What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[jayne lee wilson]

Don't know that piece of Sibelius at all...is it good?

I listened to Bruckner 4 yesterday from the new box of Harnoncourt Radio Recordings with the RCO (now a convert, at last, to Harnoncourt, after the Missa Solemnis discs). Lovely.

Today, Sviatoslav Richter at the RFH in 1968 on BBC Legends, Schumann, Etudes Symphoniques... sheer bliss, what music, what playing (what a marvellous instrument, so well-recorded by the BBC too! Well before he switched to a Yamaha, which I regretted...)

Contemporaneous with the 1st Symphony, King Christian was Sibelius' first work for theatre, very attractive and tuneful; reminiscent at times of Valse Triste or the 4 Legends, if lighter in mood, with a thrilling final Ballade. It was an immediate success, even played at the 1901 Proms.
This Alpha offers 5 Movements, Vanska has 7; but I prefer the sound of this one, with those gorgeous, so-distinctive Gothenburg strings (c/w an exceptional 2nd Symphony.....

[Pianoman]

I've just bought the Nicholas Collon version, coupled with a very good 7th. Didn't really know the work, but it's quickly become a favourite, some really great tunes even by Sibelius standards !

By contrast, now listening to BA Zimmermann 'Requiem fur einen junge Dichter' from around 1967 - quite an experience, perhaps more of a 'happening' ...

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Contemporaneous with the 1st Symphony, King Christian was Sibelius' first work for theatre, very attractive and tuneful; reminiscent at times of Valse Triste or the 4 Legends, if lighter in mood, with a thrilling final Ballade. It was an immediate success, even played at the 1901 Proms.
This Alpha offers 5 Movements, Vanska has 7...

The Suite is five movements and the Incidental Music has an extra two, which probably accounts for that. There are some differences in scoring too.

[richardfinegold]

Contemporaneous with the 1st Symphony, King Christian was Sibelius' first work for theatre, very attractive and tuneful; reminiscent at times of Valse Triste or the 4 Legends, if lighter in mood, with a thrilling final Ballade. It was an immediate success, even played at the 1901 Proms.
This Alpha offers 5 Movements, Vanska has 7; but I prefer the sound of this one, with those gorgeous, so-distinctive Gothenburg strings (c/w an exceptional 2nd Symphony.....

It may be hard to find but there was an excellent RCA disc in the early nineties with exciting KC excerpts

[jayne lee wilson]

The Suite is five movements and the Incidental Music has an extra two, which probably accounts for that. There are some differences in scoring too.

The Vanska BIS inlay describes the 7-Movement Incidental Music as "First Complete Recording using Original Scoring".
Then has:

Movements Composed for the February 1898 production:
[Overture] Elegy
Musette
Menuetto
Fool's Song of the Spider

Movements Composed during the Summer of 1898:
Nocturne
Serenade
Ballade

The notes describe in detail the changes in the order and scoring of the later suite.

[smittims]

There's a particularly fine performance of the King Christian suite in a BBC recording which gets an airing occasionally, by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Thomas Sondergard. For many older listeners, the 'classic' recording is by the Scottish National Orchestra conducted by 'pre-Sir' Alexander Gibson: HQS 1070. Lovely picture on the sleeve.

[BBMmk2]

Playing the last few CDs from The Legacy of Charles Munch.

The Legacy of Charles Munch
CD 12
The Véga Recordings
Henry Barraud
Symphony No.3
Albert Roussel
Bacchus et Ariane Ballet Suite No.2
L’Orchestre National de la RTF
Charles Munch

CD 13
The Philips Recordings
Berlioz
Symphonies Fantastique, Op.14
Hungarian Radio & Television Orchestra
Charles Munch

The Deutsche Grammophon Recording
CD 14
Berlioz
Requiem, Op.5
Peter Schreier, (tenor)
Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayrischen Rundfunks
Charles Munch.

[Mal]

Petrenko's RLPO Shostakovich Symphony 2 - started so quietly I thought my system was broken! Not sure I'll listen to it again any time soon - a young man's very modernist experiment. There seems to be a dispute over the closing "hymn to Lenin". Old school holds that Shos. wanted it played straight, as he was a believer in the revolution at that point. New school holds that he was a disbeliever even then and the hymn should be treated as ironic.

