What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[Stanfordian]

Vaughan Williams – 'Discoveries'
Three Nocturnes for baritone and orchestra (No’s. 1 & 3 orch Anthony Payne):
1. Smile O Voluptuous Cool-Breath'd Earth
2. Whispers of Heavenly Death
3. Out of the Rolling Ocean
A Road all Paved with Stars –A Symphonic Rhapsody
(from the opera The Poisoned Kiss, arranged Adrian Williams)
Stricken Peninsula – An Italian Rhapsody for orchestra
(reconstructed from film Stricken Peninsula by Philip Lane)
Four Last Songs, for mezzo-soprano & orchestra (orch A. Payne):
1. Procris
2. Tired
3. Hands, Eyes and Heart
4. Menelaus
Roderick Williams (baritone) & Jennifer Johnston (mezzo)
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Martyn Brabbins
Recorded 2015, BBC Studios, Maida Vale, London
Albion Records, CD

Vaughan Williams
‘Phantasy’ Quintet
String Quartets No’s 1 & 2
Maggini Quartet with Garfield Jackson (viola)
Recorded 2000 Potton Hall, Suffolk
Naxos, CD

[richardfinegold]

I have that second RVW CD, the chamber works. It’s a keeper

[Pulcinella]

I wasn't aware of RVW's Four last songs until a friend suggested that he would sing one (number 3), with piano accompaniment, at my partner's 70th birthday party in August.

[smittims]

Yes,they're not well-known. I think they were the completed items from two projected cycles . There's theb original piano version (Published by OUP and an orchestral version not by VW.

I wonder if we'll ever hear Thomas the Rhymer, a three-act opera supposedly complete in short-score, and reputedly one of his last works.

I can understand the reluctance to perform incompleted works , as VW was such a reviser he woudlntohave wanted anythig played before he was satisfied with it.

[Sir Velo]

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9318623--bononcini-cello-sonatas

This is really rather good stuff. Grievously overlooked by Gramophone Reminiscent of the best of Vivaldi's solo cello output, particularly the 4th sonata of Antonio Maria. Mellow, sonorous. Ideal autumnal listening.

[HighlandDougie]

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G Major

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Piano)/Philharmonia Orchestra/Ettore Gracis - vinyl (180g reissue)

Having a vinyl afternoon and coming across this LP which I'd forgotten about, it's much more involving on this LP than the HD stream from Qobuz which I listened to a couple of days ago. A good reminder of why it remains a classic recording. Michelangeli's pianism defies description!

[Jonathan]

A rather jolly Nonet by Onslow - it's so cheerful!

[smittims]

I still have my original copy of ASD 255, Dougie, and I agre with you about 'involvement' when playing vinyl.

Listening this morning to the famous Callas/Karajan live Lucia di Lammermoor I was amused to hear a Douglas Dakota flying over the theatre during the Mad Scene cadenza . I knew they were old, but not that old!

[oliver sudden]

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G Major

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Piano)/Philharmonia Orchestra/Ettore Gracis - vinyl (180g reissue)

Having a vinyl afternoon and coming across this LP which I'd forgotten about, it's much more involving on this LP than the HD stream from Qobuz which I listened to a couple of days ago. A good reminder of why it remains a classic recording. Michelangeli's pianism defies description!

And if my sources are correct, it’s Dennis Brain who supplies the little nosebleed horn solo (and of course the rest of the first horn part).

[oliver sudden]

I still have my original copy of ASD 255, Dougie, and I agre with you about 'involvement' when playing vinyl.

Listening this morning to the famous Callas/Karajan live Lucia di Lammermoor I was amused to hear a Douglas Dakota flying over the theatre during the Mad Scene cadenza . I knew they were old, but not that old!

I feel a strange need to know how you know!

[HighlandDougie]

And if my sources are correct, it’s Dennis Brain who supplies the little nosebleed horn solo (and of course the rest of the first horn part).

It was recorded in March 1957 (7th, 8th, 10th) at Abbey Road*- and not in November 1957 as suggested in some places - so highly probable that Dennis Brain was performing his duties as Principal Horn of the Philharmonia. I'm sure that I've seen a list somewhere of all the recordings featuring him in that role but can't find it on the net - a task made more difficult by bloody AI **.

* to be precise, it was the 8th
** I take it back - Chat GPT Atlas supplied a link to the discography compiled and updated by Robert L Marshall in 2011 which confirms that DB took part on 8/3/1957 in the EMI recording. He also took part in the Leonard Bernstein recording of 1 July 1946

[pastoralguy]

Granados. Goyescas.

Jean-Marc Luisada, piano. DG. 1992.

A cd I picked up in a charity shop yesterday. (I do enjoy finding a Deutsche Grammophon cd in a charity shop!)

I thought I was unfamiliar with this music but I must have heard it at some point since it seems to ring bells. This performance gets rather a lukewarm reception in Gramophone. The reviewer feels that it’s too pulled around. I rather like it.

[silvestrione]

And if my sources are correct, it’s Dennis Brain who supplies the little nosebleed horn solo (and of course the rest of the first horn part).

Eh? Should I be able to understand that? An expression in the trade is it. Long with no chance of a breath, perhaps...

[oliver sudden]

Eh? Should I be able to understand that? An expression in the trade is it. Long with no chance of a breath, perhaps...

Very high! I suppose the phrase has to do with air pressure at high altitudes…

If you want a long phrase without a breath, though, there’s a Dennis Brain for that too.

https://youtu.be/k5ffVvST3PE

[smittims]

oliver, I meant that the aeroplane is audible on the 1954 recording. It's well-known that Dakotas were flying over Berlin at that date, but not over Lammermoor at the time the drama is set.