What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[oliver sudden]

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.

How curious that the cover doesn’t mention the biggest piece on the programme!

[richardfinegold]

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.

I heard the Martinu for the first time in 1979 with Kubelik conducting in Chicago. It made a significant impression upon me. It’s my favorite Martinu piece and I also have the Ancerl record. I haven’t listened for many years but Martinu lived in France and a lot of his music has a French sound

[Stanfordian]

Delius
Violin Concerto
Milford
'The Darkling Thrush' for violin & orchestra, Op. 17
Britten
Violin Concerto, Op. 15 (1938-39, rev. 1950/54/65)
Philippe Graffin (violin)
Philharmonia Orchestra / Nicholas Collon
Recorded 2014 Abbey Road Studio No 1, London &
Royal Scottish National Orchestra / David Lloyd-Jones
Recorded 2014, RSNO Centre, Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow
Dutton Epoch, CD

Finzi
'Earth and Air and Rain', Op. 15
'To a Poet', Op. 13a
'By Footpath and Stile', Op. 2
Roderick Williams (baritone)
Iain Burnside (piano) (Opp. 15; Op. 13a) ; Sacconi Quartet (Op. 2)
Recorded 2005-06 Potton Hall, Suffolk
Naxos, CD

[Pulcinella]

I heard the Martinu for the first time in 1979 with Kubelik conducting in Chicago. It made a significant impression upon me. It’s my favorite Martinu piece and I also have the Ancerl record. I haven’t listened for many years but Martinu lived in France and a lot of his music has a French sound

Kubelik seems to have recorded it twice (I think the Vienna one is a live concert recording):

https://www.prestomusic.com/search?search_query=Kubelik%20francesca

[Sir Velo]

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.

Yes I thought so too having been an admirer of this orchestra and its flamboyant Viennese conductor's previous high octane recordings (a notably full on, in yer face recording of Respighi being particularly worthy of note!). On an initial cursory play of the Dance Suite, it struck me as too polite with those sleazy trombone snarls in the second movement somewhat underdone. This may be a result of Goetzel not being at the helm for this voyage.

[smittims]

Handel: Rodrigo Suite. Philomusica of London, Anthony Lewis. This was on the first Oiseau-Lyre Stereo Lp, SOL 60001 : 'Music of Handel'.

Webern: Five Movements op. 5 (string orchestra arrangement) : The Columbia Symphony , Robert Craft. Craft's first (CBS) recording of these beautiful pieces from Webern's early maturity.

Mozart: Symphony in E fat, K132. The Royal Philharmonic orchestra, masquerading as 'The Philharmonic Symphony of London' , Erich Leinsdorf. This mid-1950s Westminster recording was part of the first serious attempt to survey the Mozart symphonies on disc. (just the 'Breitkopf 41') .

...all Spotify downloads.

[Stanfordian]

Verdi – ‘Ernani’
Opera in 4 acts (prem. 1844 Teatro La Fenice, Venice)
Ernani, bandit - Gino Penno (tenor); Don Carlo, King of Spain - Giuseppe Taddei (baritone); Don Ruy de Silva, Spanish grandee - Giacomo Vaghi (bass); Elvira, Silva’s niece, loved by Ernani - Caterina Mancini (soprano); Don Riccardo, King’s equerry - Vittorio Pandano (tenor); Jago, Silva’s equerry - Ezio Achilli (bass); Giovanna, Elvira’s nurse - Licia Rossini
Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro Di Roma Della Rai / Fernando Previtali
Recorded mono, 1950 Rome, Italy
Warner Fonit, 2 CDs
First class soloists with radio sound quality from 1950.

[smittims]

Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610. I've had the opportunity (and, for me, the pleasure) of comparing two recordings dated 1967 (I don't have exact dates of the recording sessions): one, a Vanguard recording presumably made in London, with the Ambrosian Singers directed by Denis Stevens , the other a more celebrated CBS recording conducted by Robert Craft. There are also earlier discs from the early 1950s: a Oiseau-Lyre recording by Anthony Lewis and two recordings of the second Magnificat by none other than Guido Cantelli, better-known for Brahms,Tchaikovsky, Ravel, etc. but in his short career an indefatigable champion of what was then neglected Italian music.

