What are you listening to now?

[Peter]

I'm working my way through the Glazunov symphonies (not in any particular order). On initial hearing they're not making a tremendous impression with me - some of the music is attractive and skillful, particularly the orchestration but much is unmemorable.

[Roehre]

Today:

JSBach:
Cantatas BWV 30a, 36b and 36c

Hendrik Andriessen:
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Kuhnau (1935)

De Leeuw:
Car nos Vignes sont en Fleur (1981)

Van Bree:
Allegro for 4 String Quartets (1845)

Stockhausen:
Carré

[Chris]

Time to get back to some Beethoven. For anyone familiar with the three-volume Beethoven "Unknown Works" sets, I found that there is a box set of all of them that is still in print. This is a great way to get many of the rarer Beethoven works. I previously had Volume 2, for all the canons, but there are a couple of things on the other volumes that I did not have that made picking the whole set up worth it. For example, this set contains "Air Français", which I have never heard before and was curiously not present on the Folksongs volume of the DG Complete Beethoven Edition. So I'm looking forward to that.

But for today:

Piano version of the violin concerto, Op. 61
Piano sonata, Op. 14, No. 1
String quartet arrangement of Op. 14, No. 1
Arias op. 65, 116, WoO 89, 90, 91 (Nos. 1 and 2), 92, 92a, 93
Dances WoO 8, 9, 14, 15, 17

Quite a lot of music, but sitting in traffic for hours does give one a lot of time for music listening...

[Roehre]

I previously had Volume 2, for all the canons, but there are a couple of things on the other volumes that I did not have that made picking the whole set up worth it. For example, this set contains "Air Français", which I have never heard before and was curiously not present on the Folksongs volume of the DG Complete Beethoven Edition.

The canons in these Eastgerman recordings were included in the DGG CBE, but for one: WoO162 Ta ta ta...., as this is now believed to be a Schindler falsification.
In vol.1 you find the Mödlinger Tänze WoO 17 as well, not included in the CBE as these have been proven not to be by Beethoven.

But which "Air Français" do you mean? WoO 158/1.27 ? that is a french air of which we don't konw the original text, and which is not mentioned in the Kinsky Catalogue (despite it's WoO number !). Because of its incomplete state it failed the criteria for being included in the CBE.
It were better BTW to stick to its Hess number: Hess 168.

[Megan]

Chris, I have heard the piano version of B's violin concerto, Op.61. I am afraid I was not at all keen on it.


I purchased a CD by Vadim Repin playing Brahm's great violin concerto, no.77.
In this wonderful recording of Brahm's violin concerto, Repin decided against using Joachim's cadenza which I love, instead he uses the Heifetz cadenza. Repin goes on to say that during his childhood he heard a recording of the Brahms v/c in which Heifetz performed his own cadenza, and that when he first heard Heifetz playing this cadenza, it was like a bomb exploding inside of him.

[Chris]

The canons in these Eastgerman recordings were included in the DGG CBE, but for one: WoO162 Ta ta ta...., as this is now believed to be a Schindler falsification.

I think it was missing more than that. I don't recall the three WoO 181 canons being included either. Also, I love WoO 162, whoever wrote it, so I will never forgive them for that omission!

In vol.1 you find the Mödlinger Tänze WoO 17 as well, not included in the CBE as these have been proven not to be by Beethoven.

I know. I have these on a Naxos CD, but I will be interested to hear them again here. Also, have they really been proven not to be by Beethoven? I thought it was just in doubt.

But which "Air Français" do you mean? WoO 158/1.27 ? that is a french air of which we don't konw the original text, and which is not mentioned in the Kinsky Catalogue (despite it's WoO number !). Because of its incomplete state it failed the criteria for being included in the CBE.
It were better BTW to stick to its Hess number: Hess 168.

Yes, that's the one. I don't know of any others. Though I have no idea how it gets the label 158/1.27. 27? I know of WoO 158 being divided into a (1-23), b (1-7), c (1-6), and d (the one piece in question).

[Chris]

Chris, I have heard the piano version of B's violin concerto, Op.61. I am afraid I was not at all keen on it.

I thought the same thing when I first heard it, but either I have warmed up to it a little, or this recording convinced me, because I really enjoyed it this time around.

[Michael]

As today is the first day of Spring (in theory, anyway) I listened to Schumann's Opus 38, Beethoven's Opus 24 and a certain ballet by Stravinsky. I managed to avoid Vivaldi by not turning on the radio and by switching off a number of cell phones.

[Peter]

I thought the same thing when I first heard it, but either I have warmed up to it a little, or this recording convinced me, because I really enjoyed it this time around.

I also have never warmed to it, especially as Beethoven only did it at Clementi's wish to have something more suitable for London. The cadenzas Beethoven wrote for it though are of course the best thing to come out of it and as you know exist in a transcription for Violin which I think is superior to Joachim's effort.

