What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[Petrushka]

Wagner: Lohengrin

Bayreuth Festival 1962
Wolfgang Sawallisch

From the Sawallisch box on Ðecca. Terrific stuff and the sound is very fine indeed. There's a real feel of being in the Festspielhaus on that evening 62 years ago.

[smittims]

Yes, I think they were Philips recordings originally, including a fine 'Dutchman' and of course the famous 1962 Parsifal with Hans Hotter; the recordings still sound excellent.

Not such excellent sound for the 1951 Vox Missa Solemnis with Klemperer, but what a fine performance, at that time the only available recording until the Toscanini on HMV. It is all beautifully sung, Ilona Steingruber the soprano also sang in the Klemperer Vox Mahler 2 , and the woodwind solos are lovingly executed. The overall timing is 72 minutes. It was successfully reissiued on a single Turnabout LP inthe 1970s. And for those who think Klemperer was always slow, I played his Vox Mendlessohn Italian Symphony, the Presto finale taking just four and a half minutes .

[frankbridge]

British Piano Concertos

Addison / Geoffrey Bush (not Alan) / Benjamin / Betty Maconchy / Searle / Rubbra

BBC NOW / Brabbins

Lyrita SRCD 407

A marvellous disc, I have a liking for mid 20th century tonal music: I may be dismissed by some as old hat with pipe and real ale in some agreable pub, but there're nothing wrong with that!

[cloughie]

Berlioz Sym Fant - VSOO Leibowitz - 1957 recording but excellent performance - Leibowitz always seemed to have a spring in his step.

[edashtav]

British Piano Concertos

Addison / Geoffrey Bush (not Alan) / Benjamin / Betty Maconchy / Searle / Rubbra

BBC NOW / Brabbins

Lyrita SRCD 407

A marvellous disc, I have a liking for mid 20th century tonal music: I may be dismissed by some as old hat with pipe and real ale in some agreable pub, but there're nothing wrong with that!

I have a copy of this fine CD of mini Concerti penned by a fair cross-section of British mid 20th c. composers including one or two like Humphrey Sesrle, more serial than tonal. It doesn't include Sir Arnold Bax who did retire to a pub in Storrington, Sussex for the last 14 years of his life whose Ghost, some say, remains in situ.

[Stanfordian]

J.S. Bach
Sonatas for harpsichord & violin (BWV 1014-16 & 1017-19)
Trio Sonata No.5 for violin & basso continuo in C
(transcribed from Trio Sonata for organ in C, BWV 228)
Sonata for violin & basso continuo in G (BWV 1021)
Viktoria Mullova (baroque violin) & Ottavio Dantone (harpsichord, organ)
with Vittorio Ghielmi (viola da gamba), Luca Pianca (lute)
Recorded March 2007, Alte Grieser Pfarrkirche, Bolzano, Italy
Onyx Classics, CD

[frankbridge]

I have a copy of this fine CD of mini Concerti penned by a fair cross-section of British mid 20th c. composers including one or two like Humphrey Sesrle, more serial than tonal. It doesn't include Sir Arnold Bax who did retire to a pub in Storrington, Sussex for the last 14 years of his life whose Ghost, some say, remains in situ.

I am an ardent Baxian, having the complete symphonies on Chandos with Jack and Tod, and the Naxos cycle with David Lloyd Jones. I even visited the White Horse in Storrington, and stayed the night in their guest rooms: I don't know whether it was actually Arnold's room, but it was fairly spooky nevertheless. There is even a sign outside the pub remembering his stay. Trebles all round

[richardfinegold]

British Piano Concertos

Addison / Geoffrey Bush (not Alan) / Benjamin / Betty Maconchy / Searle / Rubbra

BBC NOW / Brabbins

Lyrita SRCD 407

A marvellous disc, I have a liking for mid 20th century tonal music: I may be dismissed by some as old hat with pipe and real ale in some agreable pub, but there're nothing wrong with that!

That’s a nice set. I was enjoying it for a few weeks and then it got viciously panned by an American reviewer in Fanfare. I have to admit that put me off it and I should go back. There are no major discoveries there but good solid music

[Pulcinella]

That’s a nice set. I was enjoying it for a few weeks and then it got viciously panned by an American reviewer in Fanfare. I have to admit that put me off it and I should go back. There are no major discoveries there but good solid music

And it raises a chuckle when you remember that the Rubbra piece was renamed from the original 'Nature's Call'.

[smittims]

Handel : l'Allegro ed il Penseroso. the (1959?) Oiseau-Lyre recording with David Willcocks.

I shouldn't be amazed at anything this century, but I do wonder why so many people are paid huge sums of money for what is called 'singing' when it isn't singing to me at all. This recording, on the other hand, by singers probably forgotten or unheard-of by most people today, contains some really fine singing by Jaqueline Delman, Elsie Morison and Hervey Alan (try the aria 'Sweet Bird': It's on Spotify). I shall always think it an injustice that they aren't as celebrated as certain 'vocalists' , to use a polite term.

[Pulcinella]

Handel : l'Allegro ed il Penseroso. the (1959?) Oiseau-Lyre recording with David Willcocks.

I shouldn't be amazed at anything this century, but I do wonder why so many people are paid huge sums of money for what is called 'singing' when it isn't singing to me at all. This recording, on the other hand, by singers probably forgotten or unheard-of by most people today, contains some really fine singing by Jaqueline Delman, Elsie Morison and Hervey Alan (try the aria 'Sweet Bird': It's on Spotify). I shall always think it an injustice that they aren't as celebrated as certain 'vocalists' , to use a polite term.

Remembered here for her contribution to Tippett's A Child of our time (RLPO/Pritchard).

[pastoralguy]

That’s a nice set. I was enjoying it for a few weeks and then it got viciously panned by an American reviewer in Fanfare. I have to admit that put me off it and I should go back. There are no major discoveries there but good solid music

If the critic is who I think it is then I’d completely ignore him! His opinion is no more or less valid than yours.

[pastoralguy]

Brahms. Symphony No.4.

Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra conducted by David Zinman.

Lovely playing and convincing conducting.

[smittims]

Mahler :Das Lied von der Erde.

Anton Dermota, Elsa Cavelti, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Otto Klemperer: Vox , 1951.

On paper this seems inferior to the famous contemporary Decca set with Kathleen Ferrier, the Vienna Philharmonic and Bruno Walter, but I prefer the Klemperer. It's more urgent, closer to how I think Mahler imagined it (as, of ocurse, was Walter's earlier (1936) recording). Anton Dermota's noble voice rings out heroically, notably better to my ears than Julius Patzak, and the orchestra are much better than one might expect.

[AuntDaisy]

Beethoven's Ninth - Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent and La Chapelle Royale (in the "Lumieres: Music Of The Enlightenment" boxset)

Poor LvB is being mistreated (by me) in the hope that he'll drown out the incessant racket from the roadworks outside.