What I listened to today

Febnyc · Post by **Febnyc** » Fri May 05, 2023 1:25 pm

A cousin of Sergei, Alexander Taneyev's (1850-1918) String Quartets are melodic and echt-Russian. Very much in the mold of Tchaikovsky.

Febnyc · Post by **Febnyc** » Mon May 08, 2023 5:51 pm

Stunning! Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev in new clothing...

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Mon May 08, 2023 9:03 pm

Some concert airchecks of Osmo Vanska & the Minnesota Orch. -

Glazunov's Violin Conc. (w.Athea)
Llundquist's Landscapes for Tuba (w/Campbell)
Aho's Clarinet Conc. (w/Frust)
MacMillan's Piano Conc. #3, 'Mysteries of Light' (w/Thibaudet)

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Sat May 13, 2023 9:26 pm

Paderewski's Piano Concerto (Wild/Fiedler)
Grieg's music for string orch. (Winograd)
....and this vintage LP of Flagstad doing Grieg's Songs: https://www.discogs.com/release/1356277 ... rieg-Songs

maestrob · Post by **maestrob** » Sun May 14, 2023 9:02 am

Febnyc wrote: ↑
Mon May 08, 2023 5:51 pm
Stunning! Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev in new clothing...

I acquired this some time ago when it first was released thanks to Lance's recommendation. It's a wonderful CD, I agree.

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Sun May 14, 2023 11:27 am

maestrob wrote: ↑
Sun May 14, 2023 9:02 am

Febnyc wrote: ↑
Mon May 08, 2023 5:51 pm
Stunning! Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev in new clothing...

I acquired this some time ago when it first was released thanks to Lance's recommendation. It's a wonderful CD, I agree.

Agree with you both. I also have a recording of her 2nd Piano Sonata, worth hearing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiTGu2cMBLk

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Wed May 17, 2023 10:30 pm

Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit (Casadesus)
Stravinsky's Petrushka (A. Coates...doing the first version)
Haydn's 88th (Koussevitzky)
Mozart's PC #24 (Casadesus, Szell)
Brahms' String Quintet #2 (Stern/Schneider/Katims/Thomas/Tortelier)

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Thu May 18, 2023 9:12 pm

Haydn's 88th & 94th (Koussevitzky)
Grieg's Piano Conc. (Entremont/Ormandy)
Grieg's 3 posthumous piano pieces & his Valse-Caprice, Op. 37 (Knardahl)
Schumann's Piano Quintet (Bernstein/Julliard Qnt.)

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Fri May 19, 2023 8:50 am

Carl Vine, PC # 1,Michael Kiernan Harvey,pianist,Sydney Symphoiny,Edo de Waart, ABC recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKeP039uEKo&t=349s

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Sun May 21, 2023 10:08 pm

This great 2-LP anthology of Stoky & the Phillies:

https://www.discogs.com/release/1036967 ... -Orchestra

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Sun May 21, 2023 10:11 pm

Glenn Gould doing the Bach English Suites--
https://www.discogs.com/release/3872474 ... ish-Suites

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Wed May 24, 2023 12:08 pm

Barbirolli/Halle's 1970 LP of Peer Gynt incidental excerpts:

https://www.discogs.com/release/4338628 ... ian-Singer

This LP was very lighly used by me: I got it used in '82, put it on once or twice, and remained in my parents' place till I got my own unit in'16...never put it on. Until now.

Critic Paul Kresh--a reviewer I think rather highly of--gave this disc "best of the month" in Stereo Review. He called it "an exhilarating revelation," and he knocked the familiar music in other issues, frequently mentioning their "limitations." (when he reviewed Bernstein's disc three years later, he said it was fully competitive with every other in the catalog--fer God's sake!!!) Kresh always expressed his low opinion of "Ase's Death," telling how long it seemed to take Ase to die. In my opinion, the slower, the better, rather than the 'andante doloroso' tempo at the start. A rehearing of the Barbirolli was intriguing--he started andante, but at the third (loudest) repetition, he really drew out those chords, and the rest of the performance, to my ears, was at a more reasonable tempo. Lotsa other maestros merely zipped thru this piece, in well under four minutes.

