What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Meanwhile, listening for the 4th time to this:

Jack Gallagher - Symphony No. 2 'Ascendant' - Quiet Reflections
London Symphony Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta



I always browse through the 'Fanfare Magazine', that was recommended by Kal.
If you're serious about classical music, it might be the ultimate guide for new recordings, I think.

When I read a raving review about this disc, I purchased it.
It has 2 works, the Symphony, written in 2010-13. Talk about modern!
Then also 'Quiet Reflections', from '96.
I already love both pieces a lot.
Very melodious, far from the squeaking sounds you sometimes hear in the newest compositions.
It has an inviting calmness, this album, the intense moments underline it.

Streaming this now in 24/96, after having listened many times to the CD.
Terrific album.

[ehoove]

Tacet's Four Seasons
Vivaldi
Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra
Daniel Gaede, Violin
Tacet Records L163 Tube Only/Transistorfrei
Regards,
Jim

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Jack Gallagher - Orchestral Music
London Symphony Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta



I find him one the best contemporary composers.
Accessible, beautiful music.

Streaming this at the moment via Qobuz.
Very good music, and terrific sound.

[Antonmb]

Tartini: Violin Concertos
Evgeny Sviridov, Millenium Orchestra
Ricercar Music (2020), via Qobuz

Very enjoyable.

[bart]

Jack Gallagher - Piano Music
Frank Huang, piano
via Qobuz




Winding down after a busy shift...
This is good!

[bart]

Franz Schmidt - Complete Symphonies
Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Pavo Järvi
Qobuz 24/48




Just started this set.
So far quite agreeable music, although it isn't at the level of the usual suspects (Brahms, Mahler,...).
Nice discovery.

The music of composer Franz Schmidt fell out of the repertory after it emerged that he had been hailed by the Nazis, although he apparently never asked for the honor and was less than comfortable with it. His essentially conservative style put him out of commission for several more decades during the period of modernist repression, but there have been modest signs of a revival, including a complete cycle from conductor Neeme Järvi, leading the Chicago and Detroit Symphony Orchestras (not yet heard by this writer). Now his son Paavo weighs in with this set, leading the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. The music will be new to most listeners, and it's attractive stuff. Its most striking feature is a radiant, optimistic tone, defined right from the first movement of the Symphony No. 1 in E major. Järvi grabs the listener's attention here and doesn't release across substantial movements that are mostly between ten and 20 minutes long. A place to start sampling would be the entr'acte, an Intermezzo from the opera Notre Dame, which exemplifies the almost mystical tone Schmidt's music retained, even amid great personal tragedy. That tragedy is explicitly addressed in Schmidt's Symphony No. 4 in C major, designed "a requiem for my daughter" by the composer; the daughter died in childbirth in 1932. That work is perhaps the most Straussian of Schmidt's symphonies with its transfigured trumpet theme at the beginning and end, but Schmidt's style, although certainly conservative by the 1930s, was not derivative of anybody. It is not so much a matter of tonality, where he is, like Mahler, sometimes pushing the edges and, at other times, innocently diatonic. Instead, it is the historical scope of his music, encompassing styles as far back as Schubert (hear the echoes of the "Great" Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944) in the Symphony No. 3 in A major, while living very much in the world of Strauss and Bruckner overall. Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony catch the energy in the music and display no weaknesses over a very large orchestra in these live recordings. It seems possible that this release will expand the big symphonic repertory a bit. Try the music out and speculate on this possibility.

© TiVo

[bart]

^^^^Finished the whole set (3 hours). Not the most thrilling nor the most daring pieces, but an agreeable listen overall.

[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Arvo Pärt
Mullova - Järvi
Qobuz 24/48




All well known works, but brought with passion and power yet delicacy by Mullova and Järvi.
Pärt definitely is one of the best composers of our time.
This is magnificent.

Nearly all the pieces on this album were first performed and widely promoted by the Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer, one of them – Tabula rasa (1977) – being specifically written with his artistry in mind. They are also all products of what Arvo Pärt himself describes as a ‘tintinnabuli’ style, developed by the composer in the 1970s through studying medieval church music. As Pärt has explained: “I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements – with one voice, two voices. I build with primitive materials – with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells and that is why I call it tintinnabulation.” Tabula rasa and Fratres, both composed in 1977, effectively established Pärt’s international reputation. Tabula rasa is effectively a concerto for two violins with string orchestra and a prepared piano, the latter instrument creating explicitly bell-like sonorities in the work’s slow second movement. Fratres, since its first performance by the Estonian ensemble of early music, Hortus Musicus, has been arranged for various instrumental combinations. The version heard here is the composer’s own, written in 1991 for solo violin, strings and percussion (involving claves and bass drum or tom-tom). Bach has long been an important influence in Pärt’s music, as is evident in his Passacaglia, composed in 2003, and in Darf ich... (May I…) originally composed in 1995 and dedicated to Yehudi Menuhin; Pärt subsequently revised the work in 1999, Kremer giving the premiere of this revised version with his ensemble, Kremerata Baltica. Spiegel im Spiegel, composed in 1978, is one of Pärt’s simplest compositions, a violin unhurriedly playing a mostly stepwise melody over a steadily arpeggiating piano part. © Onyx Classics

One of my favourite releases of the last years.

[Kal Rubinson]

Originally Posted by bart

One of my favourite releases of the last years.

Yes, I keep coming back to this one, too.

[Audiofan1]

Just ordered it!