What Classical Music Are You Listening To?

[Peter Friedman]

String Quartet D.804 "Rosamunde"

[alankin]

Now playing, CD 20:
Antonio Vivaldi – L'estro armonico Op.3
— Simon Standage (violin), Micaela Comberti (violin), Jaap ter Linden (cello), Miles Golding (violin), Elizabeth Wilcock (violin) 
— The English Concert – Trevor Pinnock (Archiv Produktion)

 

Edited November 19, 2016 by alankin

[StarThrower]

 

[Peter Friedman]

[alankin]

Now playing CDs 53 & 54:
Georg Philipp Telemann – Paris Quartets Nos.7-12
— Barthold Kuijken (flute), Sigiswald Kuijken (violin), Wieland Kuijken (viola da gamba), Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord) (Vivarte / Sony Classical)

 

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, alankin said:

Now playing CDs 53 & 54:
Georg Philipp Telemann – Paris Quartets Nos.7-12
— Barthold Kuijken (flute), Sigiswald Kuijken (violin), Wieland Kuijken (viola da gamba), Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord) (Vivarte / Sony Classical)

  

!

[alankin]

Now playing, CD 19:
Franz Liszt 
– 2 Polonaises for Piano S.223/2 in E major
– Scherzo for Piano in G minor S.153
– Nuages gris for Piano S.199
– 6 Consolations for Piano S.172/6 in E major Allegretto sempre cantabile
– 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies for Piano S.244/17 in D minor
– Klavierstück in F sharp major S.193
– Mephisto Polka for Piano S.217
– 12 Transcendental Etudes for Piano S.139/1 Preludio
– 12 Transcendental Etudes for Piano S.139/2 in A minor
– 12 Transcendental Etudes for Piano S.139/3 Paysage
– 12 Transcendental Etudes for Piano S.139/5 Feux follets
– 12 Transcendental Etudes for Piano S.139/7 Eroica
– 12 Transcendental Etudes for Piano S.139/8 Wilde Jagd
– 12 Transcendental Etudes for Piano S.139/11 Harmonies du soir
– 12 Transcendental Etudes for Piano S.139/10 in F minor
– 3 Concert Etudes for Piano S.144/3 in D flat Major Un sospiro
– 2 Concert Etudes for Piano S.145/2 Gnomenreigen
Sviatoslav Richter (Philips / Decca Music)

 

[A Lark Ascending]

Heard the newly arranged 'Electra' suite on the radio last week and it jumped to the top of the list. I've always found the opera a tough listen but with the voices stripped away the music doesn't sound that different to the tone poems and you can hear quite clearly the link to 'Rosenkavalier'. I suspect that in the opera everything is so tense with lots of hysterical screeching that it can sound more challenging than it really is. 'The Rosenkavalier Suite' is the usual one from the 1940s...pity someone hadn't had a crack at 'Salome'.

 

Nothing like as scary as you are often led to believe - I was pulled in from the off and played both discs straight through without a break. Clearly structured around repeating (but varied) scenarios, much like in a nursery rhyme or ancient myth (the old three tests type thing) leading, surprisingly, to a happy ending (Punch gets the girl despite all the murders en route). Small scale chamber orchestra (not unlike a Britten orchestra) that is very well recorded so all the individual instruments stand out. It's not 'Madam Butterfly' so you'll not be humming the tunes - but a completely engaging piece. 

Just finished reading:

A set of interviews over a six month period - rambling, constantly going off track but very interesting, especially on his Lancashire origins and early days as a clarinet player and student in pit orchestras and as a student. I saw him interviewed in London a few years back and he was exactly the same as here - gnomic, a bit irritable but generally good humoured. He was writing his piano concerto while the interviews took place so details the problems he's having, the solutions he's come up with (though explained in a rather abstract way). Maddocks is brilliant at probing him, like a teacher with a reluctant schoolboy. Though she fails throughout to get him to say much about his school days which he clams up about again and again. 

This morning:

Enjoying Symph 1 this morning. Symph 4 is a Late Romantic wonder and I've always been disappointed with the previous three by comparison which seem to work of earlier models. But, as ever, taken on its own terms....  