And it's always great to hear the added Overture and the "Dance of the Mountain King's Daughter." I had the Per Dreier complete set on Unicorn, up until I moved back to Colorado....didn't have another 'complete' till I got the Blomstedt, and later, Neeme.

An extra applause to the original owner of the present LP, for keeping it so well-kept!

maestrob · Post by **maestrob** » Thu May 25, 2023 9:54 am

Neil, I've got the Unicorn complete Peer Gynt on reel-to-reel audiotape from Barclay-Crocker, one of their finest releases. I've been hunting for a CD ever since, but no luck.

As for Barbirolli, I'm happy to say that I agree with your reviewer in Stereo Review. Although I never bought the LP, I do have it now on CD as part of the Barbirolli box. A fine recording indeed.

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Thu May 25, 2023 10:24 am

....oh, and......

Belated applause to Sheila Armstrong & the Ambrosian Singers, for their vocal contributions (even if it is in German....no excuse for Marriner's version, which did that language as late as '86.).

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Thu May 25, 2023 4:38 pm

Sofia Gubaidulina's 3rd VC, my first hearing. I'm generally not a fan of her works, but this one was interesting.Worth the hearing.

https://www.nporadio4.nl/concerten/5498 ... iba-skride

Concert voor viool en orkest nr.3, "Dialog: Ich und Du"
Baiba Skride (viool), Dima Slobodeniouk (Dirigent), Radio Filharmonisch Orkest

Live, May 19,2023, Utrecht,Netherlands

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Wed May 31, 2023 10:20 pm

Liszt's From the Cradle to the Grave
Griffes'; The White Peacock
Kent Kennan's Night Soliloquy
Atterberg's Symphony #3

...all Toscanini, live NBC recordings of music he never did commercially

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Wed May 31, 2023 10:23 pm

Grieg's Piano Sonata (Laval)

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Thu Jun 01, 2023 10:04 am

Pianist Imogen Cooper in Madrid,Feb.,2022, interesting, well-played program, my first hearings of the Ades and Widmann.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001m5d2

Thomas Ades
Darkness Visible

Fryderyk Chopin
Mazurka in B flat, op. 17/1

Thomas Ades
Mazurka, op. 27/1

Fryderyk Chopin
Three Mazurkas

Karol Szymanowski
Mazurka, op. 50/1

Fryderyk Chopin
Mazurka in A flat, op. 7/4

Thomas Ades
Mazurka, op. 27/3

Fryderyk Chopin
Mazurka in A minor, op. 68/2

Franz Schubert
Six Moments musicaux, D. 780, Nos 1-4

Jorg Widmann
Idyll und Abgrund: Six Schubert Reminiscences for Piano

Franz Schubert
Six Moments musicaux, D. 780, Nos 5 and 6

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:24 am

Robert Schumann's Cello Concerto,Op.129, a 1934 recording with Gregor Piatogorsky,John Barbirolli and London Phil.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTvEp9BNqGA

An under-rated work,IMHO.

And Debussy's brief, late Cello Sonata,Piatogorsky with Lukas Foss,pianist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab6I8PQYD3A

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 11:36 am

Weinberg's wonderful Cello Concerto again by the brilliant young French cellist Edgar Moreau:

Weinberg: Cello Concerto
Edgar Moreau (cello)
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Andres Orozco-Estrada (conductor)

Live,Frankfurt,Dec. 2022.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001md87 (Available until about July 2, at about 1:00:00 in )

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Fri Jun 09, 2023 11:15 am

Yulianna Avdeeva is a pianist I have followed since her competition days years ago, the brief, “fun” Szpilman new to me.Assertive, effective Bach the highlight for me, but all played well.

