What are YOU listening to today?

bombasticDarren · Post by **bombasticDarren** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 9:22 am

Elgar - Cello Concerto (Yo-Yo Ma/Andre Previn, London Symphony Orchestra, Sony Classical)

bombasticDarren · Post by **bombasticDarren** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 10:02 am

Bruckner - Symphony No.4 (Sergiu Celibidache, Munchner Philharmoniker, EMI)

maestrob · Post by **maestrob** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 12:37 pm

It's back on the market: simply the best Rachmaninoff on disc......

johnQpublic · Post by **johnQpublic** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 2:25 pm

Although there are substantial cuts in #2, Ormandy's is still so gorgeous to listen to. Recommended....and I'm not even on Fanfare magazine's staff.

johnQpublic · Post by **johnQpublic** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 2:27 pm

LPs

Weber - Overture to "Der Freischutz" (Klempere/Angel)
R. Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra (Ormandy/Columbia)
Hindemith - Horn Concerto (Brain/Angel)

bombasticDarren · Post by **bombasticDarren** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:13 pm

Britten - Symphonic Suite from Gloriana & Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes (Robert Murray/Edward Gardner, BBC Philharmonic, Chandos)

Fergus · Post by **Fergus** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:55 pm

ravel30 · Post by **ravel30** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 5:03 pm

Lots of music listening over the last two days.

Firstly, from my newly wonderful box set:

All with Kudelik and the Symphonieochester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Schumann Symphonies 1,2 and 4 (You guys are absolutely right about this cycle. It rocks !!!!)

Mozart Symphony no. 36 One of my favorite symphonies by Mozart. Again, very nicely played

Brucker Symphony no. 4 Now that was quite a happy surprise. I was not really buying the box set for the two symphonies by Brucker by this 4th is very good indeed. A very clear sound a lots of precision

From the other great cycle that I recently purchased

Haydn Symphony no. 88 Szell/Cleveland Symphony Orchestra

Here is a symphony that I did not previously owned but heard on the first concert that I ever went to back in 2000. If Haydn is as amazing each time then I think that I am up for many beautiful discoveries. Ideal music to listen to while relaxing on my couch

This afternoon:

Brahms Symphony no. 1 BSO/Hannoncourt Live recording can be so great with such an orchestra and a great conductor

Gershwin Piano Concerto MTT/MTT/San Fransisco Symphony orchestra

This piece is so full of imagination. I only know the usual Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and this concerto by Gershwin. I always wondered if there is nothing else worthy from him to listen too.

And lastly,

Nielsen Symphony no. 3 Michael Schonwandt/Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Rapidly becoming my favorite version of that work. I don't know if that is because I listened to it on my IPOD but the sound was amazing and full of clarity. The last time I listened to that version was in last August when I was in Reykjavik for my honeymoon. Great memories

Seán · Post by **Seán** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 6:47 pm

Lovely post, well done Matt.

Bedřich Smetana
Má Vlast (My Country)
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Rafael Kubelík - conducting.

I bought this CD for my older brother for Christmas and he loves it, he sent me a long email last night describing his thoughts on it, so I had to give it another spin this evening, it's wonderful, it is an extraordinary performance.

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 8:51 pm

Toscanini conducting....

Harris' Symphony #3
Ravel's Bolero
Liszt's From The Cradle To The Grave

johnQpublic · Post by **johnQpublic** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:43 am

LPs

F. Mendelssohn - Hebrides Overture (Karajan/DGG)
Schubert - String Quintet in C (Budapest+/Columbia)

ContrapunctusIX · Post by **ContrapunctusIX** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:55 am

Holmboe: Symphony No. 1
from Complete Symphonies
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra & Owain Arwel Hughes
BIS

This is some really fantastic 20th century neoclassical! I'll be methodically working through the rest of this set, while also looking to acquire more from this very talented (and overlooked) composer.

josé echenique · Post by **josé echenique** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 9:38 am

Happy birthday Wolfgang A. Mozart!!!

