What are you listening to now?

[Que]

Perfect morning  listening:

[asin]B00QG15MQO[/asin]
Decided to do another run of this set - a Golden Standard IMO.

Q

[The new erato]

Summer time means less listening (after returning from 3 weeks of vacation in Germany/Austria/Hungary/Czechia/Slovakia I have spent quite some time trying to fix the worst excesses of the "garden", visiting my cabin and generally exercising), but last night I listened to nr 15 from this:

[asin]B0009GV1Z8[/asin]

Good, but without the easy, natural flow (IIRC) of my favorite Haitink version. This is one of the most "musical" and least demonstrative of Shostakovich symponies (except for no 1 and 9), perhaps because he, like in  the quartets, was writing just for himself.

[Mandryka]

Hans Petermandl plays Schubert 960, a performance which stands out because of its confident, tough, almost aggressive style, not  edgy like Erdmann, not lyrical and timid  like Schanbel. I'd be very keen to know what other people who are more familiar with Schubert think of Petermandl's understanding of the music.

[The new erato]

Also last night, disc 1 with symphonies 1 and 2 (Antares) from this:

[asin]B000PFT1Y6[/asin]

I find the recording/playing very good, and the music is very fine though perhaps not very symphonic. This music deserves an occasional airing as a substitute for endless reruns of Scheherazade.

[Harry]

The last disc of this box, that gets an unqualified recommendation from me. The other 5 discs however need to be sampled before you are going to buy this box. Its very cheap, granted, but sample it anyways.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2015/08/new-acquisition-gabrieli-andrea.html?spref=tw

[Camphy]

Haydn, Piano Sonatas Hob. XVI: 27-29

[Harry]

Some very fine Orthodox religious music.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2015/08/recent-acquisition-theotoke-parthene.html?spref=tw

[TheGSMoeller]

Now:



Listening to Concerto for Cello and Strings. Such a beautiful work. I'm eagerly anticipating the next ECM recording of Tabakova's music.

Nice one, John. One of my favorite discs of new music from the past few years. Truly stunning and original compositions.

[Karl Henning]

The name, of course, is almost tobacconist 

[Karl Henning]

Thread Duty:

"Il prete rosso"
Concerto in B^b for 4 vn soli & strings, RV553
Fabio Biondi & Europa Galante

[asin]B000B0QRG0[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

“Il prete rosso”
Concerto in d minor for viola d'amore, lute, RV540
The English Concert
Pinnock

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

I've only listened to La Mer in this set, which I found lacking in gravitas - their playing is too light, too brilliant, forgive the pun.  But perhaps this is a personal thing - years ago I foolishly turned my back on the Pacific Ocean to near disastrous results but came away with renewed awe and respect for oceans.

[asin]B00B7U5KDE[/asin]

[Camphy]

Holmboe, Symphonies 8 'Sinfonia boreale' & 9

[ritter]

I've only listened to La Mer in this set, which I found lacking in gravitas - their playing is too light, too brilliant, forgive the pun.  But perhaps this is a personal thing - years ago I foolishly turned my back on the Pacific Ocean to near disastrous results but came away with renewed awe and respect for oceans.

[asin]B00B7U5KDE[/asin]

Do listen to the  Danses sacrée et profane from this set, Zauberdrachen . A wonderful performance of a work which has long been a favourite of mine and that in "black and white" is possibly even more effective than in its incarnation for harp and strings, as it becomes crisper and looses that pastel  art nouveau  sound which at times can be a bit tiresome.

Regards,

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Do listen to the  Danses sacrée et profane from this set, Zauberdrachen . A wonderful performance of a work which has long been a favourite of mine and that in "black and white" is possibly even more effective than in its incarnation for harp and strings, as it becomes crisper and looses that pastel  art nouveau  sound which at times can be a bit tiresome.

Regards,

Cuing it now. Thanks, brave knight. 

[ritter]

Cuing it now. Thanks, brave knight.

