Today's Listening

Weekend started with a couple of favourite LPs: Eileen Joyce's Saga LP of popular pieces from Granados & Debussy to Dohnanyi, Faure & Beethoven showing yet again what a fine pianist she was. Although she lived for another 30 years or so this was probably her last commercial recording. Then an Argo LP of Mendelssohn's Octet by the ASMF members including Marriner, Iona Brown and Hugh McGuire. A great performance in amazingly realistic sound: quite superb.

Later a couple of Naxos CDs: Rautavara's 7th symphony & JoAnn Falletta's Ulster recording of Holst. I don't think the Cotswolds symphony anything to write home about and it doesn't in any way remind me of that beautiful part of the country. But then the Japanese suite isn't very Japanese and Indra, the best work on the disc, doesn't sound very Indian either! Good performance & recording but perhaps just pipped at the post in Indra by David Atherton's Lyrita disc. Then just before retiring, Beethoven's Ghost trio by Barenboim, du Pre & Zukerman from Barenboim's golden period in the studio but they don't quite play as one as the Beaux Arts.

Today the first record of Paul Crossley's complete Ravel as praised by a French correspondent in the November Magazine although not quite so scintillatingly brillliant in Mirroirs as Minoru Nojima on a Reference Recordings LP. Finally, Radio 3 lunchtime Wigmore Hall recital from Athos Trio in Haydn & Dvorak showing off the superb acoustics of that venue. On FM the sound was as good as the Argo LP. 

Error!

Thanks Naupilus, good work, but showing my ignorance where's Foz?

I've just been computerizing some 30 to 40 year old 35mm slides but I'd better not turn this into a photographic forum (I don't even know how to post one on here as my image)!

I first came across Gielen's recordings years ago when he was one of Vox's Vienna conductors, usually accompanying on a concerto but haven't heard any of his recent recordings. It seems Vox's founder/owner George Mendelssohn could be quite a good spotter of up & coming talent. Mehta's first recording was I believe young Brendel's first Emperor.

Thanks Naupilus, correct spelling and you can even put a cedilla on your typescript!  I'm afraid my Portugese and Spanish is non existent. I've only seen Iguacu from the Brazilian side; we weren't very friendly with Argentina when I was there and when I tried to go over to Paraguay they wouldn't let me in. It was in Stroessner's time and I think they thought I was a dangerous revolutionary and seemed rather alarmed when they saw Cuban & Chinese stamps in my passport.

On the subject of defunct orchestras I've been listening recently to several excellent recordings by the Bournemouth Sinfonietta under the direction of Ronald Thomas (what happened to him?). He both directs and plays in Beethoven's Concerto and Romances, Mendelssohn's Concerto and the charming Konzertuck  for violin & orchestra D345 by Schubert, with refreshing, lively and bright performances and he obviously had an excellent rapport with the players. They bring a breath of fresh air to oft played works (except the Schubert!) without going down the period performance route. There's also an excellent Haydn 88 & 104 done just to my taste & he also plays & directs Vivaldi's ubiquitous Op 8 (all 12) very nicely.

Struggling for the second or third time though Naxos's 3 discs of the symphonic music of Luís Freitas-Branco. Anyone familiar with the first four symphonies of Joly Braga Santos will recognise the idiom although I find LF-B's material less memorable. He also has a habit of writing cheesy, gay finales after often quite impressively solemn first and slow movements. Still, another worthwhile enterprise by the ever-laudable Naxos label.

Last few days,  British music from various eras starting with the Milton Keynes Chamber Orchestra (I jest not) in 4 symphonies by Samuel Wesley. The first 3 very much in the style of JC Bach scored for strings & horns with harpsichord continuo. By the 4th Wesley seems to have come across Haydn going to 4 movements & adding woodwind & timpani. Pleasant listening well played & recorded.

