What are you listening to?

[Sergeant Rock]

Paul Hindemith - Mathis Der Maler (symphony)
I would like to hear real recording - can anyone recomend me a good version, containing eventualy some more stuff from Hindemith?

This is a great set; good performances; very cheap too.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/ ... sk/hitlist

Sarge

[DavidRoss]

Paul Hindemith - Mathis Der Maler (symphony)
I would like to hear real recording - can anyone recomend me a good version, containing eventualy some more stuff from Hindemith?

This is a great set; good performances; very cheap too.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/ ... sk/hitlist

Sarge

That is a good un. So is Sawallisch/Philly.

[moldyoldie]

Paul Hindemith - Mathis Der Maler (symphony)
I would like to hear real recording - can anyone recomend me a good version, containing eventualy some more stuff from Hindemith?

Here's one more I can heartily recommend in the "low-priced" camp:
Paul Kletzki conducting L'Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, an electric performance from the '60s of Mathis der Maler in vivid remastered sound on a CD that also includes the Hindemith Violin Concerto with David Oistrakh accompanied by the LSO under the composer, as well as his exciting and colorful Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Weber with the LSO under a young Claudio Abbado. This CD is a favorite and a definite keeper!

I also have the recording by Yoel Levi and the Atlanta Symphony on Telarc. His Mathis der Maler is more expansive, often plodding, and not nearly as electric nor persuasive as the Kletzki, but it's in modern state-of-the-art digital sound -- as I recall, that bass drum packs a room-shaking wallop! However, given a choice of the two, I'd still opt for the Kletzki, et al. I've not heard the Sawallisch nor the Blomstedt.

[Wallingford]

Ives' Sun-Treader & Copland's Appalachian Spring suite (Tilson Thomas/BSO.........live Tanglewood performance from the early 70s)

[Barry]

A couple Weber Overtures, the Hindemith Concert Music for Strings and Brass and the Mendelssohn Overture, Calm Seas and a Prosperous Voyage: All with Sawallisch/Philadelphia, downloaded from their online store.
The Oberon Overture performance is spectacularly good.

[karlhenning]

. . . the Hindemith Concert Music for Strings and Brass . . . .

Most days, that is my favorite Hindemith piece of all time, Barry!

Cheers,
~Karl

[hautbois]

. . . the Hindemith Concert Music for Strings and Brass . . . .

Most days, that is my favorite Hindemith piece of all time, Barry!

Cheers,
~Karl

Now i am sure you have heard of the excellent performance in black and white from the composer himself and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, co-incidentally the brass section at its peak. Or was it the other way inspriring Hindemith to write the piece?

[Sergeant Rock]

Just arrived today from amazon.de. I'm really enjoying the Second Quartet, the themes based on 16th and 17th Russian church song. The music alternates shockingly between sweet diatonic music that could have been written anytime before 1900, dense chormaticism, and astringent dissonance that screams late 20th century



Sarge

[J Nguyen]

Berg- Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Webern, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Louis Krasner

[miranda]

I've been on a Beethoven kick lately...again.

I listened to the Missa Solemnis (for the first time!), with the Orchestre des Champs-Elysses, directed by Phillipe Herreweghe. An amazingly gorgeous recording.



Then, the Beethoven symphonies #3 and #8, performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, conducted by Osmo Vanska. Equally wonderful recording--to my untrained ears, anyway.

Soon I'll be listening to Mhler's#2 symphony, and some more Arianna Savall-related music.

[jserraglio]

Startled to find this at Half Price Books yesterday:

<img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B ... 98825_.jpg" width="300" height="300">
Roberto Gerhard: The Plague
Alec McCowen speaker
National Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Washington D.C.
Antal Dorati

A chilling work by Roberto Gerhard - this famously rare audiophile LP (Decca HEAD 6) has finally made it to CD - now one doesnt have to shell out big bucks to hear it. (£7.99 retail)

A new label, Explore Records, UK, has licensed and reissued fifteen of the old Decca Headline LP series, including modernist composers (Cage, Takemitsu, Henze, Xenakis, Panufnik, Messiaen) - also Gibbons, Jenkins, Lawes, Marcello - and Berwald, Beethoven, Hummel, Schubert.

Booklet for The Plague (text from Stuart Gilbert's English translation of Albert Camus' novel) contains notes and complete text. Playing time 44'04'', i.e., transferred straight from LP to CD. The disk sounds fabulous. Camus' words - as wedded to music - are quite disturbing.

[moldyoldie]

Last evening was a Mendelssohn/Schumann evening.

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 "Scottish" and Symphony No. 4 "Italian"
-Leipzig Gewandhaus Orch., Kurt Masur - Teldec

Mendelssohn: Overtures: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage; The Hebrides; Son and Stranger; The Fair Melusina
-Bern Symphony Orch., Peter Maag - IMP

Schumann: Symphony No. 1 "Spring" and Symphony No. 4 (1841 Leipzig vers.)
-London Philharmonic Orch., Kurt Masur - Teldec

Schumann: Symphony No. 1 (again! ) and Symphony No.2
-Cleveland Orch., Christoph von Dohnanyi - London

Masur's extremely spacious Leipzig recording of Mendelssohn has grown on me a bit with each listen. Fine performances and recordings of 3 and 4 are also included on the Maag from Bern, which are still my primary listens for this music.

Some days I like Schumann, some days not. Last night I enjoyed them very much! I also have the No. 3 "Rhenish" from Berlin PO/Levine on DG, paired with No. 2 -- like it a lot! There's also the 3rd and 4th (1851 vers.) with Norrington and the London Classical Players - not too bad, at least more consistently "listenable" than their Beethoven!

I was wondering what everyone's choice would be for a new complete set of Schumann symphonies. If the subject has been touched upon (hopefully not ad nauseam), a link to that discussion would suffice. I'm considering the more recent Barenboim/Berlin Staatskapelle on Warner Classics and the Zinman/Zurich Tonhalle on Arte Nova based solely on David Hurwitz's ebullient, practically gushing reviews of each; as well as the Szell/Cleveland on Sony, the Sawallisch/Dresden on EMI, and the later Bernstein/Vienna on DG. These can all be had somewhat inexpensively on the used market and I get the impression they're all appreciably different from each other -- but I only have room for one of them, and even that's thanks to slim "two-fer" packaging, the greatest invention since the lightbulb. Intense sampling on Amazon only goes so far.

I suppose what I'm really asking is what am I "missing" in this music that perhaps other recordings can elucidate better than what I have; there's certainly no dearth of choices available.


Currently preparing an initial listen to:
Sibelius: Symphony No. 4; Pohjola's Daughter; Finlandia
-Helsinki Philharmonic Orch., Leif Segerstam - Ondine

[Wallingford]

Would anyone believe......an opera was written about ROBIN HOOD?

British light composer Reginald DeKoven wrote it in 1891--some of his style borrows somewhat from Gilbert & Sullivan, but it has a nifty charm all its own; a shame it's not better known nowadays.

On the basis of this operetta, DeKoven for many years enjoyed status as a classical "one-hit wonder," by virtue of the song "O Promise Me" from this work: a song your great-grandparents might've had sung at their wedding. Today, he's practically a "no-hit wonder."

One question: why is the role of Alan-A-Dale given to a female? Wouldn't that be worthier of the Will Scarlet character (a delinquent lad)?

ANYWAY--the CD set is by the OHIO LIGHT OPERA, on Albany TROY 712-713.

[karlhenning]

Hindemith
Konzertmusik for piano, brass & two harps, Opus 49
Werner Andreas Albert & al.

By turns nervy and vital, lyrical and sweet, this is top-tier Hindemith.

[moldyoldie]

Mahler: Symphony No. 5
-Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Rudolph Barshai - Brilliant Classics

Wow! These are kids?!?

[RebLem]

In the week ending Saturday, 18 NOV 2006, I listened to the following:

1 ) 10/10 Bach, J.S.: Cantatas 41, 42--Rilling, cond. Usual Suspects Ensemble --hanssler CBE Vol 14.

2 ) 9/10 Beethoven: Sym 9 (71:41)--Wyn Morris, cond. LSO. Alison Hargen, sop; Della Jones, mezzo-sop; David Rendall, tenor; Gwynne Howell, bass baritone--Carlton Classics CD. This is an excellent performance, but nothing special until about the last 10-15 minutes of the 25:03 4th movement. Then it really picks up energy and plunges on to a glorious finale.

3 ) 9/10 Schumann: Symphonie etudes, Op. 13; 5 Variations Posth on Op. 13; Nachtstucke, Op. 3; 4 Nightpieces, Op. 23; Sketches for the pedal piano, Op. 58--Jorg Demus, piano. Nuovo Era Vol 6 of 13 vol set of Schumann Complete Solo Piano Works.

4 ) 10/10 Mahler: Sym 5--Inbal, cond, Frankfurt RSO--Brilliant, part of set of compl syms.--Brilliant. One of the better performances in the Inbal set.

5 ) 10/10 Shostakovich: Syms 9, 10--Barshai, cond., WDR Sym Orch. Brilliant, part of set of complete syms. As always in the series, superb performances recorded with unsurpassed sound quality. The very highest standard of both performance and engineering are exemplified here.

[moldyoldie]

I'm going to have to save up for that Barshai/Shostakovich box!

Currently listening to...
Stravinsky: Symphony No. 1; Scherzo Fantastique
Detroit Symphony Orch./Antal Dorati - London

The symphony is colorful but definitely pre-Rite of Spring -- more romantic than modern, but I like it. Not bad for Op. 1.

[moldyoldie]

Currently listening to a colorful 3-CD set of Rimsky-Korsakov's Suites from:
-The Snow Maiden
-Tsar Saltan
-The Invisible City of Kitezh
-Christmas Eve
-Mlada
-The Golden Cockerel

Scottish National Orch. / Neeme Järvi - Chandos

[Ricordanza]

This weekend, I detoured from the piano and listened to two of my favorite violinists:

Instrument of the Devil, Rachel Barton (now Rachel Barton Pine). This is a selection of pieces with "devilish" themes, including Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre, Tartini's "Devil's Trill" Sonata, an arrangement of the Witches' Sabbath from Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique, and Sarasate's Fantasy on Gounod's Faust. I marvel at her brilliant playing every time I listen to this CD.

Hilary Hahn plays Bach. Partitas Nos. 2 and 3 and Sonata No. 3 for solo violin. What can I say? Works of genius and purity (including the greatest of all solo violin works, the Chaconne), played with reverence and conviction by the then teenage Hilary Hahn.

[hautbois]

Currently listening to a colorful 3-CD set of Rimsky-Korsakov's Suites from:
-The Snow Maiden
-Tsar Saltan
-The Invisible City of Kitezh
-Christmas Eve
-Mlada
-The Golden Cockerel

Scottish National Orch. / Neeme Järvi - Chandos

The Malaysian Philharmonic recorded a beautiful rendition of The Snow Maiden suite, Tsar Bride Overture etc with maestro Kees Bakels on the BIS label, and was given 10/10 by Arkivmusic http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Dri ... ame_role=4, highly recommendable, and probably one of my most frequently revisited record ever.

[Wallingford]

These days I'm digging out my old BOSTON SYMPHONY concert tapes & reminding myself why they'll always be my favorite American orchestra:

JOSEPH SILVERSTEIN doing Prokofiev's Sixth & Stravinsky's Jeu de cartes (circa '77);
GEORGE SZELL doing Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses & Still's In Memoriam ('45);
ERNEST ANSERMET doing Debussy's Nocturnes & Ravel's Bolero ('55);
MILTON KATIMS doing Vaughan Williams' Tallis Fantasia & Ravel's Daphnis & Chloe Suite #2 (Tanglewood '69);
JOSEPH KRIPS doing Haydn's "Surprise" & Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel (Tanglewood '69);
EDO DE WAART doing Haydn's 88th & Ives' Decoration Day (Tanglewood '75);
CHARLES MUNCH doing Honegger's Christmas Cantata, a work Munch never recorded commercially ('56);
BRUNO WALTER doing Mozart's "Haffner" & Wagner's Siegfried Idyll ('43)

[Micha]

Mahler: Symphony No. 5
-Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Rudolph Barshai - Brilliant Classics

Wow! These are kids?!?

No. They are all top level students, most of them just about to start their career in professional orchestras, in any case advanced students from music academies.

[Barry]

Bruckner 5: Sawallisch/Philadelphia.......download

I was at the performance, or at least one in the run, and thought it was a great performance. I still feel that way after hearing it again. It's a much more spacious performance than one would have gotten when Sawallisch was even a few years younger. This one, from 2004, was when he was not doing well physically and conducting from a stool. His performances became slower (as has happened with a number of other conductors at the end of their career when they had slowed down physically), but more introspective in the best way. There was also a very moving Also Sprach Zarathustra that season that I hope will be made available for download.

[moldyoldie]

Mahler: Symphony No. 5
-Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Rudolph Barshai - Brilliant Classics

Wow! These are kids?!?

No. They are all top level students, most of them just about to start their career in professional orchestras, in any case advanced students from music academies.

Of course, and the result speaks for itself. However, merely looking at the photograph of Barshai and the young orchestra members in rehearsal belies what emanates from the speakers -- amazing! My use of the word "kids" is tantamount to watching Isiah Thomas or Magic Johnson play as college freshmen.

I think the gist of what amazes me is that it was the somewhat thorny Mahler Fifth, a work I'm still trying to "get a firm handle on" as a listener. I've heard more sublime renderings of the famous Adagietto, but the seemingly spotlit interplay of horns and winds at the outset of the final movement is beautiful. The acoustic is over-reverberant, especially as to the strings, but this is certainly a performance to which I can return. Bravo!

I've yet to give an "intense" listen to the appended Mahler Tenth as "reconstructed" by Barshai, which is apparently the highlight of the two-disc set as it's on Disc 1 and listed first on the cover.

[hautbois]

BEAU-TI-FUL

[moldyoldie]

A morning of Chopin:

Malcolm Frager on Telarc
-Polonaise, Op. 53 "Heroic"
-Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise, Op. 22 (aaaaaaahhhh!)
-Variations Brillantes on an Aria from Ludovic by Hérold, Op. 12
-Mazurkas, Op. 6
-Contredanse
-Tarentelle, Op. 43
-Sonata, Op. 58

Maurizio Pollini on DG
-2 Polonaises, Op. 26
-2 Polonaises, Op. 40
-Polonaise, Op. 44
-Polonaise, Op. 53 (I think I like Frager's better)
-Polonaise-Fantasie, Op. 61 (aaaaaaaahhh!, again)

Claudio Arrau on Philips
-21 Nocturnes

[J Nguyen]

Beethoven- Piano Trio in B Flat Major "Archduke", Op.97
Barenboim, Zukerman, du Pre
EMI Classics

[hautbois]

What a way to start off my morning.

[CharmNewton]

Beethoven: Quartets, Op. 59 - Emerson String Quartet (from the complete set on DG).

Lightness, drama, and excitement is all here in these recordings. The Finale to the Op. 59, No. 3 is a party record in very best sense of the word. It will leave listeners breathless, played with the gusto and togetherness. This set will wear just as well 50 years from noe (I hope to be around to test that hypothesis )

John

[karlhenning]

Igor Fyodorovich
Petrushka
LSO / Abbado

Festive music for Thanksgiving, even if it does end with "a question mark"

Cheers,
~Kalr

[jserraglio]

[moldyoldie]

Now, that looks familiar. Probably sounds familiar, too.

[bOrbOt]

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No.5 'Emperor'

Daniel Barenboim/Berlin Philharmonic

[hautbois]

Beautiful renditions of Neo-classic music.

Must be the most under-rated oboist among all non-oboe enthusiasts. Such beautiful music can only be from heaven.

[jserraglio]

<img src="http://sonymusic.com/images/selection/200/60894cvr.jpg" width="185"height="185">|||<img src="http://www.sonyclassical.com/special/ma ... 338cvr.jpg" width="192"height="187">
Four records from a great CD reissue series, Sony Masterworks Heritage. The Rabin disk is stunning.

[Sergeant Rock]

Just arrived from jpc. This Pettersson disc completes my CPO collection of Pettersson's work




The concerto is violently dissonant. He's expressing the painful environment of his poor childhood. Not for the faint-hearted or those with tender ears.

Sarge

[gperkins151]

Just arrived from jpc. This Pettersson disc completes my CPO collection of Pettersson's work

The concerto is violently dissonant. He's expressing the painful environment of his poor childhood. Not for the faint-hearted or those with tender ears.

Sarge

Sounds good!

Morning, Sarge!

[Sergeant Rock]

Sounds good!

Morning, Sarge!

Hey, George. Another miserable wet day here in Germany but the post brought a bunch of goodies from jpc so that has brightened my day.

Sarge

[gperkins151]

Sounds good!

Morning, Sarge!

Hey, George. Another miserable wet day here in Germany but the post brought a bunch of goodies from jpc so that has brightened my day.

Sarge

Or in the above case, darkened your day.

I know what you mean, of course.

[Sergeant Rock]

Or in the above case, darkened your day.

Well, it was the other thing that arrived in today's mail that brightened my day. 15 CDs for less than the price of 4:



Sarge

[Wallingford]

Tonight, I'll WATCH--as well as listen to--my brand-new copy of the out-of-print Kultur video of BEECHAM leading the CHICAGO SYMPHONY, which I luckily obtained for ten bucks on Amazon.

For a long while there, the cheapest you could expect to pay for this tape was $150.

[bOrbOt]

Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No.2

Vladimir Ashkenazy/André Previn/London Symphony Orchestra

[miranda]

Been doing a lot of intensive listening this past week.

First the spectacular Mahler Symphony #2, led by Michael Tilson Thomas and featuring the San Francisco Symphony, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and Isabel Bayrakdarian. I haven't liked Mahler in the past; I'm glad I gave him another chance. This is a stellar recording.



And I've been listening to the Minnesota Orchestra's--led by Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä-- recordings of Beethoven's 3rd, 8th, 4th, 5th, and 9th Symphonies, on the Bis label. They came recommended by Alex Ross of the New Yorker, who has this to say about these particular recordings:

"Haitink and the London Symphony have also released a set of live recordings of the nine symphonies, on the orchestra’s self-run LSO label. It is among the most assured, idiomatic Beethoven cycles to have appeared since Karajan’s classic survey of the nineteen-sixties. But it has strong competition from an unexpected source: the Minnesota Orchestra, which is in the process of recording the symphonies under its conductor, Osmo Vänskä. The Ninth has just come out, and it offers textures of supernatural clarity, as if all the grime had been cleaned from the surface of the score. Vänskä, a notorious taskmaster, appears to have sent his players to rhythmic boot camp, getting them to knock out dotted figures with quasi-military snap. At the same time, he has total command of the emotional architecture of the work. This is the most vivid Beethoven playing on the market."

quoted from: http://www.newyorker.com/critics/music/ ... rmu_music1

And after listening to these recordings, I have to agree with him, wholeheartedly. These cd's aren't available on Amazon, but can be found at Archiv music.

Lastly, I've been listening to a mellow and beautiful cd called Alfabeto, on the Naive label; it's a selection of 17th century Italian music by composers such as Domenico Pelligrini, Giovanni Foscarini, Giovanni Granata, and Francesco Corbetta,
for guitar, harp, viol, organ, voice, and clavichord. It's a wonderful cd to wake up to.

[Gary]

1963 Salzburg Festival

Beethoven's Egmont overture and the "Eroica" Symphony

Conductor: George Szell

Orchestra: Czech Philharmonic

Label: Sony Classical

[moldyoldie]

Waking up this morning to...

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
Cleveland Orch./Christoph von Dohnányi
Telarc

[Sapphire]

Miranda

I see you have the Tilson Thomas recording of Mahler S2.

Watch out for the same conductor's Mahler S5. I've heard a recent poor review of it that the famous 4th movement Adagietto is far too slow. I heard it and agree it is too slow.

The Tilson Thomas recording of Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique is very good.


Saphire

[moldyoldie]

Having a cuppa java with...

Stravinsky: Petrushka (1911 vers.); Symphony in Three Movements
London Symphony Orch./Gennadi Rozhdestvensky
Nimbus

The Petrushka sounds slow and measured (near plodding in spots, but strangely effective in the final 4th Scene), quite different from Abbado's shimmering and stimulating performance with the same orchestra on DG I heard last night. I'm not compelled to return to Rozh's rendition very often. The recording is ultra-spacious in the typical Nimbus fashion, also quite opposite that of DG.

I was shocked to recently see a seller on Amazon asking $60 for a "used - very good" copy of this particular OOP CD. Presently, a "collectible - like new" copy is priced at $74.99! This is in spite of the performances, as well as those of The Rite of Spring and The Firebird Suite, being re-issued on a Nimbus 2-CD set in March, 2004.

[RebLem]

In the week ending Saturday, 25 NOV 2006, I listened to the following:

1 ) 10/10 Mozart: Marriage of Figaro--Barenboim, cond. Berlin Phil, RIAS Kammerchor +--3 CD Warner Classics.

2 ) 10/10 Rossini: 6 Overtures--Reiner, CSO (1958) One of the great records. Personally, La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) is my favorite.

3 ) 8/9 Schumann: Kreisleriana, Op. 16; 3 Sonatas for youth, Op. 118--Jorg Demus, piano--Nuovo Era Vol 7 of 13 Vol traversal of the complete Schumann solo piano music.

4 ) 9/10 Mahler: Sym 6--Inbal, Frankfurt RSO--2 CDs of Brilliant set of complete syms, rec 1986.

5 ) 9/10 Mahler: Sym 7--Inbal, Frankfurt RSO--Brilliant, 1986.

6 ) 10/10 Bartok: Piano Concerti, Boulez, cond. Krystian Zimerman, Chicago Sym (1); Leif Ove Andsnes, Berlin PO (2), Helene Grimaud, London SO (3)--DGG

7 ) 10/10 Shostakovich: Sym 11 "The Year 1905"--Barshai, cond. WDR SO--Brilliant. As always in this series, ubermagnificent. Interpretation is dramatic, sound quality awesome. The music is depressing, of course, but the magnificence of the interpretation and the sound will keep you from slitting your wrists.

8 ) 10/10 Shostakovich: Sym 12 "The Year 1917"--Barshai, cond. WDR SO--Brilliant. Ditto above comments, except that this is even more impressive because of all Shosty's 15 symphonies, this is, by common agreement, absolutely the weakest, but Barshai manages to make a very good case for it nevertheless.

[Panzerfaust]

I bought this for Tchaikovsky's #6, and so far I like it, though I'm not finnished listening yet. It seemed like a good deal for $8. Did I make a good selection?

[CharmNewton]

I bought this for Tchaikovsky's #6, and so far I like it, though I'm not finnished listening yet. It seemed like a good deal for $8. Did I make a good selection?

I'd say your $8 was well spent. That is an interesting performance of the Pathetique. Furtwangler's conducting style fits this work for me (in his Bruckner it seems aggressive and the works get pulled around and lose their vocal, singing quality to me). Very good recorded sound for 1938.

John