What are you listening to now?

[Nightklavier]

Originally posted by Joy:
On NPR today and speaking of Liszt in other posts: "Upon the death of his son, Franz Liszt wanted to write a tribute. He chose a tragic-sounding chorale by Bach, and proceeded to write a set of life-affirming variations on it. Leslie Howard will play Liszt's Variations on Bach's Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Sagen at the Mannes College International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York."

Is this an upcoming event or did NPR broadcast it already?

[Joy]

Originally posted by Nightklavier:
Is this an upcoming event or did NPR broadcast it already?

It's on 'Performance Today' from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm (Moutain Time).

Here's the website;
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundown...wn.php?prgId=4



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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Nightklavier]

Originally posted by Joy:
It's on 'Performance Today' from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm (Moutain Time).

Here's the website;
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundown...wn.php?prgId=4

Thanks, Joy. It looks like I can still catch it

[Joy]

Originally posted by Nightklavier:
Thanks, Joy. It looks like I can still catch it

Did you get to hear it NK? Very interesting Liszt piece and also the history of it.

Tonight on the same program the Takacs Quartet is performing Beethoven's String Quartet No. 2 in G Major. And in the notes, "In the spring of 1825, Beethoven got terribly sick. Came close to dying, in fact. After his recovery, he revised a string quartet he'd been working on. He added a long, reflective middle movement -- a musical "thank you" to God for his life". The Takacs Quartet plays Beethoven's "Heiliger Dankgesang". It's the third movement from Beethoven's Quartet No. 15, Op. 132.
Also pianist Garrick Ohlsson will play an 11 second encore by Beethoven. The Bagatelle (Bagatelle in A Major, Op. 119. This has got to be the shortest song ever written. Anyone know of a shorter song?

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[This message has been edited by Joy (edited 10-26-2006).]

[Nightklavier]

I did hear it, Joy. Although I've heard several interpretations of that piece and knew it intimately from a CD I have with Michael Ponti, I think Leslie Howard's execution was pretty mindblowing. He never ran out of steam with all of those menacing crashes and yet his dynamic touch for those serene Bachian contrapuntal passages were excellent.

Thanks again. It seems like you've always got something to tell us about. I recall you informing us about the PBS concert, and then myself personally about those Robert Greenberg lectures (which I'm getting for myself as a Christmas present ) and now these NPR Performance Today pieces. Your efforts to expose things like this are greatly appreciated!

[Sorrano]

Not long ago there was a thread on Cherubini and Dussek (?) and KBAQ featured the Piano Sonata in F-sharp, op. 25, no. 5. Very nice work!!

Also picked up on John Field's Piano Concerto No. 6 and Piston's Three New England Sketches. That and other works made for a great listening day!

[Joy]

Originally posted by Nightklavier:


Thanks again. It seems like you've always got something to tell us about. I recall you informing us about the PBS concert, and then myself personally about those Robert Greenberg lectures (which I'm getting for myself as a Christmas present ) and now these NPR Performance Today pieces. Your efforts to expose things like this are greatly appreciated!

Glad you got to hear it the other day. And glad you enjoy my contributions. I like to inform everyone of some good listening encounters and if they get the chance hopefully they can catch the programs as you did.
BTY, let me know how you like the Greenberg lectures. I know you won't be disappointed!



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[sjwenger]

Today I heard Tchaikovsky's Symphony #4, conducted by Mikhail Pletnev. I thought it was a singularly unemotional, uninspired performance. Have any of you heard other works conducted by Pletnev? Any opinions?


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To learn about "The Port-Wine Sea," my parody of Patrick O'Brian's wonderful Aubrey-Maturin series, please contact me at
susanwenger@yahoo.com

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[Sorrano]

This morning I caught the final movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony conducted by Otto Klemperer. That was a very captivating performance! The orchestra played like it meant it!

[Joy]

Originally posted by Sorrano:
This morning I caught the final movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony conducted by Otto Klemperer. That was a very captivating performance! The orchestra played like it meant it!

And one of my favourites!



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[JA Gardiner]

Originally posted by Joy:
And one of my favourites!

Dear Joy
Funny - the only recording of Klemperer's that I've heard was of the 5th and that was so awful I felt like throwing the stereo out of the window! It was sooooo slow and accented soooo heavily it was as if the Boss had the musical equivalent of a wooden leg

However let you be unconfined! I've just purchased a set of the very precious DVD recordings of Carlos Kleiber conducting . Now his performance of the 7th really is something to get joyful about and its even more wonderful to be able to see him drawing the performance out of the Concertgebouw on this occasion - such attention to detail and such incredible rapport with the orchestra. His Brahms and Mozart are pretty special too though I've not yet got round to seeing the New Year Concerts - I'm not all that keen on Strauss - but they might go better with some festive food and drink!


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Beethoven the Man!

[Joy]

Originally posted by JA Gardiner:

Originally posted by Joy:
And one of my favourites!

Dear Joy
Funny - the only recording of Klemperer's that I've heard was of the 5th and that was so awful I felt like throwing the stereo out of the window! It was sooooo slow and accented soooo heavily it was as if the Boss had the musical equivalent of a wooden leg

However let you be unconfined! I've just purchased a set of the very precious DVD recordings of Carlos Kleiber conducting . Now his performance of the 7th really is something to get joyful about and its even more wonderful to be able to see him drawing the performance out of the Concertgebouw on this occasion - such attention to detail and such incredible rapport with the orchestra. His Brahms and Mozart are pretty special too though I've not yet got round to seeing the New Year Concerts - I'm not all that keen on Strauss - but they might go better with some festive food and drink!

Hi JA, I have to correct my mistake to you. It is Kleiber I meant as being one of my
favourites and not the other way around. I must have had a mind 'blip'!! Must have too much going on at the moment and got the two mixed up.



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[JA Gardiner]

Rachmaninov playing his own 2nd and 3rd concertos - what a revelation! These recordings come from the 1920's but are so fresh and so delicate for such a big man - very like Horovitz in style. I'm hearing details I've never picked up in some of the more grandiosely romantic performances of more recent years, and the accompaniment by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra is beautifully weighted and despite the recording restrictions seems somehow to have more light and room to breathe than I'm used to hearing in "Rocky 2"! Authentic performance Rachmaninov - who'd have thought it possible or necessary

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Beethoven the Man!

[Peter]

Originally posted by JA Gardiner:
Rachmaninov playing his own 2nd and 3rd concertos - what a revelation! These recordings come from the 1920's but are so fresh and so delicate for such a big man - very like Horovitz in style. I'm hearing details I've never picked up in some of the more grandiosely romantic performances of more recent years, and the accompaniment by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra is beautifully weighted and despite the recording restrictions seems somehow to have more light and room to breathe than I'm used to hearing in "Rocky 2"! Authentic performance Rachmaninov - who'd have thought it possible or necessary

This made me think of piano roll recordings - I have heard Rachmaninov 'performing' on a Bosendorfer using piano roll recording. There are available through this medium recordings of Faure, Saint-Saens, Mahler, Ravel and many early 20th century pianists.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_/20 2-0893942-1272665?url=search-alias%3Dclassical&field-keywords=piano+roll&Go.x=13&Go.y=11

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'Man know thyself'

[This message has been edited by Peter (edited 11-18-2006).]

[Hofrat]

Hoffmeister:
Symphony in D major "La Chasse"