Then piano, Stephen Hough's Bowen collection, an LP by Peter Jacobs playing Balfour Gardiner (the one & only record on the Aspen Music label?) and an LP of operatic paraphrases by Ronald Stevenson. The first side is Stevenson's rather indigestible Prelude, Fugue & Fantasy on themes from Busoni's Dr Faust (almost as indigestible as Busoni's Fantasia Contrapuntistica - a piece I have quite failed to come to terms with). The second side is rather better starting with Grainger's Rosencavalier Ramble, an operatic fantasy very much in the Liszt or Thalberg tradition then 3 more pices by Stevenson on Wiegenlied from Wozzeck - for me Stevenson's best piece - rather Debussian, a fantasy on Peter Grimes and one on Bush's opera Wat Tyler (an opera which I admit to never having come accross previously). Stevenson is obviously a very fine pianist but his Bosendorfer rather swims in an over reverberant acoustic.

The last three days I went to a rather long journey to an almost all Mozart program ending with some Beethoven and Haydn, on the basis of passing all the tonalities in major, since Mozart wrote only on exceptional cases in the minor mode. I started with the single instrument moving to the larger forces at the end. I based my listening on mostly new releases and, in any case, superlative new or recent recordings:

I started with the F major Piano Sonata, K.332, in a very new recording, on La Dolce Volta, of a quite old but still active pianist, the superb Aldo Ciccolini. His playing was amazingly superlative and beyond any expectation, in a cracking recording. The piano used is a Grand Bechstein.

Then, I moved in G major, listening to a brand new recording of the great Violin/Piano Sonata K.379 with two very solid and intelligent soloists, namely Lars Vogt and Christian Tetzlaff. Their performance was outstanding, extremely refined and original, in a very detailed, bright recording, on Ondine.

The Piano Trio in E major (the only major work of Mozart in this key) followed, in the best of demonstration quality recording, with the outstanding Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, on Capriccio (on SACD). A superb reading of a true masterpiece, in a most amazing recording (2005).

Going to the very important E flat, I focused on Mozart's String Quartet K.428, in a (if not the) definitive recording with the Hagen Quartet from their SACD called "Hagen Quartet 30", released in March 2011 (on Myrios), celebrating the 30 years of their dedication to the ultimate performances of Chamber Music.

The D major was also an important key for Mozart. So, what more significant and profound than his String Quintet K. 593, in a top notch performance by the Fine Arts Quartet, in a stunning SACD recording of 2001, on the French Lyrinx.

Moving to the bigger orchestral forces and the reference key of C major, I chose a minor work for string orchestra, the Menuet and Trio, K.485a in contrast with the most profound and very serious Adagio and Fugue in c minor, K 546, with The English Concert under A. Manze (on HM: a 2003 recording).

Then, I jumped to A major, since there are some wonderful and very significant Concertos (Mozart was very keen on using this key in his Concertos and in a magnificent Violin/Piano Sonata as well as a great String Quartet). I chose the rather less projected K.414. A wonderful, radiant and so positive work, in a brand new release by the German MDG, with C. Zacharias playing and conducting the Chamber Orch. of Lausanne. A wonderful outcome all the way.

Finishing with the very important key of B flat, there is not much in the larger forces works of Mozart. So, I chose the Symphony No.33, K. 319, in the brand new recording of the Danish National Chamber Orchestra under Adam Fischer, on Dacapo (on SACD).

To fill the gap of having something with a bit larger forces, I turned to Beethoven's Fourth (in B flat too), in the very new and so individual recording with the Orchestra of the 18th Century under Frans Bruggen, on Glossa, and the Haydn's absolute masterpiece in B flat too, the sublime Harmoniemesse, in a live and supreme recording on BR Klassik (from 2009) with the Choir and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra under M. Jansons. The best possible Finale in this key and for this small "marathon" program.

The outcome was one more confirmation that the Great Classics wrote The Music of reference for all ages. With very few exceptions of larger and richer orchestrations or some very emotional melodies in the Romantic era, this period and these greatest of composers wrote the music which constitute the most essential listening in Classical Music.

For the last three days of the year, I plan a tour of all the most used minor mode works of Beethoven (with some help from Haydn, Mozart or Schubert for the h minor and F sharp minor).

Happy New Year to all.

Parla