What Are You Listening to Now?

[King Stephen]

Originally posted by Ahmad:
Steve,
How does the symphonies sound, it's interesting to compare tow brothers styles..!
By the way, How is it going on with your classical music teaching program?

[This message has been edited by Ahmad (edited 11-07-2004).]

Ahmad,
Michael Haydn (1737-1806) unlike Mozart spent most of his life in Salzbug, Auatria.
His music reflects the Salzburg school of music and not his brothers style. In 1763 he was appointed music director at the Salzburg court and remained there until his death in 1806. He composed 41 Symphonies and of them 21 are 3 movement works, 19 are 4 movement works and 1 is a 2 movement work. His symphonic output is between the years of 1760 and 1789. M. Haydn's duties as a cathedral organist and teacher at the choir school explain why the last years of his life were almost exclusively devoted to vocal music and no synphonies were composed.
M. Haydn's symphony No.25 was attributed to Mozart for many years and was considered his No.37. We now know the Mozart only composed a slow introduction (KV444). It must be said that Mozart greatly valued Michael Haydn's compositions.


As for school, another delightful year. (My 6th) After a couple of years of this program the students go off on their own in seach of classical music of their likeing.
We have a contest on two subjects this year. The first is a biography of LvB and the second, a hand drawing picture of LvB. The winners will get five CD's, classical to be sure, and will have their winning entries on my web page. It's a very rewarding program for me and I hope for the students.

Steve

[King Stephen]

The much underrated music of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf is my listening pleasure right now. His sinfonias in D minor, F major
and G minor. This guy composed well over 100
symphonies over several decades. (Quoting from the liner notes) They reveal an extraordinary wealth of novel and convincing solutions to problems of form.
Good listening......
KS

[atserriotserri]

Today it's Chopin piano sonatas played by Idil Biret (last time I listened to them at work, one of the senior partners entered in my office in the precise moment the marche funebre started, he thought I needed a break ).

Last friday I attended at a concert at the Barcelona Auditori, it was quite a long time since my last concert. My conclusion could be summarized qith "mixed emotions".

First piece was "Pedrelliana", from Robert Gerhardt. He, despite his name, was born in Valls (Catalonia, Spain) and in 1914, once war was declared, he went back from Munich, where he was studying at the Royal Academy, to Valls, where he received music lessons from Felip Pedrell (who had already instructed Falla, among others). He was a musicologist and considered one of the exponents of musical nationalism in Catalonia; dictatorship regime in Spain made his work forgotten or worse, forbidden. After his death, Gerhardt composed a 3 movement symphony named "Homenaje a Pedrell: In memoriam" to honor his mentor. The "Pedrelliana" is how the last movement is known, and is really remarkable, enthusiastic and with impressive depth, some folklorical reminders (less than the unperformed 1st & second movements, a little naive if you want).

It was performed brilliantly by the Catalonia Symphonic Orchestra (directed by Libor Pesek), but what deceived me that night was the following piece: Scriabin's concert for piano & orchestra op. 20. The pianist, Javier Perianes is skilled but his start was unconvinced, commited one evident mistake, and spent most of the concert trying to find his place and his "time" with the orchestra. Beautiful music not wasted, but already wasted.

Once freed from the burden of the pianist (sorry, but I had to tell it that way), the next and last piece Dvorak's Symphony no. 8, op. 88 was a splendid finale which certainly overcame the dissatisfaction of the previous performance. I had the chance to discover why Pesek is renowned for his interpretation of czech music. Enthusiastic and cohessive performance by the orchestra (specially brilliant was the last movement).

It's curious how, if I remove the middle piece, the impression is very good, and the overall impression is moderated by the performance of the pianist (or the lack of sychronization between him and the orchestra).

Anecdotes: A woman dismayed at the middle of the Scriabin concert (perhaps thought the same I was thinking about the pianist). At the restaurant, an old man was sat behind my girlfriend, and he was trying to impress his female companion saying that "there were so many polish talents: Chopin, Scriabin, Dvorak...)", my girlfriend laughed so loud she even felt embarrassed!

