What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[richardfinegold]

Sorry you didn't care for the Milhaud, he's a favourite of mine. This is the first I've heard of Monteux conducting Hindemith, another favourite.

My last piece was Delius' Suite for Violin and Orchestra, a souvenir of his days in Danville Virginia , a slight but charming work, played by Tasmin Little with the BBC Philharmonic and Sir Andrew Davis, who made some fine Delius recordings in the later part of his career, not least the choral works such as Song of the High Hills and Appalachia.

I like some Milhaud, but the particular piece referred to above sounded to me like he was trying to outdo Prokofiev Scythian Suite and was giving me tinnitus. On the plus side I listened to the Hindemith piece from the concert and realized it’s very familiar. Monteux and the BSO led it to a rousing climax

[smittims]

Fazil Say is, fortunately, known to me as the composer of a rather poor concerto played recently in 'Radio3 in Concert'. They seem to be featuring him at present. He plays the piano and likes to insert his own compositions into his recitals and they allow him to do this, unwisely in my opinion. In fairness I must say that another regular poster, edashtav, has , or had, a different opinion of the concerto in question.

[Pulcinella]

Fazil Say is, fortunately, known to me as the composer of a rather poor concerto played recently in 'Radio3 in Concert'. They seem to be featuring him at present. He plays the piano and likes to insert his own compositions into his recitals and they allow him to do this, unwisely in my opinion. In fairness I must say that another regular poster, edashtav, has , or had, a different opinion of the concerto in question.

Ah: I remember the discussion of that concert/concerto now (the composer's name had slipped my memory though).
I see that of the four commercial recordings of his first violin sonata, he's the pianist on three of them.

[frankbridge]

Vivaldi: 6 Concertos Op 11

Ritchie / de Bruine

Academy of Ancient Music

Christopher Hogwood

Editions de L'Oiseau Lyre Decca 436 172-2OH

Great stuff

[smittims]

I agree, frankbridge,, that is a lovely CD of life-enhancing music. . I was glad when it was reissued some year go ia bumper box of Vivaldi, mostly Hogwood .

I was impressed by Mikhail Weinberg's symphony (forget which one) played by the CBSO and MIrga Grazynte-Tyla at the 2019 Proms, which I caught up with yesteday. A very fine symphony by a composer too little-known.

[smittims]

Vaughan Williams : Concerto Grosso, from last night's R3 in Concert. A rare chance to hear this work as originally intended, with a larger body of amateur players joining in with the specially written 'easy' parts. It was first performed at the RAH in 1950 by five hundred members of the Rural Music Schools, an idea very much to VW's liking. Normally of course we hear it played by a regular professional group, and it's long been a favourite of mine since I first heard it in Norman del Mar's 1967 EMI recording. . The music is the same, but Andrew Manze's performance last night added a sort of 'wild open spaces' feel to it.

[Pulcinella]

Vaughan Williams : Concerto Grosso, from last night's R3 in Concert. A rare chance to hear this work as originally intended, with a larger body of amateur players joining in with the specially written 'easy' parts. It was first performed at the RAH in 1950 by five hundred members of the Rural Music Schools, an idea very much to VW's liking. Normally of course we hear it played by a regular professional group, and it's long been a favourite of mine since I first heard it in Norman del Mar's 1967 EMI recording. . The music is the same, but Andrew Manze's performance last night added a sort of 'wild open spaces' feel to it.

I think I first heard the Boult recording though.

[richardfinegold]

Sviatislav Richter playing Bach WTC. I love his Bach

[Hitch]

Delibes - Coppélia, Sylvia, La Source (Ballet Suites)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Järvi
Chandos

Bon-bon (I always use the hyphen but await french frank's correction...) after bon-bon of cheerful, care-free music. Two caveats: the famous pizzicati from Sylvia is so quiet at the start as to be almost inaudible, although that might be due to tinnitus; the Spotify track listings name Coppélia as Cappélia.

[cria]

Sviatislav Richter playing Bach WTC. I love his Bach

Truly wonderful - I'm in awe of it - all the way through!

[pastoralguy]

My Life In Music. Ruth Slenczynska. DECCA.

I remember this cd getting a rather Luke warm review in Gramophone with the reviewer ending with ‘…just a curiosity’.

Well, yes he had a point but I feel that if you listen to these performances on their own terms without making comparisons with other pianists then it’s rather moving. Ms. Slenczynska was in her 90’s when she made this disc and there’s no doubt that her playing is a little slow but the actual sound is beautiful and it doesn’t take much effort to imagine her playing for Rachmaninov himself. Other composers represented are Barber, Chopin, Grieg, Debussy and Bach. (The Guardian review would have us believe that she ‘knew all the composers on this disc personally!’)

To be honest, her name wasn’t familiar to me but she obviously had an excellent career despite having started off as a mercilessly exploited prodigy. Her father used to beat her if she made a mistake or if she got a bad review.

I really need to check her earlier recordings out.

[smittims]

It's interesting to hear artists from another age: I remember John Amis on Radio 3 reminiscing about the musicians he heard , I think at the National Gallery Concerts: Adela Verne, who had been a Clara Schumann pupil, who came on in carpet slippers , and Arnold Rose, Mahler's brother-in-law. He said they were both rather shaky but one could detect something of how they sounded in their prime. Horszowski was still playing, at Aldeburgh and elsewhere, well into his '90s.

Only an octogenerian for me today! Pierre Monteux and the LSO in the '60s with Debusssy's Images and Saint-Sebastien. Lovely playing: one can celarly discern Barry Tuckwell, Roger Lord, and other old friends there.

[richardfinegold]

It's interesting to hear artists from another age: I remember John Amis on Radio 3 reminiscing about the musicians he heard , I think at the National Gallery Concerts: Adela Verne, who had been a Clara Schumann pupil, who came on in carpet slippers , and Arnold Rose, Mahler's brother-in-law. He said they were both rather shaky but one could detect something of how they sounded in their prime. Horszowski was still playing, at Aldeburgh and elsewhere, well into his '90s.

Only an octogenerian for me today! Pierre Monteux and the LSO in the '60s with Debusssy's Images and Saint-Sebastien. Lovely playing: one can celarly discern Barry Tuckwell, Roger Lord, and other old friends there.

I thought that Monteux had recorded the Images in stereo and in the studio with the Boston SO on RCA, but was unable to verify that just now. A few days ago I mentioned a Boston (Tanglewood) FM concert tape that had been restored by Pristine Audio. There is an earlier San Francisco recording, and several concerts recordings that appear roughly contemporaneous with the Tanglewood recording.

[Stanfordian]

Bruckner
Symphony No. 7 (ed. Nowak)
Mason Bates
'Resurrexit' (2018)
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra / Manfred Honeck
Recorded live, 2022 Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Reference Recordings, Hybrid SACD
New release

[smittims]

Hi, Richard, my SONY and Decca documentation (both claiming to be complete) shows only the 1951 San Francisco Symphony recording (mono) and the 1963 LSO (Philips) stereo recording, which was made by Vittorio Negri at Wembley Town Hall.

Monteux recorded La Mer in 1954 and Nocturnes in 1955, both in stereo , with the Boston Symphony, but the stereo tape of La Mer, apart from a 4-minute fragment, is reported 'Lost'. The Nocturnes were issued on a stereo tape and no, of course , on CD.

Charles Munch of course recorded the Images in Stereo in Boston, between December 1957 and March 1958.