What are you listening to now?

[Megan]

Wonderful, Megan. Marini wrote some lovely keyboard music too. We don't hear enough of this type of music do we?

I agree bonn, we don't hear enough of this kind of music, isn't it simply sumptuous.

Sometimes I listen to pure baroque online.
http://sradio.tv/live/1566

[Roehre]

Today:

Tal:
Symphony no.4 “Jubilee” (1984)

Ullmann:
Piano sonata no.7 “Theresienstadt Sketchbook” (1944, the very last piece Ullmann completed in the concentration camp Terezin/Theresienstadt before he was transported to Auschwitz and murdered within hours after arrival)
Symphony no.2 “Theresienstadt Sketchbook” (1944/ orchestration Wulff of the piano sonata no.7 )

Liszt:
Magyar Dalok S.252/1-11 (1839/40, Hungarian songs as well as a kind of early Hungarian Rhapsodies)

Strauss:
Don Quixote op.35

[Quijote]

Jonathan HARVEY : Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco (1980), his first IRCAM commission, incorporating the composer's son's voice singing the text on the great tenor bell of Winchester Cathedral, plus computer-generated transformations of the bell and voice. I think this work may well be the best introduction to those on this forum who have problems accepting notions of "beauty" in electroacoustic music. It is really quite accessible, I assure you.

[Roehre]

Today:

JSBach:
Cantate no.165 “O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad “ (for Trinity, today)

Tal:
Symphony no.3 (1978)

Liszt:
Magyar Rapszodiak S.252/12-19 (1839/40, early Hungarian Rhapsodies)

[Quijote]

Arnold Schoenberg : Pierrot lunaire, op. 21. This is a work I have not listened to in quite a while, and I am glad to have come back to it. I used to have a performance directed by Boulez, but my dear ex-wife (long may she prosper [not]) never returned it to me. So, today I bought this in my local Harmonia Mundi shop for only 9.90€. It's a performance with the Ensemble Musique Oblique, directed by Philippe Herreweghe, no less, recorded in July 1991.

This is a knock-out work, which I was tempted to revisit thanks to an excellent and incisive essay by Richard Taruskin as follows : The Poietic Fallacy, in The Danger of Music and Other Anti-Utopian Essays, University of California Press, 2009.

[Quijote]

I forgot to mention a nice little bonus with the CD just mentioned above : Schoenberg's 1st Chamber Symphony (op. 9) in the 1922-23 transcription by Webern. I'm saving that little treat for tomorrow.

[Quijote]

This reminds me : certain forum members have been lamenting the "death of classical music" in the UK. I think I said at the time that I doubted such pessimistic forecasts, and I maintain that, at least here in France. I live in Strasbourg, a small city of about 400,000 people. We have : a dedicated Harmonia Mundi shop (jam-packed with treasures, some a bit expensive, but plenty of bargains), a large electronics department store called FNAC with a huge classical music CD selection (though a smallish "contemporary" offer), a Virgin store with a pretty decent selection of classical CDs, a super (and quite large) music shop next to the Conservatory (called Arpège), jam-packed with CDs and scores, and several other smaller independent CD outlets. Nah, classical music is alive and kicking here, no worries.

[Quijote]

Plus international classical and contemporary music festivals, and an equally famous "Jazz d'Or" festival. We are spoilt, are we not?

[Quijote]

Plus I, Philip, live here. What more can they want?

[Roehre]

Today:

Vladigerov:
Vardar opus 16 (1925) (R3: Ttn)

Tal:
Symphony no.2 (1960)

Barber:
Knoxville - Summer of 1915 op.24 (1947)

Ullmann:
Der zerbrochene Krug: overture (1942)
Don Quixte tanzt Fadango (1943)

Liszt:
Magyar Rapszodiak S.252/12-19 (1839/40, early Hungarian Rhapsodies)

Luke Bedford:
At Three and Two (R3)
(An IMO a rather bland piece, one of the least interesting of the Mahler-accompanying works)

[Sorrano]

Currently I am listening/watching from a list of top 10 compositions of the 20th Century. Some of these are selections; others are complete. Cage's 4'33" is on the list, too.

http://listverse.com/2010/05/31/top-...-20th-century/

[Roehre]

Today:

Tal:
Symphony no.1 (1958)

Liszt:
Rumanian Rhapsody S.252/20
Hungarian rhapsody S.252/21
Carnival in pest S.252/22
(all early versions)

[Bonn1827]

Tonight:

Henry Purcell: Dioclesian, and
The Tempest
English Baroque Soloists/MC/JEG

[Quijote]

Luciano BERIO :
Sequenza I for solo flute,
Sequenza III for solo voice,
Sequenza V for solo trombone.

It was Roehre's Oboe sequenza posting above that inspired my choice today. That said, I've never really "accepted" the trombone sequenza. I guess I just don't like the timbre of the trombone as a solo instrument.

[Peter]

This reminds me : certain forum members have been lamenting the "death of classical music" in the UK. I think I said at the time that I doubted such pessimistic forecasts, and I maintain that, at least here in France. I live in Strasbourg, a small city of about 400,000 people. We have : a dedicated Harmonia Mundi shop (jam-packed with treasures, some a bit expensive, but plenty of bargains), a large electronics department store called FNAC with a huge classical music CD selection (though a smallish "contemporary" offer), a Virgin store with a pretty decent selection of classical CDs, a super (and quite large) music shop next to the Conservatory (called Arpège), jam-packed with CDs and scores, and several other smaller independent CD outlets. Nah, classical music is alive and kicking here, no worries.

Well am I wrong to think it odd that a grade 5 piano student (of mine I regret to say) aged 14 should never have heard of her national composer, Elgar? I find whenever it comes to grade 5 aural training the knowledge displayed is lamentable and there is no interest in listening to classical music. When prompted to suggest a Baroque composer, Batch was suggested - a further prompt when I mentioned you open a door with it produced the famous Knob!
The poor child is also privately educated so hopefully the parents are satisfied with the results and her desire to do GCSE music.