What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[LMcD]

Grieg Sonata in E Minor Op. 7 - part of a recital disc by Shura Cherkassky

[richardfinegold]

Rawsthorne's music isn't easy because he makes little effort to win the listener's attention, except in overtly public works like the second piano concerto or 'Practical cats'. Also, there are few if any extra-musical connotations in his music. He rarely sets words or refers to anything except the composition itself. I think this was innate in him, but another influence was his marriage to the abstract painter Isabel Delmer, a fascinating and deep-thinking person (I met her once) who was previously married to Constant Lambert.

But I found that if I concentrated and gave the music my full attention,it becomes most rewarding to listen to. Repeated listening is the key, and fortunatelyt most of his output is, or has been, available in recordings.

My listening today was very different. Brahms' Requiem , in the 1964 DG recording with Herbert von Karajan. It was the second of I think four recordings he made, so it was clearly a special work for him. I don't listen to it often ; I have to be in the mood for it. I've known people who can't stand it and find it gloomy.

I listened to a Naxos disc of Rawsthorne music last night. Symphonic Variations, Cello and Oboe Concertos. I alway enjoy his particular style of modernism. He tends evoke images of film noir in me

[pastoralguy]

Mozart. Piano Concertos 25 in C, K.503 & 19 in F, K.459

Rudolf Serkin, piano. Claudio Abbado conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

I was lucky enough to find this yesterday in the CA Research shop. It’s an original cd from the 1980’s in lovely condition.

Iirc, this series of Mozart Piano Concertos was cancelled due to generally poor reviews, the main criticism was that Serkin was no longer up to the standard required. However, Gramophone gave this disc a warm welcome. It’s, perhaps, a little slow in K.503 but it still works well, imho.

Any thoughts?

[Stanfordian]

J.S. Bach – Cantatas for Soprano Solo
Cantata Ich bin in mir vergnügt, BWV 204
Cantata Mein Herze schwimmt in Blut, BWV 199 (Weimar version, 1714)
Cantata Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn, BWV 1127
Dorothee Mields (soprano)
L'Orfeo Barockorchester / Michi Gaigg
Recorded 2014, SWR Funkstudio, Stuttgart
Carus, CD

Delius
Violin Concerto,
Suite for violin and orchestra,
Légende for violin and orchestra,
Ralph Holmes (violin)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Vernon Handley
Recorded 1984 Henry Wood Hall, London
Unicorn Kanchana, CD

[smittims]

I have enjoyed the Serkin Mozart concerto series, and I didn't find any shortcomings in his playing. He had been playing them for a long time , and recorded K449 in the 1930s .

In my humble opinion, many pianists have recorded these works thinking that they are easy, but in fact it's very rare to catch the true Mozartean spirit. I think Serkin does this, as did Maria Joao Pires in her earlier Erato recordings, and Mitsuko Uchida in the set she made with Jeffery Tate. Her later series with the Cleveland Orchestra was noticeably less good, I think.

[gradus]

Stile Antico singing Tomkins 'When David Heard'. Extraordinarily powerful and beautiful.

[Pulcinella]

Mozart. Piano Concertos 25 in C, K.503 & 19 in F, K.459

Rudolf Serkin, piano. Claudio Abbado conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

I was lucky enough to find this yesterday in the CA Research shop. It’s an original cd from the 1980’s in lovely condition.

Iirc, this series of Mozart Piano Concertos was cancelled due to generally poor reviews, the main criticism was that Serkin was no longer up to the standard required. However, Gramophone gave this disc a warm welcome. It’s, perhaps, a little slow in K.503 but it still works well, imho.

Any thoughts?

I have a distant memory of one being the cover CD of a publication called Amadeus that I picked up on holiday in Italy, finding it rather dull, and disposing of it. Can't remember which concertos though.

[Master Jacques]

Tansman: Piano Concerto No.1
Julia Kociuban (piano),
Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic, c. Pawel Przytocki
(Dux 1612)

Energised, witty and lyrical concerto, most enjoyably projected. Goodness knows why Radio 3 never, ever seems to play any Tansman!

[silvestrione]

Bach. S. Matthew Passion. Otto Klemperer's 1959 Columbia recording.

