What are you listening to now?

[AeolianHarp]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJXXS9ZawgA[/youtube]

Spaghetti Beethoven.

Thanks!

[hal9000]

Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique

What is everyone's favourite recording of this piece?

[Peter]

Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique

What is everyone's favourite recording of this piece?

Colin Davis Concertgebouw Orchestra

[Sorrano]

Colin Davis Concertgebouw Orchestra

Seconded!

[Chris]

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but one of my local classical stations, WBJC, has been doing a thing called "Scarlatti at 6", where at 6:00 PM, they play two of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas. They started last year and are working their way through all 555 of them. They all come from Scott Ross's complete set, which I had considered buying before, because it was such an achievement, but I decided that was probably more Scarlatti than I needed. So now I'm happy to get the chance to hear them all anyway.

Here is some more information from the radio station, if you are interested:

http://www.wbjc.com/2014/host-blogs/...sonata-series/

I remember playing some of these when I was taking piano lessons, and I did not care much for them at all. They seemed so insignificant and boring. And they all seemed the same. But listening to them like this has really increased my appreciation for them. There is marvelous creativity and variety here! And the harpsichord really seems to bring something out of them that the piano does not, at least for me. I may even go back and play a few!

[Decrepit Poster]

Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique

What is everyone's favourite recording of this piece?

Ah yes, the Fantastique. This was the work that cemented my love for classical music. The first piece to blow me away. It was for some time my hands down favorite. That's no longer the case, but I still think highly of it. Berlioz is a fascinating individual. His Memoirs, in the David Cairns translation, is an easy recommendation.

As to favorite recordings, I don't know that I have one. COA/Davis, which I owned first on LP and now on CD, is as good as any. My one disappoint with it is that it does not include the cornet part Berlioz added to the second movement. Davis' earlier recording with the LSO (which I also own) did. That part is too seldom encountered to suit me. Here it is, cued up a bit before one of the cornet's more important entrances. (It will have prominent passages from here until the movement ends.)

[AeolianHarp]

I remember playing some of these when I was taking piano lessons, and I did not care much for them at all. They seemed so insignificant and boring. And they all seemed the same. But listening to them like this has really increased my appreciation for them. There is marvelous creativity and variety here! And the harpsichord really seems to bring something out of them that the piano does not, at least for me. I may even go back and play a few!

I saw some of Scarlatti's music played on Emily Bronte's Giraffe Piano a few years ago, and let me tell you they were good.

Modern pianos are not quite right for 18th and 19th century piano music- they never sound boring on the right keyboard/piano.

[AeolianHarp]

Early Chopin.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tmK7N7gJ00[/YOUTUBE]

[Zevy]

Beethoven Op. 18 nos. 4-6
Op. 59 (all)
Op. 74

[hal9000]

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm currently listening to the link DP posted.

[Decrepit Poster]

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm currently listening to the link DP posted.

I acquired LSO/Davis quite early on. It was my second purchased Fantastique recording, LSO/Goossens being first. As such I am sort of programmed to expect the cornet in movement two. Its lack always disappoints me, though I can enjoy a performance without it...and pretty much have to since it is rarely encountered.

Another interesting Fantastique performance, unearthed while scouring YouTube for a second movement cornet link: Mariss Jansons with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at the 2013 Proms. What I find interesting is that Jansons utilizes an ophicleide on the upper of the two low brass parts, while employing the now standard tuba on the lower part. This works quite well in a modern orchestral setting. In this "filming" we see as well as hear the ophicleide in its glory. I cued it the beginning of movement four (March to the Scaffold). From there until the end those two low brass instruments play a prominent role, especially during the fifth movement.

For those wishing to hear a more virtuosic soloistic treatment of the ophicleide I direct you to this too-short excerpt from G Kummer's Variations for Ophicleide. The instrument sounds closer to a modern euphonium than a tuba for part of its range. Indeed, orchestras sometimes use euphonium rather than tuba as a suitable substitute, though this is now less common than it once was.

Aside from musing on the Fantasique, I again devoted the bulk of the listening to Beethoven piano sonatas. I even listened to my Barenboim CD of the Moonlight, Waldstein and Appassionata. As usual his concept of Beethoven's solo piano works left me cold.

ADDENDUM: Searching YouTube for a suitable soloistic ophicleide link, I chanced upon this recording of Carl Maria von Weber's "Andante and Hungarian Rondo" performed on ophicleide with piano accompaniment. Holy smokes! One normally hears this work in its bassoon edition, through it was first (?) written for viola. Be that as it may the ophicleide, again sounding rather like a modern euphonium through much of its range, sounds marvelous and has no difficulty coping with the fast passages in the Rondo.

[Decrepit Poster]

On CD, I've listened the Haydn's String Quartets Op.77 Nos 1&2, Beethoven's String Quartets Op.59 Nos 2&3, and Chopin Polonaises.

Tonight after supper I heard / watched a performance of the Fantastique by Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Andrés Orozco-Estrada, recorded in concert this past December. It has much to recommend it. Good overall recorded sound. Good video quality and cinematography. Employment of the cornet in movement two. Occasional use of natural horns, to telling effect in movement four (March to the Scaffold). Enthusiastic audience. On the minus side, the camera crew apparently was not told about the second movement cornet, as he (or she) is never seen. I would prefer more prominence from the bass drum and sometimes timpani, though I suspect they are plenty loud enough for most folks.

Still at YouTube, I attempted to watch movement five of the Fantastique as performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Sir Roger Norrington. I shouldn't have bothered. Norrington's interpretation did little for me, and the two ophicleides were less than stellar. I threw in the towel soon after their entrance.

[Michael Frederick]

The beautiful duet for viola and cello in E Flat WoO 32. I discovered it last night and have so far played it three times and am tempted to make it four. The cello and viola, especially the latter, are my two favourite instruments. In Beethoven's hands they make a wonderful combination.

[Chris]

The beautiful duet for viola and cello in E Flat WoO 32. I discovered it last night and have so far played it three times and am tempted to make it four. The cello and viola, especially the latter, are my two favourite instruments. In Beethoven's hands they make a wonderful combination.

Yes, such a nice piece!

[Sorrano]

This morning:
Mozart:
Horn Concerto #3 in E-Flat, K 447
Canonic Adagio in F, K 410
Gershwin:
"I Got Rhythm"
Variations on "I Got Rhythm"

I got vaccinated.