Let´s celebrate!!!!

johnQpublic · Post by **johnQpublic** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:11 pm

Elsner - Overture to "Leszek the White" (Dawidow/Dux)
Chopin - Three Nocturnes, Op. 9 (Arrau/Philips)
Elgar - Falstaff (Lloyd-Jones/Naxos)

bombasticDarren · Post by **bombasticDarren** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 6:12 am

Sibelius - Symphony No.1 (Paavo Berglund, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, EMI)

Fergus · Post by **Fergus** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:35 am

Partitas 1-3.

josé echenique · Post by **josé echenique** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 9:42 am

Health is priceless, and so is this Fux masterpiece.

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:43 am

Liszt's Les Preludes (Paray)
Rimsky's Capriccio espagnol (Barbirolli 1)
Chopin's Sonata #2 (Horowitz)
Schubert's Ninth (Sawallisch 1)

Seán · Post by **Seán** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 2:48 pm

Earlier today:

Bedřich Smetana
Má Vlast
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Rafael Kubelik - conducting.

Seán · Post by **Seán** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 2:50 pm

Earlier today I asked my wife if she would like to listen to orchestral or piano music, I wasn't prepared to listen to pop and classical on out national "classical music station", and she replied that she would like some piano music. We spent the afternoon listening to Mozart.

CDs: 1, 2 & 3
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonatas: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11
Rondos: in C, K330 & in A, K511
Maria João Pires - Piano

Beautiful!

Seán · Post by **Seán** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:02 pm

Henry Purcell
Instrumental music from
The Fairy Queen
Dido and Aeneas
Freiburger Barackorchester
Thomas Hengelbrock

I love it and yes I know it's Purcell, but I love it, it's the Freiburger effect.

Fergus · Post by **Fergus** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 5:06 pm

johnQpublic · Post by **johnQpublic** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 6:42 pm

Rameau - Overture to "Le Temple de la Gloire" (Rousset/L-Oiseau-Lyre)
Leclair - Trio Sonata #2 (London Baroque/Harmonia Mundi)
de Fesch - Concerto Grosso in E & Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 3, Nos. 3 & 6 (Beck/Astoria)
J.S. Bach - Preludes & Fugues #15 & 16 from "WTC, Book 1" (Cooper/ASV)
Telemann - Concerto in F for 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Violins, Cello and 2 Cembalo (Goebel/Archiv)
Fux - Turcaria [Suite assembled from various Fux pieces by an unattributed person] (Duftschmid/Arcana)

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 12:25 am

Borodin's Second (Perlman.....live w/Detroit Sym)

josé echenique · Post by **josé echenique** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 9:11 am

This is one of my favourite recordings of Faust. Every now and then, record producers have a brilliant idea: this time was the unexpected casting of Cecilia Gasdia as Marguerite. Gasdia better known for her Rossini and Bellini, proves a fresh, youthful and adorable Marguerite, in fact the best since Victoria de los Angeles.
This is also probably the best recorded performance of the late Jerry Hadley, who sings so stylishly that he has little to envy Alfredo Kraus. Samuel Ramey is his usual confident, sonorous self, but surely the Devil could use more charm and malice. Carlo Rizzi conducts on the slow side, but overall this is a very satisfying Faust.

Fergus · Post by **Fergus** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 10:44 am

Fergus · Post by **Fergus** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 3:34 pm

johnQpublic · Post by **johnQpublic** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 3:40 pm

Larsen - Overture-Parachute Dancing (Martin/Leonarda)
Carter - Night Fantasies (Oppens/Cedille)
Schuman - Symphony #10 (Slatkin/RCA)

josé echenique · Post by **josé echenique** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:21 am

