What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Solitary Wanderer]

[sidoze]

Symphonies No. 5 and 6 from this box set. Really strong and rhythmic performances Kondrashin throw together. For No. 5 I still prefer Rozhdestvensky (Melodiya), for No. 6 this is as good as any. I look forward to explore this set further.

try 4




as good as 1?

[bhodges]

Gérard Grisey: Les Espaces Acoustiques (1974-1985) (Asbury/Asko/WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln) - I heard this on a friend's state-of-the-art system yesterday, and all I can say is "wow."  A cycle of six pieces that can be played individually or as a set, these are very difficult to describe.  They often sound electronic although they are 100% acoustic, and there are echoes of Ligeti, minimalism and microtonal music.  I've heard a number of Grisey's works, but this seems like a watershed of some sort. 

For what it's worth, a friend who was with me for the Grisey, later went with me to the New York Philharmonic to hear Dutilleux, Martinů and Rachmaninoff, and she later said that as good as the concert was, she couldn't stop thinking about the Grisey.  I felt the same way.

--Bruce

[BachQ]

Bru6 (Joch/Drez)
Mzt 24 (period)
Brahms op. 15 (Arrau/Hait)

[wilhelm]

[hildegard]

Mozart Quintets -- Amadeus Quartet and Cecil Aronowitz -- Aquarius 2003
Recorded in 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1974

[Mark]

The 'Kreutzer' Sonata from this:



Well played by Faust and Melnikov, if a little uncomfortably closely captured. Real partnership playing, though, with no one performer dominating the other.

[Solitary Wanderer]

[Harry]

Mozart Quintets -- Amadeus Quartet and Cecil Aronowitz -- Aquarius 2003
Recorded in 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1974

These are absolute stunning performances, dear Hildegard.....

[bhodges]

Brahms: Symphony No. 4 (Alsop/LPO)
Villa-Lobos: Sinfonietta (St. Clair/Stuttgart)  0:)
Carter: Partita (Barenboim/Chicago)
Carter: Variations for Orchestra (Gielen/Cincinnati)
Janáček: Suite from The Cunning Little Vixen (Jilek/Czech PO) - Excellent CD--just got it today--from 1984 on Supraphon, hiding in the bin at the used shop for $5.00.  Also has suites from Fate and From the House of the Dead.  Not familiar with this conductor, who is apparently noted for his work with this composer's operas. 

--Bruce

[Mark]

The Cello Concerto from this:

[RebLem]

In the week ending Saturday, 03 NOV 2007, I listened to the following:

1.  10/10 Bach, J.S.: Cantatas 156  (17:10), 157 (19:00), 158 (10:10), 159 (16:22)—Helmuth Rilling, cond. usual suspects—hanssler CD, Vol. 48 of CBE.

2, 3, 4, 5, 6.  10/10  Beethoven: Piano Sonatas 15-32, Friedrich Gulda, piano—CDs 5-9 of a 9 CD Brilliant set, recorded 1967, lic from Universal Music Operations, orig appeared on Amadeo, and reissued on LP in the US by MHS.  CD 5---# 15 in D Major, Op. 28 "Pastoral" (1801) (22:01), # 16 in G Major, Op 31/1 (1802) (18:44), #  17 in D Minor, Op. 31/2 "Sturm" (1802) (20:58 ).  CD 6---# 18 in E Flat Major, Op. 31/3 (1802) (20:14),  # 19 in G Minor, Op. 49/1 (1798 ) (7:59), # 20 in G Major, Op. 49/2 (1796) (7:31), # 21 in C Major, Op. 53 "Waldstein" (1804) (20:29), # 22 in F Major, Op. 54 (1804) (10:38 ).  CD 7--- # 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata" (1805) (20:23), # 24 in F Sharp Major, Op. 78 (1809) (9:07), # 25 in G Major, Op. 79 (1809) (8:49), # 26 in E Flat Major, Op. 81a "Les Adieux" (1810) (14:22), # 27 in E Minor, Op. 90 (1814) (10:35).  CD 8--- # 28 in A Major, Op. 101 (1816) (19:56), # 29 in B Flat Major, Op. 106 "Hammerklavier" (1818 ) (36:55).  CD 9---# 30 in E Major, Op. 109 (1820) (16:47), # 31 in A Flat Major, Op. 110 (1824) (17:00), # 32 in C Minor, Op. 111 (1822) (24:07).  These are fine performances, but, in my opinion, do not approach Annie Fischer's set in sheer virtuosity and mastery of every phrase.  The Hammerklavier is, in my opinion, one of the better performances in the set.  Gulda eschews both the fantasia-like smoothing out of contrasts that is Richard Goode's approach to this and other Beethoven sonatas, but, at the same time, he avoids the sudden, almost spastic, certainly jarring, shifts in tempo one finds in R Serkin's performance.  Tempos are steady—the rock here, around which other changes in dynamics and volume levels revolve.

