Record Review: non-BaL discs reviewed, etc.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Some ear-opening choices in the 'contemporary' segment of today's programme. I enjoyed the Partch extract (Daphne of the Dunes) especially.

I was also greatly impressed by Pauline Oliveros' work, too - the suggestion that she had influenced Ligeti (from which I presume Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures were meant) made me think that the "original" was a considerably better work than the "influenced"!

And (not surprisingly) I was greatly impressed by the Lachenmann excerpts and Gillian Mooore's enthusiasm for Schreiben matches my own for this astonishing composer's work.

[Nick Armstrong]

And (not surprisingly) I was greatly impressed by the Lachenmann excerpts and Gillian Mooore's enthusiasm for Schreiben matches my own for this astonishing composer's work.

Yes - first time I've really focused on his music. Fascinating stuff.

GM's remarks generally, inc on Lachenmann, were illuminating to me - and I'm glad she also appealed to an 'old hand' such as yourself

[teamsaint]

W

(Though perhaps it should await said mod actually being able to spell the bloke's name )

Overrated as a pastime, spelling.


Anyhow, sounds a fascinating part of the prog, so I hope to discuss with you earlybirds later.

Why oh why, though, is the show not piped live at the Lock Inn at Bradford on Avon.

What better to go with the famous " as seen on TV" boatmans special breakfast ?
Yum.

Edit: ah, excerpts from that Sony Masters of the C20 Box. Lets hope the price doesn't rocket before payday.

ah....good news...for those £15 short of the next pay cheque, the complete Sony Masterworks C20 box is on Spotty.

" The radio was my teacher". Toru Takemitsu.

[cloughie]

Anyone hear Randall Thompson's Alleluja on CD review this am - sounded a rather lovely piece - new to me.

[ahinton]

:I greatly enjoyed the Grieg Pno Conc; it's been many, many years since I last listened to the work - this recording reminded me why I fell in love with the work as a teenager.)

I confess that, in my youger days, I found my semi-compatriot Grieg (yes, he was of Scots origin, his grandfather being one Alexander Greig) a largely tiresome composer and, although I've long since seen the error of my ways in so shamefully underestimating him, I've never yet come to love that piano concerto. Writing a big set of variations for piano on Åse's Death from his first Peer Gynt Suite during the 1970s was on one level a kind of apology on my part for having been so crass (although the choice of subject was solely on the grounds that it made good material for variations); notwithstanding that, I did include a brief spoof of the opening of that concerto in one of the variations and recalled that idea, again with merciful brevity, at the close of my Conte Fantastique for euphonium and piano which was commissioned by Norwegian euphonium player Morten Wensberg (and which, like almost everything else on earth, is now on YouTube, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zor9ervMNtI played by him with pianist Donna Amato). Maybe I'll "get" the Grieg concerto eventually - but it's been a long time already!...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Caliban mentioned the Karajan opera box on the Jon Vickers Thread. I thought that this was a remarkably good discussion between David Nice and Andrew MacGregor, partly because I was expecting the usual Seedy Review disparaging comments about Karajan - and there weren't any! Indeed, AM seemed so thoroughly discombobulated by finding himself admiring so many of the recordings that he quite had an attack of the vapours towards the end! ("The wonderful singing of Katia Ricciarelli, there" "Err, that was Barbara Hendricks, actually." ... "So, is this your favourite Tosca?" "It's Turandot!")

I was also delighted that DN shares my enthusiasm for the later recordings: I thought that I was the only one who preferred the Digital Rosenkavalier and Falstaff to the EMI versions!

(Oh - and Cali - the Karajan Rheingold should join the Walkure on your shelves, too! )

[Barbirollians]

That Karajan Turandot is terrific.

[Nick Armstrong]

(Oh - and Cali - the Karajan Rheingold should join the Walkure on your shelves, too! )

Ah?

I'd be more tempted if it was Thomas Stewart playing Wotan in Rheingold. He's almost the best thing about the Walküre...!

And see: http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...d-quot-tonight

I was also delighted that DN shares my enthusiasm...

And of course, you share his for Sinfonia Domestica don't you Ferns? (Am I remembering correctly....? )

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And of course, you share his for Sinfonia Domestica don't you Ferns? (Am I remembering correctly....? )

Not that dissimilar - I agree with him about the muddy recorded sound of the Karajan, but like Herbie's sense of structure more than he did and can tolerate the trumpet splitting. I liked what I heard of the Janowski, though - but won't be hurrying to add it to my collection of Furtwangler, Karajan, Maazel and the composer: it's not my favourite work of his - 'tho' heaps better than Aus Italien and/or Macbeth.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh - and I think the transition from lyrical, idealistic DF-D as Wotan in Rheingold to Thomas Stewart in Walk & Sieg is an inspired bit of dramatic insight.

But if Karajan, Stewart and Rheingold is tempting, then there's always:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Das-Rheingold-Berliner-Philharmoniker-Karajan/dp/B000YD7S12/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1438001669&sr=1-1&keywords=karajan+rheingold

... with a cast to kill for! (Including the magnificently-named Leif Roar as Donner )

[Nick Armstrong]

Most interesting and tempting, Mr F...!

Re: Domestica, I was having a misguided tease, I thought I'd picked up on another thread that you hated the piece! Must have misread...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Re: Domestica, I was having a misguided tease, I thought I'd picked up on another thread that you hated the piece! Must have misread...

Yes - I think you were referring to my using SimDom as a rolled up newspaper to swat the overlarge wasp that is Aus Italien!

[Tapiola]

Some ear-opening choices in the 'contemporary' segment of today's programme. I enjoyed the Partch extract (Daphne of the Dunes) especially.

Ooh, my days... I discovered this work on the Avant Garde project site a few months ago and it is amazing. I love it to bits. As TS has intimated, Partch long overdue a CoTW profile.

Pure class

[Nick Armstrong]

I was very taken indeed with both performances of Schubert's D894 sonata, judging from the extracts played this morning: Sir Andras playing a Brodmann fortepiano from 1820, and David Fray (not a pianist whose work I knew) on a standard but very good sounding and well-recorded modern grand. Tempting!

[Nick Armstrong]

Blimey - that extract from the Pires/Harding/SRSO Gramophone-winning Beethoven disc made the 3rd PC sound like a double concerto for piano and hard-stick timps! I like it! I think...