I don't suppose these recordings will be of interest to those who first heard this music in the many HIPP interpretations available today,but I've enjoyed them very much, not only for the beauty of the singing (I'm thinking of Adrienne Albert ad Richard Levitt in the Craft ) but also for the compromises made simply to get the music heard in the days before the players and the skills necessary to record the cornett, recorders and chittarone were available. Oboes instead of cornetti, a beautifully-played viola (Myra Kestenbaum) and the young Michael Tilson Thomas on harpsichord are among the delights.

For anyone wishing to investigate,the Craft is on YouTube and Spotify. I found the Vanguard recording in an Oxfam shop.

[Quarky]

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.

Prom 65 2004 comprised Boulez conducting Sur Incises and Les Noces. A concert I would have loved to attend. Reviews available, but not all that helpful .

[kuligin]

String Quartet by Lyell Creswell, streamed from Qobuz. I don’t think I have heard any music by this composer recently and only learned recently that he had died a few years ago. An interesting work, the sort I am attracted to as “Modern” but not radically so and not of Minimalistic tendency.

Tonight a favourite, Parry Ode to the Nativity on Lyrita, I feel this is amongst the best of Parry.

[smittims]

I agree. I believe it was premiered at the same Three Choirs concert as Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Christmas Carols, andhte two composers who were personal friends would have sat together. .

I used to wonder why so many Christmas works were played at the Three Choirs, which is at the end of the summer, bu the reason isn't hard to guess. Many choirmasters would be there , starting to plan their Christmas repertoire, so it was in a way an ideal time.

My last listening was Dvorak's eighth symphony played by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, a thrilling reading: I'm not sure he doesn't out-Beecham Beecham in excitement. Certainly it has an exceptional dynamic range for an early 1950s recording. Curiously , I can trace no sign of a reissue, my copy being an original green-label Columbia ( 33SX 1034 ). I should have expected it to be a good candidate for a Music For Pleasure Lp in the 1960s. It reminded me of a memorable evening in, I think 1988 when I went to the Festival Hall to see Sawallisch and the Philharmonia in Brahms 3 and 4.

He later re-did Dvorak 8 for EMI with the Philadelphia orchestra.

[Stanfordian]

Stephen Varcoe – ‘If There Were Dreams To Sell’
English Orchestral Songs by Vaughan Williams, Quilter, Butterworth, Elgar, Finzi & Ireland
Stephen Varcoe (baritone)
City of London Sinfonia / Richard Hickox
Recorded 1989 London
Chandos, CD

Robin Milford – ‘Chamber Music’
Phantasy Quintet, for clarinet & string quartet, Op. 33
Idyll: Under the Greenwood Tree, for violin & piano, Op. 57
Trio in F major, for clarinet, cello & piano, Op. 87
Thrène, for cello & piano, Op. 81
Lyrical Movement, for clarinet & piano, Op. 89
Prelude for violin, cello & piano, Op. 92
Sonata in D major, for violin & piano, Op. 77
Robert Plane (clarinet); Lucy Gould (violin); Mia Cooper (violin); David Adams (viola); Alice Neary (cello); Benjamin Frith (piano)
Recorded 2014, The Music Room, Champs Hill, Pulborough, West Sussex
Toccata Classics, CD

[Jazzrook]

Can anyone tell me which version of Morton Feldman’s ‘Coptic Light’ was played on ‘20th Century Radicals’ last night?(1/6/25).

JR

[Pulcinella]

Can anyone tell me which version of Morton Feldman’s ‘Coptic Light’ was played on ‘20th Century Radicals’ last night?(1/6/25).

JR

The website says

New World Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8050552--feldman-coptic-light

[Quarky]

Can anyone tell me which version of Morton Feldman’s ‘Coptic Light’ was played on ‘20th Century Radicals’ last night?(1/6/25).

JR

According to Wikipedia, there is only one version, 1985.

On first hearing, very relaxing music.