What are you listening 2 now?

[Florestan]

Resuming Mozart's chronological survey where I left off.

1773

Symphonies KV 114, 124, 128, 129, 130, 132, 133, 134, 181, 184, 199.



Nevile Marriner / AOSMF

[Florestan]

Same!

Great minds etc. 

[ritter]

I've relistened to Le Dieu bleu, and liked it even more the second time than the first. It is an inventive, beautifully scored piece, and one that is coherent despite being a succession of short dances and set pieces.

This happened to me as well. I wonder if this issue is prominent amongst all digital formats? @ritter, I have two questions: do you own this on CD? If yes, then do you have the same issue that @Brian and myself have with the transition from track 11 to 12? If the CD has no issue, then I may contact Presto Classical for a refund.

Edit 1: I just found another error the transition from 14 to 15. The end of 14 just cuts off and then goes right into 15 which kind of just blasts through. Did you have this error, too, @Brian and  @ritter?

Edit 2: I just sent an email to Presto for a full refund. I simply can't have playback issues when listening to any music.

On CD, the transition from track 11 ("Le miracle") to track 12 ("La deésse paraît") seems badly "spliced", with no breathing space between the end of one section and the beginning of the next. I could not detect anything wrong (on CD) in the transition from track 14 to track 15.

[pjme]

from the Reynaldo Hahn website - Google translation:
https://reynaldo-hahn.net/Html/balletsDieuBleu.htm

Jean Cocteau's libretto:
A warm evening in fabulous India.
A temple carved into the rock; an immense pool where the sacred Lotus reigns. To the left, massive golden gates. In the background, behind a gate connecting large columns, lies a plain bathed by the Ganges. The entire setting is filled with wild flowers; sacred serpents hang along the walls, giant turtles with painted shells slumber around the water. A young man is about to become a priest of the Deity.
Crowd, offerings, ceremony.A woman carries peacocks on her shoulders, others carry unknown fruits and flowers on metal discs.
Dance
The Young Man is stripped of his secular clothes and given the saffron robe of the priests.
DANCE OF THE OFFERING BEARERS AND THE MUSICIANS
DANCE OF THE LOTUS BAYADERES
Entrance of the yoghis with bells. They have red hair, their bodies rubbed with ashes, their gaze dull.
DANCE OF THE YOGHIS
Before ushering the Young Man into the sanctuary, the priests engage in a final invocation. A sudden uproar; a young girl pushes past the guards, throws herself at the Young Man's knees, and begs him not to leave her for divine worship. He gently pushes her away and remains in ecstasy. The Young Girl's painful pleas. The priests taunt and defy her. They insult her, want to chase her away.
But the Young Girl, indifferent to their threats, begins to dance to reclaim the One she loves. The priests are indignant at the audacious woman who disturbs and disrupts their mysteries. They want to seize her... but she escapes them and returns to her beloved. She still dances, melancholically, a dance of memories. She reminds him of their breathless joys on the banks of the Ganges, their double race in clouds of odors and dust.
Little by little the Young Man looks at her and becomes troubled. She notices this, and his expression becomes faster, more insinuating. "Come! Come!" she says to him, "the plain is near!" His gesture and his momentum indicate the countryside crossed by pink ibises. He rushes toward her.
Anger of the priests. Scandal. The Young Man is seized, he is carried off. Terrible threats from the High Priest to the Young Girl; he makes her understand that she is going to be tortured. Taunts from the serving priests. While the crowd disperses, long, thin gold chains are brought and loaded onto the Young Girl's limbs. The gates between the columns are closed.
The night is complete. The Young Girl is alone. Silence, the moon shimmers on the water of the basin. The Milky Way floods the sky. Bells in one of the sanctuaries.
The Young Girl slips, drags herself along the walls, looking for a way out... The gates resist her. Hope!
A clear glow pierces the darkness at the gap between the golden doors. She pushes open the doors, a door gives way, but the Young Girl recoils, drunk with horror.
The monsters and demons imprisoned in the temple emerge in a terrifying procession. They surround the Young Girl; some crawl, others leap or fly. They circle around her frantically. They want to push her into their lair.
Then the Young Girl remembers the Divinity. She falls to her knees and stretches her arms toward the Lotus. Her heart beats, she begs!
Miracle.Discomfort.
The light changes, the monsters stop as if worried and turn around. Slowly, the pool lights up. The Lotus opens.
The Goddess appears. Smiling, grave, motionless, she has golden lips and nails. She is crouching amidst a burst of dazzling stamens. The index finger of her right hand is turned toward the water; almost touching hers, another hand with a raised index finger emerges from the water, then an arm; this hand and this arm are blue, and, following this slow rise, the God emerges. He is completely blue, with silver lips and nails.
The Goddess shows him the young martyr. He walks on the water, jumps onto the flagstones, heads toward the monsters, looks at them, and prepares to charm them.
DANCE ET SCENE.
The gestures of the blue God are alternately gentle and frenetic. He leaps from one to the other in terrible, supple leaps. He plays and glides among their teeming troop. Sometimes he captivates them with cabalistic poses and sometimes frightens them with superb threats. They try to overwhelm him. He avoids them. He crawls when they jump and flutters when they crawl. At his command, the branches of wild flowers bend down, wrap themselves around their limbs and bind them. Some breathe in the corollas and fall swooning on the flagstones. The blue God, to whom the Goddess has not ceased to order the details of his dance with imperceptible gestures, shows him with a smile the harmless monsters.
The Goddess breaks a lotus stamen and gives it to the young God who blows into this improvised flute the supreme song of divine enchantment. He plays and rocks himself with voluptuousness. The monsters are now plunged in a motionless ecstasy. The God runs from one to the other, to be sure of his power. Radiant, he whirls with diminishing frenzy and crouches, victorious, amidst the docile and charmed monsters.
Light, tumult; the priests return to witness the effect of their vengeance.
At the sight of the miracle, they fall face down. The Goddess orders the priests to untie the Maiden. They obey, trembling.
An atmosphere of Buddhist bliss pervades everything. The lovers reunite and embrace. She reproaches him for his alarms, and tells him of the hideous scene and the divine intervention. But they are together! That alone matters! She dances with joy.
A broader gesture from the Goddess creates a gigantic golden staircase that disappears into the torrid azure. Standing at the heart of the Lotus, the Goddess extends her arms and blesses the couple.
The God ascends toward the sky.



