What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[Sir Velo]

Highly effective performances in an unusual, if not unique coupling which allows one to hear the full flowering of Beethoven's late genius across diverse genres. i have to say that the performances are infinitely enhanced by the choice of instruments in a close but not suffocating acoustic. Staier's performances of the two sets of bagatelles really are extremely imaginative and subtly nuanced moving between the very different moods and technical challenges with ease; trenchant in Op.119 No.5; lyrical in its predecessor and successor, for example.

[Joseph K]

Listening to the second track of the aforementioned Ravi Shankar disk - it sounds quite evocative to my current mood and I think I shall put some more Indian music on after this, I'm thinking this:



... which I think will be even more evocative.

[Joseph K]

Just for the record, I've just (re-)discovered that I started (but didn't finish, though I intend to today) copying down an etude by Brouwer (as it turns out) which I got from someone giving me a guitar lesson back in January, meant to help get my middle finger under more control.

[Mandryka]

Getting your middle finger under control is a good life skill generally.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_finger

[Joseph K]

Right-hand finger, I should've specified. But yes, very funny. If I'm honest this tends to trigger in my head a few lines from Eminem's song 'I'm Back', on the remote chance anyone here is interested - I won't quote the lyrics here since some people got into trouble posting mildly explicit lyrics some time ago and we don't want that to happen again.

Anyway, I'm currently listening to Ferneyhough's La Terre and it's very lush, like a jungle of sound, really incredible.

[RichardB]

Mahler, Third Symphony; Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and François-Xavier Roth, for the second time. The way space and colour and drama are brought out in the last movement is just exactly right as far as I'm concerned. I see that Hurwitz finds it very bad, which confirms my opinion!

[RichardB]

Next up tonight: RVW, Symphony no.8 (Manze). Even if I didn't know it started life as film music, even if I couldn't hear the spoken voice between movements setting the scene, I think I would still feel that it's highly anecdotal and involves a lot of recycling of bit and pieces from his earlier music. Some beautiful moments in the central movement, though the big organ entry is not one of them.

[Pulcinella]

Next up tonight: RVW, Symphony no.8 (Manze). Even if I didn't know it started life as film music, even if I couldn't hear the spoken voice between movements setting the scene, I think I would still feel that it's highly anecdotal and involves a lot of recycling of bit and pieces from his earlier music. Some beautiful moments in the central movement, though the big organ entry is not one of them.

Oops: Number 7, I guess!

[RichardB]

Oops: Number 7, I guess!

I wondered who would be the first to spot that, Wilson.

Actually I did listen to Manze's no.8 the other day and liked it a lot.

[BBMmk2]

Carrying on with my set of Mahler/Boulez

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No.5 in C# minor
Symphony No.6 in A minor
(Wiener Philharmoniker
Pierre Boulez)
Symphony No.7 in E minor
(Cleveland Orchestra)
Pierre Boulez.

[Mario]

HAYDN F J

PS in Eb Maj Hob XVI 49

S Richter

[Pulcinella]

I wondered who would be the first to spot that, Wilson.

Actually I did listen to Manze's no.8 the other day and liked it a lot.

Though, as I've said before, RVW 5 competes with Job to be my number 1 Desert Island Disc, I'm more of a fan of his Sea Symphony than others hereabouts seem to be, perhaps because I've sung in it.

The short orchestral passage early on in the last movement (the six bars before letter B in the score, between 'some hidden prophetic intention' and 'Now first it seems my thought begins' [sic, though the score has 'thoughts begin']) never ceases to give me a huge tingle factor.

[RichardB]

Though, as I've said before, RVW 5 competes with Job to be my number 1 Desert Island Disc

The 5th is certainly my favourite among RVW's symphonies, along with the 6th. I don't think it would make it into my DID selection though!

After Harnoncourt's most recent Missa Solemnis earlier, which was a revelation I must say, I'm almost at the end of Gardiner's Gluck Alceste, a bit of a random choice given that I've never taken very much notice of Gluck, but once it got going I was too engaged with it to move on to something else. It's a beautiful recording of a beautiful work. It's only a shame that Qobuz doesn't provide notes and libretto, although the story is familiar enough from Lully's version. Maybe I'm just in a particularly receptive frame of mind this evening.

[richardfinegold]

Oops: Number 7, I guess!

Thank you, I was reading RB post and scratching my head. The irony is that the scherzo of the Eighth always reminds my daughter of the music from the Cantina scene of the original Star Wars movie, so reading RB post made me wonder if like the Antarctica, the Eighth also was movie music

[Mario]

BEETHOVEN L v

Missa Solemnis in D Maj Op 125

Comparing

Milanov Z – Thorborg K – Pataky K – Moscona N – BBC S O – BBC Ch Soc – Toscanini A 1939,
Milanov Z – Castagna B – Kipnis A – Bjoerling J – NBC S O – Westminster Ch – Toscanini A 1940,
Marshall L – Merriman N – Conley E – Hines J – BBC S O – Robert Shaw Ch – Toscanini A 1953,

in preparation for 2nd July.