What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[Bryn]

https://timespans.org/concert/collections-for-juliet/

[Pulcinella]

Sounds good. The London Sinfonietta was really a force to be reckoned with in its early days.

Currently playing: Les Noces, OK it is a piece I know quite well, but I hadn't previously heard this fiercely driven performance by Gergiev at the Mariinsky. It's a selling point of the recording that everyone is singing in their native language, which would be a big plus in view of the Esperanto that this piece often sounds like it's being sung in, were it not for the fact that the recorded acoustic is so murky that it's impossible to hear the voices clearly anyway.

Hmm: I wonder if a Summer BaL on Les Noces would appeal to anyone. It doesn't seem to have featured.

[BBMmk2]

Olivier Messiaen
Les Corps Glorieux
Dyptych
Jennifer Bate(Le Grande Orgues de St Pierre Beauvais)

[silvestrione]

Hmm: I wonder if a Summer BaL on Les Noces would appeal to anyone. It doesn't seem to have featured.

Isn't there a version with Martha Argerich on one of the pianos?

[BBMmk2]

Tchaikovsky
Symphony No.5 in E minor, Op.64
Shostakovich
Symphony No.5 in D minor, Op.47
Sibelius
Symphony No.5 in Eb major, Op.82.
New York Philharmonic
Leonard Bernstein.

[Pulcinella]

Isn't there a version with Martha Argerich on one of the pianos?

Two, it would seem, a Lugano one and the Bernstein:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/search?search_query=stravinsky%20argerich%20noces

[Stanfordian]

Anna Netrebko - ‘Operatic Arias’
Arias by Berlioz, Massenet, Donizetti, Gounod, Dvorak, Puccini
Anna Netrebko (soprano)
Wiener Staatsopernchor,
Wiener Philharmoniker / Gianandrea Noseda
Recorded 2003 Vienna
Deutsche Grammophon

Poulenc - 'Chamber Music'
Sextet for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon & horn
Trio for piano, oboe & bassoon
Sonata for flute & piano
Sonata for bassoon & piano
Pascal Roge (piano), Patrick Gallois (flute), Maurice Bourgue (oboe),
Michel Portal (clarinet), Amaury Wallez (bassoon) & Andre Cazalet (horn)
Recorded 1988 Salle Wagram, Paris
Decca

[silvestrione]

Two, it would seem, a Lugano one and the Bernstein:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classica...gerich%20noces

Ah, the Lugano one actually on my shelves!

I had a Supraphon LP but Christopher Norton (who has since made a name for himself as a composer of 'popular' piano pieces) dented my love of the piece for a while by demonstrating that if you put the needle down anywhere in the work, they seemed to be playing and singing the same music! It actually builds to a rather moving conclusion, I think, though not in the view of the Covent Garden production we went to, where, very 21st century, the poor girl was clearly just suffering the whole thing.

[Richard Barrett]

Christopher Norton (who has since made a name for himself as a composer of 'popular' piano pieces) dented my love of the piece for a while by demonstrating that if you put the needle down anywhere in the work, they seemed to be playing and singing the same music!

What a fatuous comment, if I may say so. The music is texturally and timbrally consistent, to be sure, but I think it takes a pretty jaded ear not to get excited by that very consistency, which makes the music sound completely modern and strangely archaic at the same time.

I wouldn't mind having a discussion of the various recordings. I haven't heard all the available ones, but it would be a nice opportunity to do so.

Today's listening was Ančerl's Oedipus Rex, for the first time. I can't imagine it being bettered, having grown up on IS's own recording and having tried a few others which didn't measure up. Strange that, though Bernstein's Les Noces with the all-star piano quartet (Argerich, Zimerman, Katsaris, Francesch) is such a great recording, his Oedipus is so mediocre - for a start, the choir and soloists use different styles of Latin pronunciation.

[Pulcinella]

What a fatuous comment, if I may say so. The music is texturally and timbrally consistent, to be sure, but I think it takes a pretty jaded ear not to get excited by that very consistency, which makes the music sound completely modern and strangely archaic at the same time.

I wouldn't mind having a discussion of the various recordings. I haven't heard all the available ones, but it would be a nice opportunity to do so.

Today's listening was Ančerl's Oedipus Rex, for the first time. I can't imagine it being bettered, having grown up on IS's own recording and having tried a few others which didn't measure up. Strange that, though Bernstein's Les Noces with the all-star piano quartet (Argerich, Zimerman, Katsaris, Francesch) is such a great recording, his Oedipus is so mediocre - for a start, the choir and soloists use different styles of Latin pronunciation.

I'll draw up a list of available recordings of Les noces, and get a thread going.

Do you know the old (Classics for Pleasure) Colin Davis version of Oedipus Rex?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stravinsky-Oedipus-Rex-Igor/dp/B00009KHY9/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=oedipus+rex+davis&qid=1597265398&sr=8-4

It was very well thought of (and probably still is).

[Suffolkcoastal]

Had a break over the weekend now back to my scores following:

Score following - Days 118, 119 & 120

Dvorak:
String Quartet No 8 in E major op80
String Quartet No 13 in G major op106
Elgar:
Variations on an Original Theme 'Enigma' op36
Sea Pictures op37
The Dream of Gerontius op38 (vocal score)
Overture 'Cockaigne' In London Town op40
Pomp & Circumstance March No 1 in D major op39 no1
Pomp & Circumstance March No 2 in A minor op39 no2

[Dave2002]

I'll draw up a list of available recordings of Les noces, and get a thread going.

Do you know the old (Classics for Pleasure) Colin Davis version of Oedipus Rex?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stravinsky-Oedipus-Rex-Igor/dp/B00009KHY9/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=oedipus+rex+davis&qid=1597265398&sr=8-4

It was very well thought of (and probably still is).

Here it is - https://archive.org/details/10Oedipu...ipus+Rex+1.mp3
The CD - which I should have somewhere - should be better audio quality than the tracks linked here. It will also play without interruptions.

[BBMmk2]

I’m finding it far too hit and muggy to listen to any music....

[cloughie]

I’m finding it far too hit and muggy to listen to any music....

Cool jazz?

[Stanfordian]

Jean Martinon - ‘Roussel & Ravel’
Roussel
Bacchus and Ariadne, Suite No. 2
Ravel
Daphnis and Chloe, Suite No. 2
Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Jean Martinon
Recorded 1965, Symphony Hall, Chicago
RCA Victor Red Seal

Gérard Souzay - ‘Melodies Françaises’
Melodies from Poulenc, Faure, Ravel, Leguerney, Hahn, Duparc,
Gounod, Chabrier, Bizet, Franck & Roussel
Gérard Souzay (baritone) & Dalton Baldwin (piano)
Recorded 1960-68, Vevey, Switzerland & The Netherlands
Compilation originally on Decca, Philips & DG reissued on Newton Classic (4 CDs)