7, 8, 9. 10/10 Shostakovich:   Songs cycles and vocal music, CDs 1,2, & 3 of a 5 CD set.  CDs 1 & 2—Neeme Jarvi, cond. Gothenburg SO.  CD 1—Two Fables of Krylov, Op. 4 (8:43)—Larissa Diadkova, mezzo-soprano, Women's voices of Gothenburg Opera  | Three Romances on Poems by Pushkin, Op. 46a (7:45)—Sergei Leiferkus, bass-baritone  | Six Romances, Op. 62/140 (15:00)—Sergei Leiferkus, bass-baritone, [11 Songs] From Jewish Folk Poetry, Op. 79a (25:43)—Luba Orgonasova, soprano, Nathalie Stutzmann, contraldo, Philip Langridge, tenor.  CD 2---Six Romances on texts by Japanese poets, Op. 21 (13:55)—Ilya Levinsky, tenor  |Six poems of Marina Tsvetayeva, Op. 143a—Elena Zaremba, contralto  |Suite on verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Op. 145a (13:14)—Sergei, Leiferkus, bass-baritone.   CD 3---3 song cycles accompanied by Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano---Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin, Op. 146 (11:00), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone  |7 Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok, Op. 127 (23:43), Elisabeth Soederstrom, soprano, Christopher Rowland, violin, Ioan Davies, cello  |Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Op. 145a (41:38 ), John Shirley-Quirk, baritone.

Up for next week---the final two CDs of the above Shostakovich set: Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District with Myung-Whun Chung and the Bastille Opera, the Zinman set of the Beethoven symphonies, and some Schumann CDs, mostly solo piano records, but also including the Cello Concerto with Isserlis.

[not edward]

Something of a Prokofiev marathon:



Mravinsky conducting the Sixth Symphony.



Kondrashin conducting the Third Symphony.



Ivashkin in the underrated Cello Concerto, Polyansky conducting.



Jurowski conducting Chout.

[BachQ]

The 'Kreutzer' Sonata from this:



Well played by Faust and Melnikov, if a little uncomfortably closely captured. Real partnership playing, though, with no one performer dominating the other.

Glad you liked the 'Kreutzer' Sonata.  0:)  Have you listened yet to the VC on that same disc?

[Mark]

Glad you liked the 'Kreutzer' Sonata.  0:)  Have you listened yet to the VC on that same disc?

Saving that for the long commute to work tomorrow. I like the sound of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in the morning.

[sidoze]

Kondrashin conducting the Third Symphony.

How is that? I don't think I ever heard it.

Jurowski conducting Chout.

Used to have Rozhdestvensky conducting this. Wonderful music, should be played more!

[not edward]

How is that? I don't think I ever heard it.

Probably the best performance I've heard of the Prokofiev. The Shostakovich is pretty good, too.

[PaulR]

The Waltz at the end of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel with Dresdan Skaatskapelle

forgot the conductor of it though...

But it sure is fun

[rubio]

Something of a Prokofiev marathon:



Mravinsky conducting the Sixth Symphony.

How is this sixt? I have only heard the Gergiev box set so far, and have not warmed up to these symphonies yet. I would like to try Kondrashin, and this Mravinsky seems tempting as well.

[not edward]

How is this sixt? I have only heard the Gergiev box set so far, and have not warmed up to these symphonies yet. I would like to try Kondrashin, and this Mravinsky seems tempting as well.

Absolutely superb...by far my favourite reading. Much faster than Gergiev, but also far more intense.