What do you hear these days?

[michaelw]

Hello,

There is an Austrian general classics forum (I only occasionally take a look), where they have an interesting and endless thread called “What do you hear just now?”. The people simply report their current taste and listening choice. It's a bit uncoordinated and sums up to thousands of posts.
This is a Mahler board and I think the posts shouldn't spread too far, but I am always curious what other people like to listen too, particularly if these people have some common interest.

So – apart from Mahler – what did impress you during the last days or weeks?

There is no need to make an endless thread out of this, but I want to give it a try.
Of course, only experiences worth noting – in a positive OR negative sense – need to be reported.

Let me start: Last interesting record (apart from Mahler) was the Bartok “Concerto for Orchestra” conducted Michael Gielen. This piece of music was some of by very favourites many years ago, but I haven't played it much for a longer time. Now I got the Gielen CD and it's very clear and expressive. I like it and will review Bartok again.

Michael

[Ivor]

  Just heard Bruckner 7 under Masur at the BBC Proms.. He made the very end clearer than I've ever heard before. Very enjoyable eprformance which got a 10 minute ovation. So Bruckner is still in there.

  I'm ever buying more secondhand LPs, so I listen to all kinds of stuff.


      Ivor

[Jot N. Tittle]

This morning the area classical-music radio station--a rarity of sorts in itself--played Schubert's Death and the Maiden as orchestrated by Mahler.

So there. I got Mahler in.

     . & '

[Casaubon]

I've been listening to Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" a lot lately, as well as his "Capriccio Espagnol."  Beethoven's 3rd Symphony is currently playing in my car (Bernstein/NY).  I listen to that about 10x more than just about any other Beethoven.  Brahms' 1st Piano Concerto has been in the rotation quite a bit as well.

[Amphissa]

I watched the entire Gergiev/Kirov performance (on DVD) of Glinka's "Ruslan et Lyudmila" one night last weekend. 4 hours. Splendid!

I've been listening to Rakhlin's recording of Gliere Symphony No. 3 "Ilya Muromets" lately. On LP. (The CD transfer sux.) This is a symphony that has the kind of huge scale and orchestral color that it should appeal to anyone who likes Mahler. I love Farberman's recording best, amazingly expansive and rich, but at 92 minutes, not something to put on too often. Rakhlin's is almost as good, and fits on one CD.

I've also been listening to Paderewski's Symphony "Polonia" lately. Another massive work, filled with anger and war and struggle. I'm just now getting familiar with this symphony. Like Suk's "Asrael" Symphony and Gliere's, it's such a big composition that (like Mahler) it just will not do for those folks who are afflicted with short attention span.

[Leo K]

I watched the entire Gergiev/Kirov performance (on DVD) of Glinka's "Ruslan et Lyudmila" one night last weekend. 4 hours. Splendid!

I've been listening to Rakhlin's recording of Gliere Symphony No. 3 "Ilya Muromets" lately. On LP. (The CD transfer sux.) This is a symphony that has the kind of huge scale and orchestral color that it should appeal to anyone who likes Mahler. I love Farberman's recording best, amazingly expansive and rich, but at 92 minutes, not something to put on too often. Rakhlin's is almost as good, and fits on one CD.

I've also been listening to Paderewski's Symphony "Polonia" lately. Another massive work, filled with anger and war and struggle. I'm just now getting familiar with this symphony. Like Suk's "Asrael" Symphony and Gliere's, it's such a big composition that (like Mahler) it just will not do for those folks who are afflicted with short attention span.

Those seem intriging, especially the Paderewski work...may have to check that out!

As for me, I've been playing this again...



(I revised this review from a previous post)

What do I love about this album? Well, the orchestration for one thing...the imagination of the arrangements and the 'sound' that is captured through the recording process and production. I am basically
a huge fan of great arrangements and orchestration. Thats why I love Mahler too.

