What are you listening to now?

[Decrepit Poster]

This morning:
Beethoven: lecture on the first op.49 piano sonata by Andras Schiff
Beethoven: symphony no.1 - Leipzig/Chaiily

[Sorrano]

This morning:
Saint-Saëns: "La Muse et le Poète," Op 132

[Decrepit Poster]

Early this afternoon I listened the Ronald Brautigam play Beethoven's op.2 no.1 sonata via SACD. I enjoyed the interpretation. I felt it lacked weight in the bass but that might be due to my living room audio system which has a weak low end amongst other deficiencies.

A short while ago I discovered Valentina Lisitsa playing op.10 no.3 at YouTube. I've heard only movement one thus far and am quite taken with it, as I am with much of ms Lisitsa's Beethoven. Were she to commercially record the sonatas in their entirety I'd likely scoop it up in a heartbeat.

[Peter]

R.Strauss - 'Don Juan' and 'Alpine' symphony.

[Enrique]

Don Juan has been called an orchestration treatise by someone. My father had a recording on the other side of which was Death and Transfiguration. It used to have a powerful effect on me when I listened to it.

[Sorrano]

Don Juan has been called an orchestration treatise by someone. My father had a recording on the other side of which was Death and Transfiguration. It used to have a powerful effect on me when I listened to it.

Death and Transfiguration is my favorite Strauss work.

This morning:
Rimsky-Korsakov:
"Le coq d'or" (1906-7), "Hymn to the Sun"
"The Tale of Tsar Saltan" (1899-1900), "Flight of the Bumblebee"

Beethoven: Piano Sonata #9 in E, Op 14/1

The Beethoven was well played (Barinboim).

[Harvey]

Have been listening to my new Szell Beethoven symphony cycle that arrived today.

[Sorrano]

This morning:
JC Bach: Two-Clavier Sonata in G, Op 15/5
Ravel: "Boléro"

[Decrepit Poster]

This morning I listened to the first three Bach Cello suites as performed by Lynn Harrell on a London CD. I consider this set one of the prizes of my disk library. Sadly the second CD is no longer playable. Even CD1 mistracks a bit during band 17. I suspect its days are numbered too.

Also heard, the Beethoven piano sonata No.1, Op2. No.1 as played by Maria Grinberg, a Russian artist previously unknown to me. I must say I am quite impressed. In fact this might be my favorite interpretation of the piece to date. There's nothing "exotic" about it. It just sounds...right. To my ears at any rate. (YouTube)

As mentioned elsewhere, I watched / listened to the documentary "Kararjan's Magic and Myth". Good stuff.

Yesterday I listened to Sigiwald Kuijken's take on Bach's Partita II in D minor. This is another of my favorite CDs. Kuiriken plays a violin restored to Baroque condition and adopts Baroque playing practices. That's all well and good, but wouldn't amount to much if the interpretations weren't as fascinating as they are. It helps that this is one of only a few recordings that sounds decidedly good acoustically when heard through my living room audio system.

[Megan]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7qZRbbfraw[/YOUTUBE]

[Quijote]

Ligeti : Hungarian Rock. Here's the link (with score). What do think? Me? I love it. Fiendish, clever piece, totally beyond my technique.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdzvk1BJOBQ

[Sorrano]

This morning:
Rossini: "La Boutique fantasque" Suite
Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances for the Lute arr piano "Villanella"
Rachmaninoff: "Marche" (after Etude-Tableau Op 39/9) (Orchestrated by Respighi)

[Decrepit Poster]

During lunch I listened to the first disk in Ronald Brautigam's traversal of B's complete piano sonatas, containing Op.2 No's 1-3, and Op.49 No's 1-2. Unusually for me, I listened to them casually as I ate. A disappoint with the set is its excessively reverberant acoustic, which exacerbates my hearing deficiency. Because of this I don't yet feel comfortable evaluating the performances as interpretations. To the extent I am able I've noticed nothing particularly amiss with Mr Brautigam's Beethoven. Likewise nothing stands out as worthy of special praise.

[Sorrano]

This morning:
Beethoven: "Leonore" Overture #3 in C, Op 72a
Bach: Violin Concerto in d (after BWV 1052)

[Sorrano]

Ligeti : Hungarian Rock. Here's the link (with score). What do think? Me? I love it. Fiendish, clever piece, totally beyond my technique.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdzvk1BJOBQ

My eyes are really getting bad! I kept thinking this was Liszt, not Ligeti, and thought it awful weird even for Liszt. But given the proper context it made a lot more sense to me. Ligeti's music has always appealed to me as long as I've had awareness of it. I did a paper on Lontano many years ago at the university, which was my introduction to his music. The rhythmic ostinato is particularly effective and reminded me of some of the dance rhythms such as the bolero or the habanera. Thanks for the link, I enjoyed that very much!