What are you listening to right now?
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 1:04AM
#2
RE: What are you listening to right now?
In Emilia di Liverpool, is it true there's a chorus for the Mountaineers of Liverpool? My memory of the geography of the place is perhaps a bit rusty, but I don't recall mountains and mountaineers. Perhaps the back of the Gladys Street end at Goodison.
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 3:31AM
#3
RE: What are you listening to right now?
Tonight its Schumann and in particular 'Carnaval', which I hardly know. First Pescia on a Claves release, followed by Kempff on DG.
I would not dare to review either - Schumann and in particular his piano music is one of my projects for the year. I always have struggled with Schumann beyond the symphonies. Quite probably this was due to lazy listening on my part.
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 10:13AM
#4
RE: What are you listening to right now?
Toyen1, The Opera Rara recording of Emilia di Liverpool was one of their first recordings and was first issued as long ago as 1987, though not necessarily in every country. All this I found from the internet. Perhaps you too should consult Wikipedia every now and then. Surely Parla may be forgiven for having forgotten the exact length, after so long. I heard the opera once, earlier, in a BBC broadcast, and don't remember anything about it except that it seemed very long.
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 11:33AM
#5
RE: What are you listening to right now?
Toyen1, The Opera Rara recording of Emilia di Liverpool was one of their first recordings and was first issued as long ago as 1987, though not necessarily in every country. All this I found from the internet. Perhaps you too should consult Wikipedia every now and then. Surely Parla may be forgiven for having forgotten the exact length, after so long. I heard the opera once, earlier, in a BBC broadcast, and don't remember anything about it except that it seemed very long.
How can you defend the indefensible?
Why should I consult wikepedia when I have the recording or did that little fact evade you when you read my post(s)?
In fact it was recorded as long ago as 1986.
All Parla had to do, if he was telling the truth, was take the boxed set down from his shelves and take a look.
Fritz Spiegl revived it in 1957 to coincide with the celebrations to mark the 750th anniversary of the granting of a charter to the city of Liverpool. This was the 1828 version and a shortened version of this production was broadcast by the BBC three months later but with Pritchard conducting and, wait for it (and you did not mention this)...Joan Sutherland in the lead! This has gone around the world on private record( no surprise, there).
The action of the 1828 version takes place in and around the hermitage of Liwerpool, situated on top of a mountain a short distance from London.
The opening scene is a chorus for mountaneers, a common sight, even today, in the environs of Liwerpool ( in the final of the FA Cup, again!).
Enough of this. I shall have another go at appreciating these works another time but will sit down to the EMI SACD of Schuricht's Bruckner 8th.
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 1:13PM
#6
RE: What are you listening to right now?
Troyen, the recording you have (of 2006 reissue) is different than mine, which is the original. I didn't go back to the "shelves", because my collection is wide enough to cope with retrieving items I don't intend to listen in the future. As I have mentioned in some previous threads, my collection of almost four decades is vast enough to handle. We speak of a very good number of thousands of recording items.
The website of Opera Rara may say that the Rossini Opera will be released in November, but the information I got from the the company is late September, unless, since then (it was a couple weeks ago), they anticipated of some more problems with funding. We'll see.
Tagalie, which are the "same two Greek words" you refer to as for the origin of the words "melomane" and "melomaniac"? By the way, I don't get excited to use some foreign words from time to time. It comes naturally, because I feel that the foreign word might be more precise and with all the nuances needed. Since English is not my first language and I happen to speak some more, it comes to me almost naturally to jump even to Latin, if necessary. Malgre' tout, je vois la ne'cessite'.
Parisboy, I don't reside in France and it "didn't slip into my vocabulary". However, I love French and France indeed.
Parla
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 1:52PM
#7
RE: What are you listening to right now?
Troyen, I checked again your posts and i don't think I misunderstood you. First, you wrote that the set was issued in 2006. I merely pointed out that it had first been issued in 1987, as Parla correctly implied. Second, I'm not sure how you can know that Parla only had to get the set off his shelf to look at it. Many recording that I have heard over the year (owned or not) are no longer in my collection now. Anyway enough of that.
Your comments about the 1957 radio broadcast ring true. It must have been about then that I heard it. We had no record player in the house so most of my music came from the Third Programme. Perhaps I can be excused for not remembering it was Joan Sutherland. I was 12 years old at the time, and she was hardly a household name in 1957.
Anyway, I do agree with you that listening to Schuricht's Bruckner is a more rewarding experience. I very much enjoy his swift but never hurried approach (especially in the morning). In the evening I'm ready for Celibidache's slow but so spiritual approach. It never ceases to surprise me that I can enjoy both versions so much!
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 1:55PM
#8
RE: What are you listening to right now?
I forgot to add that one reason I listened to the broadcast was that we lived near Liverpool at the time (the not in the mountains!).
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 3:26PM
#9
RE: What are you listening to right now?
