What are you listening 2 now?

[ritter]

Revisiting this oddly compiled CD (the Strauss selections were AFAIK originally issued on one LP, while the prologue from Boito's Mefistofele was originally coupled with a recording of Liszt's Faust-Symphonie). In any case, I like the repertoire, and enjoy the performances quite a lot.



Caballé performed Salome many times throughout the career (and even late in her career there was a production at La Scala by Robert Wilson that apparently worked very well, as it did not matter that the soprano did not have the physique du rôle). She also made a highly regarded recording of the full opera under Lensdorf (which I must admit I have not heard, and should seek out). As for Ghiaurov, he also went on to record a complete Mefistofele under Oliviero de Fabritiis, with Pavarotti, Mirella Freni, and Caballé as Helen of Troy. Bernstein conducts with lots of panache.

A most enjoyable disc (despite another oddity: why place Salome's dance after the final scene?  The girl has just been killed  )

[Lisztianwagner]

Speaking of Bernstein's Liszt:
Franz Liszt
Faust-Symphonie

Leonard Bernstein & Boston Symphony Orchestra

[brewski]

A most enjoyable disc (despite another oddity: why place Salome's dance after the final scene?  The girl has just been killed  )

"I may be dead, but never mind—I'm gonna dance until...until I'm even more dead!"



-Bruce

[Roasted Swan]

A very underrated symphony as the focus is invariably on the epic No.3

An underrated conductor to boot......

[Cato]

Quite simply, Sergei Protopopov  RAWKS!   

[Linz]

Bruckner Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, 1890 Version. Ed. Leopold Nowak, Eugen Jochum, Staatskapelle Dresden

[ritter]

Bruckner Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, 1890 Version. Ed. Leopold Nowak, Eugen Jochum, Staatskapelle Dresden

Nice! I was just listening to Jochum's first recording of the Eighth (the 1949 from Hamburg) yesterday, and found it superb.

THREAD DUTY:

Book II (Rondeña, Almería, Triana) of Albéniz's Iberia, in my favourite recording of the work, Claude Helffer's on Accord (originally released by Club Français du Disque):



Hat tip to @Franco_Manitobain ! 

[Brian]

Don Juan only. Why? Because this Don Juan f*$%#ing sucks. Sorry, but it's the kind of thing I would expect from, say, the Colchester Philharmonic, not the Philharmonia. Rouvali is mostly to blame. He stretches the piece to 19 minutes, but speeds through some of the big climaxes; it's long because the slow love scenes are soup. At their two big moments, the French horns are not prominent enough (try Previn/LSO!). The very first statement of the theme has a wrong rhythm, which sets the tone for the rest. Oddly, the oboe solo is so bright and shrill it sounds like a trumpet!

Add in tepid playing and rather shallow live recorded sound - it sounds like a radio broadcast - and there is no reason this should have ever been released to the public. Put it in the orchestra's archive where it belongs, and leave it there.

[classicalgeek]

I was in the concert hall for that live video! The coupling was Frank Martin's concerto for seven winds and orchestra. The Seventh sticks out in my memory because of how slow the second movement is compared to how fast and exciting the other three are.

That must have been quite the happening! I found the performance of the Martin, and I'm listening to it now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTL-CyOQhnk. Erin Hannigan (principal oboe) and I actually overlapped by a year at Oberlin (she was a senior when I was a freshman), although we didn't know each other.

TD:
Nielsen
Symphony no. 2 "The Four Temperaments"
Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Fabio Luisi
(on Spotify)



I enjoyed this quite a bit more than the Fifth of the same cycle!

[Franco_Manitobain]

Nice! I was just listening to Jochum's first recording of the Eighth (the 1949 from Hamburg) yesterday, and found it superb.

THREAD DUTY:

Book II (Rondeña, Almería, Triana) of Albéniz's Iberia, in my favourite recording of the work, Claude Helffer's on Accord (originally released by Club Français du Disque):



Hat tip to @Franco_Manitobain ! 

Looks like I planted a seed! 😊

I'll look to add a few more piano versions to my collection, whatever I can still find and I do want one of the orchestrated versions. Problem is the OOP issue with a lot of these things.

[Bachtoven]

Op.76 No.2-4. Excellent playing and sound.

[Lisztianwagner]

On youtube, first listen to this opera:
Luigi Dallapiccola
Volo di Notte

Leon Botstein & American Symphony Orchestra

[ritter]

On youtube, first listen to this opera:
Luigi Dallapiccola
Volo di Notte

Leon Botstein & American Symphony Orchestra

I still haven't listened to Volo di notte. Should do do soon. How are you finding it, Ilaria?

Buonasera!

[Daverz]

This recording of Ilya Murometz is not mentioned often, so I thought I'd give it a listen:

[DavidW]

[Symphonic Addict]

Beethoven: Piano Trio, Op. 97

[Lisztianwagner]

I still haven't listened to Volo di notte. Should do do soon. How are you finding it, Ilaria?

Buonasera!

Buenas noches, Rafael! It's really magnificent so far, such a powerful, haunting work that flows without solution of continuity; it has beautiful contrasts in rhythms and dynamics as well as tense, restless atmospheres, which suddenly grow in thrilling climaxes, that are very captivating. But I had few doubts about Dallapiccola.  From what I read, it's not still a complete dodecaphonic opera and it alternates open and closed forms, similarly of what Berg did in Wozzeck.

[foxandpeng]

This recording of Ilya Murometz is not mentioned often, so I thought I'd give it a listen:

Might have a go at that one later 🙂

Now playing:

Reinhold Glière
Symphony 3 'Ilya Muromets'
Edward Downes
BBC Philharmonic
Chandos

Enjoying getting to know Glière's symphonies today. Fair few listens ahead, probably.

[Bachtoven]

Op.109-111. Tremendous playing and very realistic sound.

[Karl Henning]