What Classical Music Are You Listening To?

[soulpope]

So here we go .... :

thereof Brahms Piano Quartet No.3 in C minor Op.60 + Piano Quintet in F minor Op.34 ....

[Larry Kart]

11 hours ago, JSngry said:

Yeah, pricey. Not looking for pricey right now. I mean, really, they got them big as legit maxo-boxes for tree-fitty, just sayinggggg.....At those prices, right now, that's a dabble. From what I heard, a little dabble won't du ya',

I believe Testament bought the rights to the HSQ material, as they have bought the rights to many other things -- some vintage Juilliard Quartet recordings, for example -- so there we are.

[Peter Friedman]

Haydn - String Quartet Op.64/1

Rimsky-Korsakov - Russian Festival Overture & Capriccio Espagnol

[A Lark Ascending]

Hot off the press - it normally takes at least three listens for a new record to start to make a real impact with me (often wonder why...moving from a stage where everything is unexpected to where you start to anticipate what is coming next?). The Violin Concerto here made an immediate impact. Reviews I've seen/heard so far make (fair) comparisons with the Berg concerto; but I heard Walton in there too. 

I'm more familiar with brother David's music but have really enjoyed getting to know Colin's music over the last couple of weeks. Both assisted Deryck Cooke in the performing edition of Mahler 10 when very young men; they also worked with Britten at Aldeburgh in his last years. 

Colin is also the founder of NMC records, a label that focuses on new British music. Real treasure trove of the unfamiliar. 

 

Old favourite. 

Edited June 27, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[alankin]

Prokofiev – The 5 Piano Concertos — No.1, Op.18
— Andre Previn (piano) – London Symphony Orchestra – Vladimir Ashkenazy (Decca / London)

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Old favourite. 

!

[Peter Friedman]

[HutchFan]

[A Lark Ascending]

No 2 of latter.

Edited June 28, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[l p]

 

[Peter Friedman]

[l p]

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, l p said:

Very good ....

[Peter Friedman]

Edited June 28, 2016 by Peter Friedman
Symphony No.1

[l p]

 

[Peter Friedman]

Schubert - Piano Sonata D.566

Brahms - String Quartet No.2, Op.51/2

[Peter Friedman]

Brahms - Symphony No.3

[l p]

 

[Peter Friedman]

Brahms - Four Piano Pieces - Perahia

Huber - Piano Quintet No.1, Op.111

[Peter Friedman]

[Balladeer]

Guillaume De Chassy (pn), Laurent Naour (bariton), Thomas Savy (clarinets), Arnault Cuisinier (b)- 
 Eisler, Prokofiev - Bridges (Alpha Classics)

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, Balladeer said:

Guillaume De Chassy (pn), Laurent Naour (bariton), Thomas Savy (clarinets), Arnault Cuisinier (b)- 
 Eisler, Prokofiev - Bridges (Alpha Classics)

The excellent performances aside, this platter has superb sonics ....

[soulpope]

[Peter Friedman]

Piano Quartet No.2, Op.26

[Larry Kart]

I'm by no means an HIP-trumps-other-factors person, but today I picked up what seems to me to be a remarkable HIP recording of Bolero by Anima Eterna, conducted by Jos van Immerseel. A big part of the deal here is that full account supposedly is taken of Ravel's stated but often ignored intentions as to tempo. In the words of Pierre Coppola, conducter of an early [1930] Ravel-supervised recording), Ravel's intent was that Bolero should be performed "in the tempo indicated in the printed score (crochet = 66) without deviating from that tempo right up to the end, since [Ravel] considered the 'crescendo' occurred automatically thanks to the orchestration, and the effect he judged most important was precisely this almost hallucinatory insistence on an inexorable tempo.... The public ought to know that Bolero is the easiest of all pieces to conduct, for one beats three from start to finish, like an automaton; on the other hand, its actual performance is quite difficult, indeed fraught with danger for many of the orchestra's principals, who bear a heavy responsibility when it is their turn to state the theme; I am thinking above all of the solo for first trombone." (Following this tempo brings Bolero in at, as Ravel stated his intent for its duration, about 17 minutes. Most recordings are faster (Toscanini's, for example, is 13:25, Paul Paray's a mere 13:00). 

Further, Ravel wrote before the first performance that  Bolero consisted "entirely of an orchestral texture without music." Thus, having the orchestra play French instruments of the vintage of the time, as Immersmeel does (the winds and brass in particular) not only makes quite an audible difference, but those differences in turn make Ravel's paradoxical "Bolero consists entirely of an orchestral texture without music" no paradox at all. In fact, in this performance Bolero sounds damn radical, or perhaps that should be doggedly radical. And damn strange  even scary, too, for all its latter-day familiarity -- this strangeness and scariness being among the effects that Ravel had in mind to create.  Here it is, although YouTube can't do it full justice: