What Classical Music Are You Listening To?

[Chuck Nessa]

[soulpope]

[hvbias]

On 2/3/2018 at 6:37 PM, Chuck Nessa said:

Certainly not first choice, but fascinating.

It took me some time to get used to Richter playing WTC on this recording, he adds some small flourishes here and there.

[alankin]

Robert Schumann 
– Concerto for Piano in A minor Op.54 — Warsaw National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra – Witold Rowicki
– Introduction and Allegro appassionato for Piano and Orchestra in G major Op.92 — Warsaw National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra – Stanislaw Wislocki
Franz Liszt 
– Harmonies poétiques et réligieuses S.173/7 Funérailles
– Hungarian Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra S.123 – Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra – János Ferencsik

Sviatoslav Richter  (piano)

Béla Bartók – Concerto for Orchestra Sz 116
— Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Fritz Reiner (RCA Victor Red Seal Living Stereo / Sony Classical)

 

[mikeweil]

Perreau, who wrote a biography on the composer, offers an insightfull essay on unaccompanied flute music, and plays with a lot of feeling.

Edited February 8, 2018 by mikeweil

[alankin]

Sergei Rachmaninov – Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No.2 in C minor Op.18 — Philippe Entremont (piano), 1960
Sergei Prokofiev – Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No.2 in G minor Op.63 — Isaac Stern (violin), 1957
— New York Philharmonic – Leonard Bernstein (Sony Classical)

 

[Peter Friedman]

Op.76/3 "Emperor" & Op.76/4 "Sunrise"

Edited February 8, 2018 by Peter Friedman

[soulpope]

Earlier today .... :

[soulpope]

(IMO) the only viable alternative to the Janacek Quartet`s reading from 1963 (also released on Supraphon) ....

[Olie Brice]

1 hour ago, soulpope said:

(IMO) the only viable alternative to the Janacek Quartet`s reading from 1963 (also released on Supraphon) ....

I don't know the Janacek Quartet's version, the Smetana Quartet's is the best I've heard... but the Takacs are also wonderful with these, in my book

[Peter Friedman]

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, Olie Brice said:

I don't know the Janacek Quartet's version, the Smetana Quartet's is the best I've heard... but the Takacs are also wonderful with these, in my book

The Takacs take a more urging approach - nevertheless an excellent recording ...

[Chuck Nessa]

On 2/6/2018 at 0:03 PM, Larry Kart said:

Fascinating works, all of them, especially the Sonata in F Minor (1948). Avowedly based on classical models, especially late Beethoven, this work ran so counter to then prevailing "progressive modern" compositional  fashion that the work was hissed and booed by members of the audience  at its 1949 NYC premiere (young serialist composer George Perle stood up and shouted either "Hurrah Beethoven!" or "Viva Beethoven!" -- accounts differ.) In any case, this hostile reception -- most of the those who booed and hissed were, like Perle, fellow young composers -- "...was enough for Shapero  (b. 1920) to lapse into creative silence for many years," retreating into academic life to teach at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1988.

I knew of this story and also knew of Shapero's similarly neo-classical Symphony for Classical Orchestra, which Andre Previn revived and recorded in the 1980s; there also was a previous recording  of the Symphony from the early '50s or late '40s cond. by Leonard Bernstein.

What I didn't reckon on is that while the language of these works is staunchly tonal and that there is the late-Beethoven skeleton to the Sonata in particular, the results sound quite unique and quite American to boot. Primarlly this is a matter of what might be called spacing. The harmonic relationships are tonal, but there is quite often so much distance in pitch (and even register) between one figure or gesture and the next that the music typically seems to be taking place in mid-air and at some height ... above, say, the Grand Canyon. Further, the emotional effect of this music and its methods -- at once so "open air" and with such a sense of calmly striding purposefulness --  is unique, too. Again, Shapero was an avowed neo-classicist, and the example of Stravinsky's personal transformative version of that mode was before his eyes, as were some aspects (in terms of spacing) of Copland. But then Shapero doesn't sound much like Stravinsky or Copland either. (BTW, Copland earlier on had spoken somewhat negatively of Shapero's "compulsion to fashion his music after some great model.... he seems to suffering from a hero-worship complex -- or perhaps it is a freakish attack of false modesty...." Be that as it may, just listen to these works and tell me they don't sound unique  -- and, I think, terrific.)
 

The first time I encountered the name was the Columbia lp called "Modern Jazz Concert" with pieces by George Russell, Jimmy Giuffre, Milton Babbitt, Gunther Schuller and Charles Mingus. His composition called "On Green Mountain" was so simplistic I never looked for more by him. "Mountain Greenery" is another issue.
 

[Larry Kart]

17 minutes ago, Chuck Nessa said:

The first time I encountered the name was the Columbia lp called "Modern Jazz Concert" with pieces by George Russell, Jimmy Giuffre, Milton Babbitt, Gunther Schuller and Charles Mingus. His composition called "On Green Mountain" was so simplistic I never looked for more by him. "Mountain Greenery" is another issue.
 

"On Green Mountain" is a total dud.

[Olie Brice]

The first CD from the new 60s Juilliard Quartet box-set which arrived this morning.  Hadn't come across either composer before, both interesting pieces, fantastically well played.  Not as hardcore modernist as some of what the Juillard recorded a few years later (Carter, Schuman), kind of Bartok-esque harmonically.

The set is beautifully done, great sound, informative booklet.  I like the way they've reproduced the LPs rather than squeezing stuff on to less CDs

 

[Alexander Hawkins]

Wonderful! Very personal playing.

Olie - don't know those composers either. BTW on the Janacek Quartet recommendation about - it's a KILLER recording. I've only just acquired it myself: incredible stuff.

[alankin]

Antonín Dvořák 
– Quintet for Piano and Strings No.1 in A major Op.5 B.28
– Quintet for Piano and Strings No.2 in A major Op.81 B.155
Sviatoslav Richter (piano) – Borodin String Quartet (Decca / Philips)

 

Franz Schubert 
– Symphony No.9 in C major D.944 "Great"
– Rosamunde D.797/ Op.26/1 Overture (D 644)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – Wilhelm Furtwängler (Deutsche Grammophon)

[soulpope]

Earlier today .... :

[Peter Friedman]

Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto

[soulpope]

[soulpope]

[Balladeer]

Götz Weller (tenor) & Markus Payer (piano) Max Reger - Blick in die Lieder (SWR/Carius)

[Peter Friedman]

Op.18/2 and Op.18/3

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, Peter Friedman said:

Op.18/2 and Op.18/3

!!!

[soulpope]