What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[smittims]

Easley Blackwood: Symphony no.1. Written at the age of 21, a strong, well-crafted work with a little (but not much ) Hindemith infuence. He went on to write four more and died atthe age of 90. I used to have a cassttte of the first performane of his fourth , written for the Chicago Symphony.

[Stanfordian]

Marianne Crebassa –'Oh, Boy!'
French Arias from trouser/breeches roles by Mozart, Offenbach,
Chabrier, Hahn, Massenet, Gluck/Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Thomas
Marianne Crebassa (mezzo-soprano)
Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg / Marc Minkowski
Recorded 2016, Große Saal, Mozarteum, Salzburg
Erato, CD

[richardfinegold]

The fifth is my favourite Tchakovsky symphony. I admire its classical form and singing qualities throughout. I believe , in his own way, he was tryig to do a 'Mozart' symphony on his own terms. I cannot understand why Toscanini thought it 'banal' when he liked 'Manfred' so much.

My last listening was Thurston Dart's 1959 Brandenburg One, with the Philomusica of London. This was the notorious version where he tried out his theory that Bach intended the horn parts, which jam uncomfortably with the oboes in the standard version, to be played an octave higher on piccolo trumpets. It certainly sounds credible to me , and refreshingly different.

It’s interesting to remember that for Toscanini, Tchaikovsky was contemporary music. I think he gave the first performance of the Nutcracker, or at least the Suite, outside of Russia. Perhaps he liked Manfred more than the Fifth because particularly in the last movement it sounds more verisimo. Also Toscanini liked Berlioz Harold in Italy, and particularly in the inner movements, there are a lot of similarities between Harold and Manfred.
I love Manfred and was binging on many versions several months ago (I wish that Monteux had recorded it) but I agree with you that the Fifth is my favorite. The Mozart influence is an interesting suggestion, and hadn’t occurred to me before. Tchaikovsky adored Mozart, as in his suite Mozartiana, the key progression of the Fifth does somewhat bear a resemblance to the famous Mozart symphonies.

[oliver sudden]

Brilliant post (only just caught up with it)! Ave Maris Stella is my favourite Max piece. With Mirror of Whitening Light, though I haven't played that for a while.

I heard Alan Hacker do the Mozart Clarinet Quintet, years ago, in, I think, Bromsgrove. He also played a tune for the little girl in the front row, with whose family he'd been staying. 'Annie Laurie', or similar.

Isn't there an attractive clarinet-only piece Max wrote for him?

I only heard Mirror for the first time a few years ago, after lots of peering at the score over a few decades. Very enjoyable indeed. Alas although I belong to a group with about the right lineup I'm fairly certain we'll never play it since New Music fashions don't have much time for that sort of thing, more's the pity. (I've played Ave Maris Stella twice and both times I organised it.)

Somehow I managed never to hear Hacker live or even meet him. I grew up in Australia, to be fair, but I've lived in Europe from 2002 so there would certainly have been time. My discovery of his recorded output only really took off once he passed away (indeed that was what spurred it, more or less).

The only piece by Max for clarinet alone is The Seven Brightnesses, as far as I know. I've never played it since although it's a nice little thing it uses the altissimo (up to g'''') with reckless abandon. Of course that was Hacker's speciality.

[richardfinegold]

Easley Blackwood: Symphony no.1. Written at the age of 21, a strong, well-crafted work with a little (but not much ) Hindemith infuence. He went on to write four more and died atthe age of 90. I used to have a cassttte of the first performane of his fourth , written for the Chicago Symphony.

Blackwood used to get a lot of airtime on Chicago WFMT radio station. I remember hearing a few in studio broadcasts with him years ago

[CallMePaul]

Blackwood used to get a lot of airtime on Chicago WFMT radio station. I remember hearing a few in studio broadcasts with him years ago

I have never heard his music. Although I am aware that he was a composer of some renown in the USA, in Britain (and probably elsewhere in Europe) he is best known as the inventor of a popular bridge bidding convention.

[richardfinegold]

I have never heard his music. Although I am aware that he was a composer of some renown in the USA, in Britain (and probably elsewhere in Europe) he is best known as the inventor of a popular bridge bidding convention.

Apparently that was his father.

[pastoralguy]

Gustav Mahler. Symphony No.5.

Die Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado.

I already have the standard DG issue of this disc but this was an SACD issue I picked up this afternoon in Oxfam. I was surprised I got it for £2.99 since SACDs are usually priced as premium products. However, although it plays well enough on my non SACD set up it’s rather lacking in impact and requires the volume to be turned way up. I must listen to the original issue and see if there’s any difference.

