What are you listening 2 now?

[Maestro267]

Moeran Symphony in G minor
Ulster Orchestra, Handley

I listened to that symphony yesterday (David Lloyd-Jones recording) for the first time in a number of years. Excellent work!

[Iota]

Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

Absurdly beautiful, both performance and music. One day I will melt away like Dali's clock, listening to playing like this.

[NumberSix]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Arturo Toscanini & NBC Symphony Orchestra

I am pretty laid back about sound quality - I listen to Grateful Dead audience tapes, after all, and some of those can be rough. But after listening to some nicely-produced modern stuff like the Chailly Leipzig or the Norrington SWR today,  this Toscanini sounds really rough. Perfectly listenable, and the ear adjusts.

But it's still rough.

[Florestan]

How many forms of escapism are there, all our frozen opinions, fossilized in our brain. How many lies that must conceal our insecurity, the illusory world in which communication takes place with a guard as an outpost that must shelter our inner self.

I've no idea what you're talking about but I completely agree with you, Jan.

[Iota]

I've no idea what you're talking about but I completely agree with you, Jan.

To me it's a perfectly expressed description of a condition in which many (I suspect) find themselves.

[Roasted Swan]

Moeran Symphony in G minor
Ulster Orchestra, Handley

Such a wonderful piece!

[Traverso]

I've no idea what you're talking about but I completely agree with you, Jan.

Hi Andrei,you are a funny guy,have a nice weekend.

[Traverso]

To me it's a perfectly expressed description of a condition in which many (I suspect) find themselves.

Thank you for your kind words.

[AnotherSpin]

I am pretty laid back about sound quality - I listen to Grateful Dead audience tapes, after all, and some of those can be rough. But after listening to some nicely-produced modern stuff like the Chailly Leipzig or the Norrington SWR today,  this Toscanini sounds really rough. Perfectly listenable, and the ear adjusts.

But it's still rough.

+1

[AnotherSpin]

Luca Montebugnoli performs his arrangement of the 3rd Symphony on an Erard piano. Turns out, it's quite listenable.

[Florestan]

Hi Andrei,you are a funny guy,have a nice weekend.

Likewise my friend! 

[Florestan]

To me it's a perfectly expressed description of a condition in which many (I suspect) find themselves.

After so many pints of beer amd a prospective bottle of white wine, I am not sure what is perfect or not anymore...

[NumberSix]

Mozart: Requiem (1990)
Marriner, Academy of St Martin in the Fields

I listened to a Requiem recording recently - I think it was Rene Jacobs - and I remembered that I love this music. So I set aside a few new-to-me recordings to stream over the next few days (this one, Harnoncourt's last one, and Bernstein's last one). I have Marriner to thank for introducing me to Wolfie's music a million and a half years ago, thanks of course to the Amadeus film and soundtrack. That soundtrack only has a small portion of this piece, though. This recording is from half a decade later, but 5 min in, and I know I will like it just as much as the bit from the film.

[Todd]

Op 28.

[DavidW]

Mozart: Requiem (1990)
Marriner, Academy of St Martin in the Fields

I listened to a Requiem recording recently - I think it was Rene Jacobs - and I remembered that I love this music. So I set aside a few new-to-me recordings to stream over the next few days (this one, Harnoncourt's last one, and Bernstein's last one). I have Marriner to thank for introducing me to Wolfie's music a million and a half years ago, thanks of course to the Amadeus film and soundtrack. That soundtrack only has a small portion of this piece, though. This recording is from half a decade later, but 5 min in, and I know I will like it just as much as the bit from the film.

I was going to say that my was introduction... but I was wrong. It took me awhile to track it down based on my vague memory of a tape I bought in high school.  But I did. This was my first Mozart Requiem:



I kind of miss those days when I didn't care about the performers, the instruments, sound quality. I just bought these tapes and fell in love with the music.

[DavidW]

Thread duty:

[foxandpeng]

Gál: Symphony No. 1
Orchestra of the Swan/Woods

One of the British prizewinners of the 1928 Columbia Schubert Centenary competition, of which I listened to the overall winner (Atterberg 6) earlier.

I love the Gál symphonies... 2 and 4 most of all!

Thread duty:

John Metcalf
Cello Symphony
Raphael Wallfisch
William Boughton
English Symphony Orchestra
Nimbus

This is a beautiful and engaging Cello Symphony by Metcalf. I can take or leave the accompanying Mapping Wales and Plain Chants, both of which lack the invention and emotion of the Cello Symphony, but this is worth your time. It has melody and pathos, and improves on every listen.

Well recommended, and I think it is worth adding Metcalf's own commentary:

"Here are a few pointers for the first time listener:

The work opens quietly with the solo cello above a pedal bass. It has for me the character of a journey by night on foot or at sea. As the orchestra celli and voices and other instruments join, the solo instrument is 'lost from view' in a swelling crowd and the music builds over several minutes to a climax. A trumpet solo 'invites' the solo cello to 'speak' and a declamatory and rhapsodic solo passage with orchestra follows. At the end of this passage the music dies away and reverts again to an echo of the opening with bassoons and voices over the pedal base.

A short linking solo passage follows for solo cello accompanied by orchestral celli playing pizzicato. The second section opens with all the celli playing solo lines in a gentle rocking, elegiac passage. This again builds as other instruments join and an extended dramatic passage of music follows. A sudden very quiet moment with solo instrument above muted trombones heralds the end of the second section.

The third section opens with the whole orchestra in chordal writing. A massive fortissimo leads to the reintroduction of the solo instrument using musical ideas which recall the first section. The rhapsodic character of the music continues and leads to the statement of a broad romantic melody first by the cello then the whole orchestra. This carries the music on towards its conclusion where the voices, which up to then have had a subliminal, colouristic role, are heard prominently in the texture for the first time."

[Bachtoven]

[foxandpeng]

Gavin Bryars
Cello Concerto, 'Farewell to Philosophy'
Julian Lloyd-Webber
James Judd
English Chamber Orchestra

Brilliant, to be honest. But then, Bryars often is, IMO.

[NumberSix]

I was going to say that my was introduction... but I was wrong. It took me awhile to track it down based on my vague memory of a tape I bought in high school.  But I did. This was my first Mozart Requiem:



I kind of miss those days when I didn't care about the performers, the instruments, sound quality. I just bought these tapes and fell in love with the music.

Wow, I love it! Can you still play the tape? (or find a digital version, maybe on youtube?)

And yes, I was just thinking about a modern version of that issue, how annoyed I am with myself right now for my struggles with finding the goldilocks streaming service, etc. I didn't have this problem 12 months ago. I was just happy with either Apple or Spotify, depending on my mood. . .

They all work great, and they all have this issue or that issue. But everything plays more music than I could dream of hearing in the years I have left. So who cares?