What Are You Listening To Now? - II

[BBMmk2]

J S Bach Christmas Oratorio

Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Ruth Holton, Katie Pringle, Olaf Bar, Nancy Argenta,
Anne Sofie von Otter, Hans Peter Blochwitz,
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

J S Bach Christmas Oratorio

Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Ruth Holton, Katie Pringle, Olaf Bar, Nancy Argenta,
Anne Sofie von Otter, Hans Peter Blochwitz,
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

- my favourite of JEGger's Bach recordings and (IMO) one of the very best recordings of this superbly joyful work.

[BBMmk2]

- my favourite of JEGger's Bach recordings and (IMO) one of the very best recordings of this superbly joyful work.

Oh yes, indeed Ferney! Just has this so right then. I am not so keen on his Soli Deo Gloria recordings though.

Beethoven

Sextet for two clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns in Eb(!), Op.71
Quintet for 3 horns, oboe and bassoon, H19
Rondino in Eb, WOo19
Octet in Eb, op.103
Chamber Orchestra of Europe Wind Soloists.

[Petrushka]

Haydn: Symphony No 80
BBC Philharmonic
Nicholas Kraemer

[interval]

Orff: Carmina Burana
Sarah Tynan (soprano), Allan Clayton (tenor), Christopher Maltman (baritone)
BBC National Chorus of Wales
Massed Youth Choirs of Wales
Ysgol Gymraeg Pwll Coch
Andrew Litton

Two BBC MM CDs here including the Orff which arrived today. It's a jolly romp, well worth hearing. The children's choir in the last part sound the cheekiest I've heard in this piece and one hopes they didn't understand too much of the words they were singing!

[BBMmk2]

Certainly rather risqué, Pet!

Bruckner Symphony No.8
NDR SO, Gunther Wand.

surely this is how the Scherzo should be? More allegro, than moderato?

[Richard Barrett]

In the last few days I've been returning rather obsessively to two CDs, both coincidentally with watery associations.

The first is the Water Musics of Handel and Telemann by Alfredo Bernardini's Zefiro Ensemble. I thought there might well be nothing new and fresh to be said about either of them, especially the Handel, but I was wrong. I felt as if I were hearing both for the first time.

The second is a compilation of clarinet-featuring works by Takemitsu, with Richard Stoltzman as soloist. It begins with Fantasma/Cantos for clarinet and orchestra, an exceptional example of TT's late dreamily impressionistic style, inflected here by both jazz and Japanese traditional music, sometimes simultaneously, a very beautiful piece indeed. It's followed by two 70s pieces Water-Ways and Waves both for highly unusually-constituted chamber ensembles which somehow sound like orchestras in which hardly anyone is playing, if that makes sense; and the less memorable Quatrain II for the same combination as Messiaen's Quartet, which shares some (maybe most?) of its material with the better-known Quatrain where the quartet is combined with orchestra. This disc turned out to be the stayer from a listen through all my Takemitsu discs, quite a few as it turns out.

[jayne lee wilson]

Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis In the Forest (1901); The Sea (1907).
Lithuanian State SO/Gintaras Rinkevičius. KING RECORD JAPAN CD, rec 1991.

Lithuanian National SO/Juozas Domarkas. NORTHERN FLOWERS CD 2011.

Slovak PO/Domarkas. Marco Polo lossless download (eclassical), rec. 1993 (?).

Serendipity.... I had ordered the Fedoseyev CD of these remarkable works but when I opened the packet I found the Rinkevičius had been sent, an issue I'd ignored due to the high price and my ignorance of its quality. Then I noticed the timing for The Sea: 37' rather than the more typical 27' - 29'. "Original version"appeared next to it.... I had no idea there were two versions of this late-romantic masterpiece - but perhaps it was simply very slow? Three unexpected cymbal clashes in the first climax soon cleared that up - not to mention the organ of the Church of St John, Vilnius founding the hugely extended central climax on its groundswell. A 37-minute continuous stretch of visionary, dreamlike evocations, somewhere between the Scriabin of the first 3 symphonies and the Schoenberg of Pelleas or Gurrelieder.
Forest is shorter and more delicate, its Wagnerian-murmurs precedent obvious, but gorgeously wrought in Ciurlionis' own voice.

