What are you listening to now?

[Sorrano]

Roehre, noting that you've been listening to a bit of Chavez, what is your take on his music?

[Chris]

Bach, Cantata BWV 51 and the Strophic Aria BWV 1127 (discovered in 2005), conducted by Masaaki Suzuki. I bought this disc for the Strophic Aria, the only complete recording I know of. I have Koopman's recording, but it's only four verses, and I really like this piece, so I thought I'd get a complete recording. At 48+ minutes it does get a bit repetitive with all the verses, but Suzuki varies the instrumentation to keep things interesting. And the recording of BWV 51 is very good indeed.

[Roehre]

Roehre, noting that you've been listening to a bit of Chavez, what is your take on his music?

Sorrano,

Those works are a bit of a mixed bag. Personally I like no.1 (Antigone), 3 and 4 (Romantica) most. I think of 5 (for strings only) and 6 as Chavez losing the plot a bit, losing his originality and going European/North-american academic. In themselves good works, but more of 13 in a dozen style IMO.

I am always impressed by no.4: the first two movements seem to reflect some late Mahler in a Mexican style, even Mahler 10, which at the moment of this symphony's composition hadn't been "completed" or published apart from the Adagio. Listen e.g. to the flute solo in mvt 1, and especially the high strings set against trombone chords in mvt 2. The finale of this Sinfonia Romantica at the other side IMO looks at Piston, e.g. the latter's 2nd symphony's 1st mvt.
However, I think no.3 is the greatest of this set, a 4-mvt work slow-quick-scherzo-slow.

I love the raw "Indian" style of no.2 (which in a much more lyrical, if you like: subdued fashion appears in no.1, and more melodically evolved in 3 and 4), and IMO it's a pity that these style elements hardly found their way into 5 and 6.

I've got the feeling that Chavez had a lot of trouble combining his Mexican roots with the way European/North-American Academia taught how to construct a text-book symphony. Nos 1 and 2 are very original in construction, melody and partly in rhythm, and are IMO the most inspired, his best. You even could deny these two works are symphonies at all. Nos 3 and 4 as multi-movement works are more shaped into a “true” symphonic form, but still have a lot of the Mexican influences left (no.3 2nd mvt e.g., a Mexican scherzo in all but name).

[Roehre]

Today:

d'Indy:
Poème des Rivages op.77

JSBach:
Sinfonias from Cantatas

[Sorrano]

Thanks for the comments on those, Roehre. For some reason that caught my eye and I will see if I can't find something (maybe on Youtube) when I get a few minutes to do some listening. Your lists most certainly do not go unnoticed and I regret that I haven't had the time to explore some of the composers that you listen to.

[Sorrano]

Beethoven: Fidelio Overture
Kuhlau: Flute Trio in G (Did he compose any/many symphonies?)

[Roehre]

Beethoven: Fidelio Overture
Kuhlau: Flute Trio in G (Did he compose any/many symphonies?)

Kühlau was mainly a composer of operas, a host of piano music (2 and 4 hands) and of chamber music AFAIK, most of the latter with at least one flute part. Never read he composed any symphonies, and only one clarinet concerto and one concertino for 2 horns and strings.

Beethoven did appreciate him, and even wrote a canon on Kühlau's name, WoO 191, poking fun with the latter's name: Kühl = Cool or even Cold, Lau = luke warm, so the canon Kühl, nicht Lau means: Cold, not luke warm.

[Sorrano]

I didn't think he had composed any symphonies, but I've heard some of the overtures and have been very delighted in the piano compositions. It's probably a good thing that Beethoven didn't consider his name in a Spanish context, though. If you think about it and say it aloud you should understand what I mean.

[Roehre]

Today:

Haapalainen:
Lemminkainen Overture (1925) (R3: TtN)

Stravinsky:
The Firebird (ballet, 1910) (this month’s BBC MM CD)

Balakirev :
Tamara (1882) (ditto)

[Megan]

Breakfast listening. BBC Radio 3

Ronald Binge — Elizabethan Serenade
Performer: The New London Orchestra Performer: Ronald Corp (conductor)

George Frideric Handel — Music for the Royal Fireworks
Performer: English Baroque Soloists Performer: John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)

Franz Liszt — Liebestraum in A flat
Performer: Khatia Buniatishvili (piano)

Thomas Baltzar — John come kiss me now
Performer: The Palladian Ensemble (Rachel Podger on violin)


Felix Mendelssohn — Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture
Performer: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Performer: Frans Brüggen (conductor)

John Taverner — Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas: Sanctus (or Agnus Dei)
Performer: Taverner Choir Performer: Andrew Parrott (conductor)

[Roehre]

Thunderstorm last night.
Power cut (and I DID pay my electricity bill).
Romantic night with candle light.


Yesterday (befor the power cut):

Puccini:
Preludio sinfonico
Capriccio sinfonico

Stravinsky:
Lied ohne Name (1916/’18)
Pastorale (1923; sung version)
2 Suites for small orchestra (1915/’25)
Three Songs from William Shakespeare (1953)

Britten:
Sinfonietta opus 1 (1932)

Tippett:
Divertimento on Sellinger’s Round (1954)

Holloway:
Gilded Goldbergs after JSBach op.86 (1992/’97)

[Megan]

There's nothing worse than not being able to put the kettle on.
I hope you weren't cut off too long Roehre.

[Roehre]

Megan,
it was after dark, so we put on some candles, took a nice glass of wine, and just before we were heading for bed the lights came on again.


Today:

JSBach:
Cantata “Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal“ BWV 146 (1726?)
One of the three cantatas for today, and one which begins with a concerto movement,
the 1st mvt of the keyboard concerto BWV 1052, in this case set for organ i.s.o. harpsichord.
Though in one 8-mvt-part, with 40 mins one of the longest of Bach’s church cantatas

Louis Andriessen:
Trepidus (1983)
Souvenirs d’Enfance (9 piano pieces, 1954-1966)
Image de Moreau (1999)
Nuit d’Eté (1957)

Schönberg:
Kammersymphonie no.1 op.9 (1906 arr. Webern 1921/’22)

Busoni:
Berceuse élégiaque (1920 arr. Schönberg 1920)

Mahler:
Todtenfeier (R3)

[Chris]

Some Chopin today:

Polonaises Opp. 53, 40 No. 2, 44, 61, 22 (Alfred Brendel)

Piano Concertos 1 and 2
Fantasy on Polish Nation Airs, Op. 13
Grand Concert Rondo "Krakowiak", Op. 14
(Garrick Ohlsson)

Introduction and Variations on a German air "Der Schweizerbub"
Variations on the march from Bellini's I puritani
(Paolo Bordoni)

Rondos Opp. 1, 5, 16, 73
(Danielle Laval [and Teresa Llacuna on Op. 73 - it is the two-piano version])

[Michael]

B's Variations for flute & piano on various folksongs, Opp. 105 & 107.