You're very welcome! And just for the record, this knight really isn't into the whole slaying dragons thing 

Enjoy the Danses!  Pay attention how one of the pianos mimics the harp 's glissandi towards the end of the Danse profane...riveting!!!! And then the transition between both parts...so simple and yet so magical. ..How I like this music @

[Harry]

Another composer that is high on my list. A very impressive cd. Obligatory for all fans of this composer.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2015/08/recent-acquisition-fasch-johann.html?spref=tw

[Mirror Image]

Nice one, John. One of my favorite discs of new music from the past few years. Truly stunning and original compositions.

It certainly is a nice recording, Greg. Beautiful music. I especially liked Suite in Old Style.

[Karl Henning]

One of my very favorite composers:

Nielsen
String Quartet № 3 in E^b, Op.14 FS 23 (1897-98)
Danish String Quartet

This does not sound like a typical "late 19^th-c. string quartet."  (Just saying.)

[RebLem]

Since my last report, I have been listening to the following:

DGG 477 7948  TT: 63'48--Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin  (Tr. 1-7) & cond. (Tr. 1-6), Trondheim Soloists (Tr. 1-6), London Sym. Orch, Valery Gergiev, cond. (Tr. 7)

Tr. 1-3......J S Bach: Violin Concerto in A Minor, S 1041 (13'28)--rec. Feb 2007--Hamburg-Harburg, Friedrich-Ebert Halle.

Tr. 4-6......J S Bach: Violin Concerto in E Major, S 1042 (17'25)--rec. Feb 2007--Hamburg-Harburg, Friedrich-Ebert Halle.

Tr. 7.........Gubaidulina, Sofia (b 1931): Violin Concerto 2 "In tempus praesens" (2007) (32'45)--rec Feb 2008 Lyndhurst Hall, AIR Studios, London.

Mutter is both player and conductor in the Bach concerti, and she aquits herself well.  These are fine, lyrical performances, but the do not oust my favorite performances, which are those of Hillary Hahn with the Los Angeles Chamber Orch.

Gubaidulina is 83 years old now, and was born in Chistopol, USSR 11 years and a day before I--Oct. 24, 1931.  She got in some trouble early on because of her "mistaken path" in music, which is highly dissonant, but does not follow any of the systems of composition elucidated by others.   She is not a 12-toner or a minimalist, nor does she seem to have a system unique to herself, as Hindemith did.  Her dissonances follow no special rules; they seem to be just what seems right to her.  She is also a devout Russian Orthodox believer, and has lived in Hamburg, Germany since 1992.  Some of her compositions are of a religious nature; in 2000, the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart commissioned her and three other composers, Tan Dun, Osvaldo Golijov, and Wolfgang Rihm to compose a cycle of passions according to the four gospels.  Her contribution was the St John Passion. 

Read the short review by Arnold Whittall, Gramophone [10/2008] of this record at http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=205544   

A 6 CD EMI set of Arturo Toscanini recordings with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.  All recordings done live in Queen's Hall, London unless specifically noted.  These recordings were made in the period 1935 through 1939; they were made for EMI, and are not among the recordings in the massive RCA big box of Toscanini recordings.

CD1--rec. live 3 June 1935.

Tr. 1-15......Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 "Enigma" (29'02)
Tr. 16-19....Sibelius: Sym. 2 in D Major, Op. 43 (39'33)

On 26 Jan 2015, I reported on the Toscanini Enigma Variations 1951 recording with the NBCSO in that massive set.  The timing for that recording was 29'08; this one from 16 years earlier is all of 6 seconds shorter!  So, Toscanini displayed a remarkable consistency with regard to his tempos, at least in this work.  I must say that this recording seems to emphasize the rhythmic aspects of the score rather less than the 1951 recording and concentrates on Elgar's luscious melodic invention.  EMI has done an extraordinary job of sound restoration on this recording; I hope it augurs well for the rest of this set.  The sound is as good or better than that many of Toscanini's RCA recordings from the late 1940's.

This 1935 recording of the Sibelius 2 is exactly one minute longer than AT's 1941 8H recording of it with the NBCSO.  I reviewed that second one back in March, too, and found it to be the worst performance of the work in my collection.  This is of a piece with that one.  Toscanini doesn't have much of an idea of how the first three movements are supposed to go, though he does build up a good head of steam in the last movement.  Good sound, though, much better than you might expect from 1935.  Others to listen to: Mackerras, both Davises, Barbirolli, and Vollmer/Adelaide.  The Davises are the best, IMHO.

