What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[MickyD]

Volume 63 by the same artists is just as good!

[smittims]

Priaulx Rainier's String Quartet played by the Amadeus on You Tube.

[RichardB]

Volume 63 by the same artists is just as good!

I shall be checking that out also!

[MickyD]

The Op.76 String Quartets by Haydn in what I think is the latest instalment of the London Haydn Quartet's cycle. I'm listening to it on headphones and it is recorded in a beautifully warm acoustic.

[Mandryka]

The Op.76 String Quartets by Haydn in what I think is the latest instalment of the London Haydn Quartet's cycle. I'm listening to it on headphones and it is recorded in a beautifully warm acoustic.

I found this a revelation actually -- in the sense just that I'd never enjoyed any other op 76 half as much.

[Serial_Apologist]

edit: taking a random sidestep into Hugo Wolf's Penthesilea and songs with orchestra (Benjamin Appl, Jenaer Philharmonie, Simon Gaudenz, CPO), hmmm... I prefer piano accompaniment for the songs, and the orchestral piece somehow doesn't seem to get much further than imitating Wagner, or is that unfair?

I have to listen to Penthesilea again - it's been many years. If one wants a guide to just how progressive Wolf could be, I have previously recommended the Intermezzo for String Quartet in E Flat, an extraordinarily prophetic work by any composer for 1886, and one which foreshadows Schoenberg Op.5, also the Reger String Trio Op. 77b, in its use of voice leading effectively to subordinate the obvious foreground of twee insouciance and make provision for a contrapuntal developmental practice freed of tonal restraints. I periodically come back to hear this again so as to re-confirm that this is really what was going on in Wolf's thinking at that stage, 20 years ahead of Reger, Zemlinsky and Schoenberg!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOcU9yzwLAc

This "innocent" little piece represented a huge step beyond the String Quartet Wolf had only composed a couple of years beforehand.

[RichardB]

I have to listen to Penthesilea again - it's been many years. If one wants a guide to just how progressive Wolf could be

I know very well how progressive Wolf could be from many of his songs with piano, which I have a lot of time for, as well as that Intermezzo. I just don't think he had the time or opportunity to develop properly as an orchestral composer.

[Serial_Apologist]

I know very well how progressive Wolf could be from many of his songs with piano, which I have a lot of time for, as well as that Intermezzo. I just don't think he had the time or opportunity to develop properly as an orchestral composer.

This supports the view that Wolf's most essential work was through his songs, given the intimate connections between word and music, which is where my lack of German leaves me somewhat wanting. He composed so many songs - a mere handful of which I've taken off Radio 3 broadcast - that it's hard to know where to begin. Jim Samson suggests Wie soll ich frolich sein and Mignon from the Italienische Liederbuch, Die du Gott Gebarst from the Spanisches Liederbuch and Seufzer from Moericke-Lieder as prophetic examples. It's time I have a dig around in Youtube.

[Mandryka]

This supports the view that Wolf's most essential work was through his songs, given the intimate connections between word and music, which is where my lack of German leaves me somewhat wanting. He composed so many songs - a mere handful of which I've taken off Radio 3 broadcast - that it's hard to know where to begin. Jim Samson suggests Wie soll ich frolich sein and Mignon from the Italienische Liederbuch, Die du Gott Gebarst from the Spanisches Liederbuch and Seufzer from Moericke-Lieder as prophetic examples. It's time I have a dig around in Youtube.

I've been listening to a lot of Wolf songs this year, partly inspired by what I think is an really fresh sounding new Italian Songbook with Carolyn Sampson. Short songs, not fragmentary exactly, but still short and lots of them, in two halves maybe -- the second half really special music I think. I have no idea what these people are singing about -- but it doesn't stop me enjoying it!

[RichardB]

The Op.76 String Quartets by Haydn in what I think is the latest instalment of the London Haydn Quartet's cycle. I'm listening to it on headphones and it is recorded in a beautifully warm acoustic.

That whole series is quite marvellous, isn't it? Thanks for reminding me, listening now.

[MickyD]

That whole series is quite marvellous, isn't it? Thanks for reminding me, listening now.

I quite agree, an absolute joy. I calculate that there must be about another two issues before the cycle is completed.

[BBMmk2]

Carrying on with my theme, celebrating the music of Sir Edward Elgar.

Sir Edward Elgar
The Dream of Gerontius, Op.38
(Felicity Palmer (soprano)
Arthur Davies (tenor)
Gwynne Howell (bass)
LSO Chorus
London Symphony Orchestra
Richard Hickox)

(Parry
Blest Pair of Sirens
I was Glad
London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Richard Hickox).

[smittims]

For me 'Gerontius' is very special. So special I don't listen to it very often; I wouldn't take it on a Desert Island. But when I'm in the mood it makes everything else sound trivial.

Hark! A grand ,mysterious harmony

I think Elgar was especially inspired when he wrote that work.

[Mandryka]

John Tilbury and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra playing Feldman’s piano and orchestra at a prom in 2010 - on YouTube. Excellent performance of music which seems to touch the spot today. The chords! The chords!

Just got the big speakers going after a week of decorators in. It’s good to have big speakers.

[Bryn]

John Tilbury and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra playing Feldman’s piano and orchestra at a prom in 2010 - on YouTube. Excellent performance of music which seems to touch the spot today. The chords! The chords!

Just got the big speakers going after a week of decorators in. It’s good to have big speakers.

I was there for that. Great that John was up to playing it just over a year after a stroke temporarily robbed him of the use of one hand. Good that Janice, his marriage partner, had trained as a nurse before switching to fashion. Her quick action in getting him to hospital helped prevent more serious damage. Sadly, his mobility is now so restricted that he has been unable to perform at concerts scheduled for both Iklectik and Cafe OTO this year. Is his performance of the Cage Concerto for Prepared Piano and Small Orchestra from the following year's Prom also on YouTube? Oh, and keep an eye open for the forthcoming release of his recording of Howard Skepton's Preludes and Fugues (on clavichord) from the Other Timbre label.