What Classical Music Are You Listening To Tonight?

[Toccata]

I enjoyed this new release today. He won the 2013 Tchaikovsky Competition, so clearly he is a gifted player. The Liszt could use a bit more blood and thunder for my taste, but he plays it and all the pieces beautifully. DG should record all of their piano discs in Carnegie Hall: this has some of the best sound that I've heard from any of their piano recordings.



I hear him tomorrow (January 13th) with violinist Gidon Kremer--should make for some wonderful playing! It's an interesting pairing: a musician (presumably) nearing the end of his career and one who is just beginning.

[Toccata]

Originally Posted by cma29

Just finished listening to...

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor
Four-movement version
Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle



This is a unique document for Bruckner lovers because it includes a convincing reconstructed final movement for the 9th symphony, one of my favorite orchestral pieces. The playing by the BPO is excellent and the live performance is intense. The icing on the cake would have been top-notch recorded sound, but that falls a tiny bit short. Overall, a good addition to any classical music library.

I have the SACD version--it sounds great!

[cma29]

Something different for me...

Ives, C:
Orchestral Set No. 1 'Three Places in New England'
Orchestral Set No. 2
Orchestral Set No. 3
Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Chorus, James Sinclair



Here is some background:

The works on this recording focus on a singular genre created by a singular composer. The kind of piece Charles Ives called a ‘set’ is usually a larger work made by putting together independently-written smaller pieces. The First Orchestral Set, variously titled Three Places in New England and A New England Symphony, is one of Ives’s great tributes to his roots. Put together around 1913-14 from material going back years, it is typically Ivesian in that each movement has an underlying program. Like the other sets, the Second has a slow-fast-slow pattern and a visionary hymn-based finale. The unfinished Third Orchestral Set was the only set Ives planned as a whole from the beginning. It may stand as the most profound discovery of the many and ongoing efforts to reconstruct Ives’s incomplete works. This is its first complete performance and recording.

Interesting music that broadens my horizons. The recording is good and since this is a Naxos, the disc is super cheap.

[cma29]

Originally Posted by Toccata

I have the SACD version--it sounds great!

John - I was looking at that version from CD Japan. Tempting...

[cma29]

Now...

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65
Russian National Orchestra, Paavo Berglund



A lesser known Shostakovich symphony which deserves more exposure. It builds slowly, but the climaxes are impressive and the Pentatone sound is quite good.

[Toccata]

Originally Posted by cma29

John - I was looking at that version from CD Japan. Tempting...

I haven't been able to compare them to say whether or not it's worth the $ for the SACD version. I'm sure it's some better...

[bart]

Mieczyslaw Weinberg - String Quartets Vol. 3
Quatuor Danel



Melancholy can taste sweet...

[AndyPandy]

Originally Posted by Toccata

I haven't been able to compare them to say whether or not it's worth the $ for the SACD version. I'm sure it's some better...

Don't know if I would be making that assumption....

[Kal Rubinson]

Originally Posted by cma29

Now...

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65
Russian National Orchestra, Paavo Berglund

A lesser known Shostakovich symphony which deserves more exposure. It builds slowly, but the climaxes are impressive and the Pentatone sound is quite good.

Mebbe lesser known but powerful and shattering. My preferences are Mravinsky (as long as you get one with proper pitch in RussianDisc), Rostropovich (LSOLive and strongly emotional) and Kitajenko (powerful with big crunchy sound_.

[Antonmb]

Winding down after long day at work with disk 4 of this set :
Haydn - The Symphonies
Philharmonia Hungarica, Antal Dorati conducting

Wonderful music, well played and recorded.