What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[Ian Thumwood]

I picked up a cd by Adriana von Franque which features work by Debussy, Ravel and someone called Simin Laks who i had never heard of.

I love the Debussy but Franck's Prelude,Choral and Fugue is a revelation as i have never heard his music before. The disc opens with one of Boulanger's 3 morceaux which i ordered the music for. Wish the other 2 had been included as i think Boulanger was a fantastic composer.

Not bad for £3.50. Well worth the punt although i think the Laks sounds more 19th than 20th century.

[Barbirollians]

Britten Serenade/Les Illuminations and Nocturne - Pears/LSO/Britten.

It’s striking to me now much less I enjoyed Pears’ performance of Les Illuminations than the two works written for him in which the music unsurprisingly fits him like a glove . It’s not only that I do prefer the work sung as originally intended by a soprano ( as I enjoy Ainsley’s performance a great deal) but there is strain to my ears in his singing .

[smittims]

The complete Stone Flower was recorded for HMV/Melodiya inthe 1970s by the Bolshoi and Rozhdestvensky, a 3-LP set whichstil sounds superb.. I love it and regard it as the equal of his other two full-length ballets.

I too prefer Les Illuminations sung by a soprano (Heather Harper's 1970s HMv disc is definitive for me). I think Pears sang it better in his early-50s recording with Eugene Goossens , which was coupled with the Serenade with Pears and Dennis Brain . The only disappointment is that Pears cannot manage the low G's in the penultimate song, which were written for Sophie Wyss.

[oliver sudden]

There’s a live Ansermet recording of Les Illuminations with Suzanne Danco, of which I am very fond. I think her sound has a lot in common with Wyss, judging from the little that Wyss recorded. Pears’s recordings of it for me are vocally better the earlier they are, but his French in the early ones is sometimes distractingly unidiomatic (criticspeak for ‘wrong’). More recently, Piau with Zehetmair is amazing.

Our Hunting Fathers does work better with a tenor, for me, partly because of the sheer wordiness of it… even though as with Illuminations this usually involves taking the low notes up the octave. (Bostridge takes many of them as written but I’m not sure whether he really should have.)

[Stanfordian]

Gabrieli Consort – Paul McCreesh – ‘Silence & Music’
English part-songs by Stanford, Vaughan Williams, Howells, Grainger, MacMillan, Warlock, Elgar & Dove
Robert Murray (tenor)
Neal Davies (baritone)
Tim Roberts (harmonium)
Gabrieli Consort / Paul McCreesh (direction)
Recorded 2016, Charterhouse School Chapel, Surrey
Signum Classics, CD

E.J. Moeran
Violin Concerto
Delius
‘Légende’, for violin & orchestra
Holst
‘A Song of the Night’, for violin & orchestra, Op. 19/1,
Elgar
‘Chanson de matin’, Op. 15/2 (arr. Roger Turner)
‘Chanson de nuit’, Op. 15/1 (arr. Roger Turner)
‘Salut d’amour’, Op. 12 (arr. Roger Turner)
Vaughan Williams
‘The Lark Ascending’ for violin & orchestra
Tasmin Little (violin)
BBC Philharmonic / Sir Andrew Davis
Recorded 2013, MediaCity, Salford
Chandos, CD

[Barbirollians]

Jodie Devos – 'Bijoux Perdus'
Opera airs from Victor Massé, Ambroise Thomas, Fromental Halévy, Adolphe Adam, Daniel-François-Esprit Auber & Giacomo Meyerbeer
Jodie Devos (soprano)
Flemish Radio Choir,
Brussels Philharmonic / Pierre Bleuse
Recorded 2022, Studio 4, Flagey, Brussels
Alpha Classics, CD

A favourite album that I'm playing in tribute to the young Belgium coloratura soprano Jodie Devos who has recently died aged 35.

It's terrific singing .

[smittims]

Antonin Reicha: Symphony in E flat
Jan Vaclav Vorisek: Symphony in D : Prague Chamber orchestra.

