What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[cloughie]

... o, there's thinking people and thinking people. This thinking person doesn't like Rachmaninov or Tchaikovsky. Nor Respighi neither...

.

I think…I enjoy listening to what I think I like and among many composers including Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and Respighi. We all have thoughts! One of mine is that most minimalist music is monotonous, miserable and meaningless (I also like alliteration!), and it is probably the product of lazy composing.

I’m currently downsizing my CD collection and I’m frequently surprised by some of the things I find I like on a re-listen but also those which I thought good in the past now on the Charity Shop pile!

[LMcD]

I think…I enjoy listening to what I think I like and among many composers including Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and Respighi. We all have thoughts! One of mine is that most minimalist music is monotonous, miserable and meaningless (I also like alliteration!), and it is probably the product of lazy composing.

I’m currently downsizing my CD collection and I’m frequently surprised by some of the things I find I like on a re-listen but also those which I thought good in the past now on the Charity Shop pile!

Nice to know that I'm not alone in my views regarding Messrs Adams, Reich, Torke and their ilk. If I was feeling ungenerous (which I'm not, of course) I might even wonder whether the whole minimalist thing is a bit of a con trick.
I regard my CD collection as mature, apart from the odd charity shop bargain, and am pretty ruthless if a re-listen proves unsatisfactory, even though I know that the average price of a CD in most charity shops is now probably less than £1.

[MickyD]

In my review I wrote:
"Goebel is best known as founder of early music ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln (1973-2007), whom he directed for thirty-three years and were renowned for their recordings using period instruments notably on Archiv Produktion. For a number of years Goebel has collaborated with the Berliner Barock Solisten and in 2018 he was named its artistic director. Employing a flexible approach to period informed performance, the Berliner Barock Solisten use modern instruments and where old ones are used, they are fitted with modern set-ups such as metal strings etc. Goebel has stated, “I see the future of Baroque orchestral music in the hands of modern ensembles – the fetish of the ‘original instrument’ has had its day, but not the profoundly trained professional who guides an orchestra into the deeper dimensions of the composition. For it isn’t the instrument that makes the music, but the head!” Now an advocate of employing a flexible, period-informed approach Goebel has used his vast experience in early music to determine the choice of instruments for this recording."

Wow, I've never read that Goebel statement before, that's quite an about turn and he is the last of the HIP musicians whom I would have expected to say that.

[oliver sudden]

Wow, I've never read that Goebel statement before, that's quite an about turn and he is the last of the HIP musicians whom I would have expected to say that.

As far as I’m concerned it’s tosh. But I suppose it’s the sort of opinion that someone directing a Baroque ensemble which doesn’t use Baroque instruments is going to have to talk themselves into.

The tricky thing in his case I suppose is that he himself can no longer play, as I understand it. At some point in the mid-late 1990s he had to swap hands for medical reasons and the results were not pretty. (The only time I ever heard him play was in 1997 in Paris during this enforced left-handed phase and it was seriously scratchy, unsurprisingly I guess.) And then he eventually had to stop completely. Of course the non-playing director is a complete anachronism in Baroque terms but unfortunately that’s his only option now.

[MickyD]

As far as I’m concerned it’s tosh. But I suppose it’s the sort of opinion that someone directing a Baroque ensemble which doesn’t use Baroque instruments is going to have to talk themselves into.

The tricky thing in his case I suppose is that he himself can no longer play, as I understand it. At some point in the mid-late 1990s he had to swap hands for medical reasons and the results were not pretty. (The only time I ever heard him play was in 1997 in Paris during this enforced left-handed phase and it was seriously scratchy, unsurprisingly I guess.) And then he eventually had to stop completely. Of course the non-playing director is a complete anachronism in Baroque terms but unfortunately that’s his only option now.

Yes, I remember that and guess it would explain a lot. I'm still stunned when he was probably one of the most hair-shirted HIP musicians of all!

[cloughie]

Rachmaninov: Cello Sonata - Harrell / Ashkenazy

[Petrushka]

Elgar: Elegy for Strings
Bliss: Hymn to Apollo
Tippett: Ritual Dances from A Midsummer Marriage*
Elgar: Symphony No 2

BBC Symphony Chorus*
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Andrew Davis

[smittims]

Sibelius: Karelia Overture
Elgar Falstaff.
Sibelius: Symphony no.2 and The Death of Melisande.

London Symphony Orchestra, Anthony Collins.

The opening of the symphony is for me one of the most thriling and memorable moments in all music I sometimes feel the otherthree movements don't quite live up to it. Someone else who loved it was Eric Fenby, who confessed that during his years with Delius he used to creep downstairs at night and play those opening bars on the piano repeatedly, as a change from a constant diet of Delius.

[Stanfordian]

Rolf Lislevand – Vivaldi – 'Music for Mandolin & Lute'
Concerto for 2 mandolins, strings & basso continuo in G major, RV 532
Trio for violin, lute & basso continuo in G minor, RV 85
Concerto for mandolin, strings & basso continuo in C major, RV 425
Concerto for viola d’amore, lute, strings & basso continuo in D minor, RV 540
Trio for violin, lute & basso continuo in C major, RV 82
Concerto for 2 violins, lute & basso continuo in D major, RV 93
Rolf Lislevand (mandolin, chitarra barocco, lute)
Ensemble Kapsberger (period instruments)
Recorded 1996 (RV 85; 540; 82; 93); 2006 (RV 532; 425), Studio Tibor Varga, Sion, Switzerland
Naïve, CD

Glorious baroque music - stunningly played by Lislevand.

[silvestrione]

Elgar: Elegy for Strings
Bliss: Hymn to Apollo
Tippett: Ritual Dances from A Midsummer Marriage*
Elgar: Symphony No 2

BBC Symphony Chorus*
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Andrew Davis

Wasn't there an Andrew Davis thread started? I can't find it now....

[Pulcinella]

Wasn't there an Andrew Davis thread started? I can't find it now....

Here:

https://www.for3.org/forums/forum/platform-3/platform-3-aa/1304869-sir-andrew-davis-rip

There were in fact two, but they have now been sensibly combined.

[richardfinegold]

Yes, I remember that and guess it would explain a lot. I'm still stunned when he was probably one of the most hair-shirted HIP musicians of all!

To put it mildly

[richardfinegold]

Schumann PC, Brendel/Abbado. This is in the big Brendel box and I finally got around to spinning it. Brendel is self effacing, which is what I prefer in this concerto, which imo doesn’t tend to survive soloists that treat it like a virtuoso barn burner. Abbado seemed to bring out a few details that I hadn’t noticed previously, without sounding fussy. Recommended

[LMcD]

Lunchtime Concert from Wigmore Hall.

[smittims]

Sullivan: Overture di Ballo.
Gardiner : Shepherd Fennel's Dance.
Grainger: Shepherd's Hey.

The New Symphony Orchestra of London (aka the RPO in disguise) conducted by Anthony Collins. This was once a 'hi-fi' demonstration disc. Collins was able to straddle two worlds. He recorded the complete Sibelius symphonies and made significant Delius recordings, lived in Hollywood and wrote for the films. He was also adept at 'light music', 'Vanity Fair' being his most famous composition, and his own recording of it is notably faster than more recent ones. .