What are you listening to now?

[Chris]

This morning:
Gershwin:
"I Got Rhythm"

I love this tune. Did you listen to the song or the piano transcription of it?

[lextune]

I have been listening to Scriabin for weeks now. Preparing half a program of his smaller works, (preludes, etudes, poemes, etc., in honor of the 100th anniversary of his death this year.

[Zevy]

Schubert Quartet in G (#15).
Julliard Qt.

[Sorrano]

I love this tune. Did you listen to the song or the piano transcription of it?

It was the song. I can't remember off hand the singer, it was Kate something or other, and an older recording.

[Sorrano]

I have been listening to Scriabin for weeks now. Preparing half a program of his smaller works, (preludes, etudes, poemes, etc., in honor of the 100th anniversary of his death this year.

I quite like the music of Scriabin. I'll have to check my library and listen to some of his stuff.

[Sorrano]

This morning:
Goldmark: "Prometheus Bound," Op 38 Overture
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 10, John O'Conor, piano

The Beethoven was played more as if it had been a Mozart Sonata. I had a hard time recognizing it.

[Chris]

This morning:
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 10, John O'Conor, piano

The Beethoven was played more as if it had been a Mozart Sonata. I had a hard time recognizing it.

That's too bad. John O'Conor's account of the bagatelles is very good, at least.

[Sorrano]

That's too bad. John O'Conor's account of the bagatelles is very good, at least.

It sounded too pretty to me, almost as if he were just trying to get through it. Maybe he was having a bad day.

[Decrepit Poster]

Recent listening has been confined mostly to repeats of old friends and new:
... Brautigam playing various Beethoven and Mozart sonatas (SACD/CD).
... The Staier fortepiano Diabelli Variations (CD).
... Valentina Lisitsa playing the Moonlight Sonata (YouTube).
... The Weber Andante & Hungarian Rondo played on ophicleide (YouTube).
... Alla Turca played on fortepiano with Janissary stop (YouTube).

The only first hearings that come to mind are...
... Daniel Barenboim playing B's Op.2 No.3 (YouTube).
... a CD of Dora Deliyska playing Liszt transcriptions of Schubert lieder.

[Peter]

The glorious slow movement from Mahler's 6th symphony:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvUego50gVg[/YOUTUBE]

[Decrepit Poster]

During today's lunch I listened to my CD of Roger Norrington and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony performing Beethoven's first and second symphonies. Highlights are the slow movement of symphony two, which Norrington makes convincing at a faster than normal tempo, and the crisp, incisive timpani work throughout.

This morning:
Goldmark: "Prometheus Bound," Op 38 Overture
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 10, John O'Conor, piano

The Beethoven was played more as if it had been a Mozart Sonata. I had a hard time recognizing it.

It sounded too pretty to me, almost as if he were just trying to get through it. Maybe he was having a bad day.

After reading these comments I listened to my Telarc CD of O'Conor performing Op.28 "Pastoral", Op.31 No.1 and Op.31. No.3 "Hunt". I enjoyed the first two well enough, though its a recording I don't often turn to. They seem your average decent performances on modern piano. Nothing overly special about 'em but nothing overtly wrong either. With the "Hunt" I felt much as I suspect you did with No.10...too prim and proper for its own good. Not a bad performance. Just lacking in the Beethovian rambunctiousness I've encountered elsewhere.

The glorious slow movement from Mahler's 6th symphony:
<snip>

The Mahler symphonies are like Beethoven's in that I can't pick favorites except on a performance-by-performance basis. All but the eighth that is. For some reason I've never grown to love its opening movement. As to the sixth, I'm fond of all four owned versions: Solti/Chicago (LP), Tennstedt/LPO (CD), Bernstein/VPO (LaserDisc), Abbado/Lucerne (DVD). At one time I championed placing the slow movement third. I've since grown to enjoy it in either position. If anything I might lean the other way now. Best I recall, I never got to hear the sixth live.

[Sorrano]

After reading these comments I listened to my Telarc CD of O'Conor performing Op.28 "Pastoral", Op.31 No.1 and Op.31. No.3 "Hunt". I enjoyed the first two well enough, though its a recording I don't often turn to. They seem your average decent performances on modern piano. Nothing overly special about 'em but nothing overtly wrong either. With the "Hunt" I felt much as I suspect you did with No.10...too prim and proper for its own good. Not a bad performance. Just lacking in the Beethovian rambunctiousness I've encountered elsewhere.

Yesterday I caught much of the last movement of Beethoven's Sonata #31, played by O'Conor, and it sounded more like Beethoven than what I had previously heard. However, It made me think more of Chopin than Beethoven.

[Harvey]

I have a folder on my MP3 player with nearly 10 hours of Maria Callas (not counting the operas) that I can't stop listening to. The voice of a century! I have several more Maria Callas sets on order. It all started in November when I bought a Callas Sonnambula set, and now have quite a collection (including what is still on order):

Sonnambula 1955 (2-CD)
Sonnambula 1957 (2-CD)
Sonnambula studio (2-CD)
Anna Bolena (2-CD)
100 Best arias (6-CD)
Live in Paris
Unknown Recordings
Sings Beethoven Mozart and Weber
At Covent Garden DVD
Live in Concert (2-CD)
Live in Atene
Five Heroines: Highlights from Norma, Lucia de Lammermoor, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, and Tosca (5 discs)

I have never heard such a wonderful voice before.

Notice I have a Beethoven piece in the list. It is "Ah, Perfido." A shame that is the only Beethoven that is recorded of Callas. She played Leonora in Fidelio early in her career but there apparently is no recording of it, and it was sung in Greek.

[Decrepit Poster]

I recently listened to portion of what I consider one of the greatest musical masterpieces of all times, heard in my preferred performance: Mozart's "Don Giovanni" captured on film at the Salzburg Festival in 1954, with Cesare Siepi, Otto Edelmann, Elisabeth Grümmer, Anton Dermota, Lisa della Casa, Erna Berger, a young Walter Berry, and Dezső Ernster. The Vienna Philharmonic is led by Welhelm Furtwangler at the end of his career. This rendition has much that appeals to me. Decent set. NO updating. A Don (Siepi) who is rarely equaled and never, in my opinion, bettered. No weak links in the cast. Furtwangler's slow dramatic conducting. Decent sound for the time.

The play between the Don and Leporello comes off quite well. It contains my favorite visual final confrontation between Don and Commendatore. The confrontation with Donna Elvira just prior to that can make my eyes mist. On a per aria basis, there are performances I like as well or better. But overall I don't expect to find a performance that suits me more.

To encore Mozart's Masterpiece I chose an obvious follow-up, PDQ Bach's "The Stoned Guest", part one of which is found here. (Direct ties to Don Giovanni occur mainly in a later segment.) With an ever dwindling populous of savvy opera connoisseurs I wonder whether this sort of work in now considered commercially marketable? Be a shame if it isn't.

Yesterday I caught much of the last movement of Beethoven's Sonata #31, played by O'Conor, and it sounded more like Beethoven than what I had previously heard. However, It made me think more of Chopin than Beethoven.

During supper yesterday I listened to Brautigam play the "Hunt" on fortepiano. Its final movement was the polar opposite of O'Conor, lively and rambunctious. The pianoforte is used to telling effect here, providing a color the composer surely intended. In any case I far prefer it to O'Conor.

[AeolianHarp]

Bach as he should be played!

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V7oujd9djk[/YOUTUBE]