What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[silvestrione]

Tchaikovsky. String Serenade. Op.48.

Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Gerard Korsten. DG.

I hadn’t come across this disc before when it popped up on eBay. One of those gorgeous high production value CDs from Deutsche Grammophon with lovely artwork.

The performance is first rate , my only reservation being that the first movement is just a tiny bit careful in the high violin writing. My absolute favourite performance of this marvellous piece is Herbie and his band in his first recording where he pushes the Berlin Philharmonic’s fiddles to their absolute limit. A shade untidy but extremely exciting!

Anyway, Korsten and his COE players have shown me a few details I’ve not noticed before. The end of the slow movement really foretells Verklarte Nacht’s strangeness.

I was listening to the HvK Serenade only last night, on LP for the string sound...absolutely glorious!

[pastoralguy]

I was listening to the HvK Serenade only last night, on LP for the string sound...absolutely glorious!

He recorded the Tchaikovsky twice, both times with the Berliner Philharmoniker but I’ve always thought the earlier version is just incredibly exciting. I had the original mid price cd issue which is quite ‘glassy’ in its sound but the re-mastering in the Karajan 1960’s Big Box has improved the sound immeasurably.

My father had a promotional Lp of this recording that was coupled with Mozart’s Eine Kleine which was a give away when he bought a Bang and Olufsen system in the 1970’s. ‘A Joy Forever’ was the album’s title which featured an impossibly good looking couple posing by their B&O system with what appeared to be brandy in huge balloon glasses! I wasn’t allowed to use the B&O system but I did acquire my parents old record player where I promptly requisitioned the Karajan album! I wish I still had that record.

I’m now listening to the Korsten / CoE coupling of the Serenade with the Souvenir de Florence, a work that never fails to disappoint in its Orchestral garb. So often the textures are thick and heavy and the tempi turgid but refreshingly not here! This is incredibly light on its feet and the attention to detail is outstanding. My ‘go to’ recording has always been the augmented Borodin Quartet on EMI but this is, if anything, even better.

I’d recommend this disc to anyone who loves these pieces. DG. 437 541-2.

[smittims]

The Record Guide called Souvenir de Florence 'gently boring' but I've always liked it.

Other favourite recordings of the Serenade for Strings are Dresden/ Otmar Suitner ( a long-time favourite of Rob Cowan and Anatole Fistoulari on Philips, recorded in Wembley Town Hall,in 1962 by Vittorio Negri but first issued in Britain on the short-lived Mercury Wing label. It's on an Eloquence CD with some of Fisty's other Tchaikovsky recordings.

[silvestrione]

He recorded the Tchaikovsky twice, both times with the Berliner Philharmoniker but I’ve always thought the earlier version is just incredibly exciting. I had the original mid price cd issue which is quite ‘glassy’ in its sound but the re-mastering in the Karajan 1960’s Big Box has improved the sound immeasurably.

My father had a promotional Lp of this recording that was coupled with Mozart’s Eine Kleine which was a give away when he bought a Bang and Olufsen system in the 1970’s. ‘A Joy Forever’ was the album’s title which featured an impossibly good looking couple posing by their B&O system with what appeared to be brandy in huge balloon glasses! I wasn’t allowed to use the B&O system but I did acquire my parents old record player where I promptly requisitioned the Karajan album! I wish I still had that record.

I’m now listening to the Korsten / CoE coupling of the Serenade with the Souvenir de Florence, a work that never fails to disappoint in its Orchestral garb. So often the textures are thick and heavy and the tempi turgid but refreshingly not here! This is incredibly light on its feet and the attention to detail is outstanding. My ‘go to’ recording has always been the augmented Borodin Quartet on EMI but this is, if anything, even better.

I’d recommend this disc to anyone who loves these pieces. DG. 437 541-2.

Yes, I have an extremely well-preserved 60s LP of the HvK Serenade with the BPO. There is a touch of 'glassiness' in the treble sound, but I love the way the attack comes across, and the lower-strings melody in the last movement!! Oh boy...