I listened (yet again...) to my Jarvi/Goteborgs 3 CD collection of Sibelius Tone Poems recently, one of my favourite "small boxes". I like every performance on the disks, including an excellent "King Christian II". This collection is superb for getting hold of tone poems you might be missing and picking up good alternative performances of those you might already have. Jayne points you to those "gorgeous, so-distinctive Gothenburg strings". I so agree with this recommendation! Check out the opening Karelia Suite - have strings ever shimmered so beautifully?

[Mandryka]

Brooklyn Rider Quartet’s Philip Glass cycle - I’m listening to Quartet 4. This was released in December last year and I’ve only just discovered it. I love it, it’s a revelation - I love the lean sound, the harmonies they create, the phrasing and rubato. I never knew the music was this good.

https://philipglass.bandcamp.com/album/brooklyn-rider-plays-philip-glass

[smittims]

Boult's Mahler 1, an Everest recording from the time he did some work for them (Job, VW9, Shostakovitch 6) . It's not well-known that Sir Adrian was a Mahler enthusiast who attended the 1920 Amsterdam festival (I keep looking for him in a famous photo of the event), conducted the Fourth and Das Lied von der Erde in Birmingham inthe 1920s, and premiered at least one of the symphonies in Britain (the Third and possibly the Fifth) in a series of BBC Third Programme broadcasts of which he was surely an instigator.

This First is wonderful and the LPO give their best for him. If you want to hear it , it's on Spotify.

[pastoralguy]

For many older listeners, the 'classic' recording is by the Scottish National Orchestra conducted by 'pre-Sir' Alexander Gibson: HQS 1070. Lovely picture on the sleeve.

I remember buying this Lp in the Usher Hall back in the days when the (R)SNO had a stall that was run by one of the viola players. (John Blue, iirc). I remember listening to that record over and over wondering how anyone could write such gorgeous music. I must investigate whether it made it to cd.

[Bryn]

Boult's Mahler 1, an Everest recording from the time he did some work for them (Job, VW9, Shostakovitch 6) . It's not well-known that Sir Adrian was a Mahler enthusiast who attended the 1920 Amsterdam festival (I keep looking for him in a famous photo of the event), conducted the Fourth and Das Lied von der Erde in Birmingham inthe 1920s, and premiered at least one of the symphonies in Britain (the Third and possibly the Fifth) in a series of BBC Third Programme broadcasts of which he was surely an instigator.

This First is wonderful and the LPO give their best for him. If you want to hear it , it's on Spotify.

There are also performances of the 8th (with Ferrier) and 3rd on Youtube (and CD):

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldpd38i7xf8

[smittims]

Thanks, Bryn; I didn't know the Eighth had been made public.

The Testament issue of the Third was a surprise to me; I had expected a good old British effort at getting the notes right. Instead I heard a passionately committed performance, remarkable considering that the symphony had not been heard in Britain and probably no-one on the podium except Boult would have known it.

I suppose if Sir Adrian had been more 'pushy' he'd have conducted and maybe recorded more Mahler.

[Stanfordian]

Vaughan Williams
Symphony No. 6
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Sir John Barbirolli
Recorded live 1970, Hercules Hall, Munich
Orfeo International, CD

Vaughan Williams
Piano Quintet in C minor,
Romance for viola & piano,
Quintet in D major for violin, cello, clarinet, horn & piano,
Six Studies in English Folk Song, arranged for clarinet & piano
London Soloists Ensemble,
Recorded 2013 Champs Hill, Coldwaltham, West Sussex
Naxos, CD

[BBMmk2]

New project. I’ve finished listening to The Legacy of Charles Munch, I have now begun listening to Warner Classic s box set, “Camille Saint-Saëns Edition

Camille Saint-Saëns Edition
CD 1
Symphony in A major R159
Symphony No.1 in Eb major Op.2
Symphony No.2 in A minor, Op.55
CD 2
Symphony in F major R163
Symphony No.3 in C minor, “Organ Symphony”, Op.78
Marie-Claire Alain, (organ),
Orchestre National de l’ORTF
Jean Martinon)

CD 3
Symphonic Poems
Danse Macabre, Op.40
La Jeunesse d’Hercule, Op.50
Le Rouet d’Omphale, Op.3
(Leuben Yordanoff, viola,
Orchestre de Paris, Pierre Devaux)
Le Foi, Three Symphonic Pictures, Op.130
Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse,
Michel Plasson)