Stockhausen: Kontra-punkte. Beautiful music, a sheer sensuous delight for the ears, mystery unsolved for the mind.

 

Haydn: String Quartets, Opp. 50 & 71, w. Lindsay Qt. (rec. 2002/3).

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I'm glad to see that ASV has finally improved their cover art. It never fails to amaze me how some people seem to think that a good graphic artist is somehow superfluous. It must be because of some computer program that they think they can do it themselves.

 

Serge Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf. Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's music director Bramwell Tovey does double duty as conductor and narrator in this delightfully entertaining performance.

I feel like a litle child again presented to this fairitale eccelent presented by narrator and orchestra. I have heard this narrated by David Bowey and Dame Edna... Both quite surrealistic, and not very children-friendly experiences.

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Th, they put the wolf in the zoo??? STUPID - children know their is good and evil , shoot the damn wolf !

Cant you hear the animals through the music ? Use your mind ! Imagine it. 

that crying baby is really annoying -.-

I remember going to this symphony when I was 12 years old in 1972 in Vancouver.
Same dialogue, music stimulates your imagination. Smelly french horns and crying kids. Better than rap and whatever the younger generation call it. Close your eyes and open your imagination Hayley.

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I've seen Bramwell Tovey conduct and speak many times, he's a good terrific leader of the orchestra. He has quite a presence here in the community too. He visits local schools, including mine. He was on the radio being interviewed last week. The VSO's previous conductor Sergiu Commisiona was quite a sour puss in comparison. Bramwell Tovey frequently speaks to the audience.

I have three concerts left this season to attend, Mahler 9, Respighi and Britten, and Last Night at the Proms, all conducted by Tovey. But he will only be here in Vancouver for a couple more seasons. In total that will be about 15 years here in Vancouver.

Bramwell Tovey also conducts at least one of the kids concerts each year. It's called "Inspector Tovey investigates harmony".

Thanks for the link.

 

Listening to the third cd in my recently-purchased 1 pence x 3 cd Nimbus set of Beniamino Gigli singing operatic arias... and in the case of this third disc, Italian songs. And I think that I'm liking this cd the best of the three. Gigli had a wonderful voice but 'emotes' a little too much for my taste but in these Neapolitan and Italian songs, his honest, passionately-sung, open-hearted style matches his material perfectly.

And then, to mark her birthday today...I'm listening to a collection of some of the best recordings of Dame Nellie Melba. I haven't heard her for a while but I do remember when I last did, I thought I could definetly distinguish an Australian accent mixed in with the operatic text?! 'The London Recordings of 1904'...on Spotify.

Then it's back outside, to water the bedding plants after such a warm day...& to sit and enjoy a Peach Melba, perhaps?!

 

J. S. Bach: 'Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben', BWV 8
Yukari Nonoshita, soprano
Robin Blaze, alto
Gerd Türk, tenor
Peter Kooij, bass
Bach Collegium Japan/Masaaki Suzuki

Florent Schmitt: Sonate libre en deux parties enchaînées, Op. 68
Ilona Then-Bergh, violin
Michael Schäfer, piano

Florent Schmitt: Symphonie Concertante, for orchestra & piano, Op.82
Huseyin Sermet, piano
Orchestre philharmonique de Monte-Carlo/David Robertson

 

Just discovered this composer, Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Listening to his magnificent op. 15 Piano Quintet

I'm giving it a try. It seems a little too sweet for me on first impression. I can tell it's nicely crafted, though. I have to be in a receptive mood for some things...

 

Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, string sextet op.4 (in D minor)
Hollywood String Quartet (plus two)

A few might think that I got into Schoenberg through this piece and only then encountered the later works, but actually the opposite is true. I certainly did fall in love with his sextet the first time I heard it, but this was after I had come to know (and enjoy to some extent) some of Schoenberg's later works.

Schoenberg always did write very well for strings. Stravinsky, in comparing and contrasting himself with the older composer, noted that he focused on winds far more, because strings have the tradition of romantic era gestures and expressiveness, while winds tend towards the more "objective".

 

I'm giving it a try. It seems a little too sweet for me on first impression. I can tell it's nicely crafted, though. I have to be in a receptive mood for some things...

I gave his piano quartet posted by Cosmos a try and it's pretty different from what I'm used to hearing from Korngold, more Romantic. The string quartets I suggested, for example, are written more in a German Expressionist vein (but not atonal from what I understand).

Try this one:

Also, keep in mind he was a big movie music composer so some of that aesthetic may have slipped into his serious works. But I don't think it's too bad in that regard.

 

This thread is now closed as it was becoming a burden on our memory and servers use.

We have created a new thread (same subject) titled: Current Listening Vol II so that our members can continue to contribute information.