What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[richardfinegold]

Looks interesting: lined up for later!
I've not knowingly heard Piston 7, but I have Hanson 4 in the Delos recording by the Seattle Symphony under Gerard Schwartz.

I also have the Schwartz recording and greatly prefer the newer one

[Pulcinella]

I hope I'm remembering correctly, but I think it might have been his recording of the Pulcinella suite c/w The song of the nightingale on Decca Ace of Diamonds that was influential in getting me hooked!

Yes, memory served me well.
If I knew how, I'd make this LP cover my profile photo!

https://www.discogs.com/Stravinsky-Ernest-Ansermet-LOrchestre-De-La-Suisse-Romande-Pulcinella-Suite-Song-Of-The-Nightingale-/release/5401344

[Pulcinella]

I also have the Schwartz recording and greatly prefer the newer one

I see that the Schwartz recordings got reissued on Naxos.
I'll give this new one a serious hearing tomorrow.

[richardfinegold]

The new Martinu Violin Concertos playing again now.... slow movement of No.2 so lovely, and the echo-Martinovian upward sweeps near the end so perfectly idiomatic.... Hrusa and the Bamberg Orchestra are as much stars here as the soloist....sonics just perfect.......terrific record! BaL winner for sure.





























One of the great joys of Martinu is the constant flow of self-references.....sound-signatures all over, I'd not noticed the rhythms of the 4th Symphony Scherzo right there at the end of the 2nd Violin Concerto (Concerto 1943, 4th Symphony 1945).... if you can really immerse yourself in his oeuvre it is richly rewarding...

(Haven't even started on the Bartok yet....)

Self referential, or given how prolific his catalog is, self plagiarizing? At any rate I've always enjoyed the VCs for their own sake, not sure I would want to know that the best bits of them are scattered in his more workmanlike creations.

[Pulcinella]

Self referential, or given how prolific his catalog is, self plagiarizing? At any rate I've always enjoyed the VCs for their own sake, not sure I would want to know that the best bits of them are scattered in his more workmanlike creations.

I think of them more as his trademarks!
Not sure I'd call the fourth symphony (the first of his I got to know) workmanlike though: not as life affirming as the fifth, perhaps, but it never fails to cheer me up!

[Richard Barrett]

I think of them more as his trademarks!

There are a few pieces that seem to consist of little else than a compilation of his trademarks, but there's always something in there that grabs your attention. You could say the same about Vivald of course.

[jayne lee wilson]

Self referential, or given how prolific his catalog is, self plagiarizing? At any rate I've always enjoyed the VCs for their own sake, not sure I would want to know that the best bits of them are scattered in his more workmanlike creations.

As I said a while back......

All that music!
Martinu, like Telemann or Hindemith, does seem to have written a bafflingly large number of Opuses. They can’t all be worth hearing can they?
In fact a surprising number of them are not only worth it, but of very high quality too.

How to orientate oneself?

There is a good orienteering manoeuvre here, which is: look at the Piano Concertos on the one hand and the Symphonies on the other. Why? Because In place of Martinu's American Diary - the inspirational, self-referential intensity of Symphonies 1-5 (all composed in just 4 exiled years, 1942-45!), the piano concertos give the dedicated Martinovian a stylistic Baedeker from 1925 to 1958, travelling from the playful ballets-russes neoclassicism of No.1, through the Slavonic-Brahms Romantic and rhythmical updates of 2 and 3 to those last late experiments of 4 (a stunning 20thC Classic which will amaze you on your first encounter) and 5, leading into late purely-orchestral fantasies - Fantasia, Fantaisies, Incantation, Parables, Estampes (almost a harp concerto) - which often sound hauntingly unfinished, provisional in style and mood, as if there was still more to come…
The String Concertos too cover the evolution from French neoclassical to a more full-blown mid-20thC Romanticism, Czech folk by way of Brahms and Dvorak.

What a musical and geographical journey Martinu went upon!

It just takes some getting to know, which - takes time of course, and can probably only happen if the spirit moves you and obsession takes wing....I've oftenspent weeks listening to nothing else....
In fact, as the sonic & emotional narrative of those 5 Symphonies reveals, Martinu's various motifs and signatures are just as richly meaningful as those of DSCH....

