Just arrived: Dvorak: Cello/Piano/Violin concertos with Nelsova, Firkusny and Ricci respectively and Walter Susskind conducting the Saint Louis SO. 2 Classic Mania CDs from selections.
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My life, each morning when I dress, is four and twenty hours less. (J Richardson) -
They were also issued on Brilliant Classics. The piano concerto is the heavily cut version.Originally posted by Pianorak View PostComment
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Just arrived: Berg, Bruch, Mendelssohn Concertos, Suk/Ancerl. Thanks Bryn
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I might have guessed! But what do you expect for £2.99?Originally posted by Bryn View Post
My life, each morning when I dress, is four and twenty hours less. (J Richardson)Comment
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Indeed, and with Firkusny playing, the cuts are a little less of a concern. Sorry, but I paid £1.99 for the Brilliant Classic set in Superdrug when they were doing a massive clearance of various Brilliant Classics titles a few year ago (e.g. the Barshai Shostakovich 15 Symphonies for £4.99 - some paid even less).Originally posted by Pianorak View PostI might have guessed! But what do you expect for £2.99?
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My life, each morning when I dress, is four and twenty hours less. (J Richardson)Comment
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Holmboe - Concertos for Piano, Clarinet & Oboe.
Aalborg SO/Frost, Ogawa/Arwel Hughes.
Weber - Symphonies 1&2, Bassoon Concerto.
Tapiola Sinfonietta/Kantorow.
Both BIS 24/44.1 downloads from eClassical...
a quick dip sounded VERY promising, look forward to them later...
Anders Hillborg - Eleven Gates.
Royal Stockholm PO Salonen/Oramo
Stunning orchestral album from BIS again, including a superb minimalist-styled piece called King Tide, sonic waves ebbing and flowing to a terrific climax, fading away at the last like a distant sea. Gorgeous.
Eleven Gates itself covers an extraordinary range of human and natural evocations, and concludes with a shattering final climax.
Highly recommended - lovely cover art too.
Hillborg can be a little too weird and quirky occasionally but is always worth your best attention. You may recall he became (at least briefly) famous when his Liquid Marble was played at the Proms on the day that Princess Diana had been killed. It was inspired by Volcanoes, but as the Composer said, the elements of tragedy and horror in it seemed to give people a channel for their emotions. It remains a very fine achievement of colour and drama.Comment
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Was it actually performed at the Proms? I thought it might have been cancelled. I heard this piece in Sweden maybe a year later, in Härnösand. It was certainly scheduled to be played at the Proms, but I thought everything got disrupted.Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View Post
Is there a recording of Liquid Marble currently available?Comment
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Yes, it is still available on an Ondine CD, c/w the Clarinet and Violin Concertos - might be at eClassical as a download but I haven't checked.Originally posted by Dave2002 View Post
The Proms performance did go ahead, but Salonen and the Swedish RSO were asked to play Elgar's Nimrod first, then have a minute's silence before going straight into the Hillborg. As he says in the CD notes, "Everyone was incredibly nervous, here we were, foreigners expressing the grief of the nation... The musicians began to vibrate five seconds before we started... the sound was incredible. After Nimrod there was a minute of silence, and then my piece. I thought, I'm going to destroy everything. But many people thanked me afterwards. Liquid Marble had given them a channel for their emotions."
Listening to it now you soon hear why it seemed so cathartic.Comment
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Mozart Piano Concerto No.20 Cristofori/Schoonderwoerd (16/44.1 download at eclassical)
Totally fascinated with this, and surprised at the harsh judgment of the April IRR critic who found the orchestra "undifferentiated" and lacking clear articulation compared to their Beethoven cycle. I didn't hear that at all, just that this recording has a brighter, more reverberant acoustic setting than some of the Beethoven Concertos, e.g.No.2. Otherwise it has the same punch and clarity, the same open, reedy textures that I found so compelling in the earlier sets. Yes, the fortepiano is lighter and tangier than the repro Fritz and Walter instruments used in the LVB, but it's played with such sensitivity, such expressive light and shade, that I didn't have a problem with it - quite the reverse! The slow movement is especially beautiful, flexibly phrased and perfectly paced. Ornament is discreetly but tellingly applied throughout.
Five stars from me!
Kalevi Aho Symphony No.7 "An Insect Symphony" - Lahti SO/Vanska (BIS lossless download)
A sonic spectacular certainly, if, quite designedly, lacking the symphonic logic of his later more abstract creations;
the War Marches of the Ants, a sonic blunderbuss of a movement, is almost inevitably followed by the Mayfly's dance, death and lullaby... a slow, fading end of great poetry and delicacy for reduced, divided strings - one of the most beautiful contemporary or near-contemporary slow movements I've yet come across.
More than once I WAS actually reminded of that other great entomological poem, Roussel's Festin de L'Araignee...
(with truly poetic aptness, the Mayfly is actually misprinted as "Dayfly" in the booklet note!)Last edited by jayne lee wilson; 07-04-12, 01:57.Comment
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jayne
Interestingly 'Dayfly' is an accepted variation of 'Mayfly', so it's not necessarily a misprint.
Glad you're enjoying Aho.Comment
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Having ordered (and paid for) a 24/96 download of the new Elgar disc (with Paul Watkins/Andrew Davis), the subject of another thread which whetted my enthusiasm, and a lossless download of the RSNO/Denève Debussy collection from the Classical Shop, I was mightily irked to get a message back when I clicked on the 'Download' button that there was, "a server error". 24 hours later, there is still a, "server error". Given that it's the Easter weekend, it'll be Tuesday before Chandos deign to provide me with an explanation of what has gone wrong. Anyone else experience this with them? It kind of defeats part of the point of having downloads available 24/7 if support is only available 9/5, Monday to Friday.
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I had to have a listen to this disc (on the BIS website, where you can hear whole works, not just snippets) and enjoyed both works. A couple of the 7th's movements brought a smile to the face! And I tested out Google Translate with the Finnish which came out as Mayfly.Originally posted by Mahlerei View PostComment
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PJPJ
Good to see all this interest in Aho's output. There's lots to enjoy here. Still getting to grips with his Chamber Symphonies, though.Comment
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Tuesday was actually Sunday morning so I'm prepared to forgive them. My enthusiastic support for Pastoral Guy's enthusiasm for the Elgar (in 24/96 guise) appears elsewhere. For fellow RSNO fans, though, the Denève Debussy set is a treat. I realise that he has his detractors among the orchestra but I don't think that I've ever heard them play as well as they sound on these 2 discs. Although the complete Lyon/Markl set (all 9 discs) of it can be had for about the same price, what I've heard so far seems decidedly superior to the Naxos issues, particularly the recording. I realise that not everyone likes the 'Chandos sound' but it suits these performances very well. Unlike the Davis/Watkins Elgar, this is issued as an SACD, although it sounds pretty OK to me in its 16/44 2-channel version. I love Debussy's music so fine performances in great sound are a real treat.Originally posted by HighlandDougie View PostComment
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