Just listened to the standard cd version and it does have fractionally more immediacy than the SACD version but the volume still requires to be cranked up a bit. Also not sure why the SACD version is released on two discs. Maybe when I win the lottery and have a huge listening room with a panoramic window view of the sea and a fabulous SACD set I’ll do another side by side comparison…

[oliver sudden]

I have been comparing two versions on my shelves of the 1942 Furtwängler Beethoven 9, in particular the first movement: a cheapie from a label called Andromeda, bought at a discount shop called Zweitausendeins ages ago, and a very much not cheapie from the BPO themselves in a luxurious box of his wartime BPO recordings. (I was a bit worried that the BPO box might have been too aggressively de-noised, but I think the problem might have been an excessively noisy background while listening with open-back headphones.)

Crikey though, that’s a performance. All those flute top Ds! And that slow steamroller of a coda…

[Petrushka]

Gustav Mahler. Symphony No.5.

Die Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado.

I already have the standard DG issue of this disc but this was an SACD issue I picked up this afternoon in Oxfam. I was surprised I got it for £2.99 since SACDs are usually priced as premium products. However, although it plays well enough on my non SACD set up it’s rather lacking in impact and requires the volume to be turned way up. I must listen to the original issue and see if there’s any difference.

Just listened to the standard cd version and it does have fractionally more immediacy than the SACD version but the volume still requires to be cranked up a bit. Also not sure why the SACD version is released on two discs. Maybe when I win the lottery and have a huge listening room with a panoramic window view of the sea and a fabulous SACD set I’ll do another side by side comparison…

I bought that CD when it first came out but I don't recall any issues regarding the volume level. It's now in that massive Abbado box which sits on the floor in my listening room (nowhere else to put it) though I've not got round to playing that particular disc yet.

[pastoralguy]

Joseph Haydn. String Quartets Op.33 Nos. 4 & 5.

The Aelion Quartet.

I heard the Chiaroscuro Quartet play them on Monday and I realised I didn’t know them at all. Some very unusual writing.

[richardfinegold]

Gustav Mahler. Symphony No.5.

Die Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado.

I already have the standard DG issue of this disc but this was an SACD issue I picked up this afternoon in Oxfam. I was surprised I got it for £2.99 since SACDs are usually priced as premium products. However, although it plays well enough on my non SACD set up it’s rather lacking in impact and requires the volume to be turned way up. I must listen to the original issue and see if there’s any difference.

Just listened to the standard cd version and it does have fractionally more immediacy than the SACD version but the volume still requires to be cranked up a bit. Also not sure why the SACD version is released on two discs. Maybe when I win the lottery and have a huge listening room with a panoramic window view of the sea and a fabulous SACD set I’ll do another side by side comparison…

if you are playing the Redbook CD layer of the disc it should not sound any different than your previous CD issue. It’s possible that a different transfer was made for your newer disc and that it might be at a different level than the original. One happy thought would be that some compression was applied to the original (not uncommon in the early days of CD), and it may of been removed on the new issue. If so they might have mastered it at a lower level so that the dynamic range would sound more natural

[richardfinegold]

Joseph Haydn. String Quartets Op.33 Nos. 4 & 5.

The Aelion Quartet.

I heard the Chiaroscuro Quartet play them on Monday and I realised I didn’t know them at all. Some very unusual writing.

What do you think of the playing? I love the Chiaroscuro Quartet and have some of their Haydn and Beethoven recordings but occasionally there is that patch of squally gut string sound that jars

[AuntDaisy]

Bach Sonatas for Violin & Harpsichord nos. 1-6, Gustav Leonhardt & Lars Frydén.
A beautiful mellow sound and glorious, lively music. Slowly working through the New Gustav Leonhardt box set - lots new to me.

[richardfinegold]

I have been comparing two versions on my shelves of the 1942 Furtwängler Beethoven 9, in particular the first movement: a cheapie from a label called Andromeda, bought at a discount shop called Zweitausendeins ages ago, and a very much not cheapie from the BPO themselves in a luxurious box of his wartime BPO recordings. (I was a bit worried that the BPO box might have been too aggressively de-noised, but I think the problem might have been an excessively noisy background while listening with open-back headphones.)

Crikey though, that’s a performance. All those flute top Ds! And that slow steamroller of a coda…

I was listening to a Music and Arts transfer of that recording a few weeks ago. It would be fun to hear the luxury transfer but I’m not shelling out for that box