CD 2--Tr. 1-3 rec, 5 June 1935; Tr. 4-6 rec. 12, 14 June 1935

Tr. 1..........Wagner: Faust Overture (12'28)
Tr. 2..........Wagner: Die Gotterdammerung:Siegfried's Death and Funeral Music (13'19)
Tr. 3..........Wagner: Parsifal: Prelude to Act 1 and Good Friday Music (26'52)
Tr. 4-6.......Debussy: La Mer (24'53)

These are all superb performances which are sonically about on a par with Toscanini's RCA recordings from 1950-1 or so.   The Faust Overture is grand and played at a leisurely pace.  The Die Gotterdammerung excerpts are majestic and have about them an air of impending doom, appropriate for the work and the time period.  The Parsifal is appropriately mystical, and the Debussy is a bit more muscular than we usually think of La Mer as being.  All together, a very fine disc indeed.

CD 3--

Tr. 1.........Mozart: The Magic Flute, K. 622: Overture (6'39)--rec. 12, 14 June 1938 in EMI Studio
Tr. 2.........Rossini: La scala di seta: Overture (6'05)--rec. 2 June 1938
Tr. 3.........Semiramide: Overture (11'58)--rec. 12 June 1935
Tr. 4-5......Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61: Entr'acte after Act 3 (Nocturne) (5'39), Entr'acte after Act 1 (Sxherzo) (4'20)--rec. 14 June 1935
Tr. 6.........Weber: An Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65 (orch. Berlioz) (9'22)--rec. 2 June 1938
Tr. 7.........Beethoven: Leonore, Op. 138: Overture 1 (7'57)--rec 1 June 1939)
Tr. 8.........Beethoven: The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43: Overture (4'45)--rec. 1 June 1939)
Tr. 9.........Brahms: Tragic Overture, Op. 81 (12'36)--rec. 25 Oct 1937

All these pieces are pretty much standard concert openers.  They are all performed well here. Sound quality is excellent for the period, except for the Weber, which seems muffled in comparison to the others.

CD 4--Beethoven

Tr. 1-4......Sym 1 in C Major, Op. 21 (26'15)--Tr. 1-3 rec 25 Oct 1937, Tr. 4 rec 2 June 1938
Tr. 5-9......Sym 6 in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastoral" (37'51)--Tr. 6 rec 17 June 1937, other tracks rec 21, 22 Oct 1937.

These are magnificent performances; again, it is absolutely amazing the magic the sound technicians have been able to work to make this recordings from 1937-8 sound like some of the better recordings made in the early 1950's.  Especially wonderful was the last movement of the Pastorale, exciting and vigorous and yet lyrical as well; Toscanini builds up a good head of steam, but he knows when to relax it and let Beethoven's melodies work their magic, too.

CD 5--Beethoven

Tr. 1-4......Sym 4 in B Flat Major, Op. 60 (30'08)--rec 1 June 1939
Tr. 5-8......Sym 7 in A Major, Op. 92 (34'41)--rec 14 June 1935.

The 4th is a pretty good performance.  Not as good as either Klemperer, or Monteux, Schuricht, Liebowitz.
 
As for the 7th, its pretty good, too, but not as good as any number of others--Liebowitz, Schurict, Solti, or Szell in all but the second movement.  And, in the third movement, the transition into the second theme at about 1'23 is very awkward, too fast, with a few notes seemingly cut off.  Not something we are used to hearing from Toscanini at all.

The sound is absolutely astounding for recordings made in the mid and late 1930's.  They sound more like they might have been recoirded in the mid-1950's. 

CD 6--Brahms

Tr. 1-4......Sym 2 in D Major, Op. 73 (36'26)--rec. 10 June 1938
Tr. 5-8......Sym 4 in E Minor, Op. 98 (39'01)--re. 3, 5 June 1935

Again, it is amazing what modern sound engineers can do to bring these old recordings from the mid and late 1940's sound lively and vital.  These are not among my favorite performances of the works in question, however.  They are both reasonably good performances but not up to the standard of, say the five or six best recordings of each available.  The 4th here is better than the 2nd, especially in the second and fourth movements.