Thread: Current Listening Vol VI

My favorite Ninth:

Yesterday and today I've been hooked on a Glenn Gould experience, featuring Glenn Gould and friends:

1. Schumann: Piano Quartet Op. 47 (GG w/Julliard String Quartet); Brahms: Piano Quintet Op. 34 (GG w/Montreal String Quartet) Sony's Glenn Gould Edition
2. Richard Strauss: Ophelia Lieder (GG w/Elisabeth Schwartzkopf); Enoch Arden (GG w/Claude Rains, narrator) Sony: Glenn Gould Plays Richard Strauss disc 1
3. Hindemith: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (GG w/Gilbert Johnson, trumpet); Sonata for Horn and Piano (GG w/Mason Jones)
4. Hindemith: Sonata for Bass Tuba and Piano (GG w/Abe Torchinsky, bass tuba); Sonata for Alto Horn (GG w/Mason Jones, alto horn); Sonata for Trombone and Piano (GG w/Henry Charles Smith) Sony's Glenn Gould Edition
5. Bach: Sonata for Piano(Harpsichord) and Violin #4; Beethoven: Sonata for Piano and Violin Op. 96; Schoenberg: Phantasy for Violin and Piano (GG w/Yehudi Menuhin, violin) Sony's Glenn Gould Edition: Gould Meets Menuhin

6. Beethoven: Piano Concerto #5 "Emperor" (GG w/Leopold Stokowski/American Symphony Orchestra) Sony/BMG
7. Bach: Piano Concerto #1 (GG w/Leonard Bernstein/Columbia Symphony Orchestra); Bach: Piano Concertos #4 & 5 (GG w/Vladimir Golschmann/Columbia Symphony Orchestra) CBS Great Performances #97
8. Beethoven: Piano Concerto #1 (GG w/Vladimir Golshmann/Columbia Symphony Orchestra); Piano Concerto #2 (GG w/Leonard Bernstein/Columbia Symphony Orchestra) Membran Music Ltd. Glenn Gould box set Vol 6
9. Beethoven: Piano Concerto #3 (Herbert Von Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra); Six Bagatells (GG, piano solo) Membran Music Ltd. Glenn Gould box set Vol 7
10. Bach: Piano Concerto #1 (GG w/Dimitri Mitropoulos/Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam); Beethoven: Piano Concerto #5 "Emperor" (GG w/Josef Krips/Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra); Schoenberg: Piano Concerto (Dimitri Mitropoulos/New York Philharmonic Orchestra) Sony Music's Glenn Gould: The Secret Live Tapes

We start with a piano quartet where Gould joins forces with members of the Julliard in one of the few times that Gould ventured to play the music of Robert Schumann, as Gould more-or-less avoided really pretty high Romantic composers such as Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn; to be followed by a Brahms piano quintet where Gould combines with the Montreal Quartet. Right from the start, Gould approach is like no one else's, and sounds almost as if he's playing his way while the string players are doing it their way.

Then we go to the music of Richard Strauss, and the Ophelia Lieder featuring Elisabeth Schwartzkopf, who according to liner notes didn't care for Gould's eccentric approach at all (as well as Gould having the heat in the studio turned all the way up); but despite the diva's complaints, it's still a lovely recording.

Next up is a supernova of genius with Enoch Arden: poetry by Alfred Lord Tennyson, music by Richard Strauss, piano by Glenn Gould, with melodramatic narration by Claude Rains. And it don't get no better than that!

The next two discs demonstrate that Paul Hindemith is a really fine composer given an even chance. The music critic, Michael Walsh, identified Hindemith as "The composer who wrote about a thousand sonatas for every combination of instruments that no one ever listens to." For years I believed it, but over time, these sonatas for piano and various brass instruments grew on me, and each one celebrates the beautiful qualities of each of these brass instruments.

We complete the first set of five CDs with the Glenn Gould/Yehudi Menuhin recording sessions with some solid Bach and Beethoven, but also a really nice piece by Schoenberg, and like Hindemith, Schoenberg is another composer who has really grown on me over the years.

The second half of the Glenn Gould experience consists almost entirely of Piano Concertos by Bach, Beethoven and Schoenberg with Gould playing musical chairs with some of the greatest conductors to ever walk the walk planet earth. We start with the unlikely Gould/Stokowski recording of Beethoven's 5th PC which I first owned on cassette many years ago, and it's still (blame it on imprinting) one of my favorites.

The remaining recordings feature the young Gould before he turned his back on the concert hall, and some of these recordings are live. These recordings reveal a young, very athletic, and incredible musician; before Gould decided to refine his musical vision in the confines of the recording studio/inner sanctum.

The highlights include the two recordings of Bach's Piano Concerto #1, and while the one with Leonard Bernstein is bright and sparkling, the other live recording with Dimitri Mitropoulos really captures what Mitropoulos called the "sportive element in music", as pianist and orchestra are in constant motion. Maybe this why Gould retired from the concert hall and called it "blood sport".

For no particular reason, I'm going to listen to 3 versions of Sir James MacMillan's "Miserere" from these discs:

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It is, after all, a magnificent composition, worthy of more than one listen.

Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV988

Markus Becker

Debussy Berceuse heroique, Images for orchestra, Jeux, Marche ecossaise, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Nocturnes, La Mer, Rhapsody for orchestra and clarinet, Danses for harp and string orchestra. Wonderful


Pierne and Faure Piano Trios


Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time


Messiaen Turangalila Symphony, L'ascension


Varese Ameriques, Arcana, Desert, Ionisation

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream & Symphony No. 5/ Haydn: Symphony No. 96 in D major 'Miracle'

Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Paul Paray

Alexander Zemlinksy: Lyrische Symphonie, Op. 18
Alessandra Marc, Håkan Hagegård
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly

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String Quartets Nos.11,12 & 13.

Emotions

Gautier Capuçon (cello)

Orchestre de Chambre de Paris
Adrien Perruchon


Einaudi: Una Mattina
Elgar: Nimrod (from Enigma Variations)
Joplin: The Entertainer
Nyman: The Heart Asks Pleasure First