What are you listening to now?

[gurnemanz]

I went for a cheapo triple at the grocer's shop and am very much enjoying working my way through the Mendelssohn Quartets (Cherubini Quartet) for the first time - aged 62 - having totally ignored them up to now.

http://www.sainsburysentertainment.c...duct=E10074077

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

That was once on a Musique d'Abord (IIRC) HM-France LP, with a standard white sleeve and only a loose little A5-sized single sheet with notes enclosed - a budget LP without any colour printing involved.

Yes! There was quite a few of these releases - Boulez' Domains was another. The A5 sheet of notes there was only in French, so I asked a language student to translate them for me - which was fine, until the very last "sentence", "Roll along". It took some time before I realized that she'd "translated" the last word of the note: "Boulez"! (Thus it was that I discovered that Pierre Boulez was a Rolling Stone! )

Good performance IMO, btw.

Me: catching up on last night's broadcast of ON's Valkyrie.

[Beef Oven]

That was once on a Musique d'Abord (IIRC) HM-France LP, with a standard white sleeve and only a loose little A5-sized single sheet with notes enclosed - a budget LP without any colour printing involved.
Good performance IMO, btw.

I did not know this. I bought it on CD in the late 80s.

[Roehre]

Yes! There was quite a few of these releases - Boulez' Domains was another. The A5 sheet of notes there was only in French, so I asked a language student to translate them for me - which was fine, until the very last "sentence", "Roll along". It took some time before I realized that she'd "translated" the last word of the note: "Boulez"! (Thus it was that I discovered that Pierre Boulez was a Rolling Stone! )

[Suffolkcoastal]

The latest in the journey through my symphonic collection.

1905 (conclusion)
Ropartz: Symphony No 3 in E
Scriabin: Symphony No 3 'The Divine Poem'
Stanford: Symphony No 6 in E flat major 'In honour .... of George F Watts'
1906
Alfven: Symphony No 3 in E
Bleyle: Symphony No 2 in F
Casella: Symphony No 1 in B minor
Glazunov: Symphony No 8 in E flat major
Hamerik: Symphony No 'Choral'
Mahler: Symphony No 7 in E minor
Maliperio: Sinfonia del Mare
Roussel: Symphony No 1 'La Poeme de la Foret'
Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No 1
Steinberg: Symphony No 1 in D major
Suk: Symphony No 2 in C minor 'Asrael'

The 3rd Symphony is probably Ropartz's best known work though it is rarely played or broadcast these days. An extended work with chorus, it is very much of its time with some exquisitely beautiful writing, and certainly worth getting to know.
Scriabin's 3rd Symphony seems to be a transitional work to his last major orchestral works such as Prometheus. There is some truly gorgeous harmonic touches and luxurious orchestral writing mixed with more rhetorical and less satisfactory moments, but I find it more enjoyable than his earlier two efforts.
I think that the 6th is the finest of Stanford's symphonies and among the best British symphonies of pre World War One. The first movement is taughtlly constructed with real energy and the slow movement really is lovely, a short scherzo is folllowed by a highly satisfactory finale that makes a perfect summing up. If you don't know it, I think you should give it a try!
Alfven's 3rd Symphony is quite attractive especially the first movement and scherzo, the work is rtaher let down by its finale which is rather undistinguished to my ears.
The name of the Austrian composer Karl Bleyle may not be familiar to many MB's. His 2nd Symphony is quite interesting, very much of its time and if I had to date it without knowing when it was written I would certainly have placed it in the 1st decade of the 20th century. He takes aspects of a number of contemporaries but still sounds quite distinctive.
Casella's 1st symphony is a right mixture! In three movements, the 1st is very Russian whilst the other movements are more strongly influenced by Brahms, Wagner and Mahler. The orchestration is effective, though the work is rather loosely constructed, inspite of this it is still worth a listen and it is an early work by this composer.
Glazunov's 8th and final completed symphony is among his most impressive. Much more solemn, reflective and melancholy than its predecessors, even the Scherzo is subdued and the slow movement is very moving and thought provoking. The more Nationalistic elements of the finale have a certain wistful nostalgic defiance.
Asgar Hamerik's 7th and final symphony is scored for chorus and orchestra and though effective enough, it is rather unmemorable.
Maliperio's early symphonic effort 'Sinfonia de la Mare' is really a tone poem. The sea features of course in many works of the period and the work is well orchestrated and atmospheric with some hints of the mature composer in places though not particularly symphonic in nature.
I'm not a big fan of Mahler's 7th Symphony and find it a rather unsatisfactory work with the exception of the eerie central Scherzo with its sardonic edge which I rather like. I find the work lacks the compulsion and direction of its predecessor.
Roussel's 1st Symphony is very much under the impressionistic wing and not particularly typical of the later composer, who emerges in the 2nd Symphony, It is though an atmospheric work which can 'come off' if you are sympathetic to it.
The very opening of Schoenberg's 1st Chamber Symphony seems to usher in the 20th Century musically, this work is without doubt a masterpiece, and a key work in the history of music. I haven't actually listened to it for a couple of years until today, and I think hearing it again today it has come over even more convincingly than ever before.
Maximilian Steinberg's 1st Symphony is a rather typical Russian late romantoc work, with hints of Rimsky-Korsakov (as one would expect) and Tchaikovsky but also shows an awareness of R Strauss in places. The work is let down by an over-long, empty and rhetorical finale that doesn't really know when to stop!
Finally to finish on another masterpiece. Suk's Asrael Symphony is I find a gripping and intensely moving work of the highest order and a work I would love to hear live one day, the last movement in particular is almost unbearably poignant. Still not performed or broadcast enough IMO, although Suk's star has been rising in recent year.

[austin]

Listening to this........

http://tinyurl.com/c4xwvjs

Makes a welcome change from the endless performances of Mahler, Beethoven et al!!

[DublinJimbo]

Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A minor op. 50 (to the memory of a great artist [Nikolai Rubinstein])
The Kempf Trio

Arensky: Piano Trio no. 1 in D minor op. 32 (to the memory of Karl Davidov)
The Borodin Trio

[Roehre]

Thanks SC, as usual.
Apart from a difference in opinion re Mahler 7, I think the short intros to the works are really to the point.
One remark re the Roussel: do you think it's a symphony, or just an impressionistic tone poem shaped as such?
I don't know the Bleyle. An off-air recording?

Bws
R.

[amateur51]

Listening to this........

http://tinyurl.com/c4xwvjs

Makes a welcome change from the endless performances of Mahler, Beethoven et al!!

Many thanks for the reminder, austin

[EdgeleyRob]

The latest in the journey through my symphonic collection.

Stanford: Symphony No 6 in E flat major 'In honour .... of George F Watts'
1906
Alfven: Symphony No 3 in E
I think that the 6th is the finest of Stanford's symphonies and among the best British symphonies of pre World War One. The first movement is taughtlly constructed with real energy and the slow movement really is lovely, a short scherzo is folllowed by a highly satisfactory finale that makes a perfect summing up. If you don't know it, I think you should give it a try!
Alfven's 3rd Symphony is quite attractive especially the first movement and scherzo, the work is rtaher let down by its finale which is rather undistinguished to my ears.

Thanks again SC.
Agree about the Stanford 6th.
Also just ordered http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...pf_rd_i=468294