Current Listening Vol IX [2023]

NP:

Mahler
Das Lied von der Erde
Yvonne Minton, René Kollo
CSO
Solti

From a Decca/Tower Records Japan hybrid SACD set -



I'm going to spend the month of April going through my Das Lied recordings from my CD collection that I've ripped to my computer. There's a BUNCH of them --- 20 in all. This one from Solti (he recorded Das Lied twice and this is his first) is a fantastic performance. I don't ever see this performance get mentioned and I'm not sure why. It's a great performance, IMHO.

Today's listening: some historical recordings. For some reason I don't mind listening to stuff that sounds like it was recorded using a mic placed in front of a gas leak three time zones away,

Beethoven - Symphonies 1 and 6
Pfitzner/Staatskapelle Berlin, Berlin Philharmonic (1928-1929)
Yes, the Palestrina guy. The 6th is the better of the two. Pfitzner seems to build his sonority from the bottom up -- cellos and basses are very prominent giving the orchestra a rich sound. Tempos are on the slow side with lots of rallentandos. If you like Furtwangler's Beethoven you'll like Pfitzner's -- the 3rd and the 8th are also quite good.


Wagner - Tristan und Isolde
Reiner/London Philharmonic; Flagstad, Melchior et al (1936)
One of the great Tristans and great sound considering it's a live recording from the 30s.


Elgar - Symphony 1, Falstaff
Elgar/London Symphony Orchestra


Chopin - Etudes Opp 10 and 25
Cortot, piano
Cortot's Op 25 No 1 has never been surpassed IMO. Sensational playing

Listening to Bach Partitas is such a fresh and satisfactory experience and Levit brings out everything so right.

Bruckner No.4

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto, Oboe Concerto, Bassoon Concerto / The Cleveland Orchestra, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Conductor

To me, Falletta is the real pioneer in the world of female conductors, not Alsop. I am yet to hear anything even near decent from Alsop (any female conductor, young or old, is better than her) whereas everything I've heard with Falletta was time well-spent.

Good morning. Let's save daylight.

Joseph Haydn: String Quartet B-flat major op. 76 No. 4 "Sunrise"

Doric String Quartet



The Doric are displaying huge contrasts - just take the initial "sunrise" motif followed by the rest. This continues between Menuetto and Trio and again in the Stretta-section of the finale. Interesting, but to my taste a little wilful. Just a little.

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896): Symphony no.7 in E (1883), as recorded in 1976 by the Staatskapelle Dresden, conducted by Eugen Jochum.

This was on last night. Totally convincing. A treat.

From Wikipedia about this symphony:
Symphony No. 7 in E major is one of his best-known symphonies. It was written between 1881 and 1883 and was revised in 1885. It is dedicated to Ludwig II of Bavaria. The premiere, given under Arthur Nikisch in the opera house at Leipzig in 1884, brought Bruckner the greatest success he had known in his life. The symphony is sometimes referred to as the "Lyric", though the appellation is not the composer's own, and is seldom used.

Luigi Nono (1924-1990): Il canto sospeso (The suspended song) (1956), as recorded live in 1992 by the Berliner Philharmoniker & Rundfunkchor Berlin, conducted by Claudio Abbado. With Susanne Otto (mezzo-soprano), Marek Torzewski (tenor), Barbara Bonney (soprano), Dietrich Knothe (chorus master).

Nono admittedly is on the fringes of my musical comfort zone, but whenever I can allow myself to just let the music speak for itself, I can certainly enjoy his output.
From Wikipedia about this work:
Il canto sospeso (The Suspended Song) is a cantata for vocal soloists, choir, and orchestra by the Italian composer Luigi Nono, written in 1955–56. It is one of the most admired examples of serial composition from the 1950s, but has also excited controversy over the relationship between its political content and its compositional means.
The title Il canto sospeso may be literally translated as "The Suspended Song", though the word sospeso may also be rendered as "floating" or "interrupted". The title is actually taken from the Italian edition of a poem, "If We Die", by Ethel Rosenberg who, together with her husband Julius, was tried and convicted in the United States of espionage and of passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. Their execution on 19 June 1953 caused outrage in Europe. The phrase in the English original is "the song unsung".
Nono chose his texts from an anthology published in 1954 by Giulio Einaudi as Lettere di condannati a morte della Resistenza europea, a collection of farewell letters written to loved ones by captured European resistance fighters shortly before their executions by the Nazis. The score is dedicated "a tutti loro" (to all of them). The premiere was given under the direction of Hermann Scherchen in Cologne on 24 October 1956. Four years later, it was performed at the twenty-third Festival of Contemporary Music of the Venice Biennale under the direction of Bruno Maderna. This Venice performance was recorded for the radio on 17 September 1960 and in 1988, nearly three decades later, became the first commercially released recording of Il canto sospeso.

Morning Phildor, morning all

Not much time for listening today as at the Spanish Sidecarcross GP in Talavera de la Reina. Maybe just time to start the morning off well.

Premiered March 1809:


Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 1
Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax

Pure entertainment...

Good morning.

Paul Dessau: Complete String Quartets (New Leipzig String Quartet, CPO, 2 CD's)

Continuing my early morning string quartets routine. Today and tomorrow the quartets by German composer and conductor Paul Dessau (1894 - 1979). The first CD now, containing the first two string quartets.