What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[Cockney Sparrow]

Love the cover design/artwork. That alone would tempt me. I'm pretty sure that subliminally, the artwork/imagery/desgn/typography/visual presentation, or whatever you want to call it DOES have an effect.

I've never felt quite the same about bottled "London Pride" since they dropped the embossed bottle and gilt/embossed label (but not the price) - shallow, I know. Still my favourite beer - though Hervietoun "Bitter and Twisted" (never had anything embossed) is almost identical in taste as far as I'm concerned.

[silvestrione]

'Pictures From An Exhibition', Mussorgsky, played by Sviatoslav Richter, the Sofia recital.

I'm not sure I have properly listened to this work before. I grew up with Silvestri's sensational performances of the Ravel orchestration, in Bournemouth.

Richter makes it a huge drama that seems to encompass -- well, just about everything! The 'Catacombs' moment takes you somewhere staggering, terrifying. But there's also the delicacy of the hatching chicks. Colour, vitality, energy. But the brash or complacent energy has a dark shadow or underside. And the superhuman assertion of the Kiev hymn breaks off, to be somewhere so quiet and telling, before the bells burst out.

[BBMmk2]

'Pictures From An Exhibition', Mussorgsky, played by Sviatoslav Richter, the Sofia recital.

I'm not sure I have properly listened to this work before. I grew up with Silvestri's sensational performances of the Ravel orchestration, in Bournemouth.

Richter makes it a huge drama that seems to encompass -- well, just about everything! The 'Catacombs' moment takes you somewhere staggering, terrifying. But there's also the delicacy of the hatching chicks. Colour, vitality, energy. But the brash or complacent energy has a dark shadow or underside. And the superhuman assertion of the Kiev hymn breaks off, to be somewhere so quiet and telling, before the bells burst out.

I quite like Ashkenazy, in this work. Georg Szell and The Cleveland Orchestra, for Ravel’s.

Handel Complete Orchestral Recirdings
CD 1
Water Music Suites, HW 348, 349 & 350
CD2
Music for The Royal Fireworks, HWV351
Concerti a due cori HWV 333 & 334
Oboe Concerti HWV 301, 302a & 287
CD3
Concerti Grossi, Op.3
The English Concert
Trevor Pinnock.

[Stanfordian]

Samuel Ramey - 'Operatic Arias'
Opera Arias by Verdi, Rossini, Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Donizetti
Samuel Ramey (bass)
Münchner Rundfunkorchester / Jacques Delacôte
Recorded 1988 Studio 1, Bayerischen Rundfunk, Munich
EMI

Saint-Saëns - ‘Chamber Music’
Piano Quartet, Op. 41
Barcarolle, Op. 108
Piano Quintet, Op. 14
Cristina Ortiz (piano)
Fine Arts Quartet
Recorded 2012 Performing Arts Centre, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase NY
Naxos

[DoctorT]

Beethoven
Sonatas for piano and violin
Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov
Who could resist the Spring Sonata, even in autumn?

[Serial_Apologist]

I've never felt quite the same about bottled "London Pride" since they dropped the embossed bottle and gilt/embossed label (but not the price) - shallow, I know. Still my favourite beer - though Hervietoun "Bitter and Twisted" (never had anything embossed) is almost identical in taste as far as I'm concerned.

Whereas I was thinking: what old-fashioned artwork for such modern music!

[visualnickmos]

'Pictures From An Exhibition', Mussorgsky, played by Sviatoslav Richter, the Sofia recital.

I'm not sure I have properly listened to this work before. I grew up with Silvestri's sensational performances of the Ravel orchestration, in Bournemouth.

Richter makes it a huge drama that seems to encompass -- well, just about everything! The 'Catacombs' moment takes you somewhere staggering, terrifying. But there's also the delicacy of the hatching chicks. Colour, vitality, energy. But the brash or complacent energy has a dark shadow or underside. And the superhuman assertion of the Kiev hymn breaks off, to be somewhere so quiet and telling, before the bells burst out.

What's the sound quality like? I gather it's 1958 recording from the behind the old Iron Curtain..... is it OK?

[silvestrione]

What's the sound quality like? I gather it's 1958 recording from the behind the old Iron Curtain..... is it OK?

The sound quality, and the quality of the piano at times, are in the 'they just have to be tolerated' category! Not too bad. All I can say is, there are plenty of 'live' Richter recordings with worse...

[Joseph K]

[teamsaint]

Dvorak . Te Deum.

Czech PO, Hrusa, released this year.

[Pulcinella]

Dvorak . Te Deum.

Czech PO, Hrusa, released this year.

Let us know what you think.
The recording that I have is a cheap Koch International version, coupled with the Stabat Mater, conducted by Alexander Rahbari (so ripe for reissue on Naxos, I would think).
Blackwell's in Oxford got a job lot for the choir when we sang it many years ago.

https://www.discogs.com/Dvořák-Stabat-Mater-Tedeum/release/7054342

[jayne lee wilson]

Dvorak . Te Deum.

Czech PO, Hrusa, released this year.

I had the Requiem off of this album soaring around the house a lot earlier this year... I'd leave it running to greet me after my walks.....wonderful music, wonderful recording.....

[teamsaint]

I had the Requiem off of this album soaring around the house a lot earlier this year... I'd leave it running to greet me after my walks.....wonderful music, wonderful recording.....

I thought the TD was a decent performance on first listen, though I didn’t really know the work.
Not well acquainted with the Requiem either, so that obviously deserves a spin or two at least.
Might leave it running for when I get in from a Sunday morning run. that and a big coffee should do nicely

[BBMmk2]

Yesterday’s listening

Scriabin
Poème d’lextase, Op.54
Piano Concerto in F# minor, Op.20
Prométhée - Le Poème de Feu, Op.60
Anatol Ugorsky(Piano)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Pierre Boulez

Mahler
Das Klagende Lied
Dorothea Röschmann(soprano)
Anna Larsson(contralto)
John Botha(tenor)
Jörn H. Andressen(bass)
Wiener Staatsoper
Wiener Philharmoniker

Symphony No.4
Julianne Banse (soprano)
Cleveland Orchestra

Pierre Boulez.

[Pulcinella]

With score:
Finzi
Till Earth outwears, Op 19a
I said to Love, Op 19b
Martyn Hill (19a), Stephen Varcoe (19b), Clifford Benson

Then, in preparation for BaL, 24 October 2020, a BBC MM CD:
Pergolesi: Stabat mater (New College, Oxford/AAM/Higginbottom
c/w
Domenico Scarlatti: Stabat mater (BBC Singers/instrumentalists/Christophers)

Oh dear! Probably not the best idea to use all the New College choristers.

Now:
Gorecki
Beatus vir
Symphony 2 (Copernican)
Polish NRSO/Wit