What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[jayne lee wilson]

Hindemith is something of a strange composer, one I never really know what to make of, his place in musical history perhaps based more on Furtwangler's defence of him in the Third Reich than much of the music he wrote. However, I recall a Prom concert from the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and Claudio Abbado in 1995 when I was knocked out by the encore they played. I asked one of the orchestra members what it was and it turned out to be the Passacaglia from Hindemith's Nobilissima Visione.

I searched out a recording and came up with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Philadelphia Orchestra. I do like the Symphonic Metamorphoses on a Theme by Weber and the Symphony Mathis der Maler which are included on the disc together with the Nobilissima Visione suite. Perhaps the unwieldy titles don't do Hindemith any favours but this is the extent of my knowledge of his music.

If you like that, try this... Hindemith outdid even the inventive brilliance and grandeur of that Nobilissima passacaglia in the finale of his Harmonie der Welt. Which latter is one of his most inspired symphonic creations from start to finish. Just try that rivetingly percussive brassy intro - teeming with menace and mystery; or the strange, original sound world of the music humana slow movement; then that stunning passacaglia. It's quite some piece!

....from the "Composers" subforum Hindemith Thread:

Like Bryn, I had a big craze for Hindemith and bought that very CPO intégrale box with Albert and various Australian orchestras myself, taking much pleasure in it. But the Tortelier individual issues, complete or almost, do tend to surpass them for power, precision and beauty of sound, and for a more consistently inspired feel to the playing. They really should be in a box by now.

Less comprehensive is that Brilliant Box linked to by fhg upthread...https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hindemith-O...=UTF8&qid=&sr= but with the crucial advantage of a truly idiomatic echt-German orchestral character, originally separate Berlin Classics issues with that warm, dark earthy sound often typical of the label. The Kegel recordings of the symphonies with the Dresden Phil were made in the acoustically-splendid Lukaskirche, where the Staatskapelle made many famous records. So pieces like the extraordinary slow march of the Pittsburgh Symphony (which has a strikingly Ivesian feel, with Dutch-Pennsylvanian folksong cutting across a grave austro-german adagio) come across with terrific atmosphere and impact.(***)
A lovely series, they've been favourites for some time - I bought the Brilliant set despite having the Berlin originals! Seduced by that film noir urban-atmospheric cover art(*). The transfers retain the excellent Edel sound.

The CPO, pioneering as it was, can sometimes seem just a bit routine and studio-bound. Still fond of it though, it includes rarities Tortelier never got around to, like the B flat Symphony for Concert Band, the two Sinfoniettas (including the weird parodistic Lustige Sinfonietta, 1916, inspired by Morgenstern's poetry) and the Nusch-Nuschi dances.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Classical...=hindemith+cpo

If you have Qobuz, several individual issues are there...(with the red covers).
http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/search?q=...cpo&i=boutique

(***I've just played the Kegel/Dresden Phil disc of this - wow! Surely a clear top choice for the work. Exceptional sound and performance.)

(*) Hindemith releases are often inspired in this respect - Chandos mostly go for Arnold Böcklin, the Wergo series includes Magritte & de Chirico, CPO use a linked series of Ackerman abstracts...

[pastoralguy]

Beethoven. Violin concerto

Fritz Kreisler, violin. Sir John Barbirolli conducting the LPO in 1936.

This was part of a 10 cd set I picked up in a charity shop for £2 last week. I think the set was probably pretty cheap to start with since this Beethoven concerto doesn't seem to have been lavished with much care. The side changes are painfully obvious and there's a lot of surface noise. I must look out another transfer.

I found I have Kreisler's Biddulph transfer and that's much more successful. There's no hiatus before the soloist's first movement entrance that makes one wonder if he's going to come in at all!

Not long in from work so am listening to this again. Incredible music making despite the age of the recording and the fact that Kreisler was just a little past his peak. We're so lucky to have these documents.

[mahlerei]

Thoughts please! This is on my wish list but it will have to be something very special to dislodge Haitink's latest as my preferred version.

