What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[ahinton]

Nurse, the screens...

Better get those before the nurses go on strike!...

[Stanfordian]

Olga Peretyatko – ‘Rossini!’
Arias from Il Viaggio a Reims, Semiramide, Tancredi, Matilde di Shabran, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Il Turco in Italia
Olga Peretyatko (soprano)
Coro e Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna / Alberto Zedda
Recorded 2014 Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Sony, CD

Dvořák
String Quintet in G major, Op. 77, B.49
Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81, B.155
Škampa Quartet,
with Laurène Durantel (double-bass) (Op. 77); Kathryn Stott (piano) (Op. 81)
Recorded 2007 Dvořák Hall, Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic
Supraphon, CD

[smittims]

Goldberh Variations.

George Malcolm, Oiseau-lyre, 1962.

For me, a wonderfully illuminating interpretation. I'd rather hear this man play the harpsichord than anyone except possibly Thurston Dart or Wanda Landowska.

I liked Ian Partridge's remark about Malcolm: 'he had no small-talk'.

[Joseph K]

Messiaen - Les Offrandes Oubliées, L'Ascension - SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg/Cambreling

[smittims]

I'd known l'Ascension for years but les Offrandes was new to me when I acquired the Chung recording as part of a box set. I was struck by the sureness of the writing , as if Messiaen knew from the outset just what he wanted to do in music. Few composers, it seems, exhibit this quality (Handel is one).

[Pulcinella]

I'd known l'Ascension for years but les Offrandes was new to me when I acquired the Chung recording as part of a box set. I was struck by the sureness of the writing , as if Messiaen knew from the outset just what he wanted to do in music. Few composers, it seems, exhibit this quality (Handel is one).

I hope you know both the orchestral version and the organ version:

The Ascension suite first appeared in 1933 as an orchestral work. In the subsequent organ version of 1934, the first, second and fourth movements remain relatively unchanged. However, the third movement from the orchestral version became so difficult to adapt for organ that Messiaen decided to write a completely new piece.

[smittims]

I have a recording of the organ version, played by the composer, in 1956 (lovely summer that year, I recall), but I haven't listened to it much and haven't compared it with the orchestral version. Your message prompts me to do this. His own performances are said to be as interesting, interpretatively speaking, as those of Rachmaninov and Elgar; the final chord of priere du Christ lasting almost a whole minute!

[RichardB]

the sureness of the writing , as if Messiaen knew from the outset just what he wanted to do in music.

Indeed, although he was standing on the shoulders of composers whose work has been more or less forgotten, like Maurice Emmanuel - listen to the first minute and a half of his First Symphony (1919) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG4UFNb1WGE and you'll hear where a lot of Messiaen comes from, even if, as in the similar situation of Mahler vis-à-vis Hans Rott, he perceived potential in his predecessors' material far beyond what they had done with it.

[Mandryka]

Listening to different performances of Schumann’s Stille Tränen on Spotify, my ears pricked up on Prégardien and Gees. This is a song which needs an excellent pianist as well as an excellent singer and Prégardien/Gees fit the bill. They take Stille Tränen unusually slowly, and I think that’s a good idea. This looks to me like a Kerner Lieder worth getting to know.

[ahinton]

Indeed, although he was standing on the shoulders of composers whose work has been more or less forgotten, like Maurice Emmanuel - listen to the first minute and a half of his First Symphony (1919) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG4UFNb1WGE and you'll hear where a lot of Messiaen comes from, even if, as in the similar situation of Mahler vis-à-vis Hans Rott, he perceived potential in his predecessors' material far beyond what they had done with it.

Messiaen studied with Emmanuel for a time.

[RichardB]

CPE Bach, sonatas and rondos played on the clavichord by Jocelyne Cuiller (as mentioned upthread by Mandryka). This is maybe the most convincing and colourful clavichord recording I've ever come across.

[Stanfordian]

Donizetti
‘Rosmonda d’Inghilterra’ – opera seria in two acts
(prem. Florence 1834)
Enrico II - Bruce Ford (tenor); Leonora di Guienna - Nelly Miricioiu (soprano);
Rosmonda - Renée Fleming (soprano); Gualtiero Clifford - Alastair Miles (bass);
Arturo - Diana Montague (mezzo-soprano)
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
London Philharmonic Orchestra / David Parry
Recorded 1994 Henry Wood Hall, London
Opera Rara, 2 CD set

[MickyD]

CPE Bach, sonatas and rondos played on the clavichord by Jocelyne Cuiller (as mentioned upthread by Mandryka). This is maybe the most convincing and colourful clavichord recording I've ever come across.

Did you ever come across the vintage Hogwood recording of CPE Bach keyboard works on L'Oiseau Lyre, Richard? I think it was the first disc that I heard featuring the clavichord.

[RichardB]

Did you ever come across the vintage Hogwood recording of CPE Bach keyboard works on L'Oiseau Lyre, Richard? I think it was the first disc that I heard featuring the clavichord.

No I didn't. I'll try to track it down.

[pastoralguy]

Beethoven. Symphony No.6. ‘Pastoral’.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Erich Kleiber. Recorded February 1948.

Although it’s been well transferred, there are moments where the change to a new 78rpm disc is quite obvious. None the worse for that!