What Classical Music Are You Listening To?

[A Lark Ascending]

Two very entertaining discs of recent music. First has some very attractive small group pieces with prominent winds; second is more zany in a Looney Tunes sort of way. (Apologies for the size of the second image)

I keep reading about the 'more severe' style of King Priam compared with earlier Tippett but this strikes me as the most immediately appealing of his operas. Maybe it's the more straightforward plot - Tippett's other operas are a bit odd, to put it mildly (especially the hippy-ish later ones). A fair sized orchestra but only occasionally unleashed in full - he makes marvellous use of solo instruments for extensive periods. Some beautiful guitar accompanying Achilles sulking in his tent. 

[HutchFan]

Rudolf Serkin Plays Beethoven (Sony)
CD 6 - Piano Sonatas Nos. 21 "Waldstein," 23 "Appasionata," 24, and 26 "Les Adieux"

A few years ago, I spent an entire afternoon listening to different recordings of "The Appasionata."  There was Moravec, Horowitz, Ashkenazy, Kempff, and several others. It was good fun. . . .And I discovered that I liked Serkin's version best.  

[Peter Friedman]

Haydn - Op.55/3

Spohr - No.25, Op.82/2

[soulpope]

[Peter Friedman]

Piano Concertos No.14 and No.15

[A Lark Ascending]

[Balladeer]

Roberta Alexander (soprano) & Tan Crone (p)  - Charles Ives Songs (Etcetera)

Disc 1

[soulpope]

Earlier today .... :

[alankin]

Franz Schubert 
– Sonata for Piano No.11 in B major D.575/Op. posth
– Sonata for Piano No.17 in C major D.840 "Reliquie"
Sviatoslav Richter (piano) (Decca), CD 16 from:

 

[A Lark Ascending]

The third three parts.

[Peter Friedman]

Spohr - String Quartet No25, Op.82/3

Beethoven - Symphony No.8

[A Lark Ascending]

Interesting that of all the areas of contemporary 'classical' music it's choral music that seems to have the greatest popular reach (well, maybe film music and minimalism too). Suspect it's tied in with the fact that it's also the area of music where the general public are most likely to be participants. Composers working in that field are more likely to write things people want to sing rather than things they feel they ought to hear. The music here is conventional (I've read many an aesthete get on his/her high horse about Lauridsen and similar composers) but I find it engaging and moving. Must be even more so if you are actually singing it. 

My favourite choral piece (Glagolitic). I didn't initially take to choral music but hearing this at a Prom in the mid-70s knocked my socks off.  

Edited September 18, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[soulpope]

[StarThrower]

[Peter Friedman]

Haydn - Symphony No.85 "La Reine"

Mendelssohn - Symphony No.1

[A Lark Ascending]

The Maw is a beauty - two string pieces, one with a featured cello. That strained chromaticism you get in late Mahler though quite un-Mahler-like in sound. Reminiscent in places of the Britten of the Frank Bridge Variations or the end of the Nocturne....Britten was ahead of the game in Mahler fascination. Maw is a wonderful composer who seems to be rather forgotten since his death - his massive 'Odyssey' is a tremendous piece of severe yet accessible music. 

Talking of Britten, he must have been familiar with Sancta Civitas...you can hear the War Requiem in its layered used of different choirs, trumpet fanfares and vocalists.   

I've had the Pohjola a few years - don't know him other than this. Hasn't really registered - very Shostakovich like in the faster music. The Bliss is from his enfant terrible days just after the First World War. Sound utterly unthreatening now - more in line with what was happening in France than RVW etc.  

Edited September 18, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[Chuck Nessa]

Ives Concord by Kirkpatrick 

but I am listening to the cd reissue  

with about 20 minutes added of Ives playing.

[A Lark Ascending]

Edited September 19, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[soulpope]

Thereof Symphony 3 ....

[soulpope]

Thereof Symphony 3 ....

[alankin]

Now playing:
Highlights from Rubinstein at Carnegie Hall — Recorded during the historic ten recitals of 1961 (RCA Victor Red Seal / Living Stereo – Sony Music)

 

Claude Debussy 
– Préludes Book 1: No.10 La cathédrale engloutie
– Images for Piano Set 2: No.3 Poissons d'or
– Images for Piano Set 1: No.2 Hommage à Rameau
– Préludes Book 2: No.8 Ondine
Karol Szymanowski 
– 20 Mazurkas for Piano Op.50/1 in G flat Major Sostenuto molto rubato
– 20 Mazurkas for Piano Op.50/2 in E minor Moderato
– 20 Mazurkas for Piano Op.50/3 Moderato
– 20 Mazurkas for Piano Op.50/6 Vivace (Junacko)
Sergei Prokofiev 
– Visions fugitives for Piano Op.22/1 Lentamente
– Visions fugitives for Piano Op.22/2 Andante
– Visions fugitives for Piano Op.22/3 Allegretto
– Visions fugitives for Piano Op.22/12 Assai moderato
– Visions fugitives for Piano Op.22/6 Con eleganza
– Visions fugitives for Piano Op.22/7 Pittoresco
– Visions fugitives for Piano Op.22/10 Ridicolosamente
– Visions fugitives for Piano Op.22/11 Con vivacità
– Visions fugitives for Piano Op.22/18 Con una dolce lentezza
– Visions fugitives for Piano Op.22/9 Allegretto tranquillo
– Visions fugitives for Piano Op.22/16 Dolente
– Visions fugitives for Piano Op.22/14 Feroce
Heitor Villa-Lobos 
– A prole do bebê Book 1 W 140: No.1 Branquinha
– A prole do bebê Book 1 W 140: No.5 Negrinha
– A prole do bebê Book 1 W 140: No.8 Bruxa
– A prole do bebê Book 1 W 140: No.2 Moreninha
– A prole do bebê Book 1 W 140: No.6 A Pobrezinha
– A prole do bebê Book 1 W 140: No.7 Polichinelle

Arthur Rubinstein (piano) 

[OliverM]

Mozart - The 6 "Haydn" Quartets - Juilliard String Quartet, 1962.

Reissued by Diapason in a budget Mozart box.

Edited September 22, 2016 by OliverM

[A Lark Ascending]

The final three parts. 

One of the lesser known Britten operas - the critics weren't too keen when first performed. I find it a very strong piece - clear narrative, the pace rapid, varied colours from full orchestra to small groups of instruments, strong themes of ambition and loyalty, love and duty, youth and ageing. There's a very beautiful song sung by the Earl of Essex in the first act, modelled on Elizabethan music, that reappears in the orchestra (as Elizabeth signs Essex's death warrant) in all its richness, the strings soaring upwards. One of those hair on the back of the neck moments. 

Edited September 19, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[HutchFan]

On 9/17/2016 at 7:15 AM, Balladeer said:

Roberta Alexander (soprano) & Tan Crone (p)  - Charles Ives Songs (Etcetera)

Disc 1

Lovely.

 

 

Earlier this AM:

Schubert: Wanderer-Fantasie / Schumann: Fantasie, Op.17 / Maurizio Pollini (DG)

[soulpope]

In the late afternoon .... :