What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[smittims]

Yes, that Pollini/Boulez disc was a classic, and possibly drew new listeners to his music. Most previous discs of Boulez were those of his own , so having a high-profile international musician added a dimension. It had very short measure, though! Even when combined with the whole contents of Pollini's Stravinsky/Prokofiev Lp the duration of the Cd was only just over an hour.

A different 'classic' for me today: Walton's first symphony, the 1966 Decca recording made for RCA Victor, with Previn and the LSO. I was reminded just how good this was, both as a performance and recording.

[Bryn]

Yes, that Pollini/Boulez disc was a classic, and possibly drew new listeners to his music. Most previous discs of Boulez were those of his own , so having a high-profile international musician added a dimension. It had very short measure, though! Even when combined with the whole contents of Pollini's Stravinsky/Prokofiev Lp the duration of the Cd was only just over an hour.

A different 'classic' for me today: Walton's first symphony, the 1966 Decca recording made for RCA Victor, with Previn and the LSO. I was reminded just how good this was, both as a performance and recording.

I can't argue with any of that. The short measure of the Pollini disc reflected, I think, the fact that it first appeared as a fully analogue vinyl disc and great care was taken to allow a wide dynamic range. No 'bonus' items were added for the CD release. As to the Previn/LSO Walton 1: sans pareil.

[Joseph K]

Boulez, Structures Livre II - Pierre-Laurent Aimard & Florent Boffard

An excellent piece, which I intend to follow up with the even better ...explosant-fixe...

[Mandryka]

(Wasn’t there an early music listening thread?)

Anyway, Keith Jarrett’s newly released (recorded ages ago) CPE Bach CD is rather nice, poetic and tasteful.

(Found it https://www.for3.org/forums/forum/cl...u-listening-to )

[smittims]

More old Lp's for me today (nicely cleaned):

Stockhausen : Carre
Kubelik: Quattro forme per archi
Bliss: Music for strings . CBSO/ Hugo Rignold

[Stanfordian]

Fazil Say
Violin Concerto '1001 Nights in the Harem' (2006)
Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin)
Lucerne Symphony Orchestra / John Axelrod
Summertime Variations (2006)
Fazil Say (piano)
Ballet: Patara for soprano, ney, piano and percussion (2005)
Burcu Soysev (soprano), Celalettin Bicer (ney), Aykut Koselerli (percussion)
Alla Turca Jazz (after Mozart's Alla turca from Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K331) (1993)
Fazil Say (piano)
Lucerne Symphony Orchestra / John Axelrod
Recorded 2008 KKL culture and convention centre, Lucerne
Naïve Classique, CD

The more I hear Fazil's Say's own music the more I consider him a first-rate composer.

[CallMePaul]

(Wasn’t there an early music listening thread?)

Anyway, Keith Jarrett’s newly released (recorded ages ago) CPE Bach CD is rather nice, poetic and tasteful.

(Found it https://www.for3.org/forums/forum/cl...u-listening-to )

I believe that Jarrett is no longer able to play in public following a stroke, but ECM appears to have a lot of unissued material of him both as a classical pianist and as a jazz improviser.

[FRJames]

Stravinsky - Rite of Spring, Petrushka (1947), Circus Polka, 8 Instrumental Miniatures
LAPO, LA Chamber Ensemble, Mehta
Decca Eloquence (CD)

Excellent performances and superb late 60s Decca analogue recording.

[Mandryka]

Listening to Schnittke Symphony 8 - interesting sparse textures and unexpected combinations of instruments. Cool.

[smittims]

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. The Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent. Sargent's second and last recording of this piece; he didn't record a lot of VW but had conducted quite a bit in concert and opera.

Elgar: Falstaff. LPO/Boult. Sir Adrian's third and last (and best, I think) recording of the work.

[richardfinegold]

Compared 2 very different recordings of Bach Art of Fugue over the past few days. One is arrangement for string orchestra , recorded by Karl Ristenpart and his Saar orchestra, from an old Nonesuch lp. The other is Jordi Savall and his merry band and their full panalopy of Renaissance instruments, on SACD. The instrumentation differs between the 2 recordings so much that it almost seemed like two different works. Both of them are really in full flight when they abruptly end in the final Kontrapuctus

[Stanfordian]

Saint-Saëns
Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 33
Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 123
Cello Sonata No. 3 (unfinished), Op. posth.
Emmanuelle Bertrand (cello)
Pascal Amoyel (piano) (sonatas)
Luzerner Sinfonieorchester / James Gaffigan (concerto)
Recorded 2014 Culture & Congress Centre, Lucerne (concerto) & 2016 Teldex Studio, Berlin (sonatas)
Harmonia Mundi, CD

[gradus]

Saint Saens Havanaise, heard on Sean Rafferty's programme last night reminded me of my favorite recording by Kogan conducted by Monteux here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxZgWl-MMX8
Glorious playing.

[pastoralguy]

Scarlatti.

Sonatas transcribed for guitar by Narciso Yepes. DG.

[Joseph K]

Ferneyhough - sixth string quartet - Arditti Quartet

Love this work. Incidentally, I haven't abandoned my Bartok string quartet project, which in any case I was near the end of. I'll resume shortly.