What are you listening to now?

[Sorrano]

This morning:
Spohr: Clarinet Concerto #4 in e

[Decrepit Poster]

This morning I watched / heard the VPO under Bernard Haitink perform Richard Struass' Alpine Symphony from a 2012 Proms broadcast (YouTube). I also revisited several favorite interpretations of Schubert lieder, the Liszt transcription of Erlkonig, and Kempff's filmed interpretation of the Tempest finale movement.

Last night I listened to disk four of Ronald Brautigam's traversal of the Beethoven piano sonatas, containing No's 12 - 15. (SACD) Earlier that day I heard a number of early sonatas played by Frederich Gulda, and spot-checked later ones. I quite like what I heard. A problem, Gulda recorded the sonatas three times. The YouTube uploader does not mention which of the three is heard. Based on sound, which seems a bit full bodied for mono, I assume it to be the last.

[dahc]

I am exploring the Jascha Heifetz/Gregor Piatigorsky Concerts. It's a 21 CD box set. Wow. Really loving the performances. Some of my favorite LvB, too.

[AeolianHarp]

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.

What a shame the acoustics don't suit your hearing DP. I think Ronald is a supreme pianist.

[AeolianHarp]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zFYYi1Xx38[/YOUTUBE]

[Decrepit Poster]

Listening to Gerd's AotF orchestrations on another thread reminds me that I own Art on LP in an imaginative arrangement by William Malloch. Only bits of it have found their way to YouTube. Here are Contrapuntus 1 and 20, the latter completed by Malloch.

Otherwise I spent my listening time digesting Brautigam's Beethoven piano sonata set. I've heard almost all of it now. I'll want to listen a few more times before forming any sort of firm opinion, other than my stated dislike of the resonant environment in which it was recorded. (I wonder if switching form default 5.0 channel playback to 2 channel, if that's possible, would tame some of that?)

[Harvey]

Just finished the Hanover Band Beethoven Symphony cycle and now am on the Szell cycle. Next Wand. Would like to get a Zander cycle but I only know if his recordings for 5, 7, and 9.

[Sorrano]

This morning:
Susato: "The Danserye" (1551)
Anon 16th c: Suite of Dances

Anon was the most prolific composer of the renaissance.

[Harvey]

Concerto for piano and orchestra in E flat major, WoO 41-43.

Fascinating! I did not know this existed and stumbled across it in my Complete Beethoven set. Very nice. I assume WoO 41-43 are three movements of one concerto?

[Chris]

Concerto for piano and orchestra in E flat major, WoO 41-43.

Fascinating! I did not know this existed and stumbled across it in my Complete Beethoven set. Very nice. I assume WoO 41-43 are three movements of one concerto?

I think something must be mislabeled there. WoO 41 is a Rondo for violin and piano, WoO 42 is Six German Dances for violin and piano, and WoO 43 is two works for mandolin and piano.

I think you must be referring to the piano concerto WoO 4.

[Harvey]

I think something must be mislabeled there. WoO 41 is a Rondo for violin and piano, WoO 42 is Six German Dances for violin and piano, and WoO 43 is two works for mandolin and piano.

I think you must be referring to the piano concerto WoO 4.

You are correct. The computer CD ripping program must have made a mistake. It did not make sense to have more than one work number for it. The track listing hard copy says it correctly:

Concerto for piano and orchestra WoO 4 E Flat major
1 Allegro moderato 00:09:56
2 Larghetto 00:09:01
3 Rondo: Allegretto 00:07:47

Thanks for pointing it out for me.

[Chris]

It is indeed a very nice work. And surprisingly challenging to play, for such an early composition!

[Sorrano]

This morning:

Beethoven: "Kakadu" Variations, Op 121a

WFMT was playing Beethoven all night. You would have thought it was his birthday or something.

[Decrepit Poster]

I reheard Brautigam's disk 4, containing sonatas 12-15. No.14 "Moonlight" might be my chief disappointment with the set to date. It is here I feel the acoustics (in conjunction with my hearing) most distract from the interpretation. Too much is blurred to the point I can not adequately hear it. On the other hand I find No.15 "Pastorale" excellent. It might be my pick of the Brautigam litter, for now at least. I enjoyed the two earlier sonatas but am not yet as familiar with them as I want to be.

I began a rehearing of Andras Schiff's lecture-recital on Op.2 No.1 but was interrupted by my brother's arrival. Which reminds me I also reheard Brautigam's disk of the early opused sonatas. I like that the two Op.49 sonatas are included, since that's where they belong chronologically.

ADDENDUM: I failed to mention having heard Carl Czerny's first symphony. (YouTube) Also, this morning (12/17/14) I noticed Brautigam's Moonlight posted at YouTube. Decided to listen to it there rather than via my disk. Hearing it through my computer audio system tames much of the resonant acoustic and allows me to hear and appreciate more of the interpretation. I should have suspected my living room audio system, which I've complained of before, was making the recording sound worse than it is. Even as heard at YouTube I prefer a drier acoustic, or rather my ears do.

[Peter]

Bach Magnificat