What are you listening to now?

[Roehre]

Hearing the Prelude to Tannhauser was a good to wake up this morning!

With or without the Venusberg-music immediately attached

[Sorrano]

With or without the Venusberg-music immediately attached

The Venusberg-music just might have put me out again.

[Roehre]

Today:

Pettersson:
Two Elegies (1934)
Romanza (1942) (R3: TtN)

Maconchy:
String quartet no.2 (1936)
String quartet no.3 (in one movement, 1938)

Bruynèl:
Serène (1978)
Soft Song (1974)
Save the Whale (1991)
Denk mal das Denkmal (1984)

Ibert:
6 Pieces for Harp (1916/’17)

JSBach:
Musicalisches Opfer BWV 1079
Canons BWV 1072-1078 and 1086
14 Goldberg-canons BWV 1087

[musicatthestart]

Forgot

Ligeti Etudes (Idil Biret)

[Michael]

Beethoven symphonies Nos. 8, 2 and 7 (without even a cup of tea in between). I intended just to listen to No. 8 but things got out of hand. I can't think of another piece that can put one into instant good humour than No. 8 and yet, for some strange reason, it and No. 2 are the least performed of the Nine.

[Peter]

Beethoven symphonies Nos. 8, 2 and 7 (without even a cup of tea in between). I intended just to listen to No. 8 but things got out of hand. I can't think of another piece that can put one into instant good humour than No. 8 and yet, for some strange reason, it and No. 2 are the least performed of the Nine.

No.2 has always been my least favourite Beethoven symphony - it even irritates me, whilst I never tire of no.8

Listening to Haydn quartets op.54.

[Roehre]

No.2 has always been my least favourite Beethoven symphony - it even irritates me, whilst I never tire of no.8

Listening to Haydn quartets op.54.

No.2 was only the second work of Beethoven's I ever heard (the first being the Leonore III). I think it's a great work (even with the allusions to Mozart's no.38 KV504 in the slow movt), but as will be appreciated, I am not completely unbiassed here

[Michael]

No.2 has always been my least favourite Beethoven symphony - it even irritates me, whilst I never tire of no.8

.

Amazing. I never tire of either of them. What annoys you about 2? The martial rhythms of the first movement, or the glorious mad coda to the last movement? Just listen to the slow movement which gave Schubert a good deal of inspiration.
I read recently that No 2 seems to be everyone's least favourite.
I give up.

[Roehre]

Today:

Maconchy:
String quartet no.4 (1942/’43)

Shostakovich:
Chamber symphony op.83a (arr.Barshai)

Fodor:
Piano sonata in F-sharp opus 2/2 (1792)

Van Bree:
Allegro for 4 string quartets (1846)

Coenen:
Morgendämmerung (for horn and windband; 1868)

Linde:
Cello concerto opus 29 (1964)

R3: Hear and Now
Andrew Toovey:
Ubu's Journey

Claire McCue:
Surge

Christopher Duncan:
Twine

Helmut Oehring:
POEndulum - a monodrama for speaker and orchestra

[Sorrano]

I quite like Beethoven's 2nd.

Tonight: Svanda the Bagpiper by Jaromir Weinberger. This is on a Naxos label, performed (live) by the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Belarus. The polka and fugue, at last, appear in their original setting.

(Thanks, Roehre!)

[Peter]

Amazing. I never tire of either of them. What annoys you about 2? The martial rhythms of the first movement, or the glorious mad coda to the last movement? Just listen to the slow movement which gave Schubert a good deal of inspiration.
I read recently that No 2 seems to be everyone's least favourite.
I give up.

I think it is the only one of the 9 that does suffer from over familiarity (at least as far as I'm concerned). I know all its plus points including the lovely slow movement and yes that finale coda is a marvel but it is still one I can only listen to after several years gap!

[Michael]

I think it is the only one of the 9 that does suffer from over familiarity (at least as far as I'm concerned). I know all its plus points including the lovely slow movement and yes that finale coda is a marvel but it is still one I can only listen to after several years gap!

Make that several weeks, in my case.
When I started listening to Beethoven back in the late sixties, Nos. 1 and 2 were the last of the symphonies to become known to me, and I wasn't at all impressed for a few years. Then, they seemed to have sneaked up on me and now I can't get enough of them (along with most of Beethoven).

Today I listened to the late B flat quartet (with the Grosse Fugue finale).

[Michael]

Just listened to B's glorious incidental music to "Egmont". Apart from the overture, this music is doomed to semi-obscurity by its very nature. There are two fine songs (so-described) which are the equal of anything in Fidelio.

[Peter]

Make that several weeks, in my case.
When I started listening to Beethoven back in the late sixties, Nos. 1 and 2 were the last of the symphonies to become known to me, and I wasn't at all impressed for a few years. Then, they seemed to have sneaked up on me and now I can't get enough of them (along with most of Beethoven).

Today I listened to the late B flat quartet (with the Grosse Fugue finale).

No.1 was the first I heard and it was an instant hit for me! I still never tire of it, so I'm not sure why I have a problem with no.2, but there must be something there in that it is generally considered the least favourite.

I'm also listening to a Bb quartet - Brahms's op.67 and I particularly like the finale, certainly a fine work.

[Roehre]

Today:

Maconchy:
String quartet no.5 (1948)

JSBach:
Goldberg-variations BWV 988

Korngold:
Violin concerto op.35 (R3: Discovering Music)

Sibelius:
Symphony no.3 op.52