Apparently Ida Rubinstein was to perform as the Goddess - entirely covered in golden make up...and monsieur Nijinsky will be painted all blue. A ballet that "will not lack color"  (1911- Le Ménestrel)! 
I ordered the cd... will look forward to an alternative version!

[ritter]

Sticking to Reynaldo Hahn, revisiting is CD of works for ensemble conducted by Nicolas Chalvin.



The early (and delightful) Le Bal de Béatrice d'Este (from 1905), and the later Divertissement pour une fête de nuit (1931), Sérénade (1942) and Concerto provençal (1944).

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Granados: Spanish Dances - Turina: Danzas Fantasticas. Philharmonia Orchestra & Wilhelm Schuchter.

[Traverso]

Telemann

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Now playing Janáček Piano Sonata 1. X. 1905, "From The Street"

[pianococo90]

Gerard Pape
Per Luigi for flute and viola

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

I've relistened to Le Dieu bleu, and liked it more the second time than the first. It is an inventive, beautifully scored piece, and one that is coherent despite being a succession of short dances and set pieces.
On CD, the transition from track 11 ("Le miracle") to track 12 ("La deésse paraît") seems badly "spliced", with no breathing space between the end of one section and the beginning of the next. I could not detect anything wrong (on CD) in the transition from track 14 to track 15.

Thanks for the feedback, Rafael. I ended up getting a full refund from Presto Classical. You would think that quality control would've been better, but hopefully the label issues some corrected discs.

The ballet was lovely and I enjoyed listening to it, but it's just a shame that there had to be a disruption along the way.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

OK. I'm in. I prodded these a while ago and then completely forgot about their existence, despite adding a Guarnieri playlist to Spotify and being very impressed.

Hearing this last night and again this morning, I remain impressed!

Great! I'm glad you're enjoying them. These are worthwhile symphonies and my second go-around with them is proving to be even more rewarding.

[Que]

   

Starting with Les Petits Riens - a first!     
Then onto old friends: Symphonies nos 25 & 26 by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Royal Concertgebouworkest.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Now playing this entire Adams Nagano recording:

[Kalevala]

Now playing Janáček Piano Sonata 1. X. 1905, "From The Street"

His recordings here are just the best!    Hope that you are enjoying them?

K

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

His recordings here are just the best!    Hope that you are enjoying them?

K

Oh yes, @Kalevala. I've enjoyed this particular 2-CD set for a number of years now. It's actually my favorite recording of these Janáček piano works.

[Brian]

Sticking to Reynaldo Hahn, revisiting is CD of works for ensemble conducted by Nicolas Chalvin.



The early (and delightful) Le Bal de Béatrice d'Este (from 1905), and the later Divertissement pour une fête de nuit (1931), Sérénade (1942) and Concerto provençal (1944).

Well now I know what I'm listening to this afternoon!

Currently giving a first-ever listen to the Ruth Gipps Oboe Concerto, which would make a very nice and logical discmate on an album with the similarly genial oboe concertos of Vaughan Williams, Martinu, and R. Strauss.

Up next and inspired by @Spotted Horses :



Will be first listens to all this music.

[arpeggio]

[/i]

I have completed listening to all of his original works for solo piano.

He composed about 190 transcriptions.  I have only listened to some of them.  His transcription of the Symphonie Fantastique is fantastique.

I am now listening to his works for piano and orchestra.  They are the last discs in the set.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

I have completed listening to all of his original works for solo piano.

He composed about 190 transcriptions.  I have only listened to some of them.  His transcription of the Symphonie Fantastique is fantastique.

I am now listening to his works for piano and orchestra.  They are the last discs in the set.

That entire Liszt Howard set is a mammoth and, for me, one of the greatest feats in recorded music history. I mean to tackle every scrap of piano music that Liszt composed is truly something to marvel. I've listened to most of the original solo piano works, but I have little interest in the transcriptions to be honest, but that one of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique does sound like it would a fun listen.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Now playing Bartók SQ No. 3

[Que]

When I bought this at a flea market for 2,50 euro, the participation of Dutch soprano Kweksilber was the main question mark. And indeed the star-studded instrumental accompaniment is ab-so-lute-ly smashing, while Kweksilber is adequate at best. Al real pity...