What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[kuligin]

Buxtehude Sonatas Op1 Holloway, ter Linden and Morrtensen.

Very attractive works, No.4 has become an earworm sadly

[MickyD]

Buxtehude Sonatas Op1 Holloway, ter Linden and Morrtensen.

Very attractive works, No.4 has become an earworm sadly

But what a wonderful earworm! Those discs are divine.

[teamsaint]

Have a go with the Pablo Heras-Casado set, Sainty. I can’t sit back and enjoy the YNS though I wasn’t put off exploring his LvB cycle where I found much to admire.. Don’t think I’ve seen Jaynes estimable views on the latter :-)

Ah well, funnily enough Alison , I selected that in the car this morning, and it was terrific.

I don't think I have heard much of YNS in Beethoven, but I would always give him a listen.

[jayne lee wilson]

Well, I felt that in this case the ( near ) constant shifts didn’t really work, and the marking for the movement is Allegro Animato e Grazioso. For me, this doesn’t really feel “ Grazioso” . There are few tempi markings in the score I later followed, just a couple of Poco Rits etc, and while interpretation surely allows for more than is in the score, it just felt that the flow that I think is required was unnecessarily interrupted.
But I might go back to the Dausgaard and check what he does with this movement.

I meant to add that for me every Schumann performance should be different, even from the same conductor; the music's unique essence seems to need that. I love the unpredictability of the YNS performances. (Recent recordings of the chamber music have shown this very free, creative approach as very apt to the inspirations...)

A great Schumann cycle which seems to go largely under the radar is the SWR/Norrington. Re-released just last year, I was thrilled by its blend of precision, rhythmic poise, dynamic power, and sheer exhilaration, in that excellent German Radio sound balance. It gets pretty much everything right, one-off, in live performances with applause (played more straightforwardly than, say, YNS), and is my clear favourite on a full-size symphony orchestra. But I seem to be the only one who has heard it around here....

Some listeners now appear to give Norrington the wide berth, but they would probably be surprised at the beauties and fulfilments of this set. I'd love to hear other views....

[Master Jacques]

Howells
Concerto for String Orchestra
Three Dances for Violin and Orchestra op.7
Piano Concerto No.2
Kathryn Stott, piano
Malcolm Stewart, violin
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
c. Vernon Handley
(Hyperion CDA66610, rec. 1991-2)

A favourite Howells recording of mine, given Handley's structural mastery and precision in the Concerto for String Orchestra, which rescues it from any suggestion of rhapsodising. The infamous Piano Concerto (the 'mixed' reception of which caused its composer to stop composing for orchestra, for over ten years) has never had better advocacy, and the Violin Dances are joyous, if hardly world-shattering. Top-quality Liverpool Phil. hall recording, to boot.

[Pulcinella]

Howells
Concerto for String Orchestra
Three Dances for Violin and Orchestra op.7
Piano Concerto No.2
Kathryn Stott, piano
Malcolm Stewart, violin
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
c. Vernon Handley
(Hyperion CDA66610, rec. 1991-2)

A favourite Howells recording of mine, given Handley's structural mastery and precision in the Concerto for String Orchestra, which rescues it from any suggestion of rhapsodising. The infamous Piano Concerto (the 'mixed' reception of which caused its composer to stop composing for orchestra, for over ten years) has never had better advocacy, and the Violin Dances are joyous, if hardly world-shattering. Top-quality Liverpool Phil. hall recording, to boot.

I'd like to hear what John Wilson makes of the Concerto for string orchestra, but curiously his name has dropped off my search option results on Deezer, so I can't find it if indeed it's there.

PS: Just found and saved for tomorrow, under Sinfonia of London!

(I think forum member makropulos makes a rare mistake with its title in his RWV and Boult book; I need to check but think he calls it a Concert grosso, which made me think there was a piece of Howells I didn't know about.)

[Joseph K]

Messiaen - Illuminations of the Beyond - SWR Sinfonie-Orchester/Cambreling

Motivated to give this a spin by the conversation on the Turangalila thread, though I doubt I'll listen to all of it this evening (not because of this piece, just because I will feel the need to pick up my guitar again... )

[jayne lee wilson]

Bruckner Symphony No.5.
USSRMoCSO/Rozhdestvensky. Venezia CDs (rec. 1984).
Distinct from the USSRSSO, its easy to forget what a wonderful orchestra this was under Rozh - I hope still is under its current name. A great Bruckner sound, which here provides Rozh with the palette for a truly great 5th. The full rich strings have plenty of bite and inner weft; the brass blaze out across the instrumental terrain (not only in major climaxes); winds as colourfully individual (and prominently balanced) as ever.
A classic reading with no distracting eccentricities, but utterly distinctive of this very Russian Cycle all the same (that characteristically slower scherzo, emphasising weight, truculence and - schwung). Starker, sharper, edgier textures than found in Berlin, Vienna or Amsterdam; those dark throaty brasses rather old-east-German in character low down (but with unabashed Sovietski Blare).
When the heavenly great gates open, and that final coda soars into view, you'll ask yourself "how many extra brasses did they use?!" The answer must be something like "...All for the Greater Glory of God, we stopped counting........."

Yes Karajan, yes Celi, yes Jochum, yes....the LPO in Vienna with Welser-Möst...... we've been here before; but never quite like this.

The pinnacle of this cycle; Rozhdestvensky seems to have understood just how completely and aptly it is also the peak of Bruckner's symphonic achievement.

[gradus]

I've only been able to hear the first movement of the new Beatrice Rana recording of the Schumann piano concerto but it is played with an intense poetic awareness, for example at the start of the cadenza and great feeling for Schumann's idiom. I look forward to Spotify adding the remainder of the recording.

[pastoralguy]

I've only been able to hear the first movement of the new Beatrice Rana recording of the Schumann piano concerto but it is played with an intense poetic awareness, for example at the start of the cadenza and great feeling for Schumann's idiom. I look forward to Spotify adding the remainder of the recording.

I’ve been a fan of the wonderful Ms. Rana since she first appeared on the scene and I’ve long waited for this cd of what is probably my favourite romantic piano concerto. The Clara Schumann is very good too despite being much indebted to Chopin.

[pastoralguy]

Rodrigo. Concierto de Aranjuez.

Miloš Karadaglić, guitar with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
A 25p charity shop find. One of these CDs that looks like someone’s scrubbed it with a Brillo Pad but it seems to play fine.

Beautiful playing!!

[Joseph K]

Pietà from "Invasion Explosion mit Abschied", from "Dienstag aus LICHT", Karlheinz Stockhausen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTcyUKT4jsM

[Joseph K]

Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Nobody knows the trouble I see (1954)

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

[jayne lee wilson]

I’ve been a fan of the wonderful Ms. Rana since she first appeared on the scene and I’ve long waited for this cd of what is probably my favourite romantic piano concerto. The Clara Schumann is very good too despite being much indebted to Chopin.

D'you know the Bernstein 2nd Symphony she did with Pappano? Marvellous, even if I (marginally) prefer Zimmerman/Rattle...

[Joseph K]

I'm enjoying this...

Bernd Alois Zimmermann - Photoptosis | WDR Sinfonieorchester

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F44CCFvnkDY