What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[RichardB]

The Wergo Gerd Albrecht CD of Das Nusch-Nuschi has just been delivered

It's a pretty strange piece of work, with the kind of opulent post-Straussian orchestration you wouldn't associate with PH.

[Mandryka]

Pousseur's Les Éphémérides d'Icare

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5iQ...WelleszTheatre.

(Was it a ballet?)

It makes me think of Luc Ferrari's petite symphonie intuitive pour un paysage de printemps.

[pastoralguy]

Artur Schnabel. The 1946-47 HMV solo recordings.

Mozart. Rondo in a minor. Sonata in F. K.332

Schumann. Kinderszenen Op.15.

Brahms. Rhapsody in g minor, Intermezzos in Eb & a minor.

Weber. Invitation to the Dance.


25p charity shop find! I’ve just looked up the ‘Gramophone’ reviews from these years. Fascinating reading!

[pastoralguy]

Elgar. Violin Concerto.

Britten. Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes.

Michael Barenboim, violin.

Alessandro Crudele conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra.

I’m not sure I should write about this yet since I’ve only heard it on my mobile phone which is not the best way to listen. On the other hand, I’ve heard great performances that I’ve been affected by on the same medium.

Alas, I wasn’t able to get through the violin concerto, turning it off half way through the last movement. There’s no doubt that Barenboim can play the notes but the word ‘dogged’ kept coming to mind. I remember the Ida Haendel/Sir Adrian Boult recording being described by Gramophone as being like a practice run through. I’m afraid this is in a similar vein with slow tempi and an almost total disregard to Elgar’s tempi fluctuations. There’s just, imvho, a very palpable lack of magic from both soloist and conductor. Nigel Kennedy he isn’t!

The Britten isn’t really much better although the Philharmonia play extremely well. Very disappointing. I look forward to hearing others opinions.

Well, the cd arrived and I’ve finally got a chance to listen to it. Alas, it’s still a bit of a slog, almost as if Bruckner had written a violin concerto. I really hope I’m in a minority of one with this recording but it it just doesn’t feel right to me. The playing of the Philharmonia Orchestra is this discs only redeeming feature, imvho.

[Mandryka]

Foccroulle playing Melchior Schildt and Jacob Praetorius on the Lübeck St. Jacobi Stellwagen. It’s such a delicate instrument and Foccroulle’s default style is reticent - I’m not sure it’s for me, I feel that a bit more swagger and colour may be in order this morning.

Someone I know who’s heard the organ says that it “gently perfumes” the building. On a recording that may be hard to recreate - it’s perfuming my living room, but that’s not quite the same effect as perfuming a glorious Renaissance church.

[silvestrione]

Artur Schnabel. The 1946-47 HMV solo recordings.

Mozart. Rondo in a minor. Sonata in F. K.332

Schumann. Kinderszenen Op.15.

Brahms. Rhapsody in g minor, Intermezzos in Eb & a minor.

Weber. Invitation to the Dance.


25p charity shop find! I’ve just looked up the ‘Gramophone’ reviews from these years. Fascinating reading!

Have forgotten that he did Kinderszenen. Must find that. The Rondo is sublime.

[pastoralguy]

Have forgotten that he did Kinderszenen. Must find that. The Rondo is sublime.

The whole disc is wonderful.

[Stanfordian]

Brahms – ‘Works for Chorus & Orchestra’
Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny), Op. 54
Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53
Begräbnisgesang (Funeral Hymn), Op. 13
Nänie, Op. 82
Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates), Op. 89
Jard van Nes, mezzo-soprano (Op. 53)
San Francisco Symphony Chorus,
San Francisco Symphony / Herbert Blomstedt
Recorded 1989 Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
Decca, CD

There are some marvellous works here!

[Mandryka]

Have forgotten that he did Kinderszenen. Must find that. The Rondo is sublime.

The Mozart is good, and I think his late Brahms is outstanding. The Schumann has never really caught my attention.

[smittims]

Those Schnabel recordings were among his last, and were made with a Steinway rather than the Bechstein he used for his famous Beethoven Sonata series. Last of all were the Schubert Impromptus, which were recorded on tape and issued on LP.

I've also been revisiting vintage recordings:

Strauss: Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, Also Sprach Zarathustra. The Vienna Philharmonic. Clemens Krauss. Early Decca LP recordings made in the Musikvereinsaal by Victor Olof and Cyril Windebank. They made quite a sensation on their first appearance ad still sounded good twenty years later when reissued on the Eclipse label.

[Bryn]

Those Schnabel recordings were among his last, and were made with a Steinway rather than the Bechstein he used for his famous Beethoven Sonata series. Last of all were the Schubert Impromptus, which were recorded on tape and issued on LP. . .

Are you referring specifically to his HMV recordings? What of the later RCAs?

[Mandryka]

Those Schnabel recordings were among his last, and were made with a Steinway rather than the Bechstein he used for his famous Beethoven Sonata series. Last of all were the Schubert Impromptus, which were recorded on tape and issued on LP.

Those impromptus are a real high point I think -- I got a good transfer from Japan and it kind of opened my eyes to Schnabel's art in Schubert. I'm sire there are lots of good transfers now,

[Stanfordian]

Brahms – ‘The Brahms Age’
Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100
Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
Daniel Kurganov (violin) & Constantine Finehouse (piano) – on period instruments
Recorded 2020 Ashburnham, MA (Sonata No’s 1 & 2); 2020 La Grua Center, Stonington, CT (Sonata No.3)
Hänssler Classic, CD

[Bryn]

John White: Piano Sonatas 79, 139, 140, 14, 148, 149, 150, 151, and 153, played by the composer as part of his 70th Birthday concert at Wilton's Music Hall, April 2006. In all, the concert comprised some 45, or so, sonatas played by, in alphabetical order by family name, Mary Dullea (who also organised the event), Christopher Hobbs, Neil Immerman, Colin Kingsley, Jonathan Powell, Dave Smith, Kathro Sturrock, John Tilbury, and, as already cited, John White himself. The concert also included an interview with John White by Sarah Walker and a performance by Live Batts!! Almost for which permission to record was granted were recorded using a pair of AT 4033 large diaphragm condenser mics fed, via a Mackie mixer, to an Alesis Masterlink 9600 hard disc/CD recorder.

Looking forward to listening to the rest, bar a very few from which the two pianists concerned withheld their permission to record*.

* Though I have learned that a miscreant audience member did so, anyway, to a pocket MiniDisc recorder, from off-stage.

[RichardB]

Christopher Hoobs

I like it!