What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[Bryn]

The latest BBC MM CD:

Bruckner: Symphony No 8
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Donald Runnicles

Given in the City Halls, Glasgow, on January 21 2010.

Runnicles account of the Bruckner 8 has won considerable praise and he and the BBC SSO have given a fair number of performances of it. This is an impressive, finely paced performance and I'd recommend it to all Brucknerians. My only complaint is that I'd welcome more from the timpani and I have a memory of saying something similar following the original broadcast. Recommended nevertheless.

Their performances of the 9th, with SMPC 'realisation' of the finale, were also very fine.

[Joseph K]

R3 currently, playing BWV 4 - a cantata.

[BBMmk2]

R3 currently, playing BWV 4 - a cantata.

They going through Bach’s Easter Cantatas I believe?

Beethoven
Missa Solemnis
Genia Kuhmeier (soprano)
Elisabeth Kulman (mezzo soprano)
Mark Padmore (tenor)
Hanno Muller-Brachman (bass-baritone)
Chor und Symphonie Orchester des
Bayrischen Rundfunks
Bernard Haitink

Bruckner
Symphony No.8 in C minor.
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Donald Runnicles

[teamsaint]

Vivaldi Clarinet Concertos.
Concerto Koln/ Martin Frost.

What a lovely sound this orchestra produces.
Recommendations for other discs of theirs ?

[LMcD]

William Alwyn 2nd Symphony

[Stanfordian]

Sumi Jo - ‘Carnaval!’
French Coloratura Arias by Offenbach, Massenet, David, Grétry, Balfe,
Messager, Thomas, Adam, Hérold, Delibes, Boiëldieu, Massé[/B]
Sumi Jo (soprano)
English Chamber Orchestra / Richard Bonynge
Recorded 1993 Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London
Decca

Fernand de La Tombelle
4 Mélodies, for tenor & piano:
i. Le Livre de la vie
ii. À la mère de l’enfant mort
iii. Dans l’alcôve sombre
iv. Le Secret des vagues
‘Les Pages d’amour’, 6 mélodies, for tenor & piano:
i. L’Ultime Idole
ii. Nuit d’amour
iii. Sérénade
iv. Retour
v. L’Apaisement
vi. La Flambée
Yann Beuron (tenor), Jeff Cohen (piano)
Andante espressivo, for cello & piano
Cello Sonata
Emmanuelle Bertrand (cello), Pascal Amoyel (piano)
Fantaisie Ballade for pedal harp
Nabila Chajai (harp)
Recorded 2017, Centre de musique romantique française, Palazzetto Bru Zane, Venice
Bru Zane – Portraits series, volume 5 (CD 3 of 3)

[jayne lee wilson]

Schubert Symphony No.8 in B Minor D.759. "The Finished Unfinished". Reconstructed Version by Mario Venzago.
Kammerorchester Basel/Venzago. Sony CD 2017.

Compelling realised here in Venzago’s completion with wide-ranging playing, sharply accented and warmly sung, and sound beyond reproach...….

The flowingly quick tempi through the first two movements, played as if they really are only the first two, help to create the urgent feel of a terrifically cogent 4-movement structure….
Venzago adds a second strain to the trio, and quotes the symphony's opening phrases just before the final coda; slightly indulgent additives perhaps, but the latter works especially well in context.

Vital to play the finale like you mean it - as a finale, allegro moderato, not just an add-on entr’acte…. all repeats, minor key ending… you have to give it everything, committed, dark, impassioned; so it has the weight and length (11'52) to counterbalance the first two movements.
(A problem with the Mackerras was that, too short, major key ending and played pretty straight, it still felt like the entr'acte tacked on, despite the excellent OAE performance.)

In any case, given the expansive increasingly ambitious design of 6 and 7, not to mention No.9, why wouldn’t the 4-movement No.8 be similarly epic and intense? That was the way Schubert was going in most genres........

CMW/Gottfried, (more overtly, relentlessly intense) seemed to sweep the D759 board when it appeared, but the more I go back to this one the more rewarding its subtleties & probings become...

