What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[edashtav]

SPINE : Chamber works by Tansy Davies

BCMG, Azalea, Christopher Austin (conductor), Concordia, Samuel Boden (tenor), Joby Burgess (percussion), Simon Haram (saxophone), Darragh Morgan (violin), Huw Watkins (piano )

Including all three of Davies’ works for large ensemble: Iris, Falling Angel, and spine.
Other works include make black white, a reconstruction of Dowland’s ‘Flow, My Tears’ performed by the viol consort Concordia;
Dark Ground for percussion (Joby Burgess);
Loopholes and Lynchpins, a radical reworking of a Scarlatti sonata (Huw Watkins)
Plus two short songs: settings of poems by Nick Drake.

One of my favourite CD’s of British Music written by a woman composer.

[jayne lee wilson]

I'm guessing that that's a typo for Blomstedt, though I see that Sawallisch has in fact recorded the Mathis der Maler symphony too.

No, it was the Sawallisch. #13667 should have read Philadelphia/Sawallisch. Generally held to be on a critical par with the Blomstedt as the go-to versions of Mathis (with similar c/w) back in the CD heyday; very few people had heard the Dresden/Kegel Berlin Classics recordings then, as relatively few Edel releases had been available in the West from over the Berlin Wall. Thankyou so much for your bold highlighting of my error.

Detailed comparisons in G., 10/88, 6/95. (LS, GR).
The Brilliant Box of the Dresden Phil/Kegel seems rare/expensive now, but there are still a few of the BCs to be found. Revelatory if you can hear them. The Tortelier and Kegel series are available on Qobuz.

Try to hear the stunning Tortelier in Op.50. But be careful with volume setting; you might need to take cover behind the listening chair....
The Legend of Studio 7 lives on...

[Sir Velo]

Amazing range of colours, textures and attack here from a soloist who must surely breathe some rare interplanetary air... ....
Viola arrangements of various solos and concertos, I thought of it as eine kleine light music at first, but it draws you in and turns into something more absorbing, like a series of sequenzas ...
Let's just call it: The Viola in My Baroque Life...

Hmmm. Interesting concept; and while I sympathise with violists looking to extend the extent of available repertoire I have to say that the opening Vivaldi does not come close to fully exploring the range of the original bassoon concerto. For true spellbinding virtuosity and colour nothing compares to this performance:



Azzolini's performances here and throughout his four (and a half?) CDs of the Vivaldi bassoon concertos are nothing short of revelatory. Such panache, drawing proto saxophone like colour from the instrument, from evocations of misty mornings swirling over the lagoon to whorls and whoops of jazzy delirium; all of which virtuosity would count for little if it were not backed up by a band that is second to none in this repertoire. I'm afraid the viola is a poor second at summoning up such delights!

[Richard Barrett]

Hmmm. Interesting concept; and while I sympathise with violists looking to extend the extent of available repertoire I have to say that the opening Vivaldi does not come close to fully exploring the range of the original bassoon concerto

I listened to it yesterday also, and, while I found the first Vivaldi item quite striking and a nice alternative to the bassoon, I found the remainder of the programme too contrived, like using one of Sciarrino's Tre notturni brillanti as a cadenza in a concerto by Paganini - I can imagine that Sciarrino himself, with the great depth of nostalgia in his music, might approve, but the relationship of his music to Paganini is already there in a subtly allusive way when it's heard on its own, and it isn't enhanced, quite the opposite, by giving it the highlighting-plus-underlining treatment. I would have preferred a whole disc of Vivaldi arrangements. As for viola concertos, the recently released one by Michael Jarrell I mentioned a little while ago seems to me to give the instrument a much more sympathetic and expressive voice than any number of arrangements of music for bassoon or cello.

[Joseph K]

Haydn's Sunrise String Quartet - Festetics Quartet

[BBMmk2]

Yesterday’s listening. Carrying on with my season of recordings featuring Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Mahler
Symphony No.1 in D major
Symphony No.4 in G major
Renée Fleming (soprano)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado.

[BBMmk2]

Yesterday’s listening. Carrying on with my season of recordings featuring Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Mahler
Symphony No.1 in D major
Symphony No.4 in G major
Renée Fleming (soprano)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado.

Today I’m concentrating on Abbado’s Brahms recordings. This is a splendid set.

Brahms. Symphonies & Overtures
Academic Festival Overture, Op.80
Gesang der Parzen, Op.89
Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op.68
Alto Rhapsody, Op.53
Symphony No.2 in D major, Op.73
Tragic Overture, Op.81
Schickslied, Op.54
Symphony No.3 in F major, Op.90
Haydn Variations, Op.56a
Nänie con Friedrich Schiller, Op.82
Symphony No.4 in E minor, Op.98
Marjana Lipovsek (contralto)
Rundfunks Chor Berlin
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado.