Edited November 20, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[A Lark Ascending]

16 hours ago, StarThrower said:

 

Keep your eye out at your local cinema - there's a Met broadcast of 'L'Amour De Loin' on Dec 10th (think that's worldwide). If they are showing it in the backwater where I live I'm sure it won't be far away from most places. 

Edited November 20, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[Balladeer]

Pavel Kolesnikov plays Tchaikovsky The Seasons (Hyperion)

[David Ayers]

6 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

 

 

Thanks for the tip on this one - it is excellent.

[StarThrower]

7 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Keep your eye out at your local cinema - there's a Met broadcast of 'L'Amour De Loin' on Dec 10th (think that's worldwide). If they are showing it in the backwater where I live I'm sure it won't be far away from most places. 

I haven't heard of any of those in my town, but I know they have showings 90 miles west in Rochester, NY. Anyway, i've been listening to many Saariaho pieces on YouTube, and so far i like Circle Map, 6 Japanese Gardens, and Laterna Magica. And her viola work, Vent Nocturne.

Edited November 20, 2016 by StarThrower

[alankin]

Now playing, CD 13:
Robert Schumann – Concerto for Piano in A minor Op.54
Evgeni Kissin — Wiener Philharmoniker – Carlo Maria Giulini

Robert Schumann – Arabeske for Piano in C major Op.18
Franz Liszt – Die Forelle (Schubert 2nd version) for Piano S.564, 9 Soirées de Vienne after Schubert S.427/6 Valse Caprice, Erlkönig (Schubert) for Piano S.558 No.4
Edvard Grieg – 3 Pictures from life in the country Op.19/3 Carnival Scene, Six Piano Pieces Arranged from Songs Op.41/3 "I love thee"
Evgeni Kissin (piano) (Sony Classical)

 

[soulpope]

Earlier today .... :

Segerstam + DNRO perform miracles with Sibelius ....

[Peter Friedman]

String Quartet Op.18/4

Violin Sonata Op.23

[A Lark Ascending]

Starthrower wrote : I haven't heard of any of those in my town, but I know they have showings 90 miles west in Rochester, NY. Anyway, i've been listening to many Saariaho pieces on YouTube, and so far i like Circle Map, 6 Japanese Gardens, and Laterna Magica. And her viola work, Vent Nocturne.

(Can't get quote to work!)

I'm not sure if I'll go - I have a video of the piece and it is visually very static. There's a good CD with a sort of suite from the piece. I like the sound worlds that Saariaho creates and have a few records by her. But have yet to connect with a piece that makes me say 'this is wow!' But that's my unfamiliarity. Someone worth coming back to.

I'm a bit late celebrating the Feast of the Reformation this year - 79/192/80 from disc 47. Trying to listen to these in vaguely calendar order from 3/4 through. Next week I get aligned with Advent.

  

Both the Schoenberg pieces are very enjoyable - I've known the Chamber Symphony a long time and would nominate it as a good candidate for the 'so you think you don't like Schoenberg, well try this' award. The Suite is new to me.

Apart from the interest value of the Partch disc it also indicates where Carla Bley and Paul Haines were coming from in the late 60s/early 70s.

Disc 6 of the organ - various relatively short pieces.

This morning:

 

Just the symphony - a bit Strauss, a bit Brahms in their sunny, genial moods. 

Edited November 21, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[soulpope]

Beautiful Elgar, stupendous Wagner ....

Edited November 21, 2016 by soulpope

[Peter Friedman]

Mozart - Piano Concerto No.18, K.456

Sibelius - Symphony No.3

[Peter Friedman]

Disc 7 - Mazurkas OP. 6, 7, 17, 24, 30, 33

[A Lark Ascending]

All thoroughly engaging music from relatively recent times. Especially enjoyed the Mary Wiegold Songbook - a range of songs by contemporary (for 1990) British composers (including Keith Tippett!), interspersed with arrangements of John Dowland. 

And some shorter things off various discs - Birtwistle 'Refrains and Choruses' and 'Tragoedia'; string quatets by Nicholas Maw and Judith Weir. 

This morning:

Extracts disc. 

[soulpope]

Edited November 22, 2016 by soulpope

[soulpope]

[soulpope]

[soulpope]

[alankin]

Now playing, CD 12:
Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No.2 in D major Op.36
— San Francisco Symphony Orchestra – Pierre Monteux (RCA Victor Red Seal Records / Sony Classical)