Petrushka

Comparative review with the Haitink pending, but what I can say is that this is probably Fischer's best Mahler to date (followed closely by his BFO and Concertgebouw Fourths). As expected, the recording is top notch. Do I need another M3? Probably not, but I'm pleased to have this one.

Does that help?

[BBMmk2]

Great Organ Masterworks
Peter Hurford, Simon Preston, Olivier Latry.

[Bryn]

Petrushka

Comparative review with the Haitink pending, but what I can say is that this is probably Fischer's best Mahler to date (followed closely by his BFO and Concertgebouw Fourths). As expected, the recording is top notch. Do I need another M3? Probably not, but I'm pleased to have this one.

Does tha help?

Never mind the new Bernie (which I take it is like a tidier version of the LSO Prom performance). How does it compare with Gielen (my 'go to')?

[mahlerei]

Never mind the new Bernie (which I take it is like a tidier version of the LSO Prom performance). How does it compare with Gielen (my 'go to')?

The Haitink is tidier, yes, but the first movement still doesn't work for me. Gielen very special, I agree, but not part of my remit here

[Bryn]

Messiaen: La Banquet Céleste, followed by Les Corps Glorieaux (Gillian Weir, RFH Organ, 1966). Sucha pity the recordings of the two outer movements of L'Ascension from that project have been lost. I will listen to the second CD of the double album later:

[Stanfordian]

Richard Strauss
Don Juan
Aus Italien
Don Quixote
Jan Vogler (cello) & Sebastian Herberg (viola)
Staatskapelle Dresden/Fabio Luisi
Recorded 2003 (Don Quixote) & 2008 Lukaskirche, Dresden
Sony

[Richard Barrett]

It's the Concerto Amsterdam set I've got, but I think the Chailly set got a better recommendation when it came out.

All four of the complete recordings are pretty good though. I don't really mind which I listen to, but the Ensemble 13 version is somehow more sharply defined.

I don't know anything about Malcolm Arnold, but it does seem clear to me that very many 20th century British composers have Hindemith's music as one of their starting points. Tippett is another example; it's not a connection that's often made, but to me it seems obvious.

[Pulcinella]

I don't know anything about Malcolm Arnold......

You need to remedy that, then.
By no means all jolly St Trinian's stuff; some of his works are very bleak indeed.
I'd defy most people (OK, many; there are some jolly erudite and knowledgeable people who frequent this forum!) to identify him as the composer on hearing either of his string quartets 'blind'.

[vinteuil]

La Babquet Céleste

... o, I thought this was it -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babette%27s_Feast

[Bryn]

... o, I thought this was it -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babette%27s_Feast

One of my best typos, that.

[BBMmk2]

Paul Paray Conducts French Orchestral Music
Ibert: Escales
Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole; Alborada del Gracioso; Le Tombeau de Couperin.
Detroit SO, Paul Paray.

[jayne lee wilson]

Beethoven
Symphonies 1-4. NBC SO/Toscanini. From the Live 1939 Studio 8H Complete Cycle. Music & Arts CDs 2013.

I’ve known this cycle for scarcely a month and yet - whenever I return to it I think: oh, thank god, everything’s alright again, the world’s OK. It’s not of course, far from it; but the soul needs to believe it, if only for half an hour at a time.
It’s great music, played as well as I can ever imagine anything being played. It has changed me, the way I listen to Beethoven, perhaps the way I listen to to anything; I need it in my life, I get edgy if I’m away from it for too long…..

No wonder they build shrines….

[pastoralguy]

Beethoven. Missa Solemnis. Op. 123

Symphonieorchester und Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

Luba Organasova, soprano

Jadwiga Rappé, alto

Uwe Heilmann, tenor

Jan-Hendrik Rootering, bass

Sir Colin Davis.

I picked this set up in a charity shop for £2.00 this morning. I've never really got on with this work despite having heard some top notch performances at the Edinburgh Festival. I'm going to try and listen to this work a few times to really get under its skin.