What are you listening to now?

[Kontrapunctus]

Both are very well played and recorded.

[aligreto]

Rautavaara: Concerto for Organ, Brass Group and Symphonic Wind Orchestra [Jussila/Segerstam]





This is a wonderful sound world; I find the scoring to be fascinating. Assertive and even aggressive in tone. I find the music to be bold, sometimes disconcerting and even angry at times. It is never less than engaging and is always challenging. A wonderful work to unleash on your ears if you do not know it.

[Wakefield]

Thank you! My thoughts exactly --- and my interpolation as well. 

[possibly, in some cases even probably, getting frustrated with all that]

Surely, we don't need be shy! Because our technology overcomes all those limitations. Our resonant and standardized pianos are so much better than those myriads of harpsichords, clavichords, lute-harpsichords, virginals, fortepianos, all different of each other. Our huge concert halls built for hundreds of attendants are way better than the tiny venues of the past. Our musicians, all of them trained under the same principles... We just need a little bit of faith in progress to accept that Bach had been much more happy and productive living in the present days. 

[prémont]

We just need a little bit of faith in progress to accept that Bach had been much more happy and productive living in the present days. 

Maybe he would even have been so happy, that he hadn't got the inspiration for his deep and searching music.

[Florestan]

[possibly, in some cases even probably, getting frustrated with all that]

Surely, we don't need be shy! Because our technology overcomes all those limitations. Our resonant and standardized pianos are so much better than those myriads of harpsichords, clavichords, lute-harpsichords, virginals, fortepianos, all different of each other. Our huge concert halls built for hundreds of attendants are way better than the tiny venues of the past. Our musicians, all of them trained under the same principles... We just need a little bit of faith in progress to accept that Bach had been much more happy and productive living in the present days. 

That's a very simplistic reading of my interpolation. Consider this piece of historical truth: with a few exceptions, recorded and praised as such, 18th century orchestras consisted mostly of a mix of under-rehearsed, probably under-trained as well, professionals with plain amateurs and at best their playing could be equate with that of a run-of-the-mill college orchestra of today. Are you going to tell me that, just because composers had to cope with this situation and they perforce heard their own music played in such a way, we must hear it in the same way and consider it as truly and authoritatively representative of the composer's intentions?

[Florestan]

Maybe he would even have been so happy, that he hadn't got the inspiration for his deep and searching music.

Deep and searching? Gordo just said it was all about meeting deadlines and coping with whatever they had and agreed that Rossini did the same. Is the latter's music also deep and searching?

[Kontrapunctus]

[Wakefield]

Maybe he would even have been so happy, that he hadn't got the inspiration for his deep and searching music.

True happiness writes very few notes because is busy being happy. Sadness, anguish and all that sort of bad things need to be transformed in something else.

[aligreto]

Schumann: Cello Concerto [Ma/Davis]





I really like the inherent lyricism tinged with that element of pathos in this work. A wonderfully contemplative and emotionally laden performance from all here.

[Wakefield]

That's a very simplistic reading of my interpolation. Consider this piece of historical truth: with a few exceptions, recorded and praised as such, 18th century orchestras consisted mostly of a mix of under-rehearsed, probably under-trained as well, professionals with plain amateurs and at best their playing could be equate with that of a run-of-the-mill college orchestra of today. Are you going to tell me that, just because composers had to cope with this situation and they perforce heard their own music played in such a way, we must hear it in the same way and consider it as truly and authoritatively representative of the composer's intentions?

C'mon, Andrei, don't get deadly serious so fast! After all, we have a whole thread on fire about this same issue. 

Not to mention that I consider you a great guy. 

[kyjo]

Nielsen - Symphony no. 4 The Inextinguishable:

[asin]B00001X5A3[/asin]

It goes without saying that this is an epic masterwork of the highest level of inspiration (that said, I've always found the second movement to be a bit boring). It's remarkable how the searing, intense string writing in the third movement prefigures Shostakovich by a good 20 years. Blomstedt and the San Franciscans give a performance of great fire and clarity.


Britten - Violin Concerto (Lubotsky/ECO/Britten):

[asin]B000K2VDT0[/asin]

This is one of Britten's most intriguing works. The first movement is heavily based off a rhythmic figure in the timpani that opens the work, the second is scathing scherzo in the mannter of the similar movements in the first violin concerti of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, and the finale is a gaunt, somber passacaglia (a favorite form of Britten's) which ends hauntingly and memorably with the violin wavering between and F sharp and an F natural, keeping the listener guessing whether the work will end in major or minor. The performance here, while undoubtedly of great authority, focuses more on the acidic, angular aspects of the work than its more lyrical, emotional side, and is thus not very much to my taste.


Barber - Summer Music:

[asin]B000000AS0[/asin]

A bubbling, extroverted work. Hardly one of my favorites from Barber, though - maybe it's just that I'm not awfully fond of the medium of the wind quintet.


Arnold - Symphony no. 3:

[asin]B0000060CQ[/asin]

This isn't one of Arnold's most immediately appealing symphonies, but it's still a very fine work. The first movement starts out with a typically Arnoldian, melancholy theme in the celli and quickly becomes more agitated. The second movement, apparently a passacaglia, is stark, desolate, and world-weary. There's not one glimmer of light throughout the entire 13-minute movement, and it ends loudly and defiantly with a big E minor chord that somewhat foreshadows the devastating ending of his 5th Symphony. The 3rd movement is much lighter, almost Haydnesque in tone.


Grainger - Lincolnshire Posy:

[asin]B001KP2Y58[/asin]

I often forget how fine of a composer Grainger is - he's able to set folk-tunes with as much sensitivity and perhaps even more imagination than, say, Vaughan Williams or Holst. The second movement of this suite, Horkstow Grange, is especially beautiful.

[SymphonicAddict]

Symphony Nr. 1
With this work one can already perceive his own voice. There are many engaging Chinese sonorities, and the use of the percussion is particularly interesting. Both the drama and tension here builded are amazing.

An excellent first symphony by anyone.

[aligreto]

Soler: Harpsichord Sonata No. 99 [Rowland]





A wonderful work full of depth and inventiveness.

[Karl Henning]

True happiness writes very few notes because is busy being happy.

Tommy rot.

[Wakefield]

Tommy rot.

There's nothing like a well explained reasoning.

[Wakefield]

Telemann: Trio Sonatas
Rameau-Trio
Karl-Heinz Passin, flute
Maria Bräutigam, harpsichord
Sigfried Pank, viola da gamba

[asin]B0000636E8[/asin]

These performances are fleshy and dramatic, pervaded by a sort of nostalgic spirit not usual in Telemann's interpretations. Maybe it's the viola da gamba...

[Mahlerian]

Schoenberg: Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (after Handel)
Fred Sherry String Quartet, Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble, cond. Craft
[asin]B0006IGQ0O[/asin]

Bach: Goldberg Variations
Bob van Asperen
[asin]B008BT105G[/asin]

Not a commentary on the HIP debate.  I just listen to things I enjoy.

[Wakefield]

Bach: Goldberg Variations
Bob van Asperen
[asin]B008BT105G[/asin]

Not a commentary on the HIP debate.  I just listen to things I enjoy.

You're such a troublemaker!

[SymphonicAddict]

Symphony Nr. 4 Sinfonia Lirica

The maiden among its sisters. It should be also called Pastoral.

[Daverz]

Poul Rovsing Olsen: Symphonic Variations and Piano Concerto.  Lovely and lively music.

[asin]B008L62XSC[/asin]