What Classical Music Are You Listening To?

[StarThrower]

[soulpope]

3 hours ago, six string said:

Ivan Moravec - Chopin 24 Preludes Ballads in F minor (Supraphone) 

There's something about Moravec's touch that I really like.  He really knows how to draw the notes out of a piano.

Treasurable recording ....

[Balladeer]

Peter Mattei (baritone) & Bengt-Ake Lundin (p)
 Wilhelm Stenhammar: Songs (BIS)

[JSngry]

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

 

Big picture, big music, these guys are worth the time.

Looks like I'm gonna be stuck on this one today. No complaints!

[Peter Friedman]

Mozart - Piano Concerto No.22, K.482

Beethoven - Violin Sonata No.2, Op.12/3 - Oistrakh & Yampolsky

[StarThrower]

[soulpope]

Thereof Elgar 1 .... mesmerizing perforrmance ....

[soulpope]

More Elgar .... :

[A Lark Ascending]

Another listen to 'The Triumph of Time' - actually one of the easier Birtwistle pieces to follow as he clearly marks out the sections and highlights the instruments being given prominence. Had me thinking of Holst's 'Egdon Heath' which I played straight after - clearly a completely different idiom with clear, tonally sculpted melodies, but shares a sense of moving slowly and relatively quietly through a bleak landscape. Followed by:

 

Just the Planets. Listened to all the above on a train journey from London through the East Midlands - not a landscape I usually care for but yesterday the low sunlight caught the still surviving autumn leaves in their glorious range of colours beautifully; newly ploughed fields, the odd little church...combined with the music, all quite magical. 

Just the Lulu Suite.

This morning:

Edited November 19, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[soulpope]

[alankin]

Robert Schumann – Phantasie for Piano in C major Op.17
— Sviatoslav Richter  (EMI Classics)

[StarThrower]

 

Lontano Atmospheres Apparitions San Francisco Polyphony

[JSngry]

 

 

[T.D.]

I once saw Eighth Blackbird live, and they're a terrific ensemble. Their repertoire can be rather, let's say, variable, but it is adventurous.

[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.