What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[Serial_Apologist]

If that's what you're listening to YES YOU SHOULD!

Yet I recall the Rattle saying that of all the Minimalists, John Adams really was the one to have got it right!

[Joseph K]

but today for a change I'm enjoying the 48 on the piano in very intelligent performances by Jeno Jando on Naxos. I got the set some years ago and find it very enjoyable.

Me too! That was the set with which I got to know the 48.

[Joseph K]

Despite the reservations of some forum members , I find it often to be music that reflects, to a point, a time of optimism and ( possibly misplaced) confidence , something we have been in dire need of these last few years, which is probably why I have listened to quite a bit of it in recent times.

I feel the same way about John McLaughlin's Devotion which for me is the psychedelic album par excellence.

[HighlandDougie]

Nielsen: Symphony No 6 "Sinfonia Semplice", FS116

Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Fabio Luisi

Latest in the DG download only cycle (although a CD box set is mooted for April), well up to the standard of the previous two releases. I think that this symphony might just about fit with the 'psychedelic' theme (on which, the joy of being reminded about, "Granny Takes a Trip"). Back to this Luisi cycle, it's up to the standards of my benchmark Sakari Oramo cycle. Possibly even better recorded. I can only put the general lack of comment on it down to it being download-only so far.

[Joseph K]

A return to the DG/Decca Boulez The Conductor boxed set after a ridiculously long break from it!

Ravel - Daphnis et Chloé - Berlin Philharmoniker/Boulez

[jayne lee wilson]

Nielsen: Symphony No 6 "Sinfonia Semplice", FS116

Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Fabio Luisi

Latest in the DG download only cycle (although a CD box set is mooted for April), well up to the standard of the previous two releases. I think that this symphony might just about fit with the 'psychedelic' theme (on which, the joy of being reminded about, "Granny Takes a Trip"). Back to this Luisi cycle, it's up to the standards of my benchmark Sakari Oramo cycle. Possibly even better recorded. I can only put the general lack of comment on it down to it being download-only so far.

Sorry about that. Very enthusiastic Gramophone review this month of 1,3 4 and 5 (ES). I'll get around to this Qobuzissime, health-restricted energies and an obsession with early Bruckner (and Rozhdestvensky's Bruckner) notwithstanding....

I'll certainly order the boxset.....!

[smittims]

I've always liked the Sixth, after the First. And do the Danes play him with a special understanding, I wonder? For me Jensen's 1952 recording is still the classic.

[Pulcinella]

More Images yesterday (Rosenthal, Ansermet), and I might even search out some others today.
Despite (more because of) a poor BaL, there has been lots of interesting discussion on the BaL thread.

[silvestrione]

After a positive mention in Richard Osborne's Bruckner review (of Jaarvi/Tonhalle 7, in the new Gramophone) I dug out the BPO/Karajan Bruckner 7, on EMI/Warner, from 1971. I remembered I'd always thought it a thing of wonder, and still do. I love the fact that there are moments, in the first movement, of complete silence, and we are unmistakeably in the acoustic of the Jesus Kirche (not that I've ever been there!).

[smittims]

I agree; that is a superb recording and performance, as are the Tchaikovsky symphonies Herbert recorded there for EMI at the same time. Yet the Bruckner was absurdly singled out by BBC Music Magazine as 'One to Avoid'. Talk about cloth ears...

[jayne lee wilson]

I agree; that is a superb recording and performance, as are the Tchaikovsky symphonies Herbert recorded there for EMI at the same time. Yet the Bruckner was absurdly singled out by BBC Music Magazine as 'One to Avoid'. Talk about cloth ears...

I haven't seen where the BBC MM said that, but are you sure it wasn't the later (far less recommendable) Philharmonie recording they were referring to? Yes, the J-CK recording is a classic, but I feel the late, last 7th with Vienna Phil is greater still.... the last look back, so spare and almost neo-classical, an elegy to a life of Brucknerian devotions...

[jayne lee wilson]

After a positive mention in Richard Osborne's Bruckner review (of Jaarvi/Tonhalle 7, in the new Gramophone) I dug out the BPO/Karajan Bruckner 7, on EMI/Warner, from 1971. I remembered I'd always thought it a thing of wonder, and still do. I love the fact that there are moments, in the first movement, of complete silence, and we are unmistakeably in the acoustic of the Jesus Kirche (not that I've ever been there!).

I'm increasingly dismayed at the negative or carping opinions towards new and different Bruckner approaches shown by Osborne and to some extent Christian Hoskins in recent reviews. Especially RO's summary dismissal in 2/23 of the 1876 4th in the Capriccio 2024 Poschner series. I've listened to this closely and repeatedly, and find his brusque critique very unfair. (He gets as far as Norrington, but since...?)
It is a lovely, songful rewarding performance which makes the extraordinary 1874 (rev.1876) score sound more startlingly original than any previous recording, apart perhaps from Rozhdestvensky. And it has a very beautiful andante.

Still at least RO finally namechecks Andreae (1953) about the 7th (in his, again, too-negative review of the P-Järvi), a cycle some of us have been highlighting for a few years now. But his comments about the sound of the P-Järvi 7th are alarmingly inaccurate. It's a very fine, spacious recording.

[visualnickmos]

I'm increasingly dismayed at the negative or carping opinions towards new and different Bruckner approaches shown by Osborne and to some extent Christian Hoskins in recent reviews. .......

I don't think it's particularly important, as to what critics may say... or not say. The important thing is that we each can listen to the recordings in question, and create our own critique, which after all is as individual as any critic's.

[jayne lee wilson]

I don't think it's particularly important, as to what critics may say... or not say. The important thing is that we each can listen to the recordings in question, and create our own critique, which after all is as individual as any critic's.

The essential point about reading reviews (or forum posts...) is to encounter different ideas and opinions, always a valuable stimulus to one's own thinking, perhaps especially where one disagrees. "Critics" aren't something apart. I've reviewed for MusicWeb myself recently, and hope to again when health allows. We are all just obsessive musiclovers, and enjoy sharing and discussing the details of that love; the discoveries it leads us toward. (Formal magazine reviews can go into greater depth and detail given the space and time, than most thread posts tend to do).

But we can often learn from what others have to tell us....I learnt more from Osborne (on Bruckner, Beethoven, etc), back in the day, than from almost any other reviewer, whether in Gramophone or on Radio 3 BaL. Simply because he knew more than I did then. Individuality isn't in question, but different levels of knowledge, experience and listening skills are very varied. We should always recognise that, and be open to it.

[silvestrione]

I'm increasingly dismayed at the negative or carping opinions towards new and different Bruckner approaches shown by Osborne and to some extent Christian Hoskins in recent reviews. Especially RO's summary dismissal in 2/23 of the 1876 4th in the Capriccio 2024 Poschner series. I've listened to this closely and repeatedly, and find his brusque critique very unfair. (He gets as far as Norrington, but since...?)
It is a lovely, songful rewarding performance which makes the extraordinary 1874 (rev.1876) score sound more startlingly original than any previous recording, apart perhaps from Rozhdestvensky. And it has a very beautiful andante.

Still at least RO finally namechecks Andreae (1953) about the 7th (in his, again, too-negative review of the P-Järvi), a cycle some of us have been highlighting for a few years now. But his comments about the sound of the P-Järvi 7th are alarmingly inaccurate. It's a very fine, spacious recording.

And he also namechecks the Schuricht BPO 7, which I have ordered on the strength of that. Good to have your comments qualifying or disagreeing, though, Jayne, thanks.