I forgot to add that one reason I listened to the broadcast was that we lived near Liverpool at the time (the not in the mountains!).
According to Donizetti and his libettist that makes you a Londoner!
I corrected my original statement by saying that my edition was issued in 2006 but that there was another in 2000 and I knew that both operas were recorded in 1986.
The trouble with both these Bruckner performances is that they drag a bit. That's my initial impression having become a Schuricht fan in Bruckner after hearing a revelatory 5th some years back.
Having said that there are moments in the first movement of the 9th which are supremely beautiful and moving. Also, I think he may nail the scherzos in both symphonies like no other.
As to Emilia, either in Liverpool or of Liwerpool, I am wary of opera semi-seria as I am no great fan of Italian 'comic' opera. I think Offenbach did this kind of thing much better and, also, it tends to remind me of G & S!
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 4:26PM
#10
RE: What are you listening to right now?
...and what's wrong with being reminded of G&S? They created some excellent confectionary of pupular light opera, a good deal funnier - with more political bite - than their contemporary Viennese, German or French tonesetters in this genre.
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 5:13PM
#11
RE: What are you listening to right now?
My goodness, Troyen, if you think the Schuricht performances drag, how must you find Celibidache's 8th? Schuricht is one of the faster 8ths on record. Anyway, thank you for a timely reminder: I've put the CD out to listen to again this evening. I'd be interested to hear whether you think the SACD offers significant improvement in sound quality in these older recordings and also, (Parla), if the Klemperer Mozart, Schumann, Mendelssohn SACDs have anything more to offer, soundwise.
HMV, surely nothing is wrong with G & S, despite the fact that, or perhaps because, they are 'spoofs' of Donizetti and other Italian opera!! At severe risk of annoying enthusiasts I must say I get more pleasure from G & S (not to mention Offenbach) than from much of Donizetti.
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 7:31PM
#12
RE: What are you listening to right now?
8:23 am here on the distant island of Maui, Hawaii.
My breakfast music is cd No. 5 from the Mercury Living Presence box.
This is the February 1957 recording of Bartok's Violin Concerto No. 2.
The late Yehudi Menuhin is the soloist with Minneapolis Sympony Orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati. This is finely honed performance, one of a few in my cd and LP collection.
Enjoy your various listening days. Irvine Shamrock
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 7:47PM
#13
RE: What are you listening to right now?
Tagalie, which are the "same two Greek words" you refer to as for the origin of the words "melomane" and "melomaniac"?
'melos' - song, and 'mania' - madness.
I wonder if Donizetti looked at a map of England, saw Edge Hill and Everton Heights in Liverpool, and figured it was a sort of Zermatt-by-the-Sea. I suppose no matter where we live, we all harbour illusions about faraway places. In reality, some would say 24 hours from Tulsa is far too close to the place.
I listened to Bruckner's Te Deum yesterday morning. Wish I could join in with the general adulation of this composer. For me, a little Bruckner goes a long way.
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 8:18PM
#14
RE: What are you listening to right now?
Nice ideas Tagalie. In fact, I suppose the Welsh mountains and the Pennines are not VERY far from Liverpool. But, as Troyen implies, the Mountaineers' chorus is supposed to take place on a mountain near London: Primrose Hill perhaps.
Tue, Apr 17 2012, 12:14AM
#15
RE: What are you listening to right now?
I did not say the Schuricht performances were a drag I stated, now read this carefully less you make another error, that they drag a bit and I'll add, if I haven't stated this already, this was a first impression after last hearing these performances a little under thirty years ago. These are both Nowak editions and, so, any comparison needs to be made with performances using the same, although I grew up on the Haas editions.
As for G & S, everything everybody has stated is true. It's just that it has this whiff of lower middle-class taste and prep school amateurs performances about them. The very people who could not see the irony in the fact that G, in particular, was lampooning and satirising them.
I listened to both Emilia and L'erimitaggio, today, and there is no doubt in my mind any more that these are works of towering genius. Anybody who has a taste for G & S should acquire the Opera Rara set without hesitation (it may be on Special Offer at MDT, still).
I shall play the last Act of the latter opera on the third CD again.
In fact the Opera Rara website states that the Rossini, from a public performance under Benini in 2010, will be released in November and a photo of the album cover is on site. So, I believe you. You did not get your information wrong from the OR site.
They, also, seek support for two Donizetti projects to which I urge you to make a donation as I quite fancy one of the works (clue: not the comedy).
Oh, I see, Emilia di Liverpool just "sounded" long and, therefore you thought it was long.
The other work on the 3 discs, L' erimitaggio di Liwerpool, is set on a mountaintop a few miles from London. Like the other work it is a Dramma semiserio.
Parla,you are so parsimonious with the truth!
Almost forgot, again, the purpose of this thread and am, therefore, about to listen to another of my birthday gifts, a Melba disc of Saint-Saens 'Helene,' a World Premiere recording!