[Pastorali]

The new week starts as nice as the last did end...
W.A.M. Regina Coeli KV.108-127-276
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei KV.273

[spaceray]

Horowitz plays Clementi sonatas.
These are wonderful!

[Amalie]

Bach: Cantata , BWV 131,
Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, Herr zu dir,
[Out of the depths I cry to thee O Lord, hear my voice]
Leusink.
~~~
Veracini: Overture no.1, Bb major,
Musica Antiqua Koln



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~ Unsterbliche Geliebte ~

[Big D]

I'm listening to the Cello suites and Sonatas by Bach. For their beauty and grace, I think these are the best pieces that Mr. Bach ever wrote. I particularly enjoy the guitar transcriptions that were recorded by Andres Segovia. Segovia doesn't get enough credit these days for them, either-which is a shame! As a matter of fact, he's almost forgotten. How could this be?


Much Love,
Big D

[Gurn Blanston]

Hello all,
Oh, I have been sorely remiss in keeping up with your adventures in good listening the last few days. I have had a few myself, thank goodness! Just one thing I wanted to comment: Big D, I didn't realize that Segovia was nearly forgotten today. I still and always think of him as the greatest classical guitarist of all time. I have never heard his transcriptions of the Bach Cello Suites, however I still agree that they are among the top pieces of music for any instrument. I particularly love Casals rendition of them, they are breathtaking in the mood they create.

For me, it is again the String Quintet #2 in G major of Ludwig Spohr - Op 33 #2 - The more I listen to Spohr the more I like him. Clearly divergent from Classical Style, a precursor of full-blown romanticism, but no less excellent for all that.


------------------
Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[This message has been edited by Gurn Blanston (edited 11-08-2004).]

[Big D]

Dear Gurn Fellow:
Most people I know have no idea who Andres Segovia is. Maybe it's just a generation gap; I dunno.
Regarding a composer you mentioned-Alexander Spohr-I have never heard of him. What recordings of his best works would you recommend?

Much Love,
Big D

[Gurn Blanston]

Big D,
Yes, it likely IS a generation gap, more's the pity. Segovia was untouchable.
Ludwig (Louis) Spohr. He was the top violinist of his time, and was famous throughout Europe long after his death for his violin teaching method which turned out the top fiddlers for the next 50-75 years. His best works are obviously going to be his violin concertos, which were written relatively early in his career, say, from 1805 to 1830. They sound much more modern than that, some middle and late romantic violin composers (like Wieniawski and Vieuxtemps) who were writing from 1850 to 1890 sound contemporary with Spohr.
He also wrote a lot of chamber music, string quartets and quintets, piano trios (very nice ones too) and 4 octets for strings. His 2 biggest chamber works are an octet and a nonet for strings and winds. You can find several recordings that have both of these works on them. He also wrote things that I am not familiar with, masses, lieder, but I am quite sure he didn't do any symphonies or other concertos. You won't find his recordings just laying around everywhere, but there is a surprising amount of them now. Check one out, I would recommend one of the violin concerto disks, they rock!

For me, it is the Symphony in g minor - #40 - K 550 - Amadé Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music. This rocks too!


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Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Amalie]

Originally posted by Big D:
Dear Gurn Fellow:
Most people I know have no idea who Andres Segovia is. Maybe it's just a generation gap; I dunno.
Regarding a composer you mentioned-Alexander Spohr-I have never heard of him. What recordings of his best works would you recommend?

Much Love,
Big D

Big D,
My Dad introduced me to Segovia and Julian Bream in the 60's when I used to listen to them all the time. Dad used to get all emotional when listening to them.

For Now its VIVALDI: 'Nulla in mundo pax sincera' RV630, / Emma Kirkby [soprano]
Academy of Ancient Music , cond. Manze Ravishing virtuosic singing.

HENRIQUES: Air for String Orchestra,
Danish Radio Concert Orchestra

MOZART: 9 Variations in C, on Desede's arietta 'Lison dormait' K264, / Bart bon OOrt [fortepiano]



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~ Unsterbliche Geliebte ~

[This message has been edited by Amalie (edited 11-09-2004).]

