What are you listening 2 now?

[Que]

I do have to laugh at myself with this set: up to that point I bought nothing bigger than triple-CDs or double CDs. I was hugely impressed with myself for buying an enormous set with 15 CDs.

Good thing you did. At the original price with notes and full texts, it was a steal! 

[vandermolen]

I agree - both versions are fine but the KOCH disc (which I've got in its original version)



I just prefer.  Its a more "austere" version in a way that I think works rather well.  All the couplings on the KOCH disc are superb too - not sure how many have made it to the Alto reissue.  But they show what a subtle composer Respighi could be.  Cappelletti's playing is that little bit cleaner and more rapier-like which again I think suits the music well.

V much agree RS. The Alto CD features Concerto Gregoriano, Concerto all' antica and Poema Autunnale all for violin and orchestra.

[vandermolen]

Ben-Haim Symphony No.2. I was rather moved listening to this last night so it's on again this morning. I also have the more recent CPO recording (+ Botstein's recording, complete with sneezing/shouting interruption). I think that it's as good if not greater than the fine 1st Symphony (which, amazingly, I heard live in London). I don't listen to a lot of music for strings but the Concerto for Strings had me gripped throughout.

[Madiel]

BIS's 15 CD abridgement of the Complete Sibelius can still be found, although I realize you might find the current prices too high


I do have to laugh at myself with this set: up to that point I bought nothing bigger than triple-CDs or double CDs. I was hugely impressed with myself for buying an enormous set with 15 CDs.

I really don't like some of their choices as to what they regarded as "essential". Parts of it are more like a sampler for the full edition, but on a massive scale. It does reasonably well on orchestral works but then when it gets into things like songs and piano pieces, it's such a random scattering (even if they arguably pick the "highlights") that it doesn't really appeal to me.

I started sketching out a 10-CD orchestral works proposal. I might end up posting it on the Sibelius thread... when's the next meaningful Sibelius anniversary so I can start sending the proposal out to record companies? But I get a bit sick of the focus being so roundly on the symphonies. I have the same problem with Dvorak sometimes.

[Madiel]

I checked the Hogwood/AAM set. It includes K.61g as an "Anhang" to the 14th Symphony. The liner notes don't seem to say anything about K.61g and almost nothing about the symphony itself. (My copy was from Amazon Italy, so the booklet is in Italian only.)

Well that's not right. Marriner has it right (Phillips complete Mozart in various guises). The menuet in A K.61g and the menuet in A crossed out in Symphony no.14 are 2 different pieces. Having now heard a couple of recordings of both.

[Harry]

John Dowland.
The Collected Works.
CD II.
The Second Booke of Songes or Ayres of 2,4 or 5 parts, 1600, No. 1-22.
Giulio Caccini, John Dowland, Richard Martin, Robert Hales, Anthony Holborne, Daniel Batchelar,Domenico Maria Megli, Guillaume Tessier, Pierre Guedron.
Soloists:
Emma Kirkby, Soprano, Martyn Hill, Tenor, John York Skinner, Countertenor, David Thomas, Bass.
Instrumentalists:
Colin Tilney, Harpsichord, Anthony Bailes, Christopher Wilson, Jakob Lindberg, Nigel North, Lutes.

Consort of Musicke, Anthony Rooley.
Recorded in 1976-77 at the DECCA Studios, West Hampstead, London.

Gorgeous, absolute bliss, at least for me.

[AnotherSpin]

[Florestan]

[foxandpeng]

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4, a lot...

Kondrashin in Moscow

Petrenko

Rozhdestvensky with the BBC Philharmonic

My main problem with this symphony is that I tend to get lost in the huge and episodic first movement.

The Kondrashin is the most characterized.  Each episode unfolds in almost a visual fashion.  As discussed previously, the master tape has some damage, but the vibrancy still comes through.  I haven't yet compared with Kondrashin's later live recordings with the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Concertgebeouw.

The Petrenko is technically the best recording here, and the Liverpool orchestra plays powerfully and virtuosically.  Very impressive, but I'm not sure it helps me navigate the very episodic nature of the music any better.

The Rozhdestvensky is a live recording in vibrant stereo (a few coughs here and there).  It's amusing how the audience murmurs after the first movement, and then even more loudly after the second movement.  They do go wild at the end.  You rarely hear more than throat clearing and chair creaking between movements in most live recordings.

I was listening to this yesterday, with Rudolf Barshai conducting. The cycle is really growing on me.

[Florestan]

This first listen added a new composer to my list of piano music favorites. 

[Que]

Great set. Even though it adds a 3rd version of the baryton octets to my shelves, which wasn't really necessary. A cheap reissue from jpc.de of the set on BIS.

[Florestan]

Great set. Even though it adds a 3rd version of the baryton octets to my shelves, which wasn't really necessary. A cheap reissue from jpc.de of the set on BIS.

I have its components in two separate issues (Overtures, 2 vols on Koch-Schwann and the Eszterhazy-Naples set on BIS). I warmly recommend you these two as well:

[vandermolen]

Alwyn: 'Odd Man Out' (Suite from the film) (arr. Christopher Palmer)
This doomed processional is one of my favourite works by Alwyn:

[Papy Oli]

Good morning all,

Earlier on, a very promising first listen to the string quartets by Lalo & Franck.

[Papy Oli]

LvB Op.59/1 (Alban Berg Qt)

[Madiel]

Haydn op.1/3 in D major, which starts with a lovely Adagio.

[foxandpeng]

Talivaldis Kenins
Symphony 1
Andris Poga
Latvian NSO
Ondine

Kenins has been a real touchstone over the last months. Not earth shattering, perhaps, but consistently enjoyable.

[Harry]

Johann Wilhelm Hertel.
Sinfonias & Concerti, "Con spirito".
Sergio Azzolini (Bassoon)
Capriccio Barockorchester Basel, Dominik Kiefer.


Hertel is rightly called a master of the "sensitive style"  to start with.. Each of these three works has its own character and inspires with an unusual richness of harmonies, rhythms and tone colors. Hertel knows how to use individual instruments of the orchestra in a particularly effective soloistic manner. This masterly skill is then amplified in the three bassoon concertos. Here, Hertel's artistry makes one sit up and take notice, since the bassoon is not exactly considered a predestined solo instrument. But there are no doubts or reservations at all: Sergio Azzolini is such a brilliant soloist that one can only marvel at the possibilities and the versatility of the bassoon - and one gets to know a musical world that combines brilliant virtuosity with sensitivity.  Well recorded and performed.

[Papy Oli]

Dipping a tentative toe:

Elliott Carter - String Quartet No.1 (Pacifica)

[vandermolen]

Good morning all,

Earlier on, a very promising first listen to the string quartets by Lalo & Franck.

Lalo was Composer of the Week on BBC Radio 3 this week.