What are you listening to right now?
Tue, Mar 30 2010, 5:37AM
#2
RE: What are you listening to right now?
Andrew, I'm afraid if I want something "new" I have to delve far back into the past. I don't care for the Romantics and I hate 20th/21st century music full stop. I wish it wasn't like that, but I find other people have just as many "holes" in their musical taste as I do. Many don't share my passion for chamber music, for a start. This delving is how I discovered Andrew Lawrence-King. I bought The Harp of Luduvico (and Harp Music of the Italian Renaissance) without knowing a thing about what was on them. The same goes for The Harp Consort's Spanish Dances (Luz y Norte by Lucas Ruiz de Ribayaz). Enormously entertaining stuff.
Tue, Mar 30 2010, 6:48AM
#3
RE: What are you listening to right now?
I am listening to and evaluating Charles Mackerras' recordings of Mozart's last four symphonies on the Linn label (SACD) with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He is using an informed authentic musical style with period trumpets that do not sound very refined to these ears...but after three hearings I am able to now concentrate on the music rather than those trumpets. I have grown rather found of these recordings since I am finally over the shock and can be more objective.
In comparison to his Prague Chamber Symphony recordings of the 80's (Telarc) I find the interpretation is somewhat different...less detailed but very straight forward and, in a word, charming. I still love those Telarc's however...they are a little more "romantic," a bit more ebb and flow vis-a-vis the Linn recordings and of course still hold up very well in the sound department. I think I will keep them both.
Nevertheless, I still favor Josef Krips and Bruno Walter in this repertoire as well as Sandor Vegh.
Tue, Mar 30 2010, 3:14PM
#4
RE: What are you listening to right now?
I am listening to Smetana's My Country for two pianos and four hands. The sonorities are quite different from the symphonic version. It is published by Supraphon.
Tue, Mar 30 2010, 4:04PM
#5
RE: What are you listening to right now?
I've just finished Krystian Zimermann's Rachmaninov Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2 with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I'm absolutely floored by the way Zimermann plays, so powerful and firm is his command over the piano. I don't dare to compare Leif Ove Andsnes's recording with the Berliner Philharmnoniker and Antonio Pappano, but I'm very happy to have both recordings. They are among my most treasured albums, and I never tire of listening to them over and over again.
Tue, Mar 30 2010, 4:21PM
#6
RE: What are you listening to right now?
Tchaikovsky String Quartet No.1. The Borodins
Tue, Mar 30 2010, 5:59PM
#7
RE: What are you listening to right now?
The Bride of Messina by Zdenek Fibich -- Supraphon. Frantisek Jilek conducting. with Gabriela Benackova (gorgeous singing! right up there with her Rusalka.)
Wed, Mar 31 2010, 12:23PM
#8
RE: What are you listening to right now?
I've had those recordings of last four Mozart symphonies by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Sir Charles Mackerras for about 12 months and I loved them from day one. The trumpets are one of the main reasons as well as the tempi of the allegros, use of all possible repeats and the clarity of the recording.
I think we're too used to refined conductors of the Austro-German tradition playing down the trumpets so that we can listen to the strings. Mozart's trumpet fanfares at climactic moments of his symphonies are meant to dominate the textures. They would have done so in Mozart's time when orchestras were much smaller in most cases than they are today. Keep up the good work Sir Charles!
Wed, Mar 31 2010, 12:52PM
#9
RE: What are you listening to right now?
I've just bought the new Mackerras set of the earlier symphonies and am finding it just as good.
To keep on topic I'm now listening to the Haffner.
Wed, Mar 31 2010, 2:21PM
#10
RE: What are you listening to right now?
Gunter Wand conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner`s 8th Symphony from the 1995 Proms which I have on tape. I so love these live concerts.
Wed, Mar 31 2010, 4:42PM
#11
RE: What are you listening to right now?
Britten Cello Suites, Truls Mork mp3
Wed, Mar 31 2010, 5:57PM
#12
RE: What are you listening to right now?
I am listening Feldman Concertos on CPO
ing to
Wed, Mar 31 2010, 6:41PM
#13
RE: What are you listening to right now?
It is breakfast time here on the island of Maui, and I am listening this morning to a most enjoyable Meridian cd that I added to my collection in the mid 90's. Two Trios and eight Scottish Songs by Joseph Haydn are floating out of my iMac's built in speakers. Infrequently heard music recorded using the superb AKG C24 microphone.
At 9 am my time, I chat, over the internet, with a long-time friend in Glasgow, UK.
Enjoy your varied working and listening days. Irvine Shamrock.
Wed, Mar 31 2010, 7:30PM
#14
RE: What are you listening to right now?
Sorry to be pedantic but if I was listening 'right now' I couldn't (and shouldn't!) be responding. However my last hearing was Bruckner 3 and I can't get the darned thing out of my head!!!!
Wed, Mar 31 2010, 8:27PM
#15
RE: Home
I am listening - was listening most of the afternoon and evening - to my new DENON PMA-2010 amplifier which was delivered to me today and which was reviewed in the April issue. Thank you, Tony Williams!
(And what music? Music with ffff and pppp! Macbeth/Abbado, Bruckner 8th/Karajan, Mahler 2nd/Zinman.)
John
Not related to the thread, but how many covers use this image - Caspar David Friedrich's "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog"?
Surely this is the most frequently used artwork for covers, or can someone think of something else?