What Classical Music Are You Listening To?

[StarThrower]

I listened to a bunch of Ravel pianists on YouTube, and I own recordings by Louis Lortie, and Thibaudet, but this Bavouzet set is just about the finest overall performance I've heard for piano sound, phrasing, and feel.

Edited November 22, 2016 by StarThrower

[soulpope]

2 hours ago, StarThrower said:

I listened to a bunch of Ravel pianists on YouTube, and I own recordings by Louis Lortie, and Thibaudet, but this Bavouzet set is just about the finest overall performance I've heard for piano sound, phrasing, and feel.

Superb performances .... regarding Ravel IMO close to Vlado Perlemuter on Nimbus ....

[Peter Friedman]

Beethoven - Violin Sonata No.6, Op.30/1

Sigismond Thalberg - Piano Concerto Op.5 - Michael Ponti

[A Lark Ascending]

Nicholas Maw string quartet again.

No 4 of middle one.

Really taken to Johnston's very strange quartets - often reminiscent of Bartok, Ives and even Beethoven but employing microtonal and other effects that take them to other places. On an earlier disc he does strange things with 'Amazing Grace' in one quartet; hear we get a 'Danny Boy' after one too many Guinnesses.

  

Watched the video over the last three days an act at a time. I've been through this one about six times over the years (on CD and then video) and can't really warm to it. Opulent Strauss score as ever with some gorgeous sections but nothing quite sticks in mind (I played the suite afterwards to see if I could fix the main tunes but they still seem a bit Strauss-generic). Don't care for the plot at all - a strange fairy tale full of symbolism that moves between a fantasy land and the world of humans (in this production, a particularly ugly launderette). Strauss apparently thought very highly of it. I'm missing something. 

[soulpope]

Perennial favourite ....

[soulpope]

 

Priceless performances by both sensational Ida Haendel and the superb Czech Philharmonic Forces led by Karel Ancerl .... (IMO) a must have ....

[soulpope]

[soulpope]

[Peter Friedman]

[A Lark Ascending]

No. 4. Since hearing a live performance earlier this year, the 4th has shot up my personal RVW hot 100, up there with 2, 3, 5 and 6. Never noticed the similarity between the slow movement and Britten's Peter Grimes Passacaglia before, not composers I usually associate with one another. 

Just 'Twinkly Night' off the last. Disc 9 of the Eisler - vocal and orchestra pieces that range from the agit-prop to almost Richard Strauss. And who can resist a requiem entitled 'Lenin'?

This morning:

Edited November 24, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[soulpope]

[Peter Friedman]

Disc 2 - D.960

[alankin]

Now playing, CD 12:
Frédéric Chopin 
– Barcarolle for Piano in F sharp major B.158 Op.60
– 12 Etudes for Piano Op.10
– 12 Etudes for Piano Op.25
Alfred Cortot (EMI Classics)

 

[Peter Friedman]

[A Lark Ascending]

The 'Sea Symphony'. Never my favourite RVW - always sounds like a bunch of public school boys and girls playing at being sailors (admittedly the sort of sailor likely to gaze skyward and mumble things about 'the soul'). RVW in his best rumi-cum-roar-um mode at the start. But it sounded nice whilst decorating - one needs to commune with the beyond when sticking on masking tape. .

The two symphs. The 3rd is pleasant without remaining long in my mind; but the 4th is a Late-Romantic gem, very much of the world of Mahler or very early Schoenberg ' - 'Further Adventures of the Verklarte Nacht couple'. 

SQ 1 off latter.

Edited November 25, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[soulpope]

Lovely .... to say the least ....

[alankin]

Now playing, CD 15:
André Previn – Concerto for Guitar
Manuel Ponce – Concierto del Sur for Guitar
— John Williams (guitar) – London Symphony Orchestra – André Previn (piano) (Columbia / Sony Classical)

 
 

[JSngry]

 

Interesting...

[Peter Friedman]

No.1, Op.2/1 and No.2, Op.2/2

[Peter Friedman]

Symphony No.3 and "Youth" Symphony

[StarThrower]

[Peter Friedman]

Beethoven - Violin Sonata No.8, Op.30/3

Sibelius - Symphony No.6

[soulpope]

5 hours ago, Peter Friedman said:

Symphony No.3 and "Youth" Symphony

!!

[StarThrower]

^^^

Just got the Mariss Jansons Rachmaninov box on Warner Classics.

 

NP:

 

[A Lark Ascending]

Parts 1 - 3. Time to let the reindeer loose.

Edited November 26, 2016 by A Lark Ascending