What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[gradus]

The second LP I bought- Van Cliburn Tchaik 1 and splendid it is too.

[visualnickmos]

The second LP I bought- Van Cliburn Tchaik 1 and splendid it is too.

Great rendition.....

[Joseph K]

Ferneyhough - La Terre est un homme

Beethoven - third string quartet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vEfH6cyMeE&t=3009s

[Petrushka]

Strauss: Le Bourgeois gentilhomme - Suite op. 60
Staatskapelle Dresden
Rudolf Kempe

[interval]

Mahler: Symphony No 4
Miah Persson (soprano)
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Ivan Fischer

Love the Strauss and very surprised never to have encountered it in the concert hall. Surely a candidate for 'should be better known than it is'.

[BBMmk2]

Scriabin
Symphony No.1 in Eb major, Op.26
Symphony No.2 in C minor, Op.29
London Symphony Orchestra
Valery Gergiev

[Alison]

Scriabin
Symphony No.1 in Eb major, Op.26
Symphony No.2 in C minor, Op.29
London Symphony Orchestra
Valery Gergiev

I like those recordings, Gergiev close to his best.

[BBMmk2]

I like those recordings, Gergiev close to his best.

Very much so.

Bach
Trio Sonatas.
Robert Costin(Organ).

My old boss!

[Alison]

Strauss: Le Bourgeois gentilhomme - Suite op. 60
Staatskapelle Dresden
Rudolf Kempe

[interval]

Mahler: Symphony No 4
Miah Persson (soprano)
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Ivan Fischer

Love the Strauss and very surprised never to have encountered it in the concert hall. Surely a candidate for 'should be better known than it is'.

Agree Pet on the Strauss, maybe it’s not that easy to programme. Not prolific on disc either really.

[BBMmk2]

Nikolai Medtner
Piano Concerto No.1 in C minor, Op.33
Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.50
Piano Concerto No.3 in E minor, Op.60
Sonate-Ballade, Op.27
Geoffrey Tözer, (Piano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Neeme Järvi.

Shostakovich
Symphony No.4 in C minor, Op.43
Symphony No.5 in D minor, Op.47
Symphony No.6 in B minor, Op.54
Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev

[Stanfordian]

Roberto Alagna - ‘French Opera Arias’
Bazin, Massenet, Cherubini, Gounod, Gretry, Halévy, Thomas, Meyerbeer, Berloiz, Berlioz,
Gluck, Bizet, Lalo, Mehul, Bruneau, Saint-Saëns
Roberto Alagna (tenor)
London Voices,
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Bertrand de Billy
Recorded 1999/2000 Lyndhurst Hall, Air Studios, London
Deutsche Grammophon

Onslow
‘String Quartets Vol. 1’
String Quartet in G, Op. 9, No. 1
String Quartet in F, Op. 9, No. 3
String Quartet in C, Op. 47
Mandelring Quartet
Recorded 1992 Studio Karlsruhe, Germany
CPO

[pastoralguy]

Strauss: Le Bourgeois gentilhomme - Suite op. 60
Staatskapelle Dresden
Rudolf Kempe

[interval]

Mahler: Symphony No 4
Miah Persson (soprano)
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Ivan Fischer

Love the Strauss and very surprised never to have encountered it in the concert hall. Surely a candidate for 'should be better known than it is'.

I heard the Scottish Chamber Orchestra play it many years ago. There's a terrific solo violin part, iirc.

[pastoralguy]

Brahms. The Violin Sonatas

Nobu Wakabayashi, violin

Kathron Sturrock, piano.

I'd heard of the pianist but not the violinist but it's superb playing from both artists.

IMP Label

[jayne lee wilson]

Brahms Symphony No.3. London Classical Players/Roger Norrington ….(cycle rec. 1990-95 Japanese Erato CD 2015)

With the sheer beauty and devotedness of this recording, one wonders at the controversy this conductor so often arouses. The outer movements are swift, yet not excessively so; a little foursquare in the RN way sometimes, but so perfectly judged is their pacing this impression soon fades. But they are quite impassioned enough, the textural lightness lending a Rhenish-style feel to (i) especially. So the contrast with the middle movements is emphasised here, as they are notably withdrawn in their mellow regret - so “autumnal” indeed, that it felt a little strange to be listening to this symphony on a grey afternoon in March….

