What are you listening to now?

[hal9000]

Checking my navel for more.

[Harvey]

On MP3 Player: Der Messias (Messiah sung in German, not Mozart's reorchestration), conducted by Karl Richter. Featuring Gundula Janowitz on soprano parts.

In car: La Cenerentola conducted by Abbado. Featuring Theresa Berganza as Cinderella.

On computer: La Cenerentola DVD conducted by Abbado. Featuring Frederica von Stade ad Cinderella.

[Sorrano]

This morning:
Gershwin: "Rhapsody in Blue"
Fauré: Song, "Green"
Handel: Harp Concerto in B-Flat, Op 4/6

The Handel was played in red.

[Chris]

Rhapsody in Blue is one of my favorites. It's one of the many piano pieces I started working on but never finished learning. One day...

[Sorrano]

Rhapsody in Blue is one of my favorites. It's one of the many piano pieces I started working on but never finished learning. One day...

I've been hearing that frequently on the radio. Apparently someone else quite likes it, as well.

[Sorrano]

This morning:
Bach: "Anna Magdalena Notebook" Minuet in G (orchestrated)
Pezel: Brass Suite
Haydn: Divertimento in B-Flat, H III:1

Haydn is a lot of fun.

[Sorrano]

Tower: "Made in America"
Fanny Mendelssohn: Overture (1830)

[Harvey]

My favorite Ninth, and you can listen to it too. Right HERE

[Sorrano]

This morning:
Holst: "The Perfect Fool," Op 39 Ballet music
Strauss: "Salome," Op 54 "Dance of the Seven Veils"
Saint-Saëns: "Samson and Delilah" "Bacchanale"

They should have started with Weber's "Invitation to the Dance."

[AeolianHarp]

My favorite Ninth, and you can listen to it too. Right HERE

Sometimes timing is everything.....I was in my bedroom changing my bed linen and had Classic FM on and the Ninth had just started. I turned it up and it soon became clear to me that this recording is the best I have ever heard! The playing was so smooth and emotive. I looked to see who the orchestra and conductor are and it is Simon Rattle with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He is from my home town!!!
I went to Amazon!!!

I was actually watching an old Hitchcock's half hour on you tube and I paused it to change the bed linen- if I had left it til later I would have missed it...

Now, I have the 18th variation of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini on..they started playing it on the radio but I prefer the recording I have played by the great man himself with Leopold Stokowsky. I don't who those violists were nor what make of violins they played, but they are stunning; the best recording of Rachmaninoff's Theme by a mile!

[Harvey]

I don't have Rattle's Ninth. Now I have to check it out!

[AeolianHarp]

You'll like it!

Now I am listening to piano sonatas 30, 31, 32.
I had not listened to them for awhile...
They never lose their power.
But since I have been listening to the earlier sonatas for the past couple of months the difference between the earlier and later sonatas is very marked.
I'm not saying the earlier ones are "lesser"...oh not at all...
But the later ones are indicative of his maturity, his stage in life, like a musical biography; there is life experience in them. The moods are very different.
There is less rage and a feeling of resolution.
They are truly moving.
His ears could not hear what he wrote, but his heart heard them fully.

[Decrepit Poster]

At the moment I listen to this performance of the Eroica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTUnmJCTvXA
I find myself drawn to its forward momentum. It's not my ultimate third - altered brass parts rub me the wrong way - but I think it decidedly good. In fact I like it so well I ordered the CD (which also contains symphony four and the Fidelio Overture.)

These past several days I've enjoyed Valentina Lisitsa's rendering of the first two movements of The Tempest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWP838_XBQw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRJJdbEns_E

But switch to an old favorite for the last movement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfjD-DQ5REk

Likewise, I quite enjoy the first three movements of this group's Op 59 No 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq5c9rxkRpc

But go here for the finale:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHSgFkNJTx8

I haven't listened solely to the master. I'm quite taken with this performance of Death and the Maiden, in which the soloist sings the lower octave final note variant with more authority than I've previously encountered:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BISnu9-eMVE

Otherwise, I too have recently heard the master's late piano sonatas, on Deutsche Grammophon CDs, as performed by Maurizio Pollini.


PS: I botched my initial application of links, so have resorted to something less fancy. Sorry about that. I've not contributed here in ages and have grown rusty.

[Peter]

Haydn symphonies 88,89,90.

[Sorrano]

This morning:

Telemann: Flute (Recorder) Suite in a

Couldn't tell him much, though.