What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[Pulcinella]

I'd assume that this is a good thing ?
I don't think I have ever heard these, so will look them out.

I guess it means I don't know enough about any characteristics of his style (if indeed he has any) to pick them up.
I'll certainly listen to them again.

[teamsaint]

I guess it means I don't know enough about any characteristics of his style (if indeed he has any) to pick them up.
I'll certainly listen to them again.

Actually, now that I have finished work for the day, , I’m surprised by that. I would have had you down as a fan if I had to guess.

[Pulcinella]

Actually, now that I have finished work for the day, , I’m surprised by that. I would have had you down as a fan if I had to guess.

Being a fan (though not of everything) doesn't mean I can recognise his music though.

Think how different the symphonies are, and then there are the shorter pieces (Pastorale d'été, Rugby, Pacific 231).
Maybe he's hard to categorise.
I see that we don't have a Honegger thread in Composers; anyone game to start one?

[Master Jacques]

I didn't find that recording, but did find one by the Ludwig Quartet, currently being streamed.
Certainly would not have been able to name the composer in any blind tasting/hearing.

I find the Ludwig's rather plodding in this music.

The 'giveaways' for me are the serene, singing inner movements; the firmly-treading cello lines in the bass of outer movements; the sardonic humour; the neo-classical contrapuntal energy; and the fact that (to steal a phrase) there is "nothing of the circus" about this excellent music. The older I get, the more I love Honegger, I must say.

[smittims]

I've started listening to Monteux' San Francisco recordings, splendid and to my ears thrilling performances given the difficult circumstances in which they were made. Four works by Vincent D'Indy recorded in California around the time of the outbreak of the Pacific War suggest some determination by Monteux to programme this composer.

[frankbridge]

Arnold Bax: Violin Concerto

Mordkovitch/LPO/Jack Thomson

Chandos CHAN 9003
Not quite top draw stuff but as an ardent Baxian, I love this work.

[Roger Webb]

Arnold Bax: Violin Concerto

Mordkovitch/LPO/Jack Thomson

Chandos CHAN 9003
Not quite top draw stuff but as an ardent Baxian, I love this work.

Did you see my post on the Derek Solomans/Haydn post #23?

[smittims]

The BBC Scottish S.O. in Brahms second symphony with Donald Runnnicles and Sibelius 5th with Andrew Gourlay, both from 2012. In my view these are both superb performances comparable with any I've heard and yes, I'm not forgetting Stokowski/Weingartner/Kajanus/Collins etc. .

I've followed Andrew Gourlay's career with interest since then as I feel he is a very gifted conductor who deserves a top job, such as BBC S.O. . BUt all the world can offer him is the Queensland S.O. I'm not knocking them , I hope they're excellent, but Brisbane isn't quite the centre of the world . Maybe conducting is an overcrowded profession, but there do seem to me to have been a lot of underrated British conductors (Maurice Handford, Bryden Thomson,etc.) who deserved better.

[Stanfordian]

Anja Harteros – Wagner, Berg & Mahler – 'Orchestral Songs '
Wagner
Wesendonck-Lieder
Berg
Sieben frühe Lieder
Mahler
Rückert-Lieder
Anja Harteros (soprano)
Münchner Philharmoniker / Valery Gergiev
Recorded 2018/20, Philharmonie, Munich
Münchner Philharmoniker MPHIL, CD

[richardfinegold]

I've started listening to Monteux' San Francisco recordings, splendid and to my ears thrilling performances given the difficult circumstances in which they were made. Four works by Vincent D'Indy recorded in California around the time of the outbreak of the Pacific War suggest some determination by Monteux to programme this composer.

I had purchased the Monteux boxes released by BMG in the nineties that contained these recordings. The recordings could be a bit of a chore sonically and it would be interesting to have a company such as Pristine have a go.
I agree that Monteux must of had a love for D’Indy. Monteux was Jewish and the composer was very anti semitic and very much anti Drefussard. Considering that these recordings were made as the Vichy government was in its heyday I find it interesting

[smittims]

Catching up with Tuesday's Radio 3 in Concert I was impressed by Oliver Knussen's Cleveland Pictures which had a fine performance by the BBC S.O. and Sakari Oramo. A well-proportioned work which might well have been called 'Symphony', it was just the right length and reminded me of how much poorer the musical scene is for his untimely abscence.

[pastoralguy]

A cd entitled ‘Tastes of Europe’ featuring trios and quartets of Telemann played by Ensemble Meridiana. A LINN SACD.


Very pleasant music extremely well played. 50p charity shop find.

[richardfinegold]

A cd entitled ‘Tastes of Europe’ featuring trios and quartets of Telemann played by Ensemble Meridiana. A LINN SACD.


Very pleasant music extremely well played. 50p charity shop find.

I have that SACD, acquired second hand but probably not as cheaply as your purchase. I’ve picked a lot of Telemann that way. I think I might cull through them a bit for favorite works and then make playlist on the server.

[AuntDaisy]

Rachel Podger's "The Muses Restor'd", it was Presto's recording of the week...

[smittims]

Three string quartets by three composers inexplicably (in my view) and almost totally ignored by Radio 3:

Priaulx Rainier
Malcolm Singer
Bernard van Dieren (his sixth, dedicated to Philip Heseltine).

Lovely works , all three, and I'm glad to have recordings of them . The Rainier and Dieren are on YouTube. Malcolm Singer remains a mystery. This is the only work of his I've heard, and yet I cannot believe that someone who could write so fine a work has not written others as good. Where are they? Did he die young? Did he give up, discouraged?