What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[Bryn]

Nothing , except the sound of train wheels on the tracks.

Left my headphones at home.

Nothing like a bit of Cage.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Nothing like a bit of Cage.

... and, consoling thought for ts: if you can hear the sound of the wheels on the tracks, at least it means the ryddu train is actually moving!

[Bryn]

Beethoven: Piano Concertos 4 and 3 (Mitsuko Uchida, BP, Simon Rattle - Blu-ray video with 48/16 surround audio). As ever with Uchida, I find the pianism somewhat mannered but also quite beautiful. By no means would I make this a library choice, but that does not mean it is not worth having and hearing. In her interview re. Beethoven and the concertos she emphasises the element of struggle, both in his life and his music. Not a word about the humour though, and I think that's a crucial aspect with she seems to have overlooked.

[Bryn]

Berg: Violin Concerto arr, Schönberg and Tarkmann for chamber forces (Winfried Rademacher, Linos Ensemble).

[MrGongGong]

Nothing , except the sound of train wheels on the tracks.

Left my headphones at home.

Which don't go
de dum de dum any more

Cage is the way to go

[jayne lee wilson]

Listening today for the first time to Riccardo Chailly's recordings of Schumann symphonies with the Gewandhausorchester, and beginning predictably enough with no.2. While people like JEG and Herreweghe have shown that Schumann's orchestration doesn't necessarily need reworking, if you're going to perform this music with a "modern" orchestra, with all the balance decisions that will involve, why not use Mahler's solutions? Especially when they're as well played as this. Does it actually sound like Mahler? Not at all, except maybe the dynamics at some moments. I look forward to another listen when I won't be so concerned with who and how, but just with the musical substance.

Race-tuned Schumann from Chailly...!
You should hear Ceccato though - he has a lovely, lyrical, completely different take on the Mahler arrangements...

Here's one I made earlier....(2017)...

Two excellent sets, but very different from each other…
I love the affectionately sweet, light take from Ceccato/Bergen SO. A special favourite, a pet set. Hidden treasure.
No idiosyncrasies of phrase or pace, lovely lift to the rhythms, that early-BIS mid hall spaciousness and fullness.
The 3rd is especially sunny and warm, almost a Rhine-sur-Med.

I sometimes find the Leipzig/Chailly climaxes a bit hefty for my taste but the whole thing is so brilliantly played and recorded it’s hard to carp…in fact the contrast between the subtler dynamics and lighter, refined orchestration, with the big punchy climaxes is its USP - one of its charms! Leipzig GO at its peak is hard to resist.
( that’s part of the point about the chamber orchestral/HIPPs recordings, you’re arriving at a similar destination to Mahler’s by a different route.

Its not just about density of texture though - there are a host of dynamic changes which freshen and enliven the music, especially enjoyable in No.3, where the horns soar and shine much more brilliantly, clear of those absent wind lines. In the 2nd movement I compared Chailly to Ticciati (one of the “bigger” & more Romantic sounding chamber orch. productions), and was surprised how soon I came to prefer Chailly despite his very fast speeds here. I think he’s going for max clarity of line/rhythm as a match for those fresh, transparent textures…
He can sound overly ebullient and driven, but the effect is undeniably exciting.
Still, there’s always Ceccato if you want a stroll in the sun…

[Joseph K]

Beethoven's second piano concerto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp7xXwPOShM&list=PLBjoEdEVMABIP9duGkgD3NCUIIKuQXmVu

[Beppe]

Got this a few days ago and can't stop listening to it.

[BBMmk2]

Got this a few days ago and can't stop listening to it.

I have this set too. Yes very good.

Jayne Lee Wilson, I heard the BPO/Rattle set recently, which I very much enjoyed. Very polished playing indeed. I don’t know whether Rattle used Mahler’s Edition for this, or not.

[Richard Barrett]

I don’t know whether Rattle used Mahler’s Edition for this, or not.

No he didn't. As far as I'm aware, only Ceccato and Chailly have recorded those versions.

Jayne, did you notice a marked difference in recorded sound between numbers 2 and 3? Moving on from one to the other I had the impression of a suddenly more boxy sound. I had a listen to a bit of Ceccato and, well, if you're going to do them in as relaxed a way as that what's the point in bringing Mahler into the picture at all? I imagine Mahler conducting them with a similar sort of fire to Chailly, although probably without being able to rely on such refined playing. For a soft-grained approach you have Herreweghe, who actually was my way into Schumann's orchestral music.

[BBMmk2]

No he didn't. As far as I'm aware, only Ceccato and Chailly have recorded those versions.

Jayne, did you notice a marked difference in recorded sound between numbers 2 and 3? Moving on from one to the other I had the impression of a suddenly more boxy sound. I had a listen to a bit of Ceccato and, well, if you're going to do them in as relaxed a way as that what's the point in bringing Mahler into the picture at all? I imagine Mahler conducting them with a similar sort of fire to Chailly, although probably without being able to rely on such refined playing. For a soft-grained approach you have Herreweghe, who actually was my way into Schumann's orchestral music.

I can quite imagine that Mahler was similar to Chailly's way of conducting, given his impassioned way.

A Feast of Christmas Carols
Featuring the Cathedral Choirs of
Durham, Norwich, Southwark and York Minster.

[Bryn]

CD-Rs (8 in all) derived from Dolby S cassette recordings of the Radio FM broadcasts from the 1996 Ives weekend at the Barbican.

[Stanfordian]

Anna Netrebko – ‘Russian Album’
Opera arias from Glinka, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky
Anna Netrebko (soprano)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre / Valery Gergiev
Recorded 2005/06 Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
Deutsche Grammophon

Scriabin
Complete Preludes
Dmitri Alexeev (piano)
Recorded 2017, Henry Wood Hall, London
Brilliant Classics - new release

[Joseph K]

Familiarising myself with Ferneyhough's Funerailles 1 & 2, for Sunday's concert.

[HighlandDougie]

Scriabin
Complete Preludes
Dmitri Alexeev (piano)
Recorded 2017, Henry Wood Hall, London
Brilliant Classics - new release

Delighted to see a new recording from Dmitri Alexeev - whose DSCH Piano Concertos on CfP with Jerzy Maksymiuk and the ECO remain pretty much as good as recordings of these two works get. Here:

Debussy: Nocturnes

Les Cris de Paris/Les Siècles/François-Xavier Roth

Stravinsky: Agon

Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg/Gustavo Gimeno

Tippett: Symphony No 2

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins

Three of my favourite pieces of music, in new (or newish) recordings. The Debussy, recorded in the very recognisable - and usually very clear - acoustic of the Philharmonie de Paris (occasionally the reverberation at climaxes makes the sound a bit muddied), is, as one might expect from this combination, excellent. The Stravinsky, from a hitherto unheard combination on my part, is really well recorded (Pentatone) and played. It really brings out the fact that it was written as a ballet. And the Tippett doesn't need me to say anything other than to reiterate its excellence (interestingly for a composer not much known in France, the latest Diapason has a lengthy feature about Tippett and his music).