What Classical Music Are You Listening To?

[A Lark Ascending]

[soulpope]

On 6.4.2016 at 7:24 PM, A Lark Ascending said:

excellent ....

[A Lark Ascending]

52 minutes ago, soulpope said:

excellent ....

No. 19 sounds like Holst! 

No 27 of the first. 

[A Lark Ascending]

Disc 1 - pieces for voice and piano and then choir. A second hand copy of this arrived in the post yesterday - I was primarily after a recording of The Knot Garden. I paid £15 for it. Just noticed the only available copy on Amazon now is going for £245 - bonkers!

"Scenes and Arias" was only the second 'contemporary' 'classical' piece that I heard live (an inscrutable concert by Roger Smalley being the first). Went to a Prom in '76 with some friends from uni and we were all mystified by the Maw. It's actually not that difficult (though I prefer his later 'Odyssey'). Had to look up what else we saw that night - Vaughan Williams 6 which I remember (I was in the first flowering of RVW-mania) and Brahms 4 which I can't recall for the life of me.

     

Edited April 8, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[alankin]

Now playing:
Frédéric Chopin 
– Ballade for Piano No.1 in G minor B.66 Op.23
– Ballade for Piano No.2 in F major/a minor B.102 Op.38
– Ballade for Piano No.3 in A flat major B.136 Op.47
– Ballade for Piano No.4 in F minor B.146 Op.52
– Impromptu for Piano No.1 in A flat major B.110 Op.29
– Impromptu for Piano No.2 in F sharp major B.129 Op.36
– Impromptu for Piano No.3 in G flat major b.149 Op.51
– Impromptu for Piano No.4 in C sharp minor B.87 Op.66 "Fantaisie-Impromptu"
– Fantasie for Piano in F minor/A flat major B.137 Op.49
– Tarantella for Piano in A flat major B.139 Op.43
– Polonaise for Piano in A flat major B.147 Op.53 "Heroic"
— Alfred Cortot (piano) (EMI Classics)

 

[jazzbo]

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Dvorak as my Dad has been as well and we're independently and collectively listening to Supraphon box sets. I've been listening to strings quartets and symphonies.

[Chuck Nessa]

I hope you have the first Neumann symphony set from the '70s which is more lively than the digital remakes.

[Larry Kart]

I like Rowicki's Dvorak symphony set.

http://www.amazon.com/Dvorák-Symphonies-Overtures-Anton%C3%ADn-Leopold/dp/B0033KR5Z2/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1460165386&sr=1-1&keywords=rowicki+dvorak

[soulpope]

[A Lark Ascending]

"In 1914 the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire signed up as a soldier in the French army, and was seriously wounded in 1916. He recovered, only to die in the Spanish influenza outbreak just days before the armistice of 1918.

Apollinaire’s Bird takes 'Un oiseau chante' ('A bird sings'), one of the poems he wrote while fighting in the trenches, as its basis. This remarkable poem contrasts the realities of war with hearing a single bird singing ‘somewhere among these two-a-penny troops. … Sing on and on your sweet song to the sound of deadly guns.’

Apollinaire’s Bird was written for the Hallé and its Principal Oboist Stéphane Rancourt."

From: http://www.nmcrec.co.uk/recording/apollinaires-bird

Edited April 9, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[Balladeer]

Ludmila Berlinskaya - Scriabin (Melodiya)

[Peter Friedman]

Bach - Overture In The French Style - Gould

Mozart - Violin Concerto No.4, K.218 - Oistrakh

[7/4]

electronic music:

Lull - Cold Summer

Lull - Continue

Edited April 9, 2016 by 7/4

[A Lark Ascending]

Three of his most glorious pieces - the shimmering 'Summer', utterly mysterious 'There is a Willow Grows aslant a Brook' and more contemporary (in a broader European sense for its time) 'Phantasm'. Also a jolly take on the an old folk dance tune ('Sir Roger') plus some enjoyable earlier pieces. 

Edited April 10, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[Balladeer]

Vladimir Leyetchkiss - My Favorite Tchaikovsky (Centaur)

[king ubu]

[7/4]

 

Lull - Dreamt About Dreaming

[Larry Kart]

Darius Milhaud's "Protee," Maurice  Abravanel, Utah Chamber Orchestra

An almost-forgotten radical modern masterpiece -- not like most Milhaud, kind of a cross between "Le Sacre" Stravinsky (influence might have gone both ways there) and Varese, whose music Milhaud would not have known at the time. 
 

Would like to get my hands on this o.o.p. Monteux recording, though "modern" sound is probably essential. It's movement 2 that's the killer (it caused a riot at the premiere), though the whole work is remarkable. The premiere of "Protee" took place in 1920, but it was written in 1913, contemporaneous with "Le Sacre."

[A Lark Ascending]

Disc 3 this morning - Songs for Achilles, Songs for Ariel, Songs for Dov, Byzantium.

Late afternoon - The Knot Garden. Utterly bonkers libretto (though no more bonkers than The Magic Flute....well, a bit more bonkers) but contains some extremely colourful and engaging orchestration. Helps to have heard 'Song for Dov' a few times prior to have some islands of familiarity.

 

Midday - Disc 1: Sleigh Ride; Marche Caprice; Over the hills and far away; Dance Rhapsody No. 2; Dance Rhapsody No. 1; On the mountains
 

[Peter Friedman]

Bruckner Symphony No.5

[7/4]

Philip Glass and Nico Muhly - Music for 2 Violins: Philip Glass and Nico Muhly

.

[Peter Friedman]

Piano Concerto No.4

[king ubu]

[A Lark Ascending]

Disc 2: 'A Child of Our Time'; and the stand alone arrangement of the five spirituals for choir tucked on the end. 

Disc 3 K593, K614

No. 1...and then on to 2, 3, 4. Don't know this music except in passing but very much enjoyed it this morning. Everything from allusions to Scottish folk songs to a wonderful section from the middle of the 4th built round the arresting harmonic sequence that opens the 4th Symphony (or maybe the symphony reflects the sonata). 

Tippett's music doesn't seem to get out much at present...quite common I suppose in the immediate years after a composers death. I'm keen to hear some of this live. Hopefully the Proms will come good. 

Edited April 11, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[Peter Friedman]

Haydn -Piano Trios Hob. XV 13 and Hob. XV 14

Dvorak -  String Quartet No.6 Op.34