Enregistré le 25/08/2021 au Concert Hall, Philharmonic, Varsovie

Frédéric Chopin - Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat, op. 61
Wladyslaw Szpilman - The Life of the Machine, suite
Mieczyslaw Weinberg - Sonate n°4 en si mineur pour piano, op. 56
Johann Sebastian Bach - Partita No. 2 en do miner, BWV 826
Serge Rachmaninov - Sonate No. 2 en si bémol mineur pour piano, op. 36 (revised version)

Frédéric Chopin - Nocturne No. 20 en do dièse mineur, op. posth. (bis) Yulianna Avdeeva, piano

https://auvio.rtbf.be/media/concert-de-13h-3046291

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Mon Jun 12, 2023 4:40 pm

Shostakovich's Fifth (Mitchell...also Schwarz)
Ravel's Daphnis suite #2 (Abbado/BSO)
Smetana's Moldau & Bohemian's Meadows & Forests (Kubelik/BSO)
....some Strauss waltzes & polkas (Sawallisch)
Ravel's Bolero & La Valse (Beinum)

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Tue Jun 13, 2023 3:03 pm

The late critic Robert C. Marsh wrote in 1962 that these Toscanini/NYP sessions of April 9 & 10, 1936, constituted the greatest recording sessions of the century:

Wagner's Dawn & Siegfried's Rhine Journey, Lohengrin Act 1 & 3 preludes, and Siegfried Idyll
Beethoven's Seventh
Rossini's Italiana in Algeri and Semiramide overtures
and
Brahms' Haydn Variations

Allowing for some datedness of Marsh's view, I'm inclined to agree!

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Tue Jun 13, 2023 3:48 pm

Toch's Pinocchio overture
Haydn's 88th
....both Koussevitzky

Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy
...Stokowsi/NYP

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Wed Jun 14, 2023 5:15 pm

Tchaikovsky's PC#1(Richter/Karajan)
Schubert's Ninth (Sawallisch, w/WS)
Stravinsky's Les Noces (Craft 1)

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Thu Jun 15, 2023 5:26 pm

I am ashamed at myself for not having heard this work for many years.The slow mov. one of Western civilization’s great moments.My recording an RCA lp box of the Late Quartets by the Cleveland Quartet, here live in Warsaw, date not given:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001mmpc ( At about 55:00 in ) (Available until about July 12)

Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet in A minor, Op 132
Danish String Quartet

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Sat Jun 17, 2023 9:09 am

An interesting RCA lp in my collection that may not have made it to cd, pianist David Bean playing rarely heard "Six Elegies" of Busoni paired with Villa-Lobos' "Rudepoema" ( the late critic Irvin Kolodin called the V-L " loud noise" ) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WszI1F4rxE

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Mon Jun 19, 2023 4:53 pm

Perhaps best ever recording of Rachmaninoff's 1st Piano Sonata, a 50's MGM cd under the auspices of the Rachmaninoff Society:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-iZwyCofT0

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Fri Jun 23, 2023 11:42 am

Two of my fav works of the composers, Mozart's and Brahms' Clarinet Quintets, here live in Leiden,Holland,June 3:

https://www.nporadio4.nl/concerten/e07f ... kwintetten

Olivier Patey (klarinet), Maria Milstein (viool), Mathieu van Bellen (viool), Georgy Kovalev (altviool), Quirine Viersen (cello)

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Fri Jun 23, 2023 9:12 pm

Schubert's Ninth - Sawallisch 1

maestrob · Post by **maestrob** » Sat Jun 24, 2023 8:13 am

Rach3 wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 19, 2023 4:53 pm
Perhaps best ever recording of Rachmaninoff's 1st Piano Sonata, a 50's MGM cd under the auspices of the Rachmaninoff Society:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-iZwyCofT0

Better than Konstantin Adzhemov?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdUfQII5XTQ

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Sat Jun 24, 2023 8:42 am

maestrob wrote: ↑
Sat Jun 24, 2023 8:13 am

Rach3 wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 19, 2023 4:53 pm
Perhaps best ever recording of Rachmaninoff's 1st Piano Sonata, a 50's MGM cd under the auspices of the Rachmaninoff Society:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-iZwyCofT0
Better than Konstantin Adzhemov?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdUfQII5XTQ

Agreed,Adzhemov's is very fine, I had heard it, but I found Thew's more interesting in voicings and emotion.Just my ears, of course.