All of these recordings are recommendable, but the later Lithuanian Domarkas has the better sound: very distinctively rich and velvety where the widely-available Marco Polo release offers a less sensuous, less evocative clarity of line. But both of these are the (still very enjoyable) heavily Balsys-edited sub-30' version, (with less of the reflective, quieter episodes between shorter, though still thunderous climaxes) as is the Fedoseyev (preferred in 1991 in Gramophone to the Marco Polo). The KING release is unique in offering the extraordinary original, prepared in 1990 for these very performances, and I feel it has the more natural idiomatic feel for the shaping of each phrase, the natural building up of the elaborate paragraphs.
(Stunning sound too, With prices to match, I'm afraid...)

But what an experience it offers... do have a look at Ciurlionis' wonderful paintings too, often with Musical Titles e.g. Funeral Symphony....
mikalojus konstantinas čiurlionis 157 paintings

[Petrushka]

Two CDs from the Argo King's box.

A Festival of Lessons and Carols

Choir of King's College, Cambridge
Hugh Maclean (1954) and Simon Preston (1958) organ
Boris Ord (1954) and David Willcocks (1958)

[Bryn]

... The second is a compilation of clarinet-featuring works by Takemitsu, with Richard Stoltzman as soloist. It begins with Fantasma/Cantos for clarinet and orchestra, an exceptional example of TT's late dreamily impressionistic style, inflected here by both jazz and Japanese traditional music, sometimes simultaneously, a very beautiful piece indeed.

Managed to find a used: very good copy of the Stolzman CD on Ebay for £9.99 including p&p.

[Daniel]

Somewhat akin to one's perception of policemen, the older I get the more youthful Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze seems, and on this last hearing it sounded more youthful than ever.
Everything about the music seems heightened, as if being experienced in vivid detail, fainting melodies and ideas thrown together almost in a jumble like clothes on a student's floor, yet the emotional centre seems so strong as to unify any disparateness. It's a central piece in the romantic repertoire as far as I'm concerned, and it really is beautifully done by Adam Laloum here.

[BBMmk2]

My second hearing of Handel's wonderful Oratorio, Messiah. The last one was of Sir Andrew Davis's new recording from Chandos. This is where Sir Andrew makes very good use of the modern symphony orchestra, in which, imo, he executes a very fine performing edition of this way. Very tastefully done.

Now for HIPP's, I am playing Trevor Pinnock's recording he made.

Handel

Messiah.

Arleen Augerr
Ann Sofie von Otter
Michael Chance
Howard Creek
John Tomlinson
The Choir and Orchestra -
The English Concert
Trevor Pinnock

[Petrushka]

Haydn: Symphony No 91
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam
Sir Colin Davis

[interval]

Bruckner: Symphony No 7
Staatskapelle Berlin
Daniel Barenboim

[Alison]

My annual Sunday before Christmas (don't ask!) rendition of Mahler's Seventh.

The honours this year go to

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Klaus Tennstedt

1980 Edinburgh Festival
BBC Legends

I'd forgotten how frightfully good this performance is!

[Suffolkcoastal]

Today:

Listening to my scores - recent purchases 22:

Reger:
String Trio in A minor op77b - study score
String Quartet in F sharp minor op121 - study score
Clarinet Quintet in A major op146 - study score

Saint-Saens:
Symphony No 3 in C minor (organ) op78 - study score

[Colonel Danby]

Festive:

Frank Bridge: The Christmas Rose

Eathorne/James/Davies/Herford/Wilson-Johnson

Chelsea Opera Group Orchestra and Chorus

conducted by Howard Williams

Pearl SHE CD 9582