Actually, I don't hear this album as 'forward' looking or really
timeless...the arrangements and the sound of this album always bring
me to a specific 'time' or memory...the look of 60's furniture, or
the lampstands and curtains from mohogany walled apartments from the
early 70's, with women in flimsy sun dresses and granny glasses--
taking me by the hand to a park...all this flashes though the
remnents of my childhood soaked brain and I return to paradise. I
love the Lawrence Welk, easy-listening-type arrangements brought to
an aggressive level that approches the sound of danger, or even
maddness. I love how the vocals sound rather unfinished in places,
being the most realized on Sloop John B.

I love the fractured story the songs strive to tell, only to fail on
the wake of a missed train. Music isn't enough at the end...the truth
of 'reality' through the use of stock recordings taken from life like
a snapshot...with no tones to construct chords with, or place
together to form an artificial pattern to create art.

Wouldn't It Be Nice is a bittersweet song that also describes my hopes and dreams...yeah, it may sound corny...but you know what I mean. Happiness is a profound consideration, and this song is such a celebration and great achievement in describing that mood. Accordians...wow, he did it with accordians.

Thats Not Me is amazing...the basses are really in the face too...almost obnoxious and totally free. I didn't hear the album until I was 25...and I didn't understand the lyrics until recently at age 36...since I moved to the desert away from Minnesota...my home.

The Barrelhouse piano in Not Made For These Times is unique...interesting choices thorughout that song though...like the strange background vocals that are not very clear.

Waiting For The Day...it is very Ivesian to pit a timpani against a flute like that, but it makes the song. The contrast alone describes Wilson's state of mind in a big way. That song is an important song in the Wilson canon. The arrangement tells the story more than the lyrics... well, "that goes without saying" I guess.

I love how the melodies of these songs are not really obvious, and
not always immediate and boldly outlined...rather they are as much
smoke and mirrors as Robert Johnson's Hellhounds On My Trail blues.
The architecture of the musical arguement is there in each song, but
the mist soons covers the logic...and all I can do is trust that what
I heard was real, and I can play the song again...as the song is
still there.

Or is it?

[sperlsco]

I've been mainly listening to Brahms symphonies and various piano concertos over the last several months (very little Mahler compared to my listening habits over most of the last few years).  I just received the Abbado/Berlin set of Brahms symphonies and finished the B2 this morning.  It has one of the best performances of the finale that I've ever heard.  I'll probably spin it up again this afternoon.  Yesterday, I finished up an enjoyable release from Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto series -- Lyapunov.  Like most of the series, the music is more along the lines of "enjoyable" as opposed to being "memorable". 

[michaelw]

Thanks for your posts so far. It reminds me of some records I wanted to listen again to (e.g. Abbado's Brahms) and there are interesting new hints (at least for me).
I will definitely check out the Gliere and Padarewski symphonies.
Today I heard part 5 of Ronald Brautigam’s Beethoven piano sonatas (apart from Mahler symphonies my favourite cycle), but in contrast to most of the very positive reviews for this cycle, it didn't really capture me. Brautigam plays with furore and engagement, but the sound of the fortepiano has to be dosed very carefully. If I hear the whole CD in one, I will miss the range of a modern piano. So my opinion: select one sonata after another with some time distance.
Then over the last weeks I tried to come back to Bruckner, but I admit that I had my difficulties. Tennstedt’s B3, Simone Young’s new SACD of B2, Rattle’s B4, Wand’s B4 (for Hänssler) – I am a bit impatient with Bruckner nowadays.


Michael

[Ivor]

  Just played the sweet Magnificat of John Rutter (b.1945), whixh is very agreeable.

  It's in preparation for tonight when I'm going to Wymongham in Norfolk,UK, to review a choral concert that's celebrating the 900th anniversary of the Abbey.

[Vatz Relham]

The past few weeks I've been listening to a lot of Frank Zappa's music, I've been a fan of his music since the mid 70's, infact it was from listening to Zappa's "classical" music that got me interested in classical music in the first place especially Stravinsky at that time.
I like all facets of his music, the rock, jazz, electronic, classical, political satire stuff, from the album Freak Out to the Yellow Shark I find Zappa's music very satisfying musically, he always worked with the best musicians around, including George Duke, Jon Luc Ponty, Vinnie Colaiuta(great drummer). Although he did kind of loose it a bit in the early 80's with some weak albums, overall I would rank Zappa as a major American composer on a par with Charles Ives in terms of creativity and originalty.

