What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[Petrushka]

Schoenberg: Wind Quintet, Op 26

Vienna Wind Soloists

I approached this with some trepidation having heard of its reputation for being impenetrable. This was a first hearing from the New Vienna Octet box.

[Mandryka]

Schoenberg: Wind Quintet, Op 26

Vienna Wind Soloists

I approached this with some trepidation having heard of its reputation for being impenetrable. This was a first hearing from the New Vienna Octet box.

I think it's gorgeous.

[Petrushka]

I think it's gorgeous.

The trick is probably not to get hung up on the twelve tone thing and just listen to the sounds being made. I'm not sure if this was the piece that Simon Rattle thought sounded like a Tom and Jerry cartoon but some of it actually does and it brought on a smile.

[smittims]

Several of those works Schoenberg wrote in the middle and late 1920s are remarkably good-humoured and serene: the first movement of the Serenade, for instance. . I think this was the time of his life he came closest to being happy .

[smittims]

Catching up on some composers I hadn't listened to for some years: I don't know how many know these pieces:

Christopher Wright: Cello Concerto. I'd describe this as 'post-VW' if you can imagine the sixth symphony moved forward a stage into modernism. I enjoyed it : a lively and well-scored work.

Daniel Jones: Symphony no.10. A traditional symphony with four movements , scherzo second, slow third, but all fairly short, so the work doesn't outstay its welcome. In contrast to many more recent works its refereshingly concise and punchy. All I know about the composer is that he was a friend of Dylan Thomas.

Roy Harris: Symphony no.7. I don't like to caricature a composer's music but it's hard to avoid saying that although Harris' Third was a notably striking and original work, his subsequent symphonies tended to copy it too much; a bit like Orson Welles making a string of sequels to Citizen Kane, repeating the same once-imaginative strokes again and again. Maybe this is just to say that Harris knew his limits and stayed within them . .

[Pulcinella]

Stravinsky: Orchestral Works

Symphonies of wind instruments
Agon
Variations 'Aldous Huxley In Memoriam'
Symphony in C

SWR Symphonieorchester, Ingo Metzmacher

A September 2024 release that I missed (possibly because of Presto's rather odd listing: only the Symphonies of wind instruments mentioned, though it seems that's an alternative offering), kindly brought to my attention by Richard Barrett.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9636943--igor-stravinsky-orchestral-works#about

[smittims]

Tchaikovsky: Suite no.3. The Paris Conservatoire orchestra conducted by (perhaps surprisingyl) Sir Adrian Boult.

I remember this from an old Eclipse LP and was pleasantly surprised to find that it is real stereo and a splendid performance, rather dismissed by the Penguin Guide who naturally preferred Sir Adrian's later 'Indian Summer' HMV remake with the LPO. But I found plenty to enjoy here, not least the very Parisan wind playing.

[Pulcinella]

Prokofiev
Piano concertos
Number 2 yesterday, the rest today.

Michel Béroff, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, Kurt Masur

More than happy with this set, though it gets only a **(*) rating in the 2009 Penguin Guide, whereas the Naxos Paik, Polish National RSO, Wit recordings get **** and a key symbol, as indeed does the Decca Ashkenazy, LSO, Previn set.

[Stanfordian]

Maximilian Schairer – ‘GLOAMING’ – Fantasias for Piano
Schubert
Fantasia in C major, D760 'Wanderer' (1822)
Mendelssohn
Fantasia in F sharp minor, Op. 28 'Sonate écossaise' (1828/29)
Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 14 'Sonata Quasi una fantasia'
in C sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 'Moonlight' (1801)
Fantasia Sonata in D major, (c. 1793), Unv 12,
(from the Johann Nepomuk Kafka Sketch Collection (Skizzenbuch))
Maximilian Schairer (piano)
Recorded 2022, Historischer Reilstadt, Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Bavaria
Hänssler Classic, CD

[pastoralguy]

Tchaikovsky: Suite no.3. The Paris Conservatoire orchestra conducted by (perhaps surprisingyl) Sir Adrian Boult.

I remember this from an old Eclipse LP and was pleasantly surprised to find that it is real stereo and a splendid performance, rather dismissed by the Penguin Guide who naturally preferred Sir Adrian's later 'Indian Summer' HMV remake with the LPO. But I found plenty to enjoy here, not least the very Parisan wind playing.

That EMI disc is one of my all favourite recordings. The playing of the LPO certainly isn’t infallible but the tiny mistakes simply make it sound like a genuine performance. Rodney Friend’s solo is terrific if again not flawless but it’s a super disc which makes me wish that Boult had recorded more Tchaikovsky. I’m sure I have the PC orchestra in a box set somewhere so I really must dig it out.

[richardfinegold]

Another Tennstedt concert disc from 78experience today, conducting the NDR in Hamburg in 1980 in Mahler 1/2. Recording quality is superb, almost as good as best contemporary. KT was very “on” in these performances, the huge mid movement climax of I of the Second almost crashing due to intensity but then a slight pullback realigns the forces. There are many felicitous moments but these are great readings that go to the top of my list

[pastoralguy]

Bartok. For Children.

Zoltán Kocsis, piano. Hungaroton.

[Stanfordian]

Ravel
Piano Concerto in G major
Gaspard de la Nuit
Prokofiev
Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 26
Martha Argerich (piano)
Berliner Philharmoniker / Claudio Abbado
Recorded: 1967 Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin (concertos) & 1974 Studio Lankwitz Berlin (piano pieces)
Deutsche Grammophon ‘The Originals’ Legendary Recordings series, CD

[smittims]

Delius: Appalachia. The BBC Singers (yes,in 1938!) and the LPO, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. I first heard this in 1976 when it was reissued on LP for the first time (World Records). It's a more intense and gripping performance than his 1951 remake and a excellent example of how he got to the heart of Delius' music .

[pastoralguy]

Gerald Finzi. Dies Natalis.

James Gilchrist, Tenor. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Hill. Naxos Label.

A work I’m very fond of. Absolutely gorgeous to play!