Current Listening Vol IX [2023]

This album of Bazzini violin music has been unattended for sometime and I revisit it now. The music is relatively short in length and feels like encore pieces

OK, here is my second and final installment on the classic French wind sound circa 1850 to 1970. This LP was another issue of the joint venture begun in 1948 between French music publisher Éditions De L'Oiseau-Lyre and British record label London / Decca. Unlike the first one I discussed, the Brahms clarinet sonatas played by Jacques Lancelot, clarinet and Annie D'Arco, piano, I know of no CD reissue. Alas. Anyone who knows of one, please speak up. But you can't get more French than the French Wind Quintet with Jean-Pierre Rampal, Pierre Pierlot, Jacques Lancelot, Gilbert Coursier and Paul Hongne playing French mid-century modern neoclassical woodwind quintets. The highlight is Jacques Ibert's delightfully witty Three Short Pieces. What can I say, tout va bien, et je souhaite une bonne et saine année à tous.

Vierne Organ Symphony No.2. Suitable for the stormy weather today.

An unfamiliar piece: Jean Philippe Rameau’s piano suite (Suite en Sol) played by Alexandre Tharaud

István Kertész conducts Dvořák

• Symphony No. 5 In F Major
• Overture "My Home"

The London Symphony Orchestra
London 1967

Listening to Elgar's 1st for the first time....and so far it's not doing much for me. It's pleasant, but nothing has really grabbed me. I know it is held in very high regard, so I will give it a few listens.

Martinů Symphony Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 ORF Vienna Radio Symphony/Meister

After sampling No 1 last night, I binged the rest of this set this evening. All of these symphonies are new to me, and now I'm very eager to listen to other interpretations as suggested above.

Count me as a new fan of Martinů.

Listening to this CD which I just bought - English pastoral music. (I notice that on 22JAN2019 Joe B posted this CD as his current listening.) It was a pricey purchase - about USD 23 - but I really wanted to add it to my collection, especially the George Butterworth pieces. I recently heard a couple of pieces by Butterworth on my classical music radio station which I enjoyed very much, so I decided it was time to get more into this composer. I have been into Vaughan-Williams, Holst, Delius, Finzi, and Walton already for a long time. Other factors: I want to explore William Boughton and the English String Orchestra, and I tend to like the recorded sound from Nimbus Records. I also like the fact that I was living in England when these recordings were made - little did I know at the time, but it was during my two years in England that I got hooked on English pastoral music.

This CD has been reviewed in some detail on Amazon. As noted there, the version of Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad on this disc is instrumental with no vocal parts. That is OK with me; I plan to listen my way through some future CDs of vocal music in this same vein. I absolutely love all of the Butterworth pieces, and am delighted to listen carefully to the works by Parry and Bridge, which are entirely new to me and very appealing. Vernon Handley is my go-to conductor for English pastoral music, but I find Boughton's and the ESO's work here superb. I think this CD will be my gateway into much more of Boughton and the ESO.

Now playing this entire recording, which happens to be a new acquisition:



I'm still on the fence about a tenor in Les Nuits d'été as I generally prefer a mezzo-soprano or, in the case of Véronique Gens, a soprano, but this is well-done I must say. I haven't got to Harold en Italie yet, but I imagine it going rather well. John Nelson is, of course, a Berlioz specialist and has made many notable recordings of this composer's music over the years. I still need to get around to listening to his recording of what may very well be Berlioz's greatest achievement, Les Troyens.

Szell conducts :

• Tchaikovsky - Capriccio Italien, Op. 45
• Borodin - Polovetsian Dances From "Prince Igor"
• Rimsky-Korsakov - Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34
• Mussorgsky - Dawn On The Moskva River From "Khovantchina" (Prelude To Act 1)

The Cleveland Orchestra.
Columbia Odyssey reissue 1970’s, originally 1958