What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[pastoralguy]

Elgar: Symphony no.1. The 1930 published recording (LSO/Elgar) followed by Lani Spahr's reonstructed transfer including seven unpublished 'take 1' s: a fascinating comparison. It seems the published version was assembled from 'safe' takes where the orchestral ensemble and instrumental detail is clearer , a sensible choice as this was the first recording and the only available one for twenty years. The 'alternative takes' however, are more spontaneous and musically satisfying.

I have these recordings. Fascinating!

[gradus]

I didn't know that after 18 years Daniel Harding has just resigned as conductor of the Swedish Radio symphony orchestra. As a very touching tribute to him the orchestra played and sang a lovely arrangement of Auld Lang Syne: https: //slippedisc.com/2025/05/auld-lang-syne-as-never-heard-before

[LMcD]

I didn't know that after 18 years Daniel Harding has just resigned as conductor of the Swedish Radio symphony orchestra. As a very touching tribute to him the orchestra played and sang a lovely arrangement of Auld Lang Syne: https: //slippedisc.com/2025/05/auld-lang-syne-as-never-heard-before

I didn't know that he's also an Air France pilot!

[Stanfordian]

Paul Agnew – ‘Severn Meadows’ – Songs by Ivor Gurney
Paul Agnew (tenor) & Julius Drake (piano)
Recorded 2000 Henry Wood Hall, London
Hyperion, CD

E.J. Moeran
Violin Concerto
Lonely Waters
Whythorne’s Shadow
Lydia Mordkovitch (violin), Ulster Orchestra / Vernon Handley, (Violin Concerto, Lonely Waters, Whythorne’s Shadow)
Cello Concerto
Raphael Wallfisch (cello)
Bournemouth Sinfonietta / Norman Del Mar (Cello Concerto)
Recorded Dorset 1986 & Belfast 1990
Chandos, CD

[Jonathan]

Gouvy - Symphonies 1 and 2 on CPO. Wonderful music, no idea why it's not heard more often. Symphonies 3 and 5 next!

Also, on YouTube, the latest installment of Mark Viner's stupendous Alkan series, volume 7 entitled "Early works and juvenilia"

[Stanfordian]

John Ireland – ‘The Songs with Piano’
Benjamin Luxon (baritone), John Mitchinson (tenor),
Alfreda Hodgson (contralto), Alan Rowlands (piano)
Recorded 1972/78 St John’s Smith Square, London
Lyrita, 3 CD set
I'll be dipping into this set today.
At the time of this Lyrita recording I believe tenor Benjamin Luxon was peerless in this repertiore.

Frank Bridge
String Quartet No. 2
Phantasy Piano Quartet
String Quartet No. 4
Phantasy Piano Quartet
Martin Roscoe (piano)
Maggini String Quartet
Recorded 2003 Potton Hall, Suffolk
Naxos, CD

[smittims]

Coincidentally the last music I heard was Ireland , his early tone poem 'Tritons', in the vintage recording by Sir Adrian Boult, one of a splendid series he did of Ireland orchestral music on Lyrita. .

[Roger Webb]

Coincidentally the last music I heard was Ireland , his early tone poem 'Tritons', in the vintage recording by Sir Adrian Boult, one of a splendid series he did of Ireland orchestral music on Lyrita. .

Yes, that was a 'useful' LP (SRCS 45), one of an excellent series of early Lyritas. It included Ireland's music to the film 'The Overlanders' along with the orchestration (by Geoffrey Bush) of the Two Symphonic Studies and the music (arr. Bush) from 'Julius Caesar' which Ireland wrote in 1942 for a BBC broadcast of the play...he was given two weeks to come up with it!

I marvel at the recording quality of these LPs.....I had one of the volumes of piano music on this morning first thing.

[smittims]

Mozart: Divertimento in D, K 131. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Thomas Beecham.

Not for HIPP fans perhaps , as Tommy omits the first minuet and later inserts another from a different work . This was the first (1947) of his two recordings of this delectable work. The playing is enchanting. I identified possibly Gerald Jackson, Terence MacDonagh, Dennis Brain and David McCallum from their solos. A World Records 'Retrospect Series' LP from 1979. It was reissued on a Dutton CD .

[pastoralguy]

Debussy &Ravel. String Quartets.

The Lindsay Quartet. ASV.

[Quarky]

Boulez - EIC : Sur Incises – piano, harp and percussion, all times 3.

[silvestrione]

Boulez - EIC : Sur Incises – piano, harp and percussion, all times 3.

Is that the new release, with Eclat Multiples, and an enclosed fold-out complete score of one of the small pieces included? That's how to make the CD worth the (slightly expensive) purchase.

[HighlandDougie]

As in:



HighlandDougie replied
23-05-25, 17:45
For fans of Boulez (the composer) and as recommended by Andrew Clements in The Grauniad:


Pierre Boulez: Éclat-Multiples, by Collegium Novum Zürich, Ensemble Contrechamps, Michael Wendeberg

https://bastillemusique.bandcamp.com/album/pierre-boulez-clat-multiples

6 track album

Really rather good - well played and very well recorded (as a hi-res download). Prices don't include VAT, btw.

Highly recommended - even as just a download - but the luxury physical release in a cardboard box is even better, if a bit pricy.

[Quarky]

Is that the new release, with Eclat Multiples, and an enclosed fold-out complete score of one of the small pieces included? That's how to make the CD worth the (slightly expensive) purchase.

I wasn't aware of this new release, but I accept the recommendation. I have it on the Boulez boxset, and there is a YouTube version with EIC / Pintscher.

But what prompted my post is that I heard it on the radio a day or two ago (EIC/ Bleuse) , and it seemed to follow on quite naturally from Les Noces, as in the recent BaL. At least to my ear.

[Pulcinella]

This new release looked promising:

Bartók, Enescu, Kodály, Martinů
Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlo Tenan

• Bartók: Dance Suite, BB 86, Sz. 77
• Enescu: Romanian Rhapsody in A major, Op. 11 No. 1
• Kodály: Dances of Galanta
• Martinů: The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca, H. 352

But for me the orchestral sound in the Martinu is as though he needed his cataracts operated on: too silky and smooth, whereas the music is surely crying out to be vibrant and punchy, like the colours in the frescos. Mackerras and Ancerl (on the shelves already) for me.