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Sat Jun 24, 2023 8:43 am

Henri Dutilleux - Au Gré des Ondes (Six Petite Pieces) for Piano (1946)

Delightful. I am a fan of most of the composer’s piano music.My first hearing recently.
Vincent Mussat, Piano. (Studio recording ; label ? )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blRX58LOEMI. ( 11 minutes )

maestrob · Post by **maestrob** » Sat Jun 24, 2023 2:15 pm

Rach3 wrote: ↑
Sat Jun 24, 2023 8:42 am

maestrob wrote: ↑
Sat Jun 24, 2023 8:13 am

Rach3 wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 19, 2023 4:53 pm
Perhaps best ever recording of Rachmaninoff's 1st Piano Sonata, a 50's MGM cd under the auspices of the Rachmaninoff Society:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-iZwyCofT0
Better than Konstantin Adzhemov?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdUfQII5XTQ
Agreed,Adzhemov's is very fine, I had heard it, but I found Thew's more interesting in voicings and emotion.Just my ears, of course.

Just listened to both of these back-to-back. Different styles, of course, but I can't honestly pick a favorite. Both great! A wonderful way to spend an hour. Thanks!

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Mon Jun 26, 2023 9:26 am

Leon Kirchner's Music for Orchestra

.....the composer, guest-conducting the BSO (60s)

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Mon Jun 26, 2023 10:34 am

My Naxos cd of John Alden Carpenter chamber music:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=O ... Z7dKWhVp3c

maestrob · Post by **maestrob** » Mon Jun 26, 2023 10:56 am

Rach3 wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 26, 2023 10:34 am
My Naxos cd of John Alden Carpenter chamber music:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=O ... Z7dKWhVp3c

I admire JAC's idiom and will check this out soonest. Thanks!

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Tue Jun 27, 2023 10:12 am

Franck's Concerto for Piano, Violin & Strings (Costa/Prado/Jorda)
Weber's Freischutz over. (Gaubert)
Tchaikovsky's Fourth (Ashkenazy, SFS)
Brahms' Tragic Over. (Ansermet)

Febnyc · Post by **Febnyc** » Tue Jun 27, 2023 6:00 pm

The hour-long Symphonie-Poème No. 1 is a knockout. Written for a huge orchestra - and sounds like it. The outer movements are very powerful while the Scherzo is lighter with a lovely trio section. As for the Andante - it simply is Rachmaninoff-gorgeous (and, oddly, features a passage for celesta two-hands as well as four velvety-sounding saxophones [the notes point out that de Hartmann got Glazunov interested in that instrument and it led to his composing his Saxophone Concerto]).

maestrob · Post by **maestrob** » Wed Jun 28, 2023 8:17 am

Thanks, Febnyc! Will investigate...

Febnyc · Post by **Febnyc** » Wed Jun 28, 2023 8:40 am

maestrob wrote: ↑
Wed Jun 28, 2023 8:17 am
Thanks, Febnyc! Will investigate...

Excellent. We will await your review.

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Wed Jun 28, 2023 11:01 am

Febnyc wrote: ↑
Tue Jun 27, 2023 6:00 pm
The hour-long Symphonie-Poème No. 1 is a knockout.

Many thanks, my first hearing of the composer and the work. With your tip, I explored his piano, cello,and violin concertos, which concertos I enjoyed especially the Cello Concerto ( might get a download of the Cello ).

