What are you listening 2 now?

[Linz]

Joseph Haydn Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Orchestra Of The 18th Century; Frans Brüggen CD8

[Traverso]

Bach

Toccatas   Menno van Delft

[vandermolen]

Bliss: Meditations on a Theme of John Blow. CBSO Vernon Handley
A fine performance of this quietly moving and underrated work:

[Iota]

Beethoven: Piano Trio No. 1 in Eb major, Op. 1 No. 1

Eb major always seems such a fresh, energetic key for Beethoven, and so it is with his first published opus number. Full of elan, high spirits, brilliance and fun, it just lights the place up. Almost impossible not to enjoy I'd have thought. The Stuttgarts certainly seem on board with it.

[Iota]

Dichterliebe



Some of the best piano writing anywhere.

I got to know that cycle at school and I remember being particularly mesmerised by the piano epilogue (but you're right, it's all good). It had this elusive, yearning quality to it, so poetic and vulnerable, which I was later to find was very particular to Schumann and finds expression in many of his great piano works. It's sort of why I love his music so much I think.

[Madiel]

I got to know that cycle at school and I remember being particularly mesmerised by the piano epilogue (but you're right, it's all good). It had this elusive, yearning quality to it, so poetic and vulnerable, which I was later to find was very particular to Schumann and finds expression in many of his great piano works. It's sort of why I love his music so much I think.

Many years ago I read a whole essay about the first song, and it made me think the song is amazing, and I've never really stopped thinking that. Elusive and yearning are good words for it, how it avoids resolving.

[Linz]

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor op. 22,
Johann Sebastian Bach Prelude No.12, Emil Gilels, New York Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta

[VonStupp]

Zdeněk Fibich
Spring
Romance of Spring
At Twilight
Night at Karlstein

NaĎa Šormová, soprano
Karel Průša, bass
Prague Radio SO & Chorus - František Vajnar

Feeling much better about this recording compared to the Naxos series.
VS

[André]

A very fine recording. Ančerl didn't lose me for even a single moment.

One of the best historical recordings of the work. I also recommend the LSO under Leopold Ludwig (Everest). Straight, unvarnished, powerful performances both. Those were the days before M9 became a favourite of all 'hot' conductors.

[Daverz]

A very fine recording. Ančerl didn't lose me for even a single moment.

A great recording of the 9th, but who knows where Urania sourced it from.  It's just a cash grab by this knockoff label.  I suggest sticking with the Supraphon issues.

[Cato]

In the 1960's, I came across this work because it was paired with the Robert Browning Overture by Charles Ives:

Jack Beeson was known for chamber operas: this work is a punchy piece of drama mixed with various interesting tangents:

Robert Helps was something of a "beatnik" composer, about the same generation as Jack Beeson, looking very avant-garde here      with his beard and sweatshirt:



His symphony came across my turntable because of Carl Ruggles and Sun Treader!

For some unknown reason, it is spread across three hard-to-find videos!

[Daverz]

The Helps Symphony has long been a favorite of mine. 

Thread duty:

Fantastic disc.

[JBS]

One of the best historical recordings of the work. I also recommend the LSO under Leopold Ludwig (Everest). Straight, unvarnished, powerful performances both. Those were the days before M9 became a favourite of all 'hot' conductors.

My head accepts but my heart rejects the label "historical" for a recording made when I was 7 years old.

TD
I'm okay with this being labelled historical, since I was not yet born at the time of these performances.


Brahms Violin Concerto in D Op 77
Nathan Milstein violin
[17 August 1957]

Honegger Symphony No 3 "Liturgique"

[10 August 1955]

[André]

CD 1, Symphony no 4 ('Rock Symphony' from 1973), Cello concerto (1963) and a Latvian film soundtrack from 1973.