[Stanfordian]

Hubert Parry
'Ode on the Nativity' for soprano solo, chorus & orchestra
Gustav Holst
'The Mystic Trumpeter' – Scena for soprano & orchestra, ed. Colin Matthews
Vaughan Williams
'The Sons of Light' – Cantata for chorus and orchestra
Teresa Cahill, Sheila Armstrong (soprano)
The Bach Choir,
Royal College of Music Chorus,
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir David Willcocks (Parry, VW)
London Symphony Orchestra / David Atherton (Holst)
Recorded 1980, Kingsway Hall (RVW, Parry). No venue and date given for Holst.
Lyrita, CD

Ruth Gipps – Orchestral Works, Vol. 2
Symphony No. 3, Op. 57 (1965)
Chanticleer Overture, Op. 28 (1944)
Oboe Concerto, Op. 20 (1941)
Death on the Pale Horse, tone peom, Op. 25 (1943)
Juliana Koch (oboe)
BBC Philharmonic / Rumon Gamba
Recorded 2019-22, MediaCityUK, Salford
Chandos, CD
Such an admirable composer. There's some wonderful music on this CD, especially the Symphony No. 3.

[Stanfordian]

J.S. Bach
St. Mark Passion, BWV 247
(Reconstructed 1731 version by Dietmar Hellmann and Andreas Glöckner)
Amarcord,
Die Kölner Akademie / Michael Alexander Willens
Recorded Live 2009, Frauenkirche, Dresden
Carus, CD

I just fancied some Bach today and this CD, of the Mark Passion for Good Friday, was to hand.

[Sir Velo]

Liszt, Piano Concerto in E Flat Chamayou Le Cercle de l'harmonie Rohrer Naive

What an enterprising label Naive is! Here, the first and (AFAIK) only performance of Liszt's piano concerto on period instruments. Chamayou plays a magnificent sounding restored 1837 Erard. The high notes, in particular, have a crystalline sound that is truly enchanting.

[teamsaint]

Liszt, Piano Concerto in E Flat Chamayou Le Cercle de l'harmonie Rohrer Naive

What an enterprising label Naive is! Here, the first and (AFAIK) only performance of Liszt's piano concerto on period instruments. Chamayou plays a magnificent sounding restored 1837 Erard. The high notes, in particular, have a crystalline sound that is truly enchanting.

Thanks, good recommendation. The rest of the CD looks interesting too.

[teamsaint]

I love what I assume is an auto-correct occurrence here. Does his brother drive a Citroën by any chance?



(To my shame, I hadn't even realised that SS had written one violin concerto, let alone more than one!)

There are also a couple of Violin sonatas, at least one of which I enjoyed . But the abundance of modern streamed content being what is it I haven’t listened to them in a while. But seems like as good a time as any to go back to them.

[pastoralguy]

Brahms. String Sextets Op.18 & Op.36.

The Cleveland Quartet with Pinchas Zukerman, viola and Bernard Greenhouse, ‘cello. RCA 1977 & 1978.

Part of a ‘Big Box’ devoted to the work of this group. Very fine playing indeed.

Schubert. Octet.

Cleveland Quartet. Jack Brymer, clarinet. Barry Tuckwell, horn. Martin Gatt, bassoon. Thomas Martin, double bass.

Beethoven. ‘Harp Quartet’. Op.74.

Cleveland Quartet.

Im going through a Harp Quartet fixation. Just now having received the Chiaroscuro Quartet the Christmas.

[smittims]

I saw the cleveland quartet on their first visit to Britain about 50 years ago. They played Ives' second, and 'Death and the Maiden'.

The Queen of Spades, (Tchaikovsky, of course) for me. I've been pleased to renew my acquaintance with this fine opera, in the Eloquence reissue of the 1955 Decca/ Belgrade recording. I had the 'Ace of Diamonds' version when the stereo tape was published in the early '70s on six sides, the original mono being eight.

[pastoralguy]

I saw the cleveland quartet on their first visit to Britain about 50 years ago. They played Ives' second, and 'Death and the Maiden'.

The Queen of Spades, (Tchaikovsky, of course) for me. I've been pleased to renew my acquaintance with this fine opera, in the Eloquence reissue of the 1955 Decca/ Belgrade recording. I had the 'Ace of Diamonds' version when the stereo tape was published in the early '70s on six sides, the original mono being eight.

Alas, a bit before my time, smittims. Judging by these recordings they must have been very impressive live. The Quartet’s leader, Donald Weilerstein, is the father of my favourite ‘cellist, Alisa.

Queen of Spades is a great opera and I was lucky enough to play it many years ago.

[cria]

Adams' nativity story. El Nino with Hunt-Lieberson, Upshaw, White . (as usual). Gorgeous.

[Sir Velo]

A welcome antidote to the horrors of Feliz Navidad,

https://www.stileantico.co.uk/recordings/a-wondrous-mystery

[smittims]

Carl Orff, Die Kluge, the classic 1956 Columbia recording with Schwarzkopf and Wolfgang Sawallisch. Everyone seems to have had fun recording it.