The classical what are you listening to now ? thread.

Curious about this one... I don't need another Verklaerte Nacht but serious Lehar could be interesting.... What would you compare it with?

 

Fascinating music.
That Klaus Thunemann knew a thing or two about bassoons in his heyday.
https://www.amazon.co.uk /dp/B0000ARNFB/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

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Disc 1. Magic fingers deliver magic results. The fully satisfying Stravinsky Serenade (not a given) segues to three Prokofiev works of top flight quality. The Eighth Sonata is the highlight, and here Trifonov is right up there with FFG, Ovchinnikov, anyone. Surely, Trifonov and Wang must both record complete cycles to set dual and dueling references. (Also surely, I must get Angelich's new recording of the sonata in my collection pronto.) The disc closes with Agosti's transcription of The Firebird. I recently picked up Alexander Ullman's dazzlingly well-played rendition, but Trifonov goes further. At least as dazzling, he throws in more refined touch and control, ending the piece with nuanced and colorful playing that may have made even Agosti himself envious.

Disc 2. More (near) magical results. The Prokofiev Second PC emerges as the best version I've heard alongside memories of a radio broadcast of Volodos playing it, which means that this is the best one I have readily available. Three Movements from Petrushka bests Pollini's erstwhile reference version, with only Pollini's dizzyingly fast run any better, and with Trifonov's more varied touch making the Italian sound crude. He does not, however, supplant YES as the new reference version. The Scriabin Piano Concerto, a piece I pretty much never listen to, emerges as more of a Rach sound piece than a Scriabin sounding piece, but it works quite well.

 

Got this in post from Berlin as part of Digital Concert Hall subscription, look forward to hearing it. Peternko’s conducting style reminds me much of Nezet-Seguin.

 

Purcell: Funeral Music for Queen Mary. R3

 

It is fairly obviously smack in Viennese late romanticism, although with a slightly odd almost verbatim quote from the Berlioz Turkish march from Faust.

 

Working my way through this set of Haydn's string quartets:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001V7SG8E/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

 

Snap

 

I'm not especially happy with the recorded sound, and Schmidt's way with Debussy is hard and pedal-light, amplified by the acoustic, but her Scriabin and Ravel are quite nice. The relative highlights, though, are the Crumb and the Schmidt. (I am guessing Vera Schmidt is a relative of the pianist, but could be wrong; the download has no notes.) Josefa seems fully at home in a contemporary milieu. To the extent that Crumb's title piece can be affecting, Schmidt does a better job than Martin Klett in his also recent recording, and Vera Schmidt's brief piece is centerless and dramatic and pretty darned entertaining for a work from a teenager. I wouldn't mind hearing something else from the pianist. Messiaen, Ligeti, or Gubaidulina perhaps.

 

At times one can be very lucky and discover a real gem of a cd.
Viola concertos by JC Bach,Michael Haydn and Carl Stamitz.
What more could I ask for?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000001ST8/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

 

Ah,the delights of Tartini and his “singing” style of violin concertos.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001LZU10W/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

 

The Penderecki and Rihm are fine enough, brief, modern takes on the Stabat Mater, but it is the Poulenc and Szymanowski that really exceeded my expectations. Both come across as more warmly lyrical than in the few other versions I've heard. If Viotti's Szymanowski lacks the ultimate sonic impact of Rattle's, or more serious devotional wallop of Wit's, it sounds more immediate but not in your face, more theatrical, more beautiful. The choral singing captivates. The Poulenc sounds hardly less beautiful here. Softened a bit when compared to Dutoit, it takes on an ethereal quality at times. This is another Amazon closeout disc I picked up on a whim, and it reminded me why I continue to do that.

 

Mendelssohn Complete String Quartets with the Aurora Quartet on Naxos. I love Mendelssohn's string music...

 

Which reminds me I downloaded this recently this from Presto Music
Octet in E flat major, Op. 20 by the Eroica Quartet & friends on the Resonus Classics label
I need to listen to it again.

 

Bernstein in Beethoven 9.

 

Prokofiev Symphony 5/Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra/Slatkin - outstanding...

 

What's this now? Unexpectedly splendid Chopin, that's what. A fairly obscure pianist - though one the Polish government named a piano competition after, and a major label inadvertently passed her Chopin PC 1 off as being performed by Dinu Lipatti for a while - in an aged recording of some exceptionally fine Chopin. Really, the selected Mazurkas are something else. Nuance upon nuance, with entrancing rhythmic inflections and fine, fine dynamic control. Yowza, indeed. Apparently she recorded the complete set much later for Canyon Classics. That set is now on my must-find list. Same with her late career complete Nocturnes on RCA. The other pieces - preludes 'n' waltzes 'n' polonaises - all reinforce the very high level of musical accomplishment. A score at four bucks. (I know it can be streamed for no additional outlay.)

 

Schumann's Op. 42 string quartets, nos. 1 & 3, played by the Zehetmair quartet on ECM. Just great, and my first use of a new gadget primarily bought for work purposes, to read research - an Onyx Note Air large-format Kindle-alike e-reader that's good at handling PDFs - but which also allowed me to follow the scores, downloaded from the IMSLP: recommended all round!

 

Debussy Images, Prelude..., La Mer/ LA Philharmonic/ Esa-Pekka Salonen (Sony) - this is a very nice recording and performance of Debussy. I seem to focus too much on the piano music from this composer; this recording proves that point...

 

Schubert, Late Piano Sonatas: Alfred Brendel.