[silvestrione]

Eclairs sur L'Au-Dela, Messiaen, Wiener Philharmoniker, Ingo Metzmacher

Fabulous. The version recommended a while back by JLW, so thanks for that!

Yesterday evening, opened the curtains, put the lights off, and just went into another dimension....

[jayne lee wilson]

I listened to it yesterday also, and, while I found the first Vivaldi item quite striking and a nice alternative to the bassoon, I found the remainder of the programme too contrived, like using one of Sciarrino's Tre notturni brillanti as a cadenza in a concerto by Paganini - I can imagine that Sciarrino himself, with the great depth of nostalgia in his music, might approve, but the relationship of his music to Paganini is already there in a subtly allusive way when it's heard on its own, and it isn't enhanced, quite the opposite, by giving it the highlighting-plus-underlining treatment. I would have preferred a whole disc of Vivaldi arrangements. As for viola concertos, the recently released one by Michael Jarrell I mentioned a little while ago seems to me to give the instrument a much more sympathetic and expressive voice than any number of arrangements of music for bassoon or cello.

Around half of the items in Monkemeyer's album were actually written for the viola of course (the Tartini easily adaptable) and the notes go into fascinating and practical detail about why Vivaldi wrote so much for bassoon, but nothing for viola; so there is a clear and impassioned justification of such a program, which I certainly don't find contrived.
But of course I fell in love with the very sound of Monkemeyer's instrument here and the music he creates upon it (sheer soundophilia...as happens more and more to me these days) and once that happens, I play it over and over and hear more and more....
I always like to dwell upon a single work, album or composer for some time, despite so many temptations (especially on Qobuz Fridays...)

I have been listing to the Jarrell... the sheer sound of that is very inviting to my ear, for sure..... but Simpson still dominates the ear-and-brain-waves here. I feel I listen moment-to-moment with the Jarrell works; with Simpson the hyper-integration demands very different attention, despite the sound drawing me in as well...
Early days with Jarrell though.

[Richard Barrett]

there is a clear and impassioned justification of such a program

Quite so, but to me it screams "curated" which isn't something I find attractive.

[jayne lee wilson]

Quite so, but to me it screams "curated" which isn't something I find attractive.

Now there's a word to conjure with (and one I like a lot...)....but I better not start or I'll never get out on my recently revived, if shortened, country walk...
Anyway, you got me listening to Jarrell, so there's something to feel good about...(I keep wanting to say "Randall"....)

[vinteuil]

Azzolini's performances here and throughout his four (and a half?) CDs of the Vivaldi bassoon concertos are nothing short of revelatory. Such panache, drawing proto saxophone like colour from the instrument, from evocations of misty mornings swirling over the lagoon to whorls and whoops of jazzy delirium; all of which virtuosity would count for little if it were not backed up by a band that is second to none in this repertoire.

Sir Velo - yes, and again yes. I very much share your enthusiasm. It was the Azzolini bassoon works that got me in to (and addicted to) the naive Vivaldi project...



.

[Joseph K]

Birtwistle - Tragoedia, Five Distances for Five Instruments, Three Settings of Celan, Secret Theatre - Ensemble Intercontemporain/Boulez

[Sir Velo]

Around half of the items in Monkemeyer's album were actually written for the viola of course (the Tartini easily adaptable) and the notes go into fascinating and practical detail about why Vivaldi wrote so much for bassoon, but nothing for viola;

I have to say that the liner notes struck me as somewhat superficial. Any attempt at scholarly justification which dismisses the bassoon as "an outsider" capable of playing in only two keys comes across as grandstanding, and certainly doesn't do Monkemeyer any favours. Moreover, it also trots out the old canard about why Vivaldi would have composed so many bassoon concertos when there were no outstanding bassoonists in the ospedale, laughably overlooking the now almost universally held position that these concertos were written for either Anton Moser, a virtuoso in the court of Count von Morzin of Bohemia (a well known patron of Vivaldi), or Gioseppino Bancardi whose name actually appears on the manuscript of RV502. So much for these concertos being written for fumbling amateurs!

Having said that, I probably am guilty of doing Monkemeyer a disservice in my original post. There is much to admire in his playing and that of his "backing" band, and the playing is little short of sensational in the faster movements. However, it is just nonsense to suggest that the viola draws more nuance and colour than the bassoon. Listen to the plaintive wailing that Azzolini or Miho Fukui, in her recording, draw from the largo to see what atmosphere the viola can never draw out. There are so many superb performances of the Vivaldi bassoon concertos from the likes of Azzolini, Grazzi, Berkhout and the Irishman Peter Whelan that it really is a mockery to pretend otherwise.

[Joseph K]

Haydn - string quartet op. 76 no. 3 'Emperor' - Festetics Quartet