What Classical Music Are You Listening To?

[A Lark Ascending]

MD's Greatest Hits

Judith Weir - disc 1: Piano Concerto, Music for 247 Strings; Piano Trio; Arise! Arise!; Piano Quartet

Opening of PC reminds be of the start of Turangalila (think it's the extended trills). 

Edited March 26, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[Balladeer]

Franz Halasz (gtr) & Debora Halasz (pn): Alma Brasileira: Chamber Works by Radames Gnattali (BIS)

[7/4]

Some things I was checkin' out...SLEEP is 10 hours of music, third time I listened to it.

listening to March 19-25, 2016

[A Lark Ascending]

Off Spotify again. 

[Peter Friedman]

[Chuck Nessa]

[A Lark Ascending]

No 4 of the  Cooke, a recent issue taken from recordings of BBC broadcasts. Rough but very listenable recordings. Very much in the more astringent side of the Walton/Bliss world, the RVW of 4 + 6. Tonal and easy to follow but avoiding blooming melodies (OK, RVW 6 has one uber-blooming melody).

Viola Concerto of the Walton.  

'Enter Spring' is my top nomination for piece of music that could be a concert favourite but hardly gets noticed. All it will take is a period film or BBC production to latch on 'the big tune'. What makes it fascinating is that Bridge is looking in two directions at once - the opening and central sections (which always seem to evoke blustery March to me) that demonstrate the influence of wider European developments in music in the 20s; offset by the glorious, sun-sparkled processional that come right out of the world of Elgar and the pastoralists (for want of a better word). 

The rest of the disc is earlier Bridge, more Edwardian in feel though with the influence of French impressionism setting in in the two poems.  

Edited March 27, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[Balladeer]

Antonio Meneses (clo) & Celina Szrvinsk (p) :Soirees Internationales: Villa-Lobos, Guarnieri, Boulanger, Martinu (Avie)

 

[Peter Friedman]

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No.1

[A Lark Ascending]

 

Just Takemitsu 'To the Edge of Dream' off latter.

Latter off Spotify. 

Edited March 27, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[Balladeer]

Marcelo Bratke: Heitor Villa-Lobos - Complete Solo Piano Works Vol 1: Cirandinhas & Cirandas (Quartz)

[Peter Friedman]

[rostasi]

Remembering Josef Anton Riedl.
I went thru many copies of this album
over the past five decades.

 

[Chuck Nessa]

[Larry Kart]

2 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Just bought it on vinyl (for the second time, oops -- but for $1, then for 50 cents). I like the look and feel of RCA opera sets of that vintage, and they do crop up around here from time to time, at library re-sale shops especially. Zinka Milanov, Warren, Jan Peerce, Cellini -- ah, yes.

Added thought that has no connection to the above:

Malcolm Arnold's Sixth is the one where, in the first movement, he said he was inspired by Charlie Parker. I hear it, kind of, though if he hadn't mentioned it, maybe not. I've got all the Arnold symphonies I don't already have coming my way -- that would be 1,2,3 &4. That may or may not turn out to be a foolish move.

[Peter Friedman]

Eybler -  String Quartet Op.1, No.2

Mozart - Violin Concerto No1, K. 207

[soulpope]

[A Lark Ascending]

I'm just old enough to remember this music coming out of the wireless in the days of The Light Programme (became Radio 2 in 1967, now the home of Elton John, golden pop/rock oldies and middle of the road folk/jazz etc programmes...I think a few programmes of light orchestral music survive there. 'Sailing Home', of course, can be heard every night on Radio 4 at 12.45 at night, just before the shipping news.). Always throws me back to a world where the world was being made safe by Kenneth More (conveniently ignoring the nuclear silos). 

Disc 2: Distance and Enchantment; The Bagpiper's String Trio; The Art of Touching the Keyboard; I Broke off a Golden Branch; Ardnamurchan Point; El rey del Francia; The King of France

No 8 of the RVW. One of his least heard symphonies - doesn't have the big tunes of 2, 3, 5 or the menace and mystery of 4, 6, 7 but is distinctive in its own right. The outer movements with extensive use of tuned percussion are especially attractive.

The Violin Concerto of the Walton - highly Romantic yet still very much of the 20thC. 

Edited March 28, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[alankin]

Gustav Mahler – Lieder aus 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn'
— Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone) – London Symphony Orchestra – George Szell (EMI Classics)

        

Edited March 28, 2016 by alankin

[A Lark Ascending]

Disc 1 of the Webern. MD 10 from Spotify. 

[Peter Friedman]

Berwald - The two piano quintets

[Chuck Nessa]

[A Lark Ascending]

Disc 1. Roussel's orchestral music has rarely caught fire with me; whereas this set is pure unadulterated pleasure from start to finish (and perfect for sunny spring mornings). Unusual in that I normally react the other way....easily captivated by the varied tonal and textural delights of orchestral music, needing much more exposure to come to enjoy chamber music.  

Edited March 29, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[alankin]

Johann Sebastian Bach – Orchestral Suite No.1 BWV 1066, No.2 BWV 1069, Concerto for Harpsichord, 2 Recorders and Strings BWV 1057
— The English Concert – Trevor Pinnock (Archiv Produktion)

 

[paul secor]

13 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Chuck's been on an opera kick. Please tell us more.