What are you listening to now?

[Brassbandmaestro]

English Choral Music opf the Twentieth Century. Chir of St john's College, Cambridge, Christopher Robinson.

'I was Glad, Sacred Choral Music by Parry'. Choir of Royal Chapel, Windsor, Chrisyopher Robinson.

Szymanowski: Concerti. Leif Ove Adnsnes, Thomas Zehetmair, CBSO, Sir Simon Rattle.

Debussy: Music for king Lear; Jeux; Gigiues; Iberia. CBSO/Rattle.

'Parish Church Anthems'. Clare College, Cambridge, Rutter.

Mahl;er: Symphony no.6. Berliner Philharmnoniker, Claudio Abbado.

[DublinJimbo]

Messiaen
Visions de l'Amen (Steven Osborne, Martin Roscoe)
Vingt Regard sur l'Enfant Jésus (Steven Osborne)

A feast of magnificent, life-enhancing piano music while I work myself up to the new recording of Turangalîla with Steven Osborne as soloist and the wonderful Bergen Phil under Juanjo Mena. (It's a pity a 'studio master' download isn't available for the symphony, but I still anticipate great things even at lossless 16/44.)

[MrGongGong]

Messiaen
Visions de l'Amen (Steven Osborne, Martin Roscoe)
Vingt Regard sur l'Enfant Jésus (Steven Osborne)

A feast of magnificent, life-enhancing piano music while I work myself up to the new recording of Turangalîla with Steven Osborne as soloist and the wonderful Bergen Phil under Juanjo Mena. (It's a pity a 'studio master' download isn't available for the symphony, but I still anticipate great things even at lossless 16/44.)

Great stuff indeed
almost enough to make one consider that the church has something going for it .....................

[teamsaint]

I bin listenin' to
Debussy/Bartok /Ravel VS's Grimal/Pludemacher.
The Ravel is wonderful. Getting my head round the Bartok is "Work in Progress".
Also
Mozart Requiem.Leipzig Kammerorchester/Schudt-Jensen. A LOT better than my other version......
Also the Ravel/Adams Prom.

[Pianorak]

Strauss: Four Last Songs - Anne Schwanewilms (BBCiPlayer) Last night's Proms
Ravel: Piano Concerto - Imogen Cooper (BBCiPlayer) Monday night's Proms

[Suffolkcoastal]

Continuing the journey through my symphonic collection this evening and the last few nights:

1910
Alfano: Symphony No 1 in E major (rev 1953 version)
Atterburg: Symphony No 1 in B minor
L Glass: Symphony No 4 in C minor
Glazunov: Symphony No 9 (completed fragment)
Mahler: Symphony No 9 in D
Maliperio: Sinfonie del silenzio e della morte
Miaskovsky: Sinfonietta in A major
Peterson-Berger: Symphony No 2 in E flat 'Sunnanfard'
Rontgen: Symphony in C minor (No 3)
Scriabin: Prometheus, Poem of Fire (Symphony No 5)
Szymanowski: Symphony No 2 in B flat major
Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony

The Alfano was revised a number of times including deleting a whole movement. This is an enterprising and colourful work. at times it anticipates the mature Respighi in language and shows a composer worth investigating. Atterburg's 1st Symphony is also an interesting work. It already shows a certain individuality and the adagio and scherzo really stand out. Only the finale lets the work down somewhat as it struggles to maintain interest, but still well worth getting to know.
Louis Glass's 4th Symphony is in comparison with the above rather dull and mechanical. The ideas fairly uninteresting and the work really lacks and melodic distinction. The slow movement starts promisingly but soon gets lost in rather uninspired material.
Glazunov composed just a 9 minutes fragment of a 9th symphony. It is a great pity he never completed it as the fragment that survives is rather melancholic and resigned and it would have been interesting to see how the composer would have developed this.
The 9th is one of the two Mahler symphonies that I can appreciate and that I admire, especially the 3rd and 4th movements. It seems for me to almost sum up the weariness, resignation and pent-up tension of a world that was soon to be shattered by the outbreak of World War One.
The Maliperio isn't really a symphony as such and has been described as consisting of three tone poems, which is an apt description. Heavily programmatic, this is nevertheless a work of interest and of a composer trying to find a language with which he is confident.
Miaskovsky's early A major Sinfonietta is a delightful work. The 1st movement is clearly under Tchaikovsky's spell and the lovely slow movement very much under Rimsky-Korsakov's. The finale is a little more forward looking with hints of the more mature composer.
The Peterson-Berger is subtitled 'Journey on southerly winds' and is a highly programmatic work, typically late romantic in spirit and sound and a work I rather enjoyed. In fact there are some really beautiful and poetic moments as well as some occasionally rather rhetorical ones, but overall worth investigating.
The numbering of Julius Rontgen's Symphonies isn't always clear, but the C minor of 1910 seems to be the 3rd. It is actually quite a forthright and energetic work, at times rather Brahmsian, at others almost Mahler like. The overall impression is better than the ideas themselves which lack ream memorability.
Scriabin's Prometheus is sometimes referred to as his 5th Symphony so I included it in symphonic survey. This really is an extraordinary work, as daring in someways as the contemporary works of Stravinsky and Schoenberg. It is perhaps for me more a work to admire than really enjoy. Szymanowski's 2nd Symphony is strongly influenced by Scriabin, in three movements it a work worth investigating even if for me the fugal finale doesn't come off.
Finally Vaughan Williams and there can be few more arresting openings to a symphonic cycle than that of A Sea Symphony. By 1910 RVW had found his own individual soundworld and hearing in historic context is a real ear opener. I love this work as I do all of his symphonies. The finale is probably overlong and too episodic, however there are so many beautiful and moving moments it is easy to forgive and overlook this.

[EdgeleyRob]

Thanks SC,great stuff again.

I listened to tonights prom earlier,now listening to this



Silly story, glorious music.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Yes ER, the libretto is awful but the music is gorgeous and shows RVW's admiration for Puccini in places.

[Roehre]

Today:

Moyzes:
Piano concerto (the two surviving mvts that is, 1933?) (R3:TtN)
I am wondering whether in the finale the final mvt of d’Indy’s Symphonie cévénole op.25 (1886) was playing through his mind – the similarity between the first themes of the two finales is striking, in terms of melody as well as in the underlying figuration.


Beethoven:
Piano concerto no.4 op.58

Reimann:
Kumi Ori (1999)

[teamsaint]

Today

Bruckner 7 . Jochum/DS

Sibelius 4 . Ashkenazy/philharmonia.