The orchestra plays really beautifully in this outstanding Brahms 3rd; one can revel in the instrumental colours (as well as the beautifully judged shaping of the performance as a whole) whilst remaining undistracted by any interpretative idiosyncrasy.

***
Brahms 4 LCP/Norrington.

Whilst still exquisitely played, precise, dynamic, transparent, I found the first two movements a shade underwhelming.
With a distinctly non troppo first movement (though with increasing speed through exposition and recap - effective if unsubtle), and the subsequent andante moderato, I missed the surge of tension and release, emotional ebb and flow, feeling that the pulse was often too steady, with insufficient contrast between the two movements. Never dull or underplayed exactly (the faster sections in the andante are both quick and urgent), but feeling rather episodic, or perhaps just too classically clean and controlled for their own good.
I still enjoyed the listening though: the wonderful playing and glorious sound guaranteed that - exceptional clarity, like an x-ray of the score. Still, some relief as the giocoso clattered into life…. but doubts returned at first in the finale which, perhaps expectedly, was at its most effective in the more contemplative episodes - some lovely wind solos here, against a soft hush of strings. Wonderful moments, but again that lack of the longer view, tension and release, emotional and structural culmination. RN did effect more excitement toward the conclusion, with an increase in tempo (as in (i), and brought home the final chord very powerfully (with no undue prolongation).

Summing up - a classic Brahms set, outstandingly beautiful, thoughtful 2&3, 1 more challenging, a few problems with 4. Highly recommended in any case....

***
Pet & Alison - you may be surprised how often the charming Strauss Gentihomme suite gets recorded! There's the classic CSO/Reiner (my first one), and Rattle actually did it in Berlin for EMI.
My favourite is a chamber orchestral version on Arte Nova, with the Basle CO/Hogwood, c/w a lovely Bizet Arlésienne in its original theatre-orchestra version.

[Petrushka]

Pet & Alison - you may be surprised how often the charming Strauss Gentihomme suite gets recorded! There's the classic CSO/Reiner (my first one), and Rattle actually did it in Berlin for EMI.
My favourite is a chamber orchestral version on Arte Nova, with the Basle CO/Hogwood, c/w a lovely Bizet Arlésienne in its original theatre-orchestra version. [/SIZE]

A search of my shelves yields the Rattle/BPO recording which I didn't know I had! I also have VPO/Krauss and VPO/Maazel with Willi Boskovsky playing the violin solo in the latter (or possibly both). There's also a BBC Legends issue from Tennstedt and the LPO which I don't have. A rare visitor to the concert hall, though.

[BBMmk2]

A search of my shelves yields the Rattle/BPO recording which I didn't know I had! I also have VPO/Krauss and VPO/Maazel with Willi Boskovsky playing the violin solo in the latter (or possibly both). There's also a BBC Legends issue from Tennstedt and the LPO which I don't have. A rare visitor to the concert hall, though.

I didn’t know that Rattle had recorded it either! Much look up on Spotify, I think.

A Choice Collection of Restoration Harpsichord Music
Richard Egarr, (harpsichord)

Isabelle Faust plays Bach Concertos
Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV1052
Violin Concerto No.2 in E major, BWV1042
Sinfonia from Cantata ‘Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis’, BWV21
Trio Sonata in C major, BWV529
Concerto for Oboe & Violin in C minor, BWV1060
Overture No.2 in B minor, BWV1067
Trio Sonata in D minor, BWV527
Violin Concerto in G minor, BWV1056R
Sinfonia from Cantata, “Himmelskönig sei willkommen”, BWV182
Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor, BWV1041
Concerto in D major, BWV1045
Concerto for Two Violins in D minor BWV1043
Isabelle Faust(Violin)
Xenia Löffler(oboe), Raphael Alperman(Harpsichord)
Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin
Bernhard Forck.