What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[Serial_Apologist]

Not only a great performance (though since I am unfamiliar with this work, I'll take your word for it!) but I am preferring this work to either the first or second symphonies...

Well I admit to being possibly one of the few appreciators on here of the Sea Symphony, which, for me is - yes! - a grand rhetorical gesture of awe at the sea, and its associated metaphors of infinity and so on mainly driving the inspiration. Someone once wrote about the opening flourish of "Behold the sea!", "No, you behold it!" - as if composer and poet were issuing an instruction, whereas for me it is a proclamation of acknowledgement that we ditch our arrogance towards "the natural" and adopt another kind of spirituality in accord with its laws if we are to live sustainably and in harmony with ourselves. For me it acts as a grand foregrounding framework for all that follows after, dealing with locale ("London" in No.2; the battle torn fields of Flanders in the "Pastoral"; the idealised imaginary landscape in No. 5 of which some accuse all of the British pastoral school; some say the bombed out cityscape around St Pauls, others Hiroshima at the end of No 6; "Antarctica" in No 7; conviviality in No 8; the Unknowable - recapping the closing question mark left by No 1 - in No 9.). From such a viewpoint No 4 is the anomalous one as it seems to be more about inner conflict acknowledged than it does "being with", and as such, even leaving aside its magnificence of construction and utterance, represented a side of us which VW dealt with face-on from the wholeness of his being. For me this symphonic journey probably represents the most all-embracing body of work to be produced by any British composer.

[HighlandDougie]

Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, Op.64

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Rudolf Kempe (2021 DSD remastering for Tower Records Japan SACD series)

Very apt listening with thunder rolling around the local alps in the heat, this release has been worth the angst of FedEx "losing" it courtesy of a local delivery WVM sub-contractor. It would be dishonest to pretend that it was recorded yesterday but the careful remastering gives what was always a good recording (Charles Gerhardt/Kenneth Wilkinson/Kingsway Hall) the equivalent of an audio facelift. The sub-woofer comes into its own in helping expand the overall sound picture, without the lower end of the sonic spectrum sounding in any way "boomy". The performance is, really, hors concours - having come to it very recently, it is one of the very few which I have heard over the years that almost convinces me that the work is a masterpiece of the late romantic period, rather than a noisy and bombastic work-out for an orchestra. Kempe holds it all together so very convincingly.

Andris Nelsons on a Japanese MQA UHQCD next.

[RichardB]

For me this symphonic journey probably represents the most all-embracing body of work to be produced by any British composer.

I would say that depends on what you mean by all-embracing - Tippett on the other hand made the journey from more or less "pastoral" beginnings to an eventual embrace of collage-like forms, electric guitars and polytonality/atonality to name only these. Not that I say that to denigrate RVW in any way, but I don't think his "musical language" evolved as much as that over his lifetime.

Anyway it will be this evening's project to stop going over my favourite RVW symphonies and concentrate on the ones I haven't had much time for, beginning with no.2. Although I doubt whether I shall ever be able to handle no.1.

[Joseph K]

I just listened to RVW no. 4, which I enjoyed. I think he managed to maintain quality more or less around the same level of the third, and shows some signs of progress (rhythms, freedom of harmony and chromaticism) and some distinctive ideas, some of which were strangely familiar...

Thanks, incidentally, to S_A for that paragraph-guide to the RVW symphonies.

[ahinton]

I just listened to RVW no. 4, which I enjoyed. I think he managed to maintain quality more or less around the same level of the third, and shows some signs of progress (rhythms, freedom of harmony and chromaticism) and some distinctive ideas, some of which were strangely familiar...

Thanks, incidentally, to S_A for that paragraph-guide to the RVW symphonies.

When a student at RCM I found myself press-ganged into its Choral Class and the set work was RVW's Sea Symphony which I found myself almost entirely at odds, for all that I could nevertheless manage to appreciate and respect the craftsmanship involved. It took me many years after that experience to get anywhere near VW's symphonies other than 4 & 6 which had earlier hit me beween the ears. Even now, I do struggle with 2, 5 (to a lesser extent) and 8, as well as 7 that seems so movie oriented that it seems as hard to accept as a symphony per se as I find Shostakovich's 14th symphony to accept as other than a remarkable song-cycle...

