Current Listening Vol IX [2023]

@Nedeslusire has reminded about Mendelssohn's birthday, so:

Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 5

Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker

Gorgeous performance, Karajan was really able to handle Romantic composers so masterfully......

This is just awesome! Bach organ works arranged for baroque orchestra! Just out today

One of the great things about rummaging about in the earliest discs I bought when starting my collection is choosing to play works that, if truth is told, I've either left behind / overplayed / forgotten about.
This is certainly true of this disc - I'll let others decide which of the above is applicable in this case, maybe all!

Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture / Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture / Marche Slave / Francesca da Rimini - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Sian Edwards.

Of late I have always turned to the superb recording by Rene Jacobs when I wanted to hear Mozart's Requiem. For all that, Harnoncourt's recording is also very good.

This morning: Mozart, piano concerto no 21, Daniel Barenboim



At the moment: Shostakovich, symphony no 15, Bernhard Haitink

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55, “Eroica”
Charles Munch: Boston Symphony Orchestra (1957)

I don't listen to enough Munch. He doesn't come to mind when I think of the great conductors of the last seventy years or so, like Klemperer, Walter, Karajan, Szell, Böhm, and so on (all of whom produced very good Beethoven cycles of their own). Yet his collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra produced some memorable recordings (and, from what I've read, some even more memorable live performances). His Beethoven Ninth was fast, from what I recall; this Eroica is also pretty pacey at 45 minutes long (no exposition repeat). Strikingly, the ensemble quality is really good, despite Munch's reputation as an improvisatory performer; just listen to those first two chords. But my understanding is that he was less volatile in the recording studio than he was onstage, since he wanted his recordings to stand up to greater scrutiny and last over time. RCA's Living Stereo is really good here; the recording is spacious but not too wide, and there's no trace of distortion. An enjoyable recording, yes, though nobody can have the final word when it comes to Beethoven.

Mahler: Symphony No. 3

Christa Ludwig

New York Choral Artists, Brooklyn Boys Chorus & New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein

Carl Maria von Weber: Clarinet Quintet, Grand Duo Concertant for Clarinet and Piano, Seven Variations on a theme from 'Silvana' for Clarinet and Piano (Janet Hilton, Keith Swallow, Lindsay String Quartet, Chandos)

If I could keep only one Weber CD in my collection, this would be the one. All three works are highly enjoyable, and recorded in wonderful performances and Chandos sound.

Next from this cycle.

Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 E-flat major op. 82

Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra
Gennady Rozhdestvensky



Not disappointing. Very unusual is the fact that Roshy lets play the notes of the Swan hymn very short. Funny. - In the score they are marked with a sforzato (">"), however, afaik, no one else let it play like this ...

Monsalvat said:

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, “Pastoral”
Bruno Walter: Columbia Symphony Orchestra (1958)

So different from Brahms's own Opus 68. I think this symphony meshes well with Walter's own strengths.

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I loved this recording of Beethoven's Symphony #6 "Pastorale" with Bruno Walter and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra so much that it was my first purchase when I made the switch from LPs to CDs during the late 1980s. Along with Wagner's Siegfried Idyll and Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Beethoven "Pastorale" is my favorite piece of music. And despite all the anguish and heroism that one finds in Beethoven's other works, one can really see that Beethoven could also be quite mellow and easy-going when his mood didn't compel him to shake his fist at fate.

For all the many recordings of Beethoven's Pastorale that were made by almost all the world's great conductors and orchestras, Bruno Walter stands out as an (by that time) elderly conductor leading a pick-up band of musicians from the Los Angeles area (mostly of the LAPO); and the sense of balance and ever-so-slight element of Viennese lilt that Walter brings forth makes it the gold standard.

While I suppose, the above image is the original cover art; to my mind, it's the budget line CBS "Great Performances" reissue, that will always be the incarnation I associate with this fantastic recording:

The first Vaughan Williams symphony I got to know was the 2nd, the London, in the Barbirolli recording. I've had a special affinity for it since then but am also more fussy about performances of it than I am for the other symphonies. Brabbins is excellent!

What do you guys think of this cover? I think it's up there as one of the most awful I have seen... Anyways, I'm just starting this, and Scriabin's Preludes sound really pretty (though it is extra Chopinesque, without the incomparable genius of the Polish).

Then come the Three Pieces, op. 2, with Klavierstück XII by Stockhausen (from the TREMENDOUS Donnerstag aus Licht) closing.

Staying in an olive grove, middle of nowhere, Morocco, so 'iffy' internet.

Yesterday, premiered 2nd February 1890:


Dvořák: Symphony No. 8
Rafael Kubelik, Berliner Philharmoniker

Today, premiered this day 1907:


Suk: Symphony No. 2 "Asrael"
Sir Charles Mackerras, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Rogerx said:

Barber: Vocal Works

Eleanor Steber (soprano), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Leontyne Price (soprano), Martina Arroyo (soprano)

Juilliard String Quartet, Samuel Barber (piano)


New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Schippers


Barber: Andromache's Farewell, Op. 39
Barber: Dover Beach, Op. 3
Barber: Hermit Songs, Op. 29
Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op. 24

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Another favorite of mine. You may even call it one my "desert island" CDs (providing I was stranded on "Gilligan's Island" where the Professor could build me a working CD player made from of bamboo and coconuts). Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 is one of the great and lyrical little gems composed for voice and orchestra; right up there with Mahler's Songs of the Wayfarer, Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs, and Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings. Eleanor Stebber's pure and even rendition can only be compared to Leontyne Price's recording which is rich and sultry. Dietrich Fischer-Diskau's rendition of Dover Beach with the Julliard String Quartet is also quite beautiful, despite DFD's error when he calls the "French coast", the "French toast". Even so, true Barber fans will also want to dig up Samuel Barber's own recording of Dover Beach, perhaps the only time (apart from Ives' They Are There) where a great composer sings! And while Barber's version lacks DFD's power and refinement, Barber seems to convey a certain hint of sadness that is profound. In Hermit Songs, Barber changes roles from composer to pianist, where he joins the wonderful Leontyne Price, in his own playful Hermit Songs. The album ends with Martina Arroyo and the sweeping Andromache's Farewell.

Since Samuel Barber worked more-or-less in a style that came directly out of European Romanticism, it can't be said that he added much that is new to classical music or even anything to be considered distinctively "American". Even so, Barber, can likely be considered to be America's greatest composer for the voice.