Strangely I did like a piano transcription of Brahms's Violin concerto for piano and orchestra - this really worked, but I only caught the last movement and am not sure of the performer or the history as it was presented as Brahms' 3rd piano concerto.

[Quijote]

I'm "cross-quoting" Roehre from the previous (and locked) "What are you listening to now" thread. We were talking about Bruckner's 8th Symphony.

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Quote: Nowak is scientifically the more reliable of the two. This is not only caused by the development which musicological research went through in the more than 3 decades which (IIRC) separate the Haas and the Nowak editions (in general, as e.g. the Ninth's editions are identical but for two or thee tiny details), but -in case of III and VIII- by special treatment of the orignal scores as well.

As Bruckner sometimes simply glued pages together, or stuck parts or pages on top of others, until quite recently it was impossible to decipher the orignal texts. Two developments have changed that, and both were available to Nowak, but not to Haas: 1) new chemicals became available which -cautiously applied obviously- made it possible to separate the stuck pages/bits. 2) New X-ray like methods made it possbile to read the pages and stretches for which Bruckner used glues which even with our modern chemistry proved to be insolvable.

Therefore the Nowak editions are presenting more and more reliably the scores as Bruckner originally intended.

It opened another pitfall however: we don't know whether some of the changes Bruckner made were actually made before he completed his first versions. In other words, whether those passages should be considered as mere score sketches (which AB disapproved of), or changes made after completion of that particular version (which had AB's approval, at least before he was talked into changing the original score by his friends).
That is how we now have 4 slow movements for the third symphony, though there exist only three versions of the complete work. End quote
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Some fascinating detail there, Roehre. To return to the Haas versus Nowak debate, I wanted to say that I had always bought into the mainstream view that Nowak's editions were to be preferred. To quote one writer (Benjamin K. Korstvedt) on Bruckner's 8th :

Despite its label of "Original Version", Haas's edition does not strictly follow either the 1887 version or the 1890 version, but instead is an editorial conflation [my emphasis] that incorporates some elements derived from the 1887 version into the text of the 1890 version.

OK, fair enough. However, I find the Haas edition as used [no : preferred] by Boulez, Haitink, Wand, von Karajan and Barenboim for example, provides quite satisfactory musical results. Without going into laborious detail, performances of the 8th via the Haas seem to "work", despite objections that he is not being "true to the composer's intentions".
In any case, my next objective is to get hold of a CD of the first 1887 version (Haas or Nowak edition) to find out more exactly what Bruckner's first thoughts were about this "apocalyptic" symphony (not his epithet, by the way!). Thank you Roehre and Sorrano for your CD suggestions, I'll check them out.

[Quijote]

I'm working my way through the Glazunov symphonies (not in any particular order). On initial hearing they're not making a tremendous impression with me - some of the music is attractive and skillful, particularly the orchestration but much is unmemorable.

Funny you should say that. I remember our student orchestra playing his sax concerto (in B-flat, I think, can't quite recall). The soloist was good (and went on to found his own jazz ensemble, has released several CDs, been on the BBC, blah blah blah ...), but I do remember feeling how "facile" it seemed at the time. Yes, there were some nice "effects", the orchestration was competent, but ... unmemorable, like some sort of pleasant buzzing of bees on a lazy summer Sunday.

[Roehre]

Today:

Gal:
3 Sketches opus 7 (1911) (R3)

JSBach:
Cantatas BWV 134a and 173a
Motets BWV 118, 227, 229, 230

Bosmans:
String Quartet (1927)

Escher:
Le vrai Visage de la Paix (1953/’57)

Pijper:
Six Adagios (1940)

[Megan]

[QUOTE=Michael;49460]As today is the first day of Spring (in theory, anyway) I listened to Schumann's Opus 38, Beethoven's Opus 24 and a certain ballet by Stravinsky.
I managed to avoid Vivaldi by not turning on the radio and by switching off a number of cell phones.



Yes, why don't they play something else by Vivaldi like the double violin concerto. There really are treasures in the Vivaldi repertoire. Everyone seems to go by the Four Seasons, and if you either like it or dislike it that seems to be the end of the Vivaldi appreciation. I love Vivaldi's bright harmonies and its happiness and confidence, which I do not find superficial or tiresome. It's like looking at a diamond which slowly turns and you can delight in every aspect of light that is given off. It aproppriate from the son of the Church who also lived in the city of sparkling waters and light in Venice.

[Hofrat]

Ferdinand Hiller:
3 piano concerti

Edward MacDowell:
2 piano concerti
Witches' Dance
Romance for 'cello and orchestra

[Chris]

Continuing with the Beethoven today:

Christus am Olberge, Op. 85
Es ist vollbracht, WoO 97
Meeresstille und gluckliche Fahrt, Op. 112
Opferlied, Op. 121b
12 Minuets, WoO 7
Gratulations-Menuett, WoO 3
Piano Concerto, WoO 4
Ritterballet, WoO 1
The canons, epigrams, and jokes
Some Irish Songs from WoO 152 and 153