I bought this record as a curiosity, and for the beautiful and intriguing picture on the sleeve. But I was deeply impressed with the sheer quality of the music. This is music of substance, of individual invention and composition, adn , in my view, far superior to the over-praised music we often hear on Radio 3: for instance, Cleopatra's Dream by Mel Bonis and the overture by Fanny Mendelssohn played in yesterday's Classical Live. 'Original, elegant, full of passion' were some of the things Mark Forrest said of them . In my opinion they were both neat, pretty pieces of no distinction at all, and not worth reviving,let alone broadcasting.

[pastoralguy]

Brahms. Ein Deutsches Requiem.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Elizabeth Watts, soprano.

Stephane Degout, baritone.

LPO own label. Live from the Royal Festival Hall, 4th April, 2009.

Very good performance but I’ve really had to crank the volume up for this cd to make any impact.

[pastoralguy]

J.S. Bach. Partita in d minor & Sonata in g minor for solo violin.

Nathan Milstein, violin. Recorded live in 1957 at the Salzburg Festival.

Without a doubt, some of the finest violin playing I’ve ever heard. Orfeo label.

[smittims]

I have the earlier (HMV) of his two studio recordings and I agree about the phenomenal standard he set. The Pollini of the violin, perhaps? Or was Pollini the Milstein of the piano?

[pastoralguy]

I have the earlier (HMV) of his two studio recordings and I agree about the phenomenal standard he set. The Pollini of the violin, perhaps? Or was Pollini the Milstein of the piano?

Yes, I have both the DG and HMV sets and they are terrific. Not sure about the Pollini/Milstein comparison. To be honest, I don’t really know enough about pianists to make a judgement. Although both were pretty fabulous. Milstein was still at the very top of his game before he was forced to retire following a fall whereas Pollini should have stopped performing before his sad end in London. Thank goodness for recordings.

[Stanfordian]

Elgar
Violin Concerto
'Carissima'
Vilde Frang (violin)
Thomas Hoppe (piano)
Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin / Robin Ticciati
Recorded 2023/24, Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin (Concerto); Teldex Studio, Berlin ('Carissima')
Warner Classics, CD

Marianne Crebassa – ‘Secrets’
French mélodies by Fauré, Debussy, Say, Ravel & Duparc
Marianne Crebassa (mezzo-soprano)
Fazil Say (piano)
Bernhard Krabatsch (flute, tr. 5)
Recorded 2017 Großer Saal, Mozarteum, Salzburg
Erato, CD

[smittims]

Elgar : The Dream of Gerontius (excerpts only, alas!)

Steuart Wilson, Maragret Balfour, Hernert Heyner, Royal Choral Society, Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, Sir Edward Elgar conducting. A concert performance form February 1927.

It's a long time since I last listened to this, and in a digital remastering it's amazing how much detail comes across. If only the whole performance had survived this might have been the elusive 'definitive' recording of this work . The singing is superb, especially the impassioned soloists , and the chorus are better than in the Hereford recording later that year. Just under half the work is represented . It was recorded by HMV and it sounds as if three microphones were used. In various places Elgar is swept away with spontanaeity, perhaps most of all in Praise to the Holiest, taken at a speed I've never heard anyone else approach.

[pastoralguy]

Brahms. The late piano music. Op.117, op.118 & op.119.

The late Lars Vogt recorded in 2002. I read that he used to play this music in the hospice where he succumbed to cancer. It’s very broad playing which I appreciate in this wonderful music.

This is a cd I’ve tried to obtain for a long time but it’s always been prohibitively expensive. I picked it up this morning in my local Oxfam shop. A nice start to the day.

[richardfinegold]

J.S. Bach. Partita in d minor & Sonata in g minor for solo violin.

Nathan Milstein, violin. Recorded live in 1957 at the Salzburg Festival.

Without a doubt, some of the finest violin playing I’ve ever heard. Orfeo label.

What’s the program? Is the Bach Second Partita featured?