What are you listening to now?

[Madiel]

Good to see that it's still priced like a true BIS bargain - 6 CDs (361.5 minutes, as per Amazon) for the price of 5 CDs. 

The price of the Holmboe string quartets box has plummeted, but that was a reissue (and Da Capo). I think the symphonies box came out not that long after the last individual disc did, so it's now old, and not that common.

[Ken B]

Mahler 6
NYPO Bernstein
From the Symphony box

Update. What a weak, sloppy, bombastic performance.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Kullervo, Op. 15. Great work and performance.

[San Antone]

Beautiful sounding recording by Michele Campanella released during the 2011 Liszt bicentennial along with dozens of other recordings.  This one may have gotten lost in the shuffle but it is unique for a couple of reasons.  First the selections all come from the last period of Liszt's career, most of them rarely included in a Liszt program.  And second, Campanella plays a Bechstein once belonging to Liszt, and the recorded ambiance places you, as the sole Amazon reviewer says, in the room pictured on the cover.

[EigenUser]

Listened to a lot of good stuff today while working:
-Schumann's Kreisleriana (which promptly got stuck in my head, particularly the ending)
-Schumann's Kinderszenen
-Dvorak's Dumky Trio
-Ligeti's Horn Trio
-Martinu's Double Concerto

[San Antone]

Wow.

[Ken B]

Listened to a lot of good stuff today while working:
-Schumann's Kreisleriana (which promptly got stuck in my head, particularly the ending)
-Schumann's Kinderszenen
-Dvorak's Dumky Trio
-Martinu's Double Concerto

Oh, sure. But your Dad, who gave you life, who paid for your upbringing, he gets Turangalilla!



I listened to Coptic Light, sorta. It was at work with headphones, not paying much attention. I didn't like it but I'll give it a real listen next time.

[Mirror Image]

-Martinu's Double Concerto

That's a fantastic work, Nate. What performance did you listen to?

[San Antone]

https://www.youtube.com/v/Hvx60OU4bxU

Franz Liszt : "Hungarian Rhapsody" for violin and piano
Clara Cernat, violin
Thierry Huillet, piano,
Original version by Liszt for violin and piano
(after his XIIth Hungarian Rhapsody for piano solo)
Video directed by Nicolas KAUFFMANN
Sound engineer : Jérôme HALLAY

Excellent.

[NJ Joe]

Really enjoying the 5th from this:

[San Antone]

Via Crucis

[Todd]

[Brian]

Wow.

All that, eh?

Where did you find a copy? It's so hard to find I figure I'll download the Amazon MP3s.

[Mirror Image]

Really enjoying the 5th from this:

Pounds the table! Yeah, I love Bernstein's Nielsen. He really brings out the menacing qualities in that onslaught of snare drum!

[Florestan]

Last night spent some very pleasant time with these:



Cimarosa seem to have delighted in unexpected twists and turns, tunes coming out from nowhere and rapidly disappearing back where they came from, crazy rythm and tempo changes and all kind of surprises that sometimes surpass even Haydn. 

Now playing

[San Antone]

All that, eh?

Where did you find a copy? It's so hard to find I figure I'll download the Amazon MP3s.

That's what I did.  I haven't done any active head-to-heads, but this will probably be my initial standard bearer.

[EigenUser]

Oh, sure. But your Dad, who gave you life, who paid for your upbringing, he gets Turangalilla!



I listened to Coptic Light, sorta. It was at work with headphones, not paying much attention. I didn't like it but I'll give it a real listen next time.

That's a start! It's so beautiful. I actually didn't care for it the first time I heard it, but it really, really grew on me. One of my favorite orchestral works of all time. Last time I was in NYC, Bruce (GMG mod) told me that he was there for the NY Phil premiere in the 1980s!

One aspect of the piece that really interests me is his note on the first page of the score (which I own). He was a big Sibelian and said that Coptic Light is an elaboration on Sibelius' remark that "the difference between the orchestra and the piano is that the orchestra has no sustaining pedal". Feldman uses very clever orchestration to "create" a sustaining pedal for the orchestra and have it vary in intensity.

I guess the reason I was so adamant that you listen to it was because I was dying to know if you'd like it or not (no idea why I cared, but I was just curious). It's minimalism, sort of -- but, wait -- is it really? A lot of Feldman reminds me of Webern or Ligeti (both composers he admired) far more than Glass or Reich or Riley. In fact, nothing Feldman wrote sounds like textbook minimalism. Coptic Light has echoes of Ligeti whereas Cello and Orchestra is definitely Webernian. Both are composers you don't like, yet there is still an element of minimalism in Feldman (i.e. note the tendency toward a synchronous rhythmic ostinato that occurs in roughly the last five minutes of the work).

[Karl Henning]

From the Martinon/CSO box - Mennin: Symphony No. 7.
Well, that was incredible. I'd never heard anything quite like that before. Wonderful. And it has reminded me of how I'm finding more and more music now becoming accessible to me. My frame of reference continues to slowly expand.

Excellent!

[Karl Henning]

The price of the Holmboe string quartets box has plummeted, but that was a reissue (and Da Capo).

Yes, and I leapt at the opportunity!

[Karl Henning]

Beautiful sounding recording by Michele Campanella released during the 2011 Liszt bicentennial along with dozens of other recordings.  This one may have gotten lost in the shuffle but it is unique for a couple of reasons.  First the selections all come from the last period of Liszt's career, most of them rarely included in a Liszt program.  And second, Campanella plays a Bechstein once belonging to Liszt, and the recorded ambiance places you, as the sole Amazon reviewer says, in the room pictured on the cover.

I think it was Edward who tipped me off to this one;  exquisite!