What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[BBMmk2]

Carrying on with my theme of recordings connected to Holy Week and Easter.

Antonio Caldara
Maddalena ai peido di Cristobal.
Maria Christina Kiehr Rosa Dominguez (sopranos)
Bernarda Fink (contralto)
Andreas Scholl (counter-tenor)
Gerd Türk (tenor)
Ulrich Messthaler (bass)
Schola Cantorum Basilensis
René Jacobs.

James MacMillan
Stabat Mater
The Sixteen
Britten Sinfonia
Harry Christophers.

[cloughie]

Wagner:Parsifal Good Friday Music METSO Levine

[Bryn]

Wagner:Parsifal Good Friday Music METSO Levine

Was that as a nod towards Whitehouse versus Lemon?

[cloughie]

Was that as a nod towards Whitehouse versus Lemon?

Well if I said it was the first recording of GFM that came to hand after recent heated discussions on these boards, you’d probably accuse me of being economical with the truth.

[Petrushka]

Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Good Friday (1611)

BBC Singers
Bo Holten

BBC Music Mag CD

[BBMmk2]

Carrying on with my theme of recordings connected to Holy Week and Easter.

Antonio Caldara
Maddalena ai peido di Cristobal.
Maria Christina Kiehr Rosa Dominguez (sopranos)
Bernarda Fink (contralto)
Andreas Scholl (counter-tenor)
Gerd Türk (tenor)
Ulrich Messthaler (bass)
Schola Cantorum Basilensis
René Jacobs.

James MacMillan
Stabat Mater
The Sixteen
Britten Sinfonia
Harry Christophers.

Vaughan Williams Williams
Dona Nobis Pacem
Five Mystical Songs
Edith Wiens (soprano)
Bryan Rayner Cook (baritone)
LPO Choir
London Philharmoonic Orchestra
Bryden Thomson.

[Joseph K]

Was that a deliberately gloomy choice of key for Good Friday, Joseph?

No - just coincidence, I'm listening to them in order they appear in the set.

[HighlandDougie]

Mahler: Symphony No 6 in A minor

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Kirill Petrenko (7 Digital 24/96 download)

Not a symphony I want to hear very often - not because I don't think that it's anything other than a great work but because listening it always leaves me feeling emotionally wrung-out - and certainly not music for a sunny afternoon. Having shelled out my £4.76 (and many thanks to Mathias B for the reminder about 7 Digital continuing their practice of offering many Berlin Philharmonic own-label recordings as very cheap downloads), I thought that I would just listen to the start but was immediately hooked. For one thing, I'm not sure that I've ever heard Mahler better played by an orchestra - and by an orchestra which seems more deeply committed player by player than in the recent Rattle version. Andante/Scherzo in the concerts as is the modern way but easy with the FLAC files to create A/S and S/A to suit one's mood. There is a sense in which Petrenko is still finding his way with the music, not in him still finding his feet with it but more him exploring where Mahler might have gone but not yet coming up with a definitive answer. It's exciting but not different for the sake of it, disturbing (as it should be) and, especially in the final movement, made me listen afresh to a work I thought I had known for the past 50 years but came to realise that I was deluding myself - I suspect that I never will know just what depths this music can reach.

[Richard Barrett]

Mahler: Symphony No 6 in A minor

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Kirill Petrenko (7 Digital 24/96 download)

Not a symphony I want to hear very often - not because I don't think that it's anything other than a great work but because listening it always leaves me feeling emotionally wrung-out - and certainly not music for a sunny afternoon. Having shelled out my £4.76 (and many thanks to Mathias B for the reminder about 7 Digital continuing their practice of offering many Berlin Philharmonic own-label recordings as very cheap downloads), I thought that I would just listen to the start but was immediately hooked. For one thing, I'm not sure that I've ever heard Mahler better played by an orchestra - and by an orchestra which seems more deeply committed player by player than in the recent Rattle version. Andante/Scherzo in the concerts as is the modern way but easy with the FLAC files to create A/S and S/A to suit one's mood. There is a sense in which Petrenko is still finding his way with the music, not in him still finding his feet with it but more him exploring where Mahler might have gone but not yet coming up with a definitive answer. It's exciting but not different for the sake of it, disturbing (as it should be) and, especially in the final movement, made me listen afresh to a work I thought I had known for the past 50 years but came to realise that I was deluding myself - I suspect that I never will know just what depths this music can reach.

