What are you listening to now?

[Peter]

This morning I the radio played back to back the finales of Dvorak's two Cello Concerti.

I don't know the early work - what's it like? The B minor concerto is in my opinion the greatest thing he did - absolutely wonderful, and what a beautiful coda to that finale!

[Sorrano]

I don't know the early work - what's it like? The B minor concerto is in my opinion the greatest thing he did - absolutely wonderful, and what a beautiful coda to that finale!

It's not bad at all! However, Dvorak did not orchestrate it; I believe it was Anton Dorati that did (I was not totally awake when that came on, so I couldn't get all the information). It is a student work, written for a friend. The orchestration was good, I think, but not having seen the score or having heard the piano original it's hard to judge.

I have to add that the ending is quite the opposite to the 2nd concerto, yet quite effective. The music fades away to "heavenly bliss".

[Peter]

Bartok's string quartets - certainly challenging music, but I think worth the effort.

[Johan]

Peter!

I really admire you for your effort!

(listening now to Mass in C)

[gardibolt]

For my birthday last month I received a 3-cd set called "People Take Warning" which is chock full of old (1913-1933) bluegrass recordings of songs about disasters and murders and mayhem; there are at least half a dozen songs about the Titanic, for instance, as well as railroad crashes, car wrecks, floods, attacks by boll weevils and crimes of passion. It's a hoot.

[DavidO]

I'm listening to an MP3 of Symphony No. 35 by Wolfie. The file isn't tagged -- I grabbed it from the Web somewhere -- so I don't know whose recording it is.

[Joy]

For my birthday last month I received a 3-cd set called "People Take Warning" which is chock full of old (1913-1933) bluegrass recordings of songs about disasters and murders and mayhem; there are at least half a dozen songs about the Titanic, for instance, as well as railroad crashes, car wrecks, floods, attacks by boll weevils and crimes of passion. It's a hoot.

Oh my gosh, that must be very 'uplifting'!

[Sorrano]

Today I will be listening to the 1st three Bruckner Symphonies.

[Preston]

Listening to the Prologue from Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov". Really dark and powerful music, with some very pleasant parts.

[Sorrano]

Listening to the Prologue from Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov". Really dark and powerful music, with some very pleasant parts.

Did you listen to the original scoring or to the Rimsky-Korsakov orchestration? This is an opera I quite like and do prefer the original orchestration.

[Preston]

Did you listen to the original scoring or to the Rimsky-Korsakov orchestration? This is an opera I quite like and do prefer the original orchestration.

I haven't heard the Rimsky-Korsakov version, I didn't know he did one. As far as the original score, I don't know, this is what I am listening to, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=11752910 , is this the original orchestration? I have only listened to the prologue and a little bit of the opera itself. The prologue is so serious. The terror of it freaks me out a little, only a little because I know that it is not me that is this sick minded Tyrant.

I just found it the other day on NPR and am curious to know more about the opera and Mussorgsky. I have read the write up about the opera on NPR and read about Mussorgsky on Wikipedia, and am planning on reading this. Mussorgsky is really fascinating to me. I like his view on life, at least what I have read of it. This is a composer who I feel suffered all to much, probably no where near Beethoven, but had a very hard life. I like that he doesn't get caught up with all the contemporary and conventional sides of life. I like that a lot. If you don't mind me asking, how do you feel about Mussorgsky the man?

I would like to find the English libretto to "Boris Godunov", do you know where I can get it?

I do not know the opera well enough to really comment on it. But, what I am picking up on is that Mussorgsky is using very powerful and disturbing music, most of the time, in the prologue when Boris sings (I assume it is Boris), and what sounds like a more spiritual side (I don't know how to describe the music when the choir sings, it is kind of different) of music when the choir sings, although there is a lot of power in the choir also. I assume that the choir represents the peasants who are being forced by the police to "crown Boris king"?

Nevertheless, Mussorgsky and "Boris Godunov" are both things that I want to look into.

[Sorrano]

This is probably his own orchestration, but it doesn't say which version, either, of the opera it is. Listen to the entire opera, it's well worth it. I did a preliminary search for an English version of the libretto but didn't find one; I'm sure it is available, just keep looking. Mussorgsky's tends to be quite dark with frightening themes. I don't have a very good background of the man himself; what I've read was rudimentary and I don't recall much of that. Good luck with it!

[Quijote]

I'm listening to Liberace. Because I'm that sort of a guy. And then I'm gonna listen to Richard Clayderman. But Liberace is 'better' for reasons I'd rather not go into.

[PDG]

I'm listening to Liberace. Because I'm that sort of a guy. And then I'm gonna listen to Richard Clayderman. But Liberace is 'better' for reasons I'd rather not go into.

My God, things are far worse than I ever thought......

[Sorrano]

This morning I heard the finales of both Clara and Robert Schumann's piano concerti. Clara's impressed me more than Robert's, but then that is just a first impression.