It's a bad joke, I know, but I have long since thought that Stravinsky's C Symphony to be inferior work to RVW's (for whch tasteless intervention I hope but do not expect to be forgiven)...

[BBMmk2]

Life With Czech Music: Dvořák & Smetana
Dvořák
The Water Goblin, Op.107
The Noon Witch, Op.108
The Golden Spinning-Wheel, Op.109
The Wild Dove, Op.110
Smetana
My Country
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Charles Mackerras

[kuligin]

Monteverdi Lagrime d Amante al Sepolcro

Schutz Choir of London

Roger Norrington

[silvestrione]

Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, Op.64

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Rudolf Kempe (2021 DSD remastering for Tower Records Japan SACD series)

Very apt listening with thunder rolling around the local alps in the heat, this release has been worth the angst of FedEx "losing" it courtesy of a local delivery WVM sub-contractor. It would be dishonest to pretend that it was recorded yesterday but the careful remastering gives what was always a good recording (Charles Gerhardt/Kenneth Wilkinson/Kingsway Hall) the equivalent of an audio facelift. The sub-woofer comes into its own in helping expand the overall sound picture, without the lower end of the sonic spectrum sounding in any way "boomy". The performance is, really, hors concours - having come to it very recently, it is one of the very few which I have heard over the years that almost convinces me that the work is a masterpiece of the late romantic period, rather than a noisy and bombastic work-out for an orchestra. Kempe holds it all together so very convincingly.

Andris Nelsons on a Japanese MQA UHQCD next.

I'm glad you said that: always nice to know you're not alone!

[Stanfordian]

César Franck – Complete Songs and Duets
Tassis Christoyannis (baritone)
Véronique Gens (soprano)
Jeff Cohen (piano)
Recorded 2021, Palazzetto Bru Zane, Venice
Bru Zane 2 CDs, new release

[Joseph K]

Accompanying me wrapping (not rapping) a present & writing a card out for my brother's birthday tomorrow and writing two more cards out for additional upcoming family birthdays has been Ferneyhough's second, fifth and sixth string quartets, Ardittis. Fantastic works...

[richardfinegold]

I would say that depends on what you mean by all-embracing - Tippett on the other hand made the journey from more or less "pastoral" beginnings to an eventual embrace of collage-like forms, electric guitars and polytonality/atonality to name only these. Not that I say that to denigrate RVW in any way, but I don't think his "musical language" evolved as much as that over his lifetime.

Anyway it will be this evening's project to stop going over my favourite RVW symphonies and concentrate on the ones I haven't had much time for, beginning with no.2. Although I doubt whether I shall ever be able to handle no.1.

I have forced myself a couple of times to sit and listen to #1, because I do really like the rest of RVW output, but I always feel like a prisoner in an old dust Edwardian Parlour when I do this

[Stanfordian]

George Enescu – ‘Impressions d’enfance’
Piano Quintet in D major, Op. 29 (1896)
Aubade in C major, for violin, viola & cello (1899)
Sérénade lointaine, for violin, cello & piano (1903)
Hommage – Pièce sur le nom de Fauré, for piano (1922)
Impressions d’enfance, suite for violin & piano, Op. 28 (1940)
Ensemble Raro
Recorded 2019-21, Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunk, Munich
Solo Music

César Franck – Complete Songs and Duets
Tassis Christoyannis (baritone)
Véronique Gens (soprano)
Jeff Cohen (piano)
Recorded 2021, Palazzetto Bru Zane, Venice
Bru Zane 2 CDs, new release

[RichardB]

I have forced myself a couple of times to sit and listen to #1, because I do really like the rest of RVW output, but I always feel like a prisoner in an old dust Edwardian Parlour when I do this

Quite. There seems to me a wide gap between the sense of awe he seems to be trying to express and the constrained and polite way in which it's expressed, in comparison with La Mer for example.

[ahinton]

Quite. There seems to me a wide gap between the sense of awe he seems to be trying to express and the constrained and polite way in which it's expressed, in comparison with La Mer for example.

Can't disagree with that; being well-meaning just isn't enough I'm trying not to recall my days in RCM's Choral Class doing this...

[cassander13]

Maazel DG Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade (never had to spell that before) with Berlin Phil.
Did Lorin get a fair shake from critics?