I like Klaus Florian Vogt a lot. In this, his first recital he is labeled as a Heldentenor, but I´m not so sure he is your typical Heldentenor. First of all he sings the lyric tenor Wagner parts: Lohengrin, Walter and Parsifal at the heaviest, but I don´t think he has ever sung Siegmund (even though he sings the Winterstürme in this cd) or Tannhäuser, and Tristan and Siegfried would simply be out of the question.
I think his voice is very attractive, and most important he is always very musical. It´s interesting to compare him with the more baritonal Jonas Kaufmann, both are outstanding voices, but they just couldn´t be more different. If Kaufmann is the Corelli of German Tenors, Vogt is the Luigi Alva.
Both can be seen as Lohengrin on DVD, and it´s fascinating to hear 2 completely different voices in this role.
The important thing is that Vogt is always musical, individual and special, really, a superb singer.

maestrob · Post by **maestrob** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:00 pm

This is excellent Rachmaninoff, standing up well next to Ormandy & Reiner.

johnQpublic · Post by **johnQpublic** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 1:12 pm

maestrob wrote:

This is excellent Rachmaninoff, standing up well next to Ormandy & Reiner.

I would agree with that as a general statement about Previn, for I have his Telarc recording of Rach #2 (uncut version) and along with Ormandy's (cuts) I love it.

maestrob · Post by **maestrob** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:12 am

johnQpublic wrote:
maestrob wrote:

This is excellent Rachmaninoff, standing up well next to Ormandy & Reiner.
I would agree with that as a general statement about Previn, for I have his Telarc recording of Rach #2 (uncut version) and along with Ormandy's (cuts) I love it.

Hi, John!

My only quibble with Previn is that he lets the final tam-tam stroke in the Symphonic Dances bloom, while Rachmaninoff clearly has no indication in the score that it should do so (IIRC it's notated by a single eighth note.). If Rachmaninoff had wanted a long note there, he would have indicated, perhaps "LP", or some such notation. Ormandy gets it right by playing the note short, as indicated.

Diegobueno has played this piece (but not the tam-tam), and we've discussed this previously.

johnQpublic · Post by **johnQpublic** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:48 am

Fergus · Post by **Fergus** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:01 pm

Partitas 4-6.

josé echenique · Post by **josé echenique** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 8:11 pm

This is interesting. Otto Nicolai, better known for his "Merry wives of Windsor", went to Rome in 1833 to study organ. While in Italy he became interested in opera and composed 5 melodramas in Italian between 1837 and 1840. Il Templario was composed for Turin´s Teatro Regio and enjoyed a big success that led to other performances in Italy and elsewhere. The last known performance of Il Templario was given in 1879, but some of it´s arias were still sung in the early 20th Century.
The interesting thing, is that the orchestral score was never published and even though a piano score was published in the XIX Century in Lucca, the original orchestral manuscript was destroyed in Milan during World War II.
In the 1980´s 3 copies were found in Naples, Lisbon and Austria and only recently a critical edition has been made available, that´s why virtually no one has heard of Il Templario.
This is a very different opera from the Merry wives of Windsor, Otto Nicolai was well aware of the musical scene in Italy and he follows the conventions of Mercadante, Mayr, Pacini and late Donizetti.
What is obvious even from the overture is that it is very well written, the orchestration is elegant and the musical ideas are attractive. Overall I liked it a lot.
The recording is serviceable, but obviously there are no great voices nor famous names in the cast.
Still, a rare opera worth hearing.

arthound · Post by **arthound** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 4:45 am

Very HIP Haydn and Very Non-HIP Handel.

johnQpublic · Post by **johnQpublic** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 4:32 pm

Silcher - Overture in C minor (Lajovic/Carus)
Schubert - Variations in B-flat for Piano Four-Hands (Gulda & Hinterhuber/Naxos)
F. Mendelssohn - String Symphony #10 (Pople/MHS)
Raff - Aus Thuringen (Edlinger/Marco Polo)

ravel30 · Post by **ravel30** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 7:54 pm

Yesterday:

Bruckner no. 3 from

I did not purchase that box set for the two Bruckner symphonies on but I saw them as a bonus. Upon listening to that symphony yesterday though, I now consider Kubelik to be a great Brucknerian.

