What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[Pulcinella]

Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit (arr. Marius Constant)

Bielefelder Philharmoniker/Kalajdzic (MDG)
Orchestre National de Lyon/Slatkin (Naxos)
Duisburger Phiharmoniker/Darlington (Acousence)

Le Gibet only: Philharmonia Orchestra/Simon (Cala)

A recent discovery for me, one which I'm pleased to have made. My favourite performance - alas, just the one movement seems to have been recorded - is the Philharmonia under Geoffrey Simon. The orchestration adds atmosphere, especially at the beginning of Le Gibet. Here, Marius Constant's 1990 arrangement sounds reminiscent of Vaughan Williams, which means, in my humble and admittedly ignorant opinion, that he made a good job of it.

Orchestral arrangements are very much a matter of taste. I hope this one suits some FOR3 members.

Ravel made some pretty good arrangements of his own works (), so I wonder why he never tackled Gaspard?
Apparently Eugene Goossens did, in 1942; the Marius Constant version was made in 1990 (according to Wiki):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspard_de_la_nuit

[Hitch]

Ravel made some pretty good arrangements of his own works (), so I wonder why he never tackled Gaspard?https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspard_de_la_nuit

Presumably because he felt it didn't need one. Arrangements, especially posthumous ones, are always open to a charge of gilding the lily, but I rather like Constant's: it has increased my enjoyment of the work, which is validation enough. I've yet to hear the Goossens version.

[BBMmk2]

Yesterday’s listening.

Handel - Coronation Anthems
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
Coronation Anthem My Heart is Inditing
Organ Concerto in F major, Op.4/4
Coronation Anthem The King Shall Rejoice
Jeptha Overture
Coronation Anthem Let Thy Hand be Strengthened
Messiah, Worthy is the Lamb that was Slain
Messiah, Amen.
The Sixteen Choir
Harry Christophers

Bartok
Violin Concerto No.2
Suite No.2
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
Antal Dorati

[Richard Barrett]

I like the elegant and subtle London Haydn Quartet recordings, but I also like the more grainy and rough Festetics ones. I don't think I've listened to the Chiaroscuri playing Haydn, but their Schubert and Mozart are excellent. And the Mosaïques of course mustn't be forgotten; I got to know the op 20 pieces from their recordings. As far as I'm concerned none of the above is more or less true to Haydn than any of the others. I'm grateful that they all exist.

[Pulcinella]

Yesterday’s listening.

Handel - Coronation Anthems
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
Coronation Anthem My Heart is Inditing
Organ Concerto in F major, Op.4/4
Coronation Anthem The King Shall Rejoice
Jeptha Overture
Coronation Anthem Let Thy Hand be Strengthened
Messiah, Worthy is the Lamb that was Slain
Messiah, Amen.
The Sixteen Choir
Harry Christophers

Bartok
Violin Concerto No.2
Suite No.2
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
Antal Dorati

What? No Zadok?

[Mario]

What? No Zadok?

Handel – Coronation Anthems

Zadok the Priest HWV 258
Let Thy hand be strengthened HWV 259
The King shall rejoice HWV 260
My heart is inditing HWV 261

Silete venti HWV 242

R Ryan / E Franklin-Kitchen / D Bates / E Lyon / N Warden / Tallis Ch Choir / R A Consort / J Summerly

Mario

[Pulcinella]

Handel – Coronation Anthems

Zadok the Priest HWV 258
Let Thy hand be strengthened HWV 259
The King shall rejoice HWV 260
My heart is inditing HWV 261

Silete venti HWV 242

R Ryan / E Franklin-Kitchen / D Bates / E Lyon / N Warden / Tallis Ch Choir / R A Consort / J Summerly

Mario

Is the small font until the choir comes in, and then it's Zadok the Priest?

[Mario]

Is the small font until the choir comes in, and then it's Zadok the Priest?

Mario

[Bryn]

I like the elegant and subtle London Haydn Quartet recordings, but I also like the more grainy and rough Festetics ones. I don't think I've listened to the Chiaroscuri playing Haydn, but their Schubert and Mozart are excellent. And the Mosaïques of course mustn't be forgotten; I got to know the op 20 pieces from their recordings. As far as I'm concerned none of the above is more or less true to Haydn than any of the others. I'm grateful that they all exist.

Just to make clear that I am not totally wedded to the fully HIPP approach, I find the Buchbergers survey more than acceptable, too. The bargain CD rate download of the Festetics' survey from QOBUZ should not be missed, misleading claim to 24-bit quantization (they actually appear to be standard 16 bit) notwithstanding.

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/joseph-haydn-the-complete-string-quartets-played-on-period-instruments-festetics-quartet/3760195733783

[visualnickmos]

Mahler
Symphony no 3
Czech Philharmonic et al Vaclav Neumann
(Supraphon)

Schumann
Symphonies nos 1 & 3
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Marek Janowski
(ASV)

[richardfinegold]

Have you heard Op 76 1-3 with the Chiaroscuro Quartet on BIS ? I find them quite stunning and No's 4-6 due for release on Monday I believe.

Absolutely superb recording as well.

[bluestateprommer]

Well, not quite listening to just yet, but in 10 minutes' time: WRTI is presenting their regular Sunday afternoon broadcast/webcast of The Philadelphia Orchestra, with YNS conducting Tan Dun and Rachmaninoff:

https://www.wrti.org/post/philadelphia-orchestra-concert-wrti-yannick-conducts-works-tan-dun-and-rachmaninoff

There was discussion in another thread about whether the Bavarian Radio SO will try to snag YNS one day as chief conductor (obviously post-SSR from the current vantage point). If anyone else besides me listens to this concert, will be interesting to read feeback.

[Dave2002]

Dvořák: Symphonies 7 and 8 Libor Pešek, RLPO

These are good, though don't displace my favourites - so far.

[BBMmk2]

What? No Zadok?

Apologies, yes there is! Sorry, Pulcie.

[Pulcinella]

Apologies, yes there is! Sorry, Pulcie.

I thought that it had to be included, but would have understood if you had chosen not to play that track.


I very much liked Mario/Auferstehen's response.