What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[Master Jacques]

Or maybe their tummies were rumbling and about to erupt, like Mount St Helens (Symphony 50).

Or if they were in professional mode, perhaps Symphony No. 6, Celestial [Cow and] Gate, Op. 173.

Perhaps most suitably of all, when they about to calve they could be tuned in to For the Waters are Come, Op. 257.

One begins to understand their strong affinity for Hovhaness's music.

[pastoralguy]

Tchaikovsky. Symphony 6. ‘Pathetique’

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck.

Gramophone magazine give this recording a rather lukewarm review but I’m really enjoying it.

[Serial_Apologist]

A pedant writes: also 7.

I don’t think there are any Mahler symphonies where this happens, though.

https://youtu.be/klm5dD1FdmM?feature=shared

Remembering the way the general public would gather to gawp at "performing" caged animals as a child, that is indeed a nice turn around!

[oliver sudden]

Mahler's use of the cowbells has no actual connection to cows but symbolises loneliness or, perhaps more accurately, remoteness from worldly troubles.

Now, Strauss in Eine Alpensinfonie...

Absolutely! I may have written on this elevated subject on another occasion…

They already appear in the first movement, no need to wait for the second!

There’s an important difference though… Mahler uses them as symbols for distancing from human concerns and tries to pretend that they don’t have programmatic meaning whereas for Strauss it’s A HERD OF COWS, GET OVER YOURSELVES

Reminded also of Strauss writing the Alpensinfonie ‘as a cow gives milk’, although that might be one of those Strauss quotations for which chapter and verse prove mysteriously elusive.

[oliver sudden]

Remembering the way the general public would gather to gawp at "performing" caged animals as a child, that is indeed a nice turn around!

Alas I now can’t hear the Ranz des vaches from the William Tell overture without this fellow’s flatulent interpolations.

On the other hand the below is in any case my Ranz des vaches of choice. Led by a glorious natural tenor voice and featuring what appears to be the entire town joining in.

https://youtu.be/e0xAw2oXhJY?feature=shared

(My partner and I listened to this a lot while she was pumping for the twins… )

[smittims]

Faure: Piano quintet no.1: Pascal Roge and the Ysaye quartet. A Decca CD

I used to listen to Faure's chamber msuic a lot fifty years ago and I had forgotten how rewarding it is to relax to. He is surely oneof the masters of the piano-and-strings medium, at least after Schubert.

[Ian Thumwood]

Smittims

I became fascinated by Faure after first heating his Requiem but feel that the piano works are probably a high point in piano literature between Chopin and Scriabin. However, they owe so much to interpretation and can come across as a bit bland u less you have someone like Kathryn Stott who manages to plunge in and capture their illusive qualities.

I jhave the music if the Nocturnes at home.. In my opinion not for amateurs.

Are the Roge recordings any good ? Just think that Faure is a massive challenge properly carry off. On the manuscript, the music seems bland. Probably more down to performer input than any other composer ?

[smittims]

I'm happy to say I've never heard a bland performance of Faure's music. I'd call it profound rather than bland: music to savour.

Jean-Phillipe Collard made a fine set of the complete piano music for French EMI in the 1970s, recorded at the Salle Wagram. It's been on Brilliant Classics CDs. Also excellent is their survey of the songs , with Elly Ameling, George Souzay and Dalton Baldwin.

[pastoralguy]

J.S. Bach. The Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin.

Sergey Kachatryan.

[pastoralguy]

Beethoven. Piano Concerto No.5 in Eb. ‘The Emperor’.

Yuri Egorov, piano. The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch. EMI

[Barbirollians]

Bruckner 7 HVK ICA Classics live at the RFH1962 ?

[smittims]

According to ICA' s note, the Vienna Philharmonic on 6 April 1962. It's a good 'un.

My last listening was Berlioz' Te Deum in Sir Thomas Beecham's classic 1950s recording made at night (presumably to avoid traffic noise) in Hornsey Parish Church. Denis Vaughan recalled using just four stops on the organ to make it sound 'French'. It's a humdinger of a performance.

[Stanfordian]

Prokofiev
Piano Concerto No. 3
Bartók
Piano Concerto No. 2
Lang Lang (piano)
Berliner Philharmoniker / Sir Simon Rattle
Recorded April 2013, Philharmonie, Berlin
Sony Classical, CD

[Petrushka]

According to ICA' s note, the Vienna Philharmonic on 6 April 1962. It's a good 'un.

I have that disc. As well as the Bruckner 7, Karajan and the VPO play the Mozart 41 while the concert opened with the British and Austrian national anthems (included here).

As an aside, I may have been only 7, but for family reasons I well remember the day before this concert.
There are times when listening to live recordings from the distant past they can open up a whole new level of meaning which, while having nothing to do with the music, nevertheless enhances it. For me, this is one of them.

[Mandryka]

Murraro Liszt Années II. Nuanced. Detailed. Subtle. Sensual. Thoughtful. Beautiful sound from the piano - a real feast for the ears. Frenchified maybe. This is defo something people who enjoy modern piano should try.

I want to say this bit of nonsense: Murraro stands to Années as Uchida stands to the Diabelli Vars.