What I listened to today

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sat Jun 22, 2019 3:19 pm

Ton Koopman - Haydn 44, 45, 49 Erato LP

Belle · Post by **Belle** » Sat Jun 22, 2019 3:29 pm

Wnnderful!! I've seen Koopman a couple times in concert with that ensemble and he's highly exuberant!! From memory, I think they played the Haydn "Military" symphony on one of these occasions!! Joy.

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sun Jun 23, 2019 7:41 am

With thanks to FK on another forum for providing this deeply moving broadcast.

Bach's MATTHAUS-PASSION from Ansbach 1957, possibly his earliest performance of the work. The Bachwoche Anspach Festival gathered an astonishing number of the world's finest instrumentalists. The entire list of players can be found at:

https://karlrichtermunich.blogspot.com/ ... -1957.html

Johann Sebastian Bach
MATTHAUS-PASSION BWV 244

Peter Pears, Evangelist
Horst Günter, Christ
Friederike Sailer, soprano
Marga Höffgen, alto
Fritz Wunderlich, tenor
Keith Engen, bass

Ralph Kirkpatrick, cembalo
Hedwig Bilgram, cembalo continuo
Ekkehard Tietze, organ continuo
Julian Bream, lute
Adolf Scherbaum, Konrad Reinecke, trumpet
Paul Meisen, Aurèle Nicolet, flute
Horst Schneider, Wilhelm Cremer, oboe d'amore
Willy Beck, Kurt Richter, horn
Walter Biller, Pierre Fournier, violoncello
Ernst Mayer-Schierning, violin
Fritz Henker, Horst Leisewitz bassoon
Manfred Gräser, Franz Ortner, contrabass

Münchener Bach-Chor
Solistengemeinschaft der Bachwoche Ansbach
conducted by KARL RICHTER

Bachwoche Ansbach
24 July 1957

Fritz Wunderlich and Karl Richter

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sun Jun 23, 2019 5:53 pm

Honegger 2 & 4 Dutoit Erato LP

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Sun Jun 23, 2019 9:23 pm

Medtner's brief Sonata "Tragica",Op.39,# 5, the late Geoffrey Tozer,pianist,Chandos cd,audio with score :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO77Z6G1V9s

Why more of our wunderkind dont play this is a mystery to me.

John F · Post by **John F** » Sun Jun 23, 2019 9:51 pm

And then there's Medtner's owo recording, not as well played as by today's virtuosi but hey, it's Medtner playing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbagb2VVogw

HMV recorded three 78 rpm albums of Medtner playing his own music in 1947, not just solo piano works but piano concertos and some songs with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. That was surely not going to be a best-seller, but it didn't have to be. The Maharajah of Mysore, a serious classical music lover and rich beyond the dreams of avarice, paid the costs of the project.

By the way, I'm glad you mentioned this particular work. The first theme of the sonata has been in my head forever, like more than 50 years, and I couldn't identify what it was from, so finally I gave up. Now I know.

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Mon Jun 24, 2019 6:04 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-aU2Se1RHw

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:05 am

John F wrote: ↑
Sun Jun 23, 2019 9:51 pm
By the way, I'm glad you mentioned this particular work. The first theme of the sonata has been in my head forever, like more than 50 years, and I couldn't identify what it was from, so finally I gave up. Now I know.

Fww,I can recommend Australian Geoffrey Tozer's ( tragic final years of his life ) Chandos set of the complete Medtner piano sonatas and "Forgotten Melodies". Tozer perhaps not all the technique or polyphonic precision of Hamelin or Milne,but enough for me, the others perhaps too much for the sweep of the music, and Tozer's enthusiasm,spontaneity is contagious.Takes a while to get into these , Medtner not the obvious melodist of a Rachmaninoff or Tchaikovsky or early Scriabin, but now after several years of re- hearings, I love most of them.Lucas Debargue made a big splash at 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition playing the first sonata, Op.5.It's on Y T I believe,as are a couple of the others.Kenneth Broberg( USA) one of the 7 of the 2019 Tchaikovsky finalists played "Night Wind" sonata,Op.25,# 2 (probably my least fav of the Medtner sonatas ) in his solo semifinal round.

The Maharajah of Mysore also financed Louis Kentner's late 40's recording of the complete Lyapunov Transcendental Etudes , first recording of those works complete, now on a Pearl cd I can also recommend even though sound not ideal.

John F · Post by **John F** » Mon Jun 24, 2019 10:19 am

And it was for him that HMV recorded the premiere (or possibly rehearsal) of Strauss's 4 Last Songs, with Kirsten Flagstad and Wilhelm Furtwängler.