Thanks HD, I now have that lined up for listening when I have the time!

[Suffolkcoastal]

Score following - Days 302-304

E Rubbra:
Symphony no 5 in B flat op63
Symphony No 6 op80
Symphony No 8 op132 'Hommage a Teilhard de Chardin'
Symphony No 11 op153

C Saint-Saens:
Le Carnaval des animaux
Danse Macabre op40
Havanaise for Violin & Orchestra op83
Cello Concerto No 1 in A minor op33
Symphony No 3 in C minor 'Organ' op78
Samson et Dalila op47 (vocal score)

[Joseph K]

Haydn - string quartet in E flat - op. 17 no. 3

[jayne lee wilson]

Nielsen Symphony No.2 "The Four Temperaments"; No.3 "Sinfonia Espansiva."
Frankfurt RSO/P-Järvi. RCACD.

More from this wonderful cycle; direct, unshowy and plain-spoken, always with the longer term symphonic view in mind, but never missing a detail or underselling dynamics or expression. I feel its what this music needs, and it has the classic German Radio Orchestra sound. Perfect music for a bright cool Spring Day.
Fascinating to come back to Nielsen from Simpson. So closely linked, both so profoundly original, so hyper-integrated in their symphonism. One of those mini-traditions, with maybe only Holmboe and (off at a tangent somewhere) Per Nørgård (if only from 5-8) in the same game.

Kancheli à la Duduki. Trauerfarbenes Land. Radio SO Wien/Dennis Russel Davies. ECMCD.

Stillness after movement; one of his best creations, concentrated and intense. And simply one of the finest orchestral recordings I've ever heard, in any medium or resolution.

[frankbridge]

Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday (shome mishtake shurley Petrushka?)

Tallis Scholars/Phillips

Gimell CDGIM 015

and then tomorrow, Edmund Rubbra's wonderful work 'Sinfonia Sacra' (the Resurrection) (Dawson/Jones/Roberts conducted by Hickox) Chandos CHAN 9441 after Robert Saxton's 'Music to Celebrate the Resurrection of Christ (ENO/Steuart Bedford RIP) Collins Classics 11022

I love Easter...

[Pulcinella]

Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday (shome mishtake shurley Petrushka?)

Tallis Scholars/Phillips

Gimell CDGIM 015

and then tomorrow, Edmund Rubbra's wonderful work 'Sinfonia Sacra' (the Resurrection) (Dawson/Jones/Roberts conducted by Hickox) Chandos CHAN 9441 after Robert Saxton's 'Music to Celebrate the Resurrection of Christ (ENO/Steuart Bedford RIP) Collins Classics 11022

I love Easter...

Great choices, and since I have both the Rubbra and the Saxton, I might follow suit!

Not sure why you're querying my fellow nom-de-ballet forumite, but the BBC MM CD certainly claims the pieces to be the Good Friday set, and the pieces tie in with the Wiki descriptions, as follows:

Responsories of Good Friday

Good Friday, Feria VI/Sexta in Parasceve, meaning Friday (sixth day of the week) of the Day of Preparation (from Greek Παρασκευή). Thus this second set of nine responsories can appear under such titles as Feria VI – In Parasceve.

Responsories of the first nocturn of Good Friday

Omnes amici mei
Velum templi scissum est
Vinea mea electa

Responsories of the second nocturn of Good Friday

Tamquam ad latronem existis
Tenebrae factae sent
Animam meam dilectam

Responsories of the third nocturn of Good Friday

Tradiderunt me
Jesum tradidit impious
Caligaverunt oculi mei

[Beresford]

Debussy Blanc et Noir, for two pianos, from a recent CD called Textures by the Piano Duo Roelcke Gremmelspacher.

Free from Romantic mannerisms (unlike most pianists, although the Swiss Duo Huber are similar and more upfront), and good on the detail in this music, which was inspired (?) by the stupidity of the 1st world war.
Also on the CD is some quirky Ligeti, which I am trying to like, and Messiaen's Visions de l'Amen, rather low key compared to what I expected (but I am not aware of any rule saying that profound visions cannot be low key).