Vatz

[Ivor]

  He worked with Pierre Boulez too, in the mid 80s.



      Ivor

[Vatz Relham]

  He worked with Pierre Boulez too, in the mid 80s.



      Ivor

Yes indeed, Boulez recorded a wonderful album of Zappa's music with his Ensemble Intercontemporain for EMI.
And with Kent Nagano and the LSO which included the great piece Bogus Pomp that pokes fun at the stuffines of traditional classical music. Zappa's wicked sense of humour is a big part of my liking his stuff.

There is great CD by the Enemble Modern on RCA of Zappa's music that really shows off Zappa's modern classical music.

Vatz

[Ivor]

  and there are any number of composers to try out for the first time to discover more composers whose music I might come to enjoy.

[barry guerrero]

Jimmy Smith

I can't think of anyone else who can combine swing with old-time soul as convincingly as Jimmy Smith can. Ray Charles comes to mind. So, perhaps Jimmy Smith is the Ray Charles of instrumentalists. Regardless, I really like him.

Monk

I'm not a fan of "modern" jazz at all. Those people take themselves waaay too seriously, and are basically just masturbating on their instruments (I can't stand John Mc Laughlin, for example). But Monk got it right. He's more sparse, like Anton Webern is to modern classical music. But rather than being all weird and expressionistic, Monk had a real sense of humor. Think of crossing swing with Webern, Charles Ives, and Frank Zappa. That's what Monk is like to me.

Grant Green

Under-rated. He's a guitarist who's very much in the vein (vane?) of Wes Montgomery or Jim Hall. Guys like him were a precursor to George Benson, but without being a sell-out to "pop sensibilities" (a self cancelling term, if there ever was one). Good stuff.

Jack Sheldon

The best kept secret in all of jazz, in my opinion. He's just a phenomenal jazz trumpet player who's terribly under-rated. Oddly enough, his phrasing - especially when he's singing - reminds me more than a bit of Ray Charles. In fact, Sheldon even made a Ray Charles tribute album when he was much younger. Jack Sheldon plays every Thursday night at Jax restaurant in Glendale, Ca. He's also a great comedian, if you're not squeemish about off-color jokes and politically incorrect humor.

Dvorak

Screw Brahms. I've even come around to enjoying Dvorak's chamber music more than Brahms'. Not everything by Dvorak is equally good, but I do enjoy his music more than most of the other romantics. The piece I like best from Brahms is his Serenade #1. That has none of the usual anal retentive or sexually repressed feeling to it. Brahms symphonies have the ability to sound muddy; anal retentive, and like a primal scream - all at the same time. In musical terms, they sound muddy in lower end; turgid in the middle, and very shreaky on top - again, all at the same time. Give me Dvorak anyday.

Tchaik 5 (Tchaikovsky 5th)

Like the Dvorak 9th, I never tire of this piece. It's truly among the greatest 19th century symphonies. Great tunes; colorful orchestration; plenty of rhythm - what's not to like?

Shostakovich 4

Just an incredible post-Mahler symphony. In fact, it's without doubt, very much a tribute to Mahler, as well as the first musical indictment of Stalinist Russia. The Previn/Chicago one just got reissued on the budget priced EMI Encore series, along with Previn's equally effective LSO recording of the "Four Sea Interludes" from Benjamin Britten's "Peter Grimes". You can't go wrong with that combination.

[sperlsco]

Grant Green

Dvorak - Screw Brahms.

Grant Green is one of my favorite jazz artists.  I think that he has actually gained in popularity over the last 10 years.   

I've been on a big Brahms (orchestral) kick this year.  I was on a big Dvorak kick last year.  I'm equally glad to have "discovered" both of them.