What Are You Listening To Now? - II

[Barbirollians]

Walkure Act 1 - Lehmann/ Melchior/ VPO/Walter - a record I have known of for so long but which on getting to know I find it more than lives up to its reputation.

[EdgeleyRob]

Today:

Listening to my scores 90:

Felix Mendelssohn:
Octet - study score
Overture: A Midsummer Night's Dream - study score
Hebrides Overture - study score
Violin Concerto in E minor - study score
Symphony No 3 in A minor 'Scottish' - study score
Symphony No 4 in A major 'Italian' - study score

I still find it amazing how early Mendelssohn found a distinctive voice, at only 16, the Octet simply couldn't be by any other composer, and the many familiar aspects of his style have already been finely tuned.

One of my favourite composers and that is a very special handful of works.

[Stanfordian]

Bruckner
Symphony No. 5 (Nowak Edition 1878)
LPO/Stanisław Skrowaczewski
Recorded Live 2015 RFH, London
LPO-Live

Kenny Burrell with Eddie Bert, Illinois Jacquet,
Leo Wright, Hank Jones, George Duvivier, Major Holley,
Osie Johnson, Louis Hayes, Jimmy Crawford & Joe Dukes
'Bluesin' Around'
Columbia (1962)

[Colonel Danby]

Now:

Hans Werner Henze: Symphony No 7

CBSO/Simon Rattle (live recording in the presence of the composer, and I was there!)

CDC 754 762-2

Actually, and I'm namedropping a little I suppose, but I looked after Henze and his lovely little Italian boyfriend for a week when he was at the Royal North College of Music in Manchester in 1997, promoting his biography 'Bohemien Fifths' and a retrospect of his music too. I made sure that he signed all my CDs by the way, and got in to the concerts free. Sad but true.

[Stanfordian]

Now:

Hans Werner Henze: Symphony No 7

CBSO/Simon Rattle (live recording in the presence of the composer, and I was there!)

CDC 754 762-2

Actually, and I'm namedropping a little I suppose, but I looked after Henze and his lovely little Italian boyfriend for a week when he was at the Royal North College of Music in Manchester in 1997, promoting his biography 'Bohemien Fifths' and a retrospect of his music too. I made sure that he signed all my CDs by the way, and got in to the concerts free. Sad but true.

Hiya Danby,

There is a new release of Henze's 7th on the Oehms label. The recordings of the complete set of Henze symphonies from the Berlin RSO under Marek Janowski on Wergo is superb.

[Daniel]

What an upliftingly carefree work the Mozart K306 violin sonata is. Caught really well here by Maia Cabeza and Jose Gallardo I think.

The Schnittke Sonata for Violin and Chamber Orchestra is a marvellous thing, by turns deeply expressive, sinister and playful, all aided by the presence of a harpsichord. I hope I put no-one off by mentioning that 'La Cucaracha' (amongst other things) features heavily in the finale.

[Colonel Danby]

Now:

Bartok: Violin Concerto No 2, plus the Rhapsodies 1 and 2

Kyung-Wha Chung

CBSO/Sir Simon Rattle

EMI CDC 754 211-2

I adore Bartok's music

[Stanfordian]

Leoncavallo
Zazà, opera in four acts (1900, rev. 1919)
Ermonela Jaho (Zaza); Riccardo Massi (Milio); Stephen Gaertner (Cascart);
Patricia Bardon (Anaide); David Stout (Bussy); Nicky Spence (Courtois);
Kathryn Rudge (Natalia); Simon Thorpe (Duclou); Fflur Wyn (Floriana);
Julia Ferri (Toto);
BBC Singers,
BBC Symphony Orchestra Maurizio Benini
Recorded 2015 BBC Maid Vale Studios, London
Opera Rara

Bruckner
Symphony No. 5 (Nowak Edition 1878)
LPO/Stanisław Skrowaczewski
Recorded Live 2015 RFH, London
LPO-Live

Andrew Hill with Bobby Hutcherson, Richard Davis & Elvin Jones
‘Judgment!’
Blue Note (1964)

[Beef Oven!]

Now:

Hans Werner Henze: Symphony No 7

CBSO/Simon Rattle (live recording in the presence of the composer, and I was there!)

CDC 754 762-2

Actually, and I'm namedropping a little I suppose, but I looked after Henze and his lovely little Italian boyfriend for a week when he was at the Royal North College of Music in Manchester in 1997, promoting his biography 'Bohemien Fifths' and a retrospect of his music too. I made sure that he signed all my CDs by the way, and got in to the concerts free. Sad but true.

I bought that CD when it came out and it was never out of the CD player for ages!

Great anecdote, and I wish I could have been there!

[Beef Oven!]

Now:

Bartok: Violin Concerto No 2, plus the Rhapsodies 1 and 2

Kyung-Wha Chung

CBSO/Sir Simon Rattle

EMI CDC 754 211-2

I adore Bartok's music

I bought this CD when I started to expand my classical collection in the early 1990s. It get on the turntable quite often. My older brother was very keen on Bartok, and although I liked the music too, I was more interested in Led Zeppelin, back then.

[BBMmk2]

Dvorak: Symphony no.2 in Bb, op.4; Violin Concerto in A minor, op.53. Frank Peter Zimmermann(violin), Czech PO, Jiri Behlalohvek.

[Petrushka]

Haydn: Symphony 100 (Military)
New Philharmonia Orchestra
Otto Klemperer

[interval]

Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony
USSR State Symphony Orchestra
Yevgeny Svetlanov

[Suffolkcoastal]

This evening:

Listening to my scores 91:

Felix Mendelssohn:
Elijah - full score

[Stanfordian]

Wagner
Das Rheingold
Michael Volle (baritone) - Wotan; Christian van Horn (bass-baritone) - Donner; Benjamin Bruns (tenor) - Froh; Burkhard Ulrich (tenor) - Loge; Elisabeth Kulman (mezzo) - Fricka; Annette Dasch (soprano) - Freia; Janina Baechle (mezzo) - Erda; Tomasz Konieczny (bass-baritone) - Alberich; Herwig Pecoraro (tenor) - Mime; Peter Rose (bass) - Fasolt; Eric Halfvarson (bass) - Fafner; Mirella Hagen (soprano) - Woglinde; Stefanie Irányi (mezzo) - Wellgunde; Eva Vogel (mezzo) - Flosshilde
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle
Recorded live, 2015, Herkulessaal, Munich
BR Klassik

Chopin
24 Preludes
Ivo Pogorelich (piano)
Recorded 1989 Friedrich-Ebert-Halle Hamburg
Deutsche Grammophon

Cannonball Adderley with Nat Adderley, Wynton Kelly, Victor Feldman,
Sam Jones & Louis Hayes
‘Plus’
Riverside (1961)

[EdgeleyRob]

Chopin
24 Preludes
Ivo Pogorelich (piano)
Recorded 1989 Friedrich-Ebert-Halle Hamburg
Deutsche Grammophon

Chopin Preludes here too Stan,Pollini.