What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[rauschwerk]

I'm sure most on here can remember that this coming Monday, Feb 15 is the 50th anniversary of Decimal Day, when the UK switched to decimal currency. Remember it well...

I also remember it well. I drove from Portsmouth to hear Peter Grimes at the ROH - Jon Vickers in the title role and Colin Davis in the pit - and had a brief altercation with a bartender concerning the value of half a crown (whether it was 12½ or 25 new pence).

As for listening, I have been reminding myself of the later Shostakovich, beginning with the 6th quartet (1956). Last night it was the second cello concerto (1966). This is now seen as the first piece in his late style. I heard the broadcast of the UK premiere and remember how bewildered at least one critic was. Last night it was Mischa Maisky/LSO/Michael Tilson Thomas, recorded in demo quality sound at Abbey Road. I still don't understand that ending!

[gradus]

The Gloria from the Missa Solemnis in the new Rene Jacobs recording played on CD Review this morning, but what happened to the final exultant shout of Gloria, a sort of half-hearted mumble took its place.

[Bryn]

The Gloria from the Missa Solemnis in the new Rene Jacobs recording played on CD Review this morning, but what happened to the final exultant shout of Gloria, a sort of half-hearted mumble took its place.

Well, the first crotchet of that fianl bar is marked sforzando in the instrumental parts but not the voices. The secons crotchet, the "a" of "gloria" is a capalla and again no change in dynamic marking. I guess Jacabs was taking that as his cue.

[gradus]

Well, the first crotchet of that fianl bar is marked sforzando in the instrumental parts but not the voices. The secons crotchet, the "a" of "gloria" is a capalla and again no change in dynamic marking. I guess Jacabs was taking that as his cue.

I also looked at the score but I've never heard it interpreted that way before, it just sounds wrong to me but I wonder if anyone else has recorded it that way.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Score following - Days 260-263

W A Mozart:
Rondo in D major for Piano & Orchestra k382
Symphony No 35 in D major k385 'Haffner'
Symphony No 36 in C major k425 'Linz'
Symphony No 38 in D major k504 'Prague'
Symphony No 39 in E flat major k543
Symphony No 40 in G minor k550
Symphony No 41 in C major k551 'Jupiter'

Mussorgsky:
Night on the Bare Mountain (arr Rimsky-Korsakov)
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch Ravel)

Carl Nielsen:
Hymnus Amoris op12 (vocal score)
Symphony No 2 op16 'The Four Temperaments'

[jayne lee wilson]

Bruckner
Symphony No.5.
Wiener Symphoniker/Volkmar Andreae. Music & Arts CD 2009 rec. 1953.

A sacrilege to say anything after such music, but it is an astounding feat of musical time travel that a 1953 mono recording should fill my room with such splendour in the finale here. The sound restoration opens out with such space and scale as to be a broad, single centre-channel, occupying at least a third of the soundstage.

A triumph for conductor and orchestra but perhaps above all - for the remasterer, Aaron Z. Snyder.

[BBMmk2]

Yesterday’s listening.

Debussy
Nocturnes
Ravel
Daphnis et Chloe Suite No.2
Scriabin
Le Poème de l’Extase
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado

Ravel
Complete Orchestral Works
London Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado.

[Bryn]

For once, I will be listening to Sunday Morning, having been tipped off that tributes will be paid not only to Chick Corea but also to a mutual friend, the musicologist and clarinettist Virginia Anderson. Both she and Sarah Walker cut their doctoral teeth on the English Experimental Music tradition. Virginia, married to the composer Christopher Hobbs, died recently after a short illness.

https://www.academia.edu/9107936/Aspects_of_British_Experimental_Music_as_a_Separate_Art_Music_Culture

https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/7774/1/Eclecticism%2C_postmodernism%2C_subversion-_new_perspectives_on_English_experimental_music.pdf

[BBMmk2]

Yesterday’s listening.

Debussy
Nocturnes
Ravel
Daphnis et Chloe Suite No.2
Scriabin
Le Poème de l’Extase
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado

Ravel
Complete Orchestral Works
London Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado.

Have on now

Ravel
Daphnis et Chlöe, cpte ballet.
Valse Nobles et Sentimentales
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Menuet antique
Une barque sur l’ocean
La Valse
Fanfare from “L’Eventail de Jean”
Stravinsky
Le Sacre du Printemps
The Firebird
Jeu de Cartes
Petrouchka
Pulcinella
LSO Chorus
London Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado.

[Pulcinella]

Have on now

Ravel
Daphnis et Chlöe, cpte ballet.
Valse Nobles et Sentimentales
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Menuet antique
Une barque sur l’ocean
La Valse
Fanfare from “L’Eventail de Jean”
Stravinsky
Le Sacre du Printemps
The Firebird
Jeu de Cartes
Petrouchka
Pulcinella
LSO Chorus
London Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado.

Great day's listening there, BBM.
Hope you've found time to give Mrs BBM a Valentine Day hug!

[BBMmk2]

Great day's listening there, BBM.
Hope you've found time to give Mrs BBM a Valentine Day hug!

Very enjoyable! Me and MrsBBM don’t bother with Valentine’s Day.

Today I have embarked on a new theme, for a new week. The conducting dynasty of the Järvi family. I’m starting with dad.

Weber - Overtures
Hindemith
Symphonic Metarmorphosis on themes by Weber.
Philharmonia Orchestra
Neeme Järvi

Prokofiev
Divertissement, Op.43
Sonata No.4 in C minor, Op.29bis. Andante
Symphonic Song, Op.47
The Prodigal Son, Op.46
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Neeme Järvi.

[MickyD]

I love the Prokofiev cycle that Jarvi did for Chandos with the RSNO - and the recorded sound is amazing.

[Pulcinella]

I love the Prokofiev cycle that Jarvi did for Chandos with the RSNO - and the recorded sound is amazing.

With both versions of S4 included.

[cloughie]

With both versions of S4 included.

...and a lot of Prokofiev’s other music besides the symphonies.

[Pulcinella]

...and a lot of Prokofiev’s other music besides the symphonies.

Not in the (repackaged) symphonies-only 4CD set I have!
or ?

Perhaps the original fillers got reissued, like Chandos did when they issued the Rubbra symphony set.