[Suffolkcoastal]

Score following - Day 11:

S Barber:
Symphony No 2 op19
Night Flight op19a
Capricorn Concerto op21
Cello Concerto op22 (cello & pf score)
Medea - Suite from the ballet op23

[gurnemanz]

It's Spring. Schumann Symphony 1 & 2 - Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie, Chemnitz, conducted by Frank Beermann.

[BBMmk2]

I seem to be in large scale works at the moment. Carrying on with this theme.

Bruckner
Symphony No.5 in Bb major
(1875-1878 Leopold Nowak Edition)
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Bernard Haitink

This was the first recording I heard that really made me appreciate this mighty work.

[Stanfordian]

‘Airs d'opéras français’ - Natalie Dessay
French opera arias by Massenet, Boiëldieu, Rossini, Offenbach, Gounod, Thomas
Natalie Dessay (soprano)
Choeur Les Eléments,
Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse / Michel Plasson
Recorded 2003, Halle-aux-Grains, Toulouse
Virgin Classics

La Tombelle
Suite for three cellos
François Salque, Hermine Horiot, Adrien Bellom (cellos)
Piano Quartet, Op. 24
I Giardini: Guillaume Chilemann (violin), Marie Chilemann (viola), Pauline Buet (cello), David Violi (piano)
Recorded 2017, Centre de musique romantique française, Palazzetto Bru Zane, Venice
Music for Choir:
i. Le Furet
ii. Au fil de l’eau
iii. Madrigal spiritual
iv. La Voix de l’orgue, cantata
v. Pie Jesu, motet
Flemish Radio Choir / Hervé Niquet
François Saint-Yves (organ)
Recorded 2018 Jezuïetenkerk, Heverlee, Belgium
Bru Zane – Portraits series – volume 5 (CD 2 of 3)

[BBMmk2]

Beethoven
Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125
Krassimira Stoyanova(soprano)
Lioba Braun (contralto)
Michael Schade (tenor)
Michael Volle(Bass)
Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Mariss Jansons

Bruckner
Symphony No.7 in E minor
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Mariss Jansons.

[richardfinegold]

Schubert Symphony No.8 in B Minor D.759. "The Finished Unfinished". Reconstructed Version by Mario Venzago.
Kammerorchester Basel/Venzago. Sony CD 2017.

Compelling realised here in Venzago’s completion with wide-ranging playing, sharply accented and warmly sung, and sound beyond reproach...….

The flowingly quick tempi through the first two movements, played as if they really are only the first two, help to create the urgent feel of a terrifically cogent 4-movement structure….
Venzago adds a second strain to the trio, and quotes the symphony's opening phrases just before the final coda; slightly indulgent additives perhaps, but the latter works especially well in context.

Vital to play the finale like you mean it - as a finale, allegro moderato, not just an add-on entr’acte…. all repeats, minor key ending… you have to give it everything, committed, dark, impassioned; so it has the weight and length (11'52) to counterbalance the first two movements.
(A problem with the Mackerras was that, too short, major key ending and played pretty straight, it still felt like the entr'acte tacked on, despite the excellent OAE performance.)

In any case, given the expansive increasingly ambitious design of 6 and 7, not to mention No.9, why wouldn’t the 4-movement No.8 be similarly epic and intense? That was the way Schubert was going in most genres........

CMW/Gottfried, (more overtly, relentlessly intense) seemed to sweep the D759 board when it appeared, but the more I go back to this one the more rewarding its subtleties & probings become...

I have never heard a completion of the Unfinished, although I know that they have been extent for many years. Didn't Felix Weingartner write one? I will look for the Venzago on Qobuz

[LMcD]

Mahler 1st symphony (Kubelik/BRSO)

[teamsaint]

Mahler 1st symphony (Kubelik/BRSO)

Ok, just as a discussion point, does anybody else hear this work and often think “ Gosh there are a lot of fourths in this “ ?

Or have similar thoughts ? Not that it isn’t great, of course..........