Take a browse...
http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...av-(1890-1959)

[visualnickmos]

I fell in musical love with Martinu; years and years ago when Harold Moore's (Soho) were having an amazingly bonkers Supraphon sale, and I bought an armful of Martinu recordings. Never looked back. Then his string quartets - wow - they are sublime.

[Bryn]

I fell in musical love with Martinu; years and years ago when Harold Moore's (Soho) were having an amazingly bonkers Supraphon sale, and I bought an armful of Martinu recordings. Never looked back. Then his string quartets - wow - they are sublime.

For me, the shining pinnacle is Julietta/Juliette. Would that the E.N.O. production with Mackerras conducting might be rebroadcast or, better still, released on disc.

[visualnickmos]

That's something I have yet to explore. Mackerras in Czech music is indeed, a pinnacle. ENO don't seem to release work on CD very often - unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious.

[Bryn]

That's something I have yet to explore. Mackerras in Czech music is indeed, a pinnacle. ENO don't seem to release work on CD very often - unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious.

I have a third-generation copy from a less than perfectly received FM broadcast (reel-to-reel > cassettes > CD-R). I still have the reel-to-reel tape but no way of playing it at the moment. I also attended the Colosseum for it. A very special night.

[BBMmk2]

Mariss Jansons The SACD Recordings
SACD 9
Shostakovich
Symphony No.7 in C major, Op.60 “Leningrad”
SACD 10
Tchaikovsky
Symphony No.5 in E minor, Op.64
Francesca da Rimini, Op.32
(Symphonic Fantasy after Dante)
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Mariss Jansons.

[Quarky]

Going back to this recently, my 2019 Record of the Year, a very free take on the familiar which caused much controversy here.... always a good sign!
I still adore it...


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Monteverdi: Vespro

La Tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion

• Released on 04/10/2019 by Alpha
• Main artist: La tempête
• QOBUZ 24-Bit 96.0 kHz

Mes favoris

Couldn't find the controversy, but, anyway, enjoyed it greatly!

[richardfinegold]

As I said a while back......

All that music!
Martinu, like Telemann or Hindemith, does seem to have written a bafflingly large number of Opuses. They can’t all be worth hearing can they?
In fact a surprising number of them are not only worth it, but of very high quality too.

How to orientate oneself?

There is a good orienteering manoeuvre here, which is: look at the Piano Concertos on the one hand and the Symphonies on the other. Why? Because In place of Martinu's American Diary - the inspirational, self-referential intensity of Symphonies 1-5 (all composed in just 4 exiled years, 1942-45!), the piano concertos give the dedicated Martinovian a stylistic Baedeker from 1925 to 1958, travelling from the playful ballets-russes neoclassicism of No.1, through the Slavonic-Brahms Romantic and rhythmical updates of 2 and 3 to those last late experiments of 4 (a stunning 20thC Classic which will amaze you on your first encounter) and 5, leading into late purely-orchestral fantasies - Fantasia, Fantaisies, Incantation, Parables, Estampes (almost a harp concerto) - which often sound hauntingly unfinished, provisional in style and mood, as if there was still more to come…
The String Concertos too cover the evolution from French neoclassical to a more full-blown mid-20thC Romanticism, Czech folk by way of Brahms and Dvorak.

What a musical and geographical journey Martinu went upon!

It just takes some getting to know, which - takes time of course, and can probably only happen if the spirit moves you and obsession takes wing....I've oftenspent weeks listening to nothing else....
In fact, as the sonic & emotional narrative of those 5 Symphonies reveals, Martinu's various motifs and signatures are just as richly meaningful as those of DSCH....

Take a browse...
http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...av-(1890-1959)

Perhaps I'm frustrated because I just bought a CD of his Cello Music that imo was in his most chug-a-lug formulaic grind it out style. When he hits the mark, he is wonderful, but man, the chaff in that wheat....

[kuligin]

Liszt Operatic Transcriptions played by Craig Shepard. CFP vinyl although 3 appear in Qobuz, Rigoletto, Trovatore and Tristan. Excellent performances especially the Meistersinger and Tristan transcriptions

Rigoletto S.434
Miserere du Travatore S.433
Reminiscences de Norma S.394
Overture to Tannhauser S.442
Am stillen Herd S.448
Isolde Liebestod S.447