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Mon Jun 24, 2019 11:43 am

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XoKfFdY4Esw

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Mon Jun 24, 2019 4:33 pm

Claudio Scimone: Schoenberg Verklaerte Nacht Erato LP

John F · Post by **John F** » Mon Jun 24, 2019 5:50 pm

Remarkable, that the Fine Arts Quartet still exists, though none of the original members are still with it - Leonard Sorkin, Joseph Stepansky, Sheppard Lehnhoff, and George Sopkin. They made lots of recordings for Concert Disc, now defunct, and I assumed that the quartet was defunct too. But at least the name is carrying on. Similarly the Juilliard String Quartet, whose personnel are completely different from the early years.

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:43 am

Allegri SQ - The Westminster recs

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Tue Jun 25, 2019 2:50 pm

A rarity. Columbia ML 5263. The Dello Joio Variations, rec in mono even as late as March 1957, never made it officially to CD, unless you count Andrew Rose @ Pristine's LP transfer. It is a lovely work as is the Coplandesque Symphony by John Vincent Rex in stereo a month later but first issued in a mono mix on this LP.

John F · Post by **John F** » Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:15 pm

jserraglio wrote: ↑
Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:43 am
Allegri SQ - The Westminster recs

My choice of Mozart's clarinet quintet: Jack Brymer and the Allegri Quartet. Brymer was principal clarinet in Beecham's Royal Philharmonic and one of the reasons it was a great orchestra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E1Hw4HfiN0

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 5:01 am

John F wrote: ↑
Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:15 pm
My choice of Mozart's clarinet quintet: Jack Brymer and the Allegri Quartet. Brymer was principal clarinet in Beecham's Royal Philharmonic and one of the reasons it was a great orchestra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E1Hw4HfiN0

Thanks. Never heard this one till now. But I too am a huge Beecham fan. I attended a few Thomas Beecham Society meetings back when it was presided over by the amazing Jack Saul who had the greatest record collection I have ever seen in private hands.

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Thu Jun 27, 2019 9:22 am

PIerre Boulez & the NY Philharmonic

LIVE

SCHOENBERG 5 Variations
SCHUBERT Symphony 9
VARESE Arcana & Ionization

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:19 am

Marriner/ASMF - English String Music EMI ASD 2831 LP

Right up there with Barbirolli and Boult's recordings of British music.

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sat Jun 29, 2019 4:48 am

My first Pathetique Revisited after 50 years. Great then but sounds even better now in a modern remastering: c/w a wonderful Francesca with Barbirolli & the NPO.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XFgfFjuPq3o

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sat Jun 29, 2019 10:01 am

The 25-year-old Leontyne Price as Mistress Ford in Verdi's Falstaff:

Feb 22, 1952
http://jmedia.juilliard.edu/digital/col ... 0861/rec/4
Feb 23, 1952
http://jmedia.juilliard.edu/digital/col ... 0862/rec/4

encoded at 192 kbps / 44.1kHz from transfer of audio reels provided by Juilliard Recording Department

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sun Jun 30, 2019 10:28 am

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3cP5O3USfxk&t=24s

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sun Jun 30, 2019 12:27 pm

Brahms PC 2 Ohlsson/Dohnanyi/Cleveland Live in Cleveland set.

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Wed Jul 03, 2019 1:07 pm

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Wed Jul 03, 2019 5:06 pm

Rawsthorne, Benjamin Britten, Lennox Berkeley ‎– Divertimento / Divertimento / Sinfonietta / Sinfonietta

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Fri Jul 05, 2019 6:45 am

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Tue Jul 09, 2019 5:18 am

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Wed Jul 10, 2019 4:59 am

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Wed Jul 10, 2019 4:22 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tww9KYWncks

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:18 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hin86t78wGA

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sat Jul 13, 2019 8:25 am

RVW 'Sea Symphony' Bryden Thomson/LSO Chandos

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sun Jul 14, 2019 8:26 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b2T3ZAYnoQ

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Mon Jul 15, 2019 8:15 am

Britten Cello Symphony Rostropovich-Rozhdestvensky-LSO 1967 Live

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Mon Jul 15, 2019 2:36 pm

David Daniels playlist https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=waxiCFn9T ... =mv-google

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Tue Jul 16, 2019 2:29 am

Mozart 9 & 11 [Hans Henkemans, pn.] 1966 Artone LP, cond. by André Rieu Sr./Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe3UZqmZEBg

John F · Post by **John F** » Tue Jul 16, 2019 6:54 am

Hans Henkemans was the most prominent Dutch pianist of his day (another well known through his recordings was Cor de Groot), and as such he was recorded by Philips (a Dutch company) in six Mozart concertos with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra for the centennial year of 1956. I heard him play the 24th concerto in an Amsterdam concert conducted by Eduard van Beinum. I have to say that I don't hear anything special in his playing - nothing wrong with it but nothing wonderfully right either. But maybe he wasn't at his best in the recording studio.

