What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[vinteuil]

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Brumel : 'Earthquake' Mass et ecce terrae motus - The Early Music Consort of London, David Munrow. Sadly only the Gloria - did they ever record the rest?

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[smittims]

No, sadly, I don't think they did. David Munrow was a man in a hurry, and never stayed long with the same music.

Some oddities today for me.

Robert Kajanus: Aino, symphonic poem. One of those works more referenced in books than listened to. It's said to have been a catalyst for Sibelius' Kalavala-based works. It's more like Liszt, though , to my ears.

Hubert Parry: from Death to Life: one of those works that shows there's a lot more to Parry than Jerusalem, and indeed I think this is better than some of his symphonies, perhaps because it shows more personal feeling and commitment. Around the time that Sir Adrian Boult was reviving and recording some of Parry's music regret was expressed that he didn't do this one.

Richard Blackford : Kalon, for string orchestra. This is a curiosity. It begins in 20th-century folksy mode, either gypsy or oriental influence, then gets more mainstream-profound, then suddenly there are two lengthy quotations from Beethoven's Cavatina. I suppose he knew what he was doing. Anyway, it's quite enjoyable, if not a work I'd want to hear often.

Arnold Cooke: Concerto for String Orchestra. It might sound patronising to call Cooke 'the English Hindemith' but I think it's not unfair. He openly espoused Hindemith's method of composition, saying it gave him freedom. And there is always an English 'out-of-doors' air about his music. Of these four works this is the one I'm most ready to hear again.

[Mario]

F J HAYDN

S No 100 in G Maj Military H I/100

Comparing

Stuttgarter Kammerorchester – D R Davies
BPO – H v Karajan (1982)
Vienna St Op O – Wöldike M

[pastoralguy]

Elgar. Violin Concerto.

Vilde Frang, violin.

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Berlin conducted by Robin Ticciati.

EMI.

I’ve long been a fan of Ms. Frang and have been very much looking forward to hearing her new recording of possibly my favourite violin concerto. I’d go so far as to say it belongs in the Nigel Kennedy league of performances which, imvho, is high praise indeed!

One slight reservation is that having pre-ordered the cd from PRESTO I received the download about a month before the physical disc was released. So I’ve listened to it a few times on my mobile ‘phone whilst doing chores at work which is never the best set of circumstances to listen to music. However, it’s been sufficiently good for me to very much enjoy her performance.

The cd was late in arriving and I’ve been doing lots of extra hours at work so it’s only been last night and this afternoon that I’ve heard the physical disc on a friend’s Macintosh system and my own more modest Quad set up and I’m bound to say that again, imvho, the sound quality is slightly disappointing. It’s one of those discs that one has to turn up the volume in order to get and significant detail.

Absolutely well worth hearing though.