This is one to divide listeners. Some have praised it to the skies, yet when it was reissued on 8 sides on HMV, the Gramophone said 'I would not want to put these discs in the hands of a young listener who hadn't previously heard it and tell him the S..Matthew Passion was one of the world's greatest works. '

It's well-known that it was a troublesome job. Intended as a typical Walter Legge all-star effort (Schwarzkopf, Fischer-Dieskau, Ludwig, Pears , Gedda, etc. etc) it was begun in a damp Hampstead Parish church and finished in Kingsway Hall via Studio One. Legge had the secco recits re-recorded without the conductor (and without his knowledge,some say) , and after editing the complete master tape told his wife he had no desire ever to hear Bach's music again.

Today, for the first time, I found some of it too slow, though the timings differ very little from Karl Richter's 1980 Archiv recording with Janet Baker et al.

Do you have a favourite recording? I've come to regard the complete Furtwangler (as issued by Orfeo) as strikingthe happy medium. I wish Neville Marriner had recorded it. I think that would have been good.

For me, it's Gardiner (his first, or is there only one?), and/or Karl Richter, for contrast. Though the BPO/Rattle DVD is extraordinarily powerful, the semi-staged performance done by Peter Sellars. Also available on the Digital Concert Hall, where you can find a stunning St John Passion too....
I do also have the Karajan with Seefried and Ferrier et al!

[HighlandDougie]

Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie Op. 64

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Rudolf Kempe

Maybe it was the sight of the snow-capped alpine peaks up the valley this afternoon or the trashy thriller I've been listening to which features the Bavarian/Austrian version of them but it seemed apposite to give EA its annual listen, particularly as I came across this SACD (Japanese) while looking for Andras Schiff's Brahms PC 2. The re-mastering has been very well done, if the strings could have done with a bit more oomph. But magical performance, really.

[richardfinegold]

Mozart. Piano Concertos 25 in C, K.503 & 19 in F, K.459

Rudolf Serkin, piano. Claudio Abbado conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

I was lucky enough to find this yesterday in the CA Research shop. It’s an original cd from the 1980’s in lovely condition.

Iirc, this series of Mozart Piano Concertos was cancelled due to generally poor reviews, the main criticism was that Serkin was no longer up to the standard required. However, Gramophone gave this disc a warm welcome. It’s, perhaps, a little slow in K.503 but it still works well, imho.

Any thoughts?

I bought those recordings a couple of years ago when I had a Serkin obsession. I thought that they were terrible, actually, especially compared with his earlier Mozart recordings. In general most of Rudys last recordings are substandard

[richardfinegold]

Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie Op. 64

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Rudolf Kempe

Maybe it was the sight of the snow-capped alpine peaks up the valley this afternoon or the trashy thriller I've been listening to which features the Bavarian/Austrian version of them but it seemed apposite to give EA its annual listen, particularly as I came across this SACD (Japanese) while looking for Andras Schiff's Brahms PC 2. The re-mastering has been very well done, if the strings could have done with a bit more oomph. But magical performance, really.

I have the latest Warner reissue on CD. I wonder if the remasters are the same

[Stanfordian]

J.S.Bach – 'Motets'
Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225
Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226
Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227
Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir, BWV 228
Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Howard Arman
Max Hanft (organ) & Günter Holzhausen (violone)
Recorded 2017-18 Herkulessaal, Munich
BR-Klassik, CD

Brahms
String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 51/1
String Quartet No. 3 in B flat major, Op. 67
Artemis Quartet
Recorded 2014, Teldex Studio, Berlin
Warner Erato, CD

[HighlandDougie]

I have the latest Warner reissue on CD. I wonder if the remasters are the same

The Warner issue is of the later Kempe recording with the Dresden Staatskapelle which, in its last/latest remastering, sounds rather fine (I've resisted buying the Kempe set in its Tower Records Japan SACD guise on cost grounds but, if I see it in HK at some point, may be seduced by it).

The RCA issue is from the same Charles Gerhardt/Kenneth Wilkinson team which made the Reader's Digest issues of the earlier 1960s (e.g. the René Leibowitz LvB cycle, Horenstein's Brahms 1st etc etc). The EA is up to their usual - high - standard.

[smittims]

Mompou: El Combat del Somni, sung by Nan Merriman with Gerald Moore, on Spotify. It sounds like a mid-1950s Studio 3 recording. The performance is hauntingly beautiful and intense. I think Nan Merriman came to Walter Legge's attention via the Toscanini Falstaff, and he engaged her for the Columbia recording and also for Karajan's Cosi fan Tutte, where she sings Dorabella. Her voice is not to everyone's taste, with its rapid vibrato ad early-20th-century portamento (always carefully managed). I've always enjoyed hearing her sing.