What are you listening to now?

[Preston]

Sibelius in his youth was a heavy drinker and I mean heavy - binges that lasted days. I think he disappeared on a 2 or 3 week bender during the composition of the violin concerto - he was cured of his excesses by a successful operation in 1908 for suspected throat cancer after which he rarely touched a drop - he lived on until 1957 but composed little in the last 30 years of life.

Thanks Peter. I will now attempt to drink to that - I say attempt because I don't know if I can match Sibelius!

Seeing as he didn't compose much for the last 30 years of his life - - perhaps he was better drinking?

Either way that is some unbelievably fascinating information I had no clue about Sibelius.

[Peter]

Some terrific music for orchestra and organ - and no not the Saint-saens for once!!

Joseph Jongen - Symphony concertante
Alexandre Guilmant: Symphony No. 2
Widor Symphony for organ and orchestra

[Sorrano]

This evening had a rare opportunity to put on some music and listened to Bruckner's 8th Symphony, movements 3 and 2 (in that order - I hate the way a lot of these MP3 players scramble the order of CD tracks).

[Enrique]

I've just found one of Prokofiev's violin concertos (if he composed more than once) among my discs, and I'm realizing how similar certain passages are to music from L.Berstein.

[Sorrano]

I've just found one of Prokofiev's violin concertos (if he composed more than once) among my discs, and I'm realizing how similar certain passages are to music from L.Berstein.

That is an interesting observation! Do you suppose that one influenced the other or that both drew inspiration from a similar source?

[painter_mindscapes]

LvB 6th
Grosse Fuge

[Enrique]

That is an interesting observation! Do you suppose that one influenced the other or that both drew inspiration from a similar source?

I'd rather have Bernstein influenced by the Russian. The first belonged to more than one generation ahead of Prokofiev.

[Peter]

Having just watched the excellent Ken Russell documentary of Elgar, I'm listening to Elgar's transcription of Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in C minor. I wonder Preston what you make of this 'Romanticised' version of Baroque?
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5eF7-U4dpM[/YOUTUBE]

[Preston]

Peter, I've actually never heard that work - so right now I thank you for that, and greatly! Though, my first thought is why not the Fantasia and Fugue in G-Min (BWV 542)!!! Though, that is me who wishes that, and not Elgar of course. Anyway, I will have to listen and get back - and thanks for that again, can't wait to listen more thoroughly to not only baroque done in a different style but a Fantasia and Fugue by Bach!

[Roehre]

Seeing as he didn't compose much for the last 30 years of his life - - perhaps he was better drinking?

There is strong evidence that it was Sibelius' nearly stopping drinking which caused an incredible increase of his already formidable self-criticism, destroying his 8th symphony (possibly even two different 8th symphonies, but at least one movement was already copied for publication), and hardly publishing anything for the last nearly 30 years of his life (though he revised parts of the Kullervo symphony opus 7 [1892] a couple of weeks before his death in 1957).

If you like to have an impression of what he withheld from publication, listen to some of the works now issued in the complete Sibelius Edition on BIS.

[Roehre]

Today:

Brahms:
Albumblatt (1853) (R3: Music matters)

Peterson-Berger:
Symphony no.2 in E-flat “Sunnanfärd” (1910)
Romance for violin and orchestra in d (1915)

Lambert :
Prize fight - ballet [1924, rev.1927] (R3: Saturday Classics)

[Megan]

Arvo Pärt — Tabula Rasa
Performers: Tasmin Little and Richard Studt (violins), Bournemouth Sinfonietta

--:--
George Frideric Handel — The trumpet shall sound (from Messiah)
Performers: David Thomas (bass) The Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood

[Roehre]

Today:

Kodaly:
Hary Janos: suite (1927)

Peterson-Berger:
Symphony no.3 in f “Lapland” (1915)

Pintscher:
Ex Nihilo (2011) (R3: Sunday Concert)

Dufay (attr.):
Missa Beati Anthonii (c.1450)

[Sorrano]

Last night it was Dvorak's Slavonic Dances

This morning it was Bach's 1st Suite.

[Roehre]

Today:

Kodaly:
Dances of Marosszék (1923)
Peacock-variations (1938)

Peterson-Berger:
Symphony no.4 in A “Holmia” (1929)

Tallis:
Litany
Felix namque I