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Tue Jul 16, 2019 10:14 am

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:03 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJdS_K1C4aw

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Wed Jul 17, 2019 3:38 pm

Szell/CO - Schumann Syms 2, 3, 4 live in Severance Hall Cleveland and Symphony Hall Boston 1967-1970.

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Fri Jul 19, 2019 9:36 am

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sat Jul 27, 2019 8:54 am

With thanks to a member on another forum who tracked this version.

Johann Sebastian Bach
JOHANNES-PASSION BWV 245
Sung in English as
The Passion according to St. John

Evangelist: William Whitesides, tenor
Jesus: David Wingate, bass
Tatiana Troyanos, alto
Margaret Kalil, soprano [Met career:1965-73]
James Justice, tenor

Bruce Abel, bass
Peter, Pilate: James Elson, bass
Maid: Estelle Jaivis, soprano

T. William Wenrick, organ
David Moore, continuo
The Juilliard Chorus and Orchestra
Assistants in choral preparation:
David Buttolph, Nathan Carter, Donald Jenkins
Choral Accompanist: Warren Wilson
conducted by
FREDERICK PRAUSNITZ

Juilliard Concert Hall
20 March 1959

*There is no information in the program material
concerning the credits for the English version.
Given the date it is likely to be largely the
translation by hymn-writer Doctor T.A. Lacey.

John F · Post by **John F** » Sat Jul 27, 2019 11:02 am

I wondered about Margaret Kalil, whom I'd never heard of though I attended quite a few Met performances durng her years on the roster. According to the annals, she sang very minor soprano roles in a few operas many times. Then in 1973 she was finally given three performances in a major role, Donna Anna in "Don Giovanni," but they were all student matinees with second-rate casts conducted by Ignace Strasfogel. And that was it. Eight years later she died at 66 of pulmonary disease. I don't know whether to feel sad for her - she must have had some talent but it didn't measure up - or maybe a little more upbeat - after all, she did sing in quite a few performances at the old and new Met.

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sat Jul 27, 2019 12:03 pm

John F wrote: ↑
Sat Jul 27, 2019 11:02 am
According to the annals, she sang very minor soprano roles in a few operas many times.

My source says she specialized mostly in "celestial voices". I guess that leaves out the Rheintöchter. Anyway I will be listening to this one in just a bit after I finish off some incredible Silvestri/Bournemouth YouTube broadcasts https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiExn0 ... jzg/videos

I snapped up Mit Originalinstrumente LPs in the early days as fast as I could afford 'em (with jazz), but I am still partial to big, unreconstructed Bach à la Thomas Beecham.

John F · Post by **John F** » Sat Jul 27, 2019 12:52 pm

Well, she did sing the celestial voice in Verdi's "Don Carlo." Also the second of three unborn children in "Die Frau ohne Schatten," the priestess in "Aida," and the 5th serving woman in Strauss's "Elektra." Plus those Donna Annas. End of story as far as the Met was concerned.

40 years after her last Met performance one Anthony Kalil made his debut in "Die Frau ohne Schatten" as the appration of a young man. It's not a common name but apparently he was no relation; Wikipedia doesn't mention a marriage or children in its Margaret Kalil article. Yes, there is such an article; take that, Encyclopaedia Britannica!

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sat Jul 27, 2019 1:35 pm

Wow, I can understand most of the English in that Juilliard performance! Must be the audio technician who enhanced and tracked the original. He is an opera enthusiast who favors voices.

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Sun Jul 28, 2019 5:35 am

Silvestri/Bournemouth

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LLfjUmHCMLc

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 5:05 am

Noel Lee - Stravinsky Nonesuch H-71212

Belle · Post by **Belle** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 6:12 am

A friend (who studied singing in Italy years ago) is presenting a program for our music group next Thursday on "L'Orfeo" and all the different musical incarnations of that myth over the centuries, starting with Rossi. My attention has been drawn to this and it's a total pleasure, though subtitles are not available in English. It's my opinion that the early Italian baroque was the most elegant, refined and gentile of all. And I adore the instrumentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmYLg4132L8

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 8:19 am

Orpheus played a Stratocaster. First, last & always.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsdGclZynkE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxTmhJn ... uOVaTPeoH3

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 6:50 pm

John F · Post by **John F** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 8:39 pm

Ah yes, one of those kooky Westminster LP jackets. I guess it's supposed to be a corpse in a morgue.

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