[Gurn Blanston]

Amalie,
Looks like just you and me today!
Well, I listened to the "Lison dormait" Variations last night because I was reading about Mozart in Paris. Odd thing that! How do you like the sound of Oort's fortepiano? Is it a good one? I have been thinking about that Brilliant set, it would be hard to outdo my lovely Ingrid Haebler, but it would be nice to have the fortepiano if it is a good one. Hmmm...

For me, it is the Symphony in Eb major - Op 6 #2 - Adalbert Gyrowetz. Not only a contemporary of Mozart, but an intimate, he came to Vienna during Mozart's peak years and joined the world's longest floating house party until Mzart's death. He wrote a pretty good symphony too.


------------------
Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Ahmad]

Originally posted by King Stephen:
Ahmad,
Michael Haydn (1737-1806) unlike Mozart spent most of his life in Salzbug, Auatria.
His music reflects the Salzburg school of music and not his brothers style. In 1763 he was appointed music director at the Salzburg court and remained there until his death in 1806. He composed 41 Symphonies and of them 21 are 3 movement works, 19 are 4 movement works and 1 is a 2 movement work. His symphonic output is between the years of 1760 and 1789. M. Haydn's duties as a cathedral organist and teacher at the choir school explain why the last years of his life were almost exclusively devoted to vocal music and no synphonies were composed.
M. Haydn's symphony No.25 was attributed to Mozart for many years and was considered his No.37. We now know the Mozart only composed a slow introduction (KV444). It must be said that Mozart greatly valued Michael Haydn's compositions.


As for school, another delightful year. (My 6th) After a couple of years of this program the students go off on their own in seach of classical music of their likeing.
We have a contest on two subjects this year. The first is a biography of LvB and the second, a hand drawing picture of LvB. The winners will get five CD's, classical to be sure, and will have their winning entries on my web page. It's a very rewarding program for me and I hope for the students.

Steve

Great news Steve! Wish I had a classical music teacher in my school...!
And thankyou for the information about M. Hayden...


Gurn,
It seems that the great three ( Moz.,Beet and Hayden) didn't give a chance for their contemporaries to be know even by name! Your explorations along with Steve's are really enlightenening

Now with the adagio of Mozart piano concerto no.23 in A major. Daniel Barenboim on the piano.
I like adagios!


[This message has been edited by Ahmad (edited 11-09-2004).]

[Amalie]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
[B]Amalie,
Looks like just you and me today!
Well, I listened to the "Lison dormait" Variations last night because I was reading about Mozart in Paris. Odd thing that! How do you like the sound of Oort's fortepiano? Is it a good one? I have been thinking about that Brilliant set, it would be hard to outdo my lovely Ingrid Haebler, but it would be nice to have the fortepiano if it is a good one. Hmmm...

For me, it is the Symphony in Eb major - Op 6 #2 - Adalbert Gyrowetz. Not only a contemporary of Mozart, but an intimate, he came to Vienna during Mozart's peak years and joined the world's longest floating house party until Mozart's death. He wrote a pretty good symphony too.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes, there seems to be a bit of a lull lately.
I did enjoy Mozart's Lison Dormait on fortepiano this am. but I am afraid I haven't heard of Ingrid Haebler, you're way ahead of me there.
I am intrigued to hear more about the world's longest floating house party.


This evening I am enjoying an excellent concert of the three great B's of classical music:

Beethoven: Piano Concerto, no.1 in C,

Bach: Branderburg concerto no.1

Brahms: Orchestrated by Schoenberg - Piano Quartet no.1, 0p.25

Performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle,
Lars Vogt [piano]


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~ Unsterbliche Geliebte ~



[This message has been edited by Amalie (edited 11-09-2004).]

[Big D]

For me, it's the Mozart Sonatas, #330-333. Such sublime music! If only Mozart could have lived as long as Haydn-just think of the music that could have been created!

P.S. Thanks for all of the info on Sphor, Gurn fellow! I bet his concertos are gonna totally blow me away when I hear them. Thanks, Bro!

Much Love,
Big D

[This message has been edited by Big D (edited 11-09-2004).]