What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[vinteuil]

Malcolm Singer remains a mystery. This is the only work of his I've heard, and yet I cannot believe that someone who could write so fine a work has not written others as good. Where are they? Did he die young? Did he give up, discouraged?

Malcolm Singer is alive and well. He was my next-door neighbour in Hammersmith before moving to Acton where he was next-door neighbour to the then future, now present, mme vinteuil.
We used to go to the Hannukah parties he and his wife Sara Nathan (sometime editor Channel 4 News) gave.
He was Director of Music at the Menuhin School.

https://malcolmsinger.wordpress.com/biography/

.

[pastoralguy]

I have that SACD, acquired second hand but probably not as cheaply as your purchase. I’ve picked a lot of Telemann that way. I think I might cull through them a bit for favorite works and then make playlist on the server.

I’m not the biggest Telemann fan but I have really enjoyed that cd. What I love about charity shop shopping is that I’m happy to purchase discs I’d never buy at their full retail price. That was a goodie!

[cloughie]

I’m not the biggest Telemann fan but I have really enjoyed that cd. What I love about charity shop shopping is that I’m happy to purchase discs I’d never buy at their full retail price. That was a goodie!

Indeed some end up on the ‘to go’ pile but others are treasured shelf fillers!

[smittims]

Many thanks, vinteuil, for that valuable info. . I look forward to hearing more of his music. I'm glad to see that being neglected by Radio 3 is no shame. As Coriolanus says, 'there is a world elsewhere.'

[pastoralguy]

John Cage. Music for Prepared Piano.

Bertrand Chamayou.

I was delighted to find that this month’s Gramophone has this new recording as its CD of the Month. I played it on Wednesday nite to a friend who is, to say the least, sceptical about Mr. Cage’s output. He admitted that it was not as bad as he thought it would be!

I find it quite fascinating. I love the complete unpredictability of the sounds both in terms of timbre and rhythm. Last night, I put it on repeat and just wallowed in those exotic sounds.

[smittims]

I was fortunate long ago to attend a live performance of the Sonatas and Interludes and we were invited to inspect the piano and see just what had been done to it. It is of course an early work where all the notes one hears are written by the composer. That is not the case with his later 'works' (if , indeed they contain any 'work' actually by him) , though he did return to notated music occasionally, as in Etudes Australes. And it must be admitted that, unlike many composers since, Cage did encourage us to think anew about what music is, and could be.

I was fortunate this morning to catch four more works by Priaulx Rainier on YouTube: Viola Sonata, Suite for clarinet and pianoforte, five piano pieces, and a fine performance of the Strjng Quartet of 1939 by the Signum Quartet.

[Roger Webb]

A promising start to a 'live' Valkyrie from Théatre des Champs-Elysée

https://www.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/podcasts/samedi-a-l-opera/la-walkyrie-avec-stanislas-de-barbeyrac-dir-yannick-nezet-seguin-6808582

[smittims]

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben. The San Francisco Symphony, Pierre Monteux.

Thisis a very fine performance, but I hear it was unissued for many years. Maybe Victor , about to release the Beecham recording made for them by HMV, didn't want two . Curiously, although Monteux conducted Strauss tone poems in concert occasionally, This and a late Tod und Verklarung seem to be his only studio recordings.

[groovydavidii]

Brandenburg Concertos–Concerto Italiano–Rinaldo Alessandrini–recently acquired charity shop £2 gem, sounds more authentic than the Menuhin, Marriner, and Pinnock versions…

[Stanfordian]

Arnold Bax
Symphony No. 3
Dance of Wild Irravel
Pæan (1920, orch. 1938)
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Bryden Thomson
Recorded 1986 All Saints’ Church, Tooting, London
Chandos, CD

John Ireland – 'The Songs with Piano'
Benjamin Luxon (baritone), John Mitchinson (tenor),
Alfreda Hodgson (contralto), Alan Rowlands (piano)
Recorded 1972-78 St John’s Smith Square, London
Lyrita, 3 CD set
I'm dipping in to this set today.

[Roger Webb]

Arnold Bax
Symphony No. 3
Dance of Wild Irravel
Pæan (1920, orch. 1938)
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Bryden Thomson
Recorded 1986 All Saints’ Church, Tooting, London
Chandos, CD

John Ireland – 'The Songs with Piano'
Benjamin Luxon (baritone), John Mitchinson (tenor),
Alfreda Hodgson (contralto), Alan Rowlands (piano)
Recorded 1972-78 St John’s Smith Square, London
Lyrita, 3 CD set
I'm dipping in to this set today.

I remember this Bax 3rd coming out, and quickly establishing itself as a favourite - before this we had Ed. Downes/LSO on RCA or Barbirolli/Hallé taken from 78s. These Bax symphonies from his Morar period are the reason I holidayed the lovely West Coast of Scotland.

I still prefer these Lyrita Ireland song recordings - I have my original three LPs - especially Luxon to the curiously out of sorts Maltman on the Hyperion set.....I think made the year he won the lieder prize in Cardiff, where he was excellent. What happened?

[smittims]

I have fine memories of Chritopher Maltman in A Sea Symphony and in volume 5 of Hyperion's splendid Brahms Lieder series. I'm always chary of criticising a singer's voice as it's such an inseparable part of the person. Maybe this goes back to university days when I found my outspoken opinions tended to upset sopranos of my acquaintance (I was probably very tactless as 20-year-olds are apt to be). Ben Luxon I remember as uneven, brilliant and illuminating in Butterworth, rather a shock to hear in Finzi after John Carol Case's civilised interpretations.

I was sorry to see the Downes Bax 3 got quite a bit of criticism, as I thought it was a brave attempt, though some of the studio balance a bit odd (the celesta suddenly close a la Phase 4, then receding) . I have a lovely Ian Allan book , Railway Stations from the Air, which includes a photo of the hotel at Morar. I used to imagine old Arnold roughing it out there, but he could probably afford to have delicacies brought in from Glasgow on the morning train, while he was still having a lie-in with Mary Gleave, unknown to Harriet up in London still waiting for him to marry her. .

[Stanfordian]

I believe Baxians have been lucky to have more than one recorded cycle of the symphonies. On balance I too prefer the Lyrita Bax recordings.

I've said it here before that in his prime I believe Benjamin Luxon was peerless in British art songs.

[Roger Webb]

I believe Baxians have been lucky to have more than one recorded cycle of the symphonies. On balance I too prefer the Lyrita Bax recordings.

I've said it here before that in his prime I believe Benjamin Luxon was peerless in British art songs.

I'm with you on the Lyrita Baxes...a shame they missed out 3 and 4. One of my most memorable live Bax concerts was when Norman Del Mar came to Bristol and did Bax 6, as he had on SRCS 35.

[Petrushka]

For a significant birthday, I recently purchased a set of the complete Beethoven symphonies given live in Tokyo in April 1966 by the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan. They are stereo SACD Hybrid discs and sound absolutely fantastic, way, way better than any of Karajan's official recorded cycles. The orchestra is beautifully balanced between strings, woodwind, brass and timpani in a very clear acoustic (the Bunkakaikan, Tokyo).

This is a complete revelation to anyone who knows only the officially recorded cycles and heads my list of Karajan/Beethoven recordings.

I bought it from an eBay seller in Japan and while it wasn't cheap, it's worth every penny.

If anyone is interested a quick Google search will find it.

I've played symphonies 4, 5, 6 and 7 so far.