An interesting bio, quite a career.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_de_Hartmann

Piano Concerto,Op.61 ( 1939), Elan Sicroff , piano,with Lviv National Philharmlonic Orchestra of Ukraine ,Tian Hui Ng

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDgeCW- ... wE&index=2

Cello Concerto (1932 ), Paul Tortelier (for whom written), cello,Montreal Symphony Orchestra , Pierre Hétu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYxV60pG-kw.

Violin Concerto (1943 )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MauZ9WntcY. Georges Ales, violin, with Louis de Froment,Lamoreaux Orchestra (probably ? )

Febnyc · Post by **Febnyc** » Wed Jun 28, 2023 1:12 pm

The excerpts from the Piano Concerto sound attractive also.

CD is available at Presto Music.

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Wed Jun 28, 2023 1:20 pm

Febnyc wrote: ↑
Wed Jun 28, 2023 1:12 pm
The excerpts from the Piano Concerto sound attractive also.

CD is available at Presto Music.

His solo piano music is at YT and Presto, just now starting to listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD0r8Se ... tA&index=5

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Wed Jun 28, 2023 2:54 pm

Franck's D Minor (Wolff)

....also, just before lunch I dug up a few loose CDRs that I'd only barely managed to identify--one a disc of 78 rpm dupes on the Internet Archives site with some miscellaneous Ormandy/Minneapolis discs (I NEVER forked over for the recent Sony/BMG set of these recordings...it would only show I didn't possess any self-respect for having already invested in, amassed & duped the whole collection all my life already!). Another CDR had miscellaneous Fiedler 78s of repertoire he never rerecorded--Internet Archives, again. I put on the latter CDR believing it to be the Ormandy batch, not catching my grievous memory loss till almost finished!

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Wed Jun 28, 2023 8:41 pm

Evgenyi Kissin live in Belgium,June 20,2023.

With the exception of the Op.32,Op.39,#5 where he properly emphasized the left hand melody at the climax where most pianists obscure the line with too much emphasis on the right hand chordal figures, and first two Op.3 Moments encores , I found the Chopin and rest of Rachmaninoff ponderous and overly calculated.The Bach and Mozart were thankfully not, although the Mozart for me one of the composer’s least attractive piano sonatas.KIssin will be appearing at this year’s Verbier Festival as he usually does.

https://auvio.rtbf.be/media/concert-de-20h-3054568 (Available until June ,2024 )

Enregistré le 20 juin2023 au Studio 4 de Flagey, à Bruxelles

Johann Sebastian Bach - Fantaisie chromatique et fugue en ré mineur, BWV 903
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Sonate n° 9 en ré majeur pour piano, KV 311
Frédéric Chopin - Polonaise en fa dièse mineur, op. 44
Sergei Rachmaninov - Lilacs op. 21/5 - Prélude en la mineur, op. 32/8 - Prélude en sol bémol majeur, op. 23/10 - Six pièces d'Études-Tableaux, op. 39 (Nos.1-5,and 9 )

Encore: Possibly two of Rachmaninoff’s Op.3 Moments Musicaux , and The Prelude.

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Fri Jun 30, 2023 4:51 pm

Tchsikovsky's Second ('Little Russian')

....Jansons

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Fri Jun 30, 2023 5:22 pm

neilnw wrote: ↑
Fri Jun 30, 2023 4:51 pm
Tchsikovsky's Second ('Little Russian')

....Jansons

The only one of his symphonies to which I listen.

neilnw · Post by **neilnw** » Sat Jul 01, 2023 11:07 am

Debussy's complete Images (van Beinum)

Rach3 · Post by **Rach3** » Sat Jul 01, 2023 5:38 pm

Blasco de Nebra ( 1750 - 1784) piano sonatas Nos. 3 - 6 , Pedro Casals pianist, my Naxos cd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HinYZLr ... 7X0jvTkkQ8

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