Thread: Current Listening...

Haydn: String Quartet #66
Corelli: Concertos #3,4,6
Vivaldi: Summer concerto
Debussy: Suite Bergamasque, Arabesques
Schubert: the first 4 songs of the Swan song cycle.
Phantom of the Opera

Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 In E Major, WAB 107, "Lyric"

Just finished listening to Havergal Brians Gothic Symphony - I think I will have to listen to it again later today as I was'nt able to focus too well on it. Now playing all 4 versions of Bruckners 7th Symphony in my collection starting with Jochum then Chailly, Karajan and Bohm.

Random information - this is page 1609 of the Current Listening Forum - in 1609 the frontispiece of the score of Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo was printed in Venice, Galileo first used his version of the refractory telescope commonly called the Galilean Telescope, and William Shakespeare published his book of Sonnets.

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Sonnet No. VIII

Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:
Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,
Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.'

On Spotify:

Josef Suk--Asrael Symphony in C Minor, Op.27, featuring the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra led by Sir Charles Mackerras.
William Schuman--Symphony No.7 and Symphony No.10 {"American Muse"}, both performed by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under the stick of Gerard Schwarz.

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Now, it's Schoenberg's Streichquartette op. 30 (1927), his "third" quartet. Now it's too late to turn back. We are in strange territory now. Like a strange, vivid dream which seems to have great psychological import, like a message from the "unconscious" or the "unseen eye." In a bleak, Surrealist landscape, always it is sunset, against a yellowing sky, strange, bizarre cloud formations...

RVW: Works for String Orchestra, with ESO/Boughton (rec. 1984), then SoL/NPO/Allegri Qt./Sir Glorious John Barbirolli (rec. 1962). Two of my CPRs (Certified Perfect Recordings).

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Never thought I'd really enjoy listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons again, but...

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Janine Jansen and her friends really brings this old chestnut back to life. If I understand correctly, this version is played by just five musicians. It sounds wonderfully fresh! Check it out!

Originally Posted by chrislowski

I haven't heard the Peterson Quartets but I do have (the only, as far as I know) complete set by the Sonare Quartet. It's brilliant music, and I agree with you in that I definitely hear Bartók, Schoenberg, Zemlinsky... and although I would say his music is quite hard to pin down it is very rewarding. His symphonies are great too.

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Wow. You lucky dog...! That Sonare Quartet Cycle sells for a fortune now...! Discontinued and all that :/

I've only heard pieces of the Sonare Quartet recordings on the internet. The Petersen Quartet are quite impeccable: their phrasing is splendid and the bowing forms a seamless unity. I haven't heard a German quartet play as splendidly as them, since the Hagen Quartet. Their repertoire is very interesting too - they've brought us a modern recording of the Lekeu Quartet. The other German Quartet which I'm listening to:



They came from East Germany ~ so they weren't as famous as their western counterparts before reunification. They only made it on the map when the won the Evian Spring Competition - but that was over 20 years ago! Some fantastic music. The Hartmann Quartets and Eisler are some of the best the Viennese Circle has to offer.

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 In D Minor

I re-listened to the 1st from this set and was suitably impressed - I was expecting it to be fast for some reason but its quite a slow reading. I thought it worked really well. I have listened to the 6th, 8th and 9th from this box a couple of years ago but I dont remember much about them other than I preferred Karajan's versions. I am keen to find out if my opinion of them has changed - I seem to be enjoying Mahler a lot more this year than previously. Currently I am playing the 3rd Symphony and enjoying this performance too - like the 1st it seems to be a bit on the slow side - I am looking forward to the 25 minute final movement already!
Just as a side note, this is one of the most nicely presented box-sets I have seen - it features replica sleeves of the original LP releases which are very attractive (although to be honest I prefer the cover on the box for the artwork on my iTunes).

Work for string trio:

DVORAK Terzetto op.74

KODALY Serenade op.12

TANEYEV trio op.21

All by Japan string trio.

Schoenberg, Streichquartet Number 4, op. 37 (1936). This quartet uses 3 hexachords, for a total of 18 notes; of course, the 3 hexachords are related to each other in myriad ways, all worked-out in advance by the artist, so knowing this gives me faith in what I can't hear; not cognitively, but only intuitively. This "faith in things not seen" produces a sort of sublime anticipation; a faith in beauty and perfection; an aesthetic "high."

So no "identification of themes" for me, unless they appear to me naturally.
I'm sure that a more rigorous hunt for thematic material is possible with Schoenberg, but not for me, as I go into a receptive mode when listening. Much of my cerebral propensity seems to recede when listening, giving way to a more non-verbal, purely intuitive state of "apprehension" which connects directly to the "soul" or self, or whatever you want to call that "center of being." I feel very lucky for this ability to receive, and I never take it for granted.

There is still plenty of "atmosphere" in this quartet. The rhythms used are plenty coherent and comprehensible, with phrase after phrase going by in succession, often building up to climaxes or cadential resting points ever so often. The rhythmic phrasing, not the melodic content, is what makes this music as "comprehensible" as it is.

Yes, this is music composed in the "old" way, with a substantial grounding in classicism. I see no reason why this music should not be readily accessible to any listener, despite the constant barrage of attacks on "atonality" or its offspring Serialism.

I listen to it, very aware of the rhythms. The melodic part I just follow the general "contour" of. Since there are no familiar chords or themes, I listen to the various ways the pitches coincide and leap about. Every now and then, I will hear a "stairstep" effect of a thematic fragment, as it is subjected to transformation. I hear extremes of register in the violins, and enjoy this for the facility it must take to play them, and the aural effect it has.

Any repetition is noted; my ear/brain is constantly grasping at any kind of pattern, like a relentless hunter. This is not music like Rameau, which lets you lie back and enjoy the sounds as if immersed in a hot bath; I must be constantly searching, ever on guard. Any "emotion" which is conveyed seems precious, yet, this seems to be constantly taken away, replaced by more neutral-sounding phrases which seem to say, "No rest yet; we must move on."

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Originally Posted by millionrainbows

Schoenberg, Streichquartet Number 4, op. 37 (1936).

Thanks for your synopsis. I like your statement "The rhythmic phrasing, not the melodic content, is what makes this music as 'comprehensible' as it is."

I hear four three-note cells in the first movement: D-C#-A, Bb-F-Eb, E-C-Ab, and G-F#-B. It's easier for me to follow it listening that way.

I'm listening to the Leipziger Quartet.

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Telemann's Tafelmusik. I didn't used to think much of this, but now I'm listening to it now with totally new ears.

Some soundtracks composed by Bernard Herrmann in movies such as:

Vertigo
North by Northwest
Psycho
Taxi Driver