone has had any experiences, positive or negative, with any of them, please let me know.

http://www.depelgrim.nl/contents/nl/d2884_INTERSOUND.html

[Mandryka]

Morning listening:



Once upon a time I had more time to do little write ups and I posted my comments in this set HERE....

Q

I don't know de Gaillard's Forqueray, but I was a bit nonplussed by that review of Rousset's recording by Kirk McElhearn that you cited. I think the Rousset is a success from beginning to end, including the harpsichord and the sound. It's oxymoronic, in that the phrasing bumps but the movement is always forwards, and so it flows. Rousset's Forqueray is the most foot tapping, the most dancing, I know.

[listener]

  The Violin Concerto op. 14 by Samuel BARBER who was a mentor to John CORIGLIANO - Lullaby for Natalie (2010)and he in turn was a mentor to Mason BATES - Violin Concerto (2012)
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin  London Symphony Orchestra  Leonard Slatkin, cond.
This may be my first purchase of music from the 21st century., all pretty conservative.  The Barber is particularly warm in its feel here.  The movements for the Bate Concerto are titled Archaeopteryx, Lakebed memories and The Rise of the birds .

[Wanderer]

New arrival:

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