What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[Pulcinella]

It's this idea of "outliers" which (I find) really holds no water.

From 'das Land ohne Musik' (the land of Byrd, Tallis, Gibbons, Purcell, Handel, Sullivan, Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Delius, Walton, Britten, Tippett, Maxwell Davies et al.) I've been listening this afternoon to:

Finzi: Intimations of Immortality
Philip Langridge (tenor), c. Richard Hickox, Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, RLPO.
(EMI CD 499 13 2)

And found this disc - one of Hickox's best, with Langridge's intelligent fervour at its fieriest - as powerfully satisfying as ever.

A piece that has done well on record:

Ainsley for Best (Hyperion)
Partridge for Handley (Lyrita)
Langridge for Hickox (EMI)
Gilchrist for Hill (Naxos)

A prompt to dig one out and listen (perhaps with the vocal score).
Gilchrist was the soloist in a performance I sang in (in 2005, around the time the Naxos recording was made).

[Mandryka]

Here's a recording of Spanish music I like

Spent the day listening to Andreas Schmidt's DG recording of Winterreise.

[smittims]

Beethoven :Missa Solemnis. The 1966 Karajan recording. This seems to have been an ambitious undertaking, Haydn's Creation being recorded at the same sessions. The latter took three years to complete, however, owing to Fritz Wunderlich's tragic untimely death, and it was some time before Herbert attempted another studio recording of a large-scale choral work.

[Master Jacques]

A piece that has done well on record:

Ainsley for Best (Hyperion)
Partridge for Handley (Lyrita)
Langridge for Hickox (EMI)
Gilchrist for Hill (Naxos)

A prompt to dig one out and listen (perhaps with the vocal score).
Gilchrist was the soloist in a performance I sang in (in 2005, around the time the Naxos recording was made).

I envy you that. I'm glad you mentioned the Partridge / Handley performance, which has a special spirituality to it. Intimations... has indeed done well on disc, as you rightly say.

[smittims]

Bach: The Art of Fugue, arranged by Leonard Isaacs for a chamber ensemble directed by George Malcolm.

I enjoyed this very much . It suggested to me old Bach inviting some chosen friends round to his home to play a work he knew could not be performed publically ('too elitist, old Bach!) .

[Stanfordian]

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
'L'esule di Roma' – melodramma eroico in 2 acts (prem. Naples 1828)
Nicola Alaimo, Albina Shagimuratova, Sergey Romanovsky,
Lluís Calvet i Pey, Kezia Bienek, André Henriques
Opera Rara Chorus,
Britten Sinfonia / Carlo Rizzi
Recorded 2023 Fairfield Halls, Croydon, London
Opera Rara, new 2 CD set

[pastoralguy]

Beethoven. Violin Concerto.

Jascha Heifetz, violin. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dmitri Mitropolous. Recorded 1956.

[smittims]

Victoria Poleva : NULL, for symphony Orchestra. The Ukraine National S.O. conducted by Vladimir Sirenko.

I was drawn to listen to this composer, of whom I had not previously heard, by a chance Radio 3 broadcast of her third symphony (on 'Afternoon Concert , too, so there ya go!). It's slow, monolithic, monumental in character; I find it quite pleasing. And it knocks spots off Judith Weir (sorry, couldn't resist that).

[richardfinegold]

Beethoven. Violin Concerto.

Jascha Heifetz, violin. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dmitri Mitropolous. Recorded 1956.

In mono I presume. The RCA version with Munch must have followed shortly

[smittims]

Alan Rawsthorne: Concerto for Strings. The Little Orchestra of London, Leslie Jones. An old Pye 'Golden Guinea' LP with a lovely sleeve photo of some sunlit trees. The disc also containes a very rare work by Peter Racine Fricker, Prelude, Elegy and Finale.

[Serial_Apologist]

Alan Rawsthorne: Concerto for Strings. The Little Orchestra of London, Leslie Jones. An old Pye 'Golden Guinea' LP with a lovely sleeve photo of some sunlit trees. The disc also containes a very rare work by Peter Racine Fricker, Prelude, Elegy and Finale.

A very fine, coherent composer contemporary of Simpson and a pupil of Seiber, whose music betrayed Bartokian influences (without the folk element), and who at the time was thought of as a tonal composer. Today I think he would be regarded as an atonalist.

[Pulcinella]

A very fine, coherent composer contemporary of Simpson and a pupil of Seiber, whose music betrayed Bartokian influences (without the folk element), and who at the time was thought of as a tonal composer. Today I think he would be regarded as an atonalist.

His string quartets (available on Naxos) are well worth a listen:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8257016--fricker-the-string-quartets

[pastoralguy]

In mono I presume. The RCA version with Munch must have followed shortly

Yes, it’s a live performance from New York. Not the greatest sound quality but the Heifetz magic shines through.

[pastoralguy]

I’m listening to a cd I picked up for 50p today.

Mozart. Piano concertos 21, 1 & 25 played by Alexander van der Voss with the London Chamber Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Groves on Orchis Classics. Rob Cowan describes it in Gramophone as being ‘dull’. No, it’s not the greatest but it presents all the right notes in all the right order.

[teamsaint]

Chandos disc of piano music by Antoine Reicha , played by Ivan Ilic.
Haven’t really made my mind up about this, but it is enjoyable stuff.