I never really considered Bruckner's third among my favorites. But after hearing that performance yesterday, this may very well change. All great movements with a lot a variety in them.

My other versions of that piece are the Tintner on Naxos and the Jaochum on Brilliant Classics. These versions will get a listen soon as I want to see why this beautiful piece never had a strong effect on me until yesterday.

Today, I listened to Sibelius Symphony no. 1 from my newly purchased box set:

I own the Sakari/Naxos, Berglund/EMI Classics and the Vanska/BIS cycles and I found that version this symphony very interesting. It will be wonderful to discover the rest of the set.

I want to give a special thank to Karlhenning who talked foundly of that cycle many months ago in a thread on Sibelius. You are absolutely right. It looks like a great cycle.

Matt.

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 11:43 pm

....this broadcast concert of the Seattle Symphony led by its new music director, Ludovic Morlot:

Liszt's From the Cradle to the Grave
Mahler's Kindertotenlieder (w/Nathan Berg)
Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances

josé echenique · Post by **josé echenique** » Thu Feb 02, 2012 8:13 am

An absolutely marvelous record of 2 little known sonatas. What a pity that these 2 superb artists didn´t make more recordings together.

maestrob · Post by **maestrob** » Thu Feb 02, 2012 12:10 pm

So sad that he died so young: Feuermann was a great talent!

johnQpublic · Post by **johnQpublic** » Thu Feb 02, 2012 12:19 pm

LPs

Chapi - Overture to "El Tambor de Granaderos" (Sorozabal/Columbia)
Ginastera - Cantata para America Magica (Adonaylo/Columbia)
Bartok - Viola Concerto (Menuhin/Angel)

ContrapunctusIX · Post by **ContrapunctusIX** » Thu Feb 02, 2012 4:54 pm

Villa-Lobos: String Quartets 1 & 6
Cuarteto Latinoamericano
Brilliant

This music is about as far removed from the Bachianas Brasileiras as anyone could imagine. Still for those interested it's excellent 20th century neo-classical string quartet music.

Fergus · Post by **Fergus** » Thu Feb 02, 2012 5:21 pm

josé echenique · Post by **josé echenique** » Thu Feb 02, 2012 8:44 pm

Arthur Grumiaux, Rachel Podger and others have recorded the Haydn Violin Concertos, but it was only to be expected that this new recording with Giuliano Carmignola will go straight to the top. Carmignola´s gorgeous sound and aristocratic musicianship are just perfect for Haydn, and he gets marvelous support from the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées sans Philippe Herreweghe.

A beautiful disc.

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Thu Feb 02, 2012 9:59 pm

The world premiere of William Hill's Symphony #3.....played by Larry Rachleff conducting the Colorado Symphony.

A pretty neat work which I hope some bigger-name maestros will pick up on. Uses a well-reinforced percussion section.

Hill's the head tympanist for this orchestra, and YOU can hear the work this Sunday at 7pm (Mountain Time) on KVOD/CPR, at http://www.cpr.org/article/Colorado_Symphony_Broadcasts

josé echenique · Post by **josé echenique** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 11:18 am

A magnificent oratorio by Johann Adolph Hasse in a superb performance by Il Seminario Musicale.

johnQpublic · Post by **johnQpublic** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 3:21 pm

Mercadante - Overture to "La schiava saracena" (Frontalini/Bongiovanni)
Respighi - Andante con variazioni (Wallfisch/Chandos)
Rachmaninoff - Two Pieces for Violin & Piano, Op. 6 (Tsinman/Hyperion)
Prokofiev - Suite #2 from "Cinderella" (Kuchar/Naxos)

ravel30 · Post by **ravel30** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:02 pm

Sibelius Symphony no. 6 from

Gosh I am happy with my purchase. A superb cycle so far!!! And I only pay $20 for it (brand new)

Today

Prokofiev Violin Concerto no. 1 from

Matt.

Fergus · Post by **Fergus** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 6:43 am

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