If I'm not mistaken, before the appearance of this 5cd set, the only mention of Kalnins' work was a recording of his 'Rock Symphony' paired with the 'Garbage Concerto' of one Jan Jarvlepp, on the BIS label. Being found in bad company has always been a dubious calling card, so I went on a limb when I bought this set in 2021, praying there would be some 'real' music in it.

There's definitely a hint of crossover in Kalnins' language, but crossover with what exactly ? It's not pop, it's not rock, it's not New Age and certainly nothing garbage-like. This composer seems to have developed a musical language that is canon but open (very open) to contemporary influences. I detect an aesthetic that may have been influenced by Jan Sandström (of Motorbike Concerto fame), late Kancheli and probably by latvian folk music as well - which may or may not come across clearly: Latvia is an ancient baltic state (capital: Riga) whose musical tradition is old, proud and has probably been influenced by its polish, estonian, lithuanian, russian, swedish and prussian neighbours. Which is to say: hard to pinpoint !

Reacquaintance with this music 3 years later makes me realize I am still struck by how modern yet traditional Kalnins' idiom sounds. What's important is that its faculty to communicate is still intact.

The music to a play (track 1) is extremely fetching.

The Rock symphony (symphony no 4) has a very Bolero-like first movement (never underestimate that old chestnut's influence on the masses and me). The second movement feels like a tin soldiers' mock parade, in the manner of a mahlerian march, but dreamy, not biting or sarcastic. Kancheli/Glass' repetitive syntax weighs both heavily and lightly here. A fine pastiche. The last two movements sound less distinctive. The symphony ends quietly, always a hard feat to achieve successfully for a composer. I had the feeling it sounded inconclusive.

The cello concerto is a 20-minute, one movement work with many different moods, and some rather unusual scoring touches. It sounds very modern and yet, it's over 60 years old.

The cover art seems to portray Kalnins as an intellectual young man, a parisian café habitué. He may have been at the time these works were composed, but he's well into his eighties now. Music sometimes travels in time in a strange way.

[steve ridgway]

Schnittke: Quintet For Piano, Two Violins, Viola And Cello

[AnotherSpin]

A great recording of the 9th, but who knows where Urania sourced it from.  It's just a cash grab by this knockoff label.  I suggest sticking with the Supraphon issues.

I listened to some of Ančerl's recordings in the Supraphon gold series and wasn't particularly impressed with the sound quality. This edition was recommended on another forum, and its availability on Qobuz is reason enough for me to consider it legitimate.

[steve ridgway]

Stockhausen: Studie I

[Harry]

Silvius Leopold Weiss.
L'Infidele.
Lute Music.
Eduard Eguez, plays on a 13 course Lute made by Robert Lundberg, Oregon 1992.

[Daverz]

I listened to some of Ančerl's recordings in the Supraphon gold series and wasn't particularly impressed with the sound quality. This edition was recommended on another forum, and its availability on Qobuz is reason enough for me to consider it legitimate.

Is there any information on Urania's source?  Urania almost certainly did not have access to the master tapes.  It's probably from LP. Or it could have been taken from another CD, not an unknown practice by some unscrupulous labels.  Qobuz doesn't care about the quality or provenance of what's given to them by distributors, and there's a lot of junk there.

To me, legitimate means making an effort to license the original master tapes, as Tower Records Japan probably did for their hybrid SACD:

https://www.hraudio.net/showmusic.php?title=13494&showall=1

[AnotherSpin]

Is there any information on Urania's source?  Urania almost certainly did not have access to the master tapes.  It's probably from LP. Or it could have been taken from another CD, not an unknown practice by some unscrupulous labels.  Qobuz doesn't care about the quality or provenance of what's given to them by distributors, and there's a lot of junk there.

To me, legitimate means making an effort to license the original master tapes, as Tower Records Japan probably did for their hybrid SACD:

https://www.hraudio.net/showmusic.php?title=13494&showall=1

I pay Qobuz a significant amount for my annual subscription, and I couldn't care less where the material they stream comes from.