What are you listening to now?

[hal9000]

Thanks for that link, it was wonderful.

[Decrepit Poster]

I've done relatively little listening these past several days:

• A CD containing Mozart wind divertimenti KV 213, 240, 252, 253, 270 performed by the Winds of the Berlin Philharmonic. Good stuff, and a couple of gems.
• A CD containing Schubert's Wanderer Fantasie and Sonata D.845 played by Maruizio Pollini.
• A CD containing various Schubert Lieder sung by Kathleen Battle with James Levine at the piano.

At YouTube I did little more than rehear, sometimes for the umpteenth time, a number of favorites. New hearings were few:

• The final movement of Mahler's seventh symphony, a filmed concert performance by Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Jarvi. This is the Mahler symphonic movement it took me the longest to come to terms with, discounting the opening movement of the eighth, which I still haven't come to terms with. Nowadays I enjoy it right well.
• I piece confusingly (to me) listed as Tota pulchra es - Serpent (Giovanni Bassano, Palestrina) perfomed on serpent, Théorbe and Archiluth.

[Peter]

I've done relatively little listening these past several days:

• A CD containing Mozart wind divertimenti KV 213, 240, 252, 253, 270 performed by the Winds of the Berlin Philharmonic. Good stuff, and a couple of gems.
• A CD containing Schubert's Wanderer Fantasie and Sonata D.845 played by Maruizio Pollini.
• A CD containing various Schubert Lieder sung by Kathleen Battle with James Levine at the piano.

At YouTube I did little more than rehear, sometimes for the umpteenth time, a number of favorites. New hearings were few:

• The final movement of Mahler's seventh symphony, a filmed concert performance by Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Jarvi. This is the Mahler symphonic movement it took me the longest to come to terms with, discounting the opening movement of the eighth, which I still haven't come to terms with. Nowadays I enjoy it right well.
• I piece confusingly (to me) listed as Tota pulchra es - Serpent (Giovanni Bassano, Palestrina) perfomed on serpent, Théorbe and Archiluth.

Mahler's 7th and 8th have always been the most problematical, the 7th especially in the outer movements - the inner movements are a delight.

Listening to Beethoven's 8th - no problems there, just sheer joy!

[Zevy]

Schubert: Piano Trios
Mozart: Piano Trios
Mozart: Piano Quartets

[Decrepit Poster]

Over the past two days I listened to a new acquired set of Beethoven violin sonatas on CD. It was my first real exposure to some of them.

Mahler's 7th and 8th have always been the most problematical, the 7th especially in the outer movements - the inner movements are a delight.

Yeah, I took to those middle movements right away. Several years and interpretations later I grew to love the opening movement. Besides, it is one of the very few orchestra works of the romantic period to feature a prominent part for my former instrument, the euphonium. Or rather its near cousin the tenor horn, as Mahler designates it. One often hears it played on a wide bore English style compensating euphonium but this, in my opinion, is not ideal. I'm of the school that believes "tenor horn" in this case refers to smaller bored yet still mostly conical instrument, not so small bored as classic British brass bands baritones. European oval models get my vote, as seen and heard at the beginning of this performance by the COA under Boulez. Heck, I once read an article asserting that the part was meant for a tenor horn in the brass band sense, an alto instrument pitched in E-flat that in America was called the alto horn before it became extinct. Thankfully that never took hold.

[Michael Frederick]

Hummel and Beethoven

I've been listening to Czerny. I always thought that he was a dry old stick but his music for horn is delicious. Also a delve into Hummel's chamber music and piano concerto. I played Hummel's second Piano Trio and then Beethoven's Op 1 No 2. I tried to imagine that I was listening to them both with an innocent ear and deciding which was composed by whom. It may have been in hindsight but I think that it was obvious.

[Decrepit Poster]

At YouTube I listened to this fine performance of Dvorak's "New World" symphony performance by the Berlin Philharmonic under Klaus Tennstedt. The audio is accompanied by a collection of photos I assume to have been taken in America around the time of the work's premiere. (EDIT: No. Some of these photos, while not modern, are definitely from a later era.)

On CD I heard several Beethoven wind ensemble pieces played by member of The Chamber Orchestra of Europe, including the Sextet in E-flat Op.71, the first movement of which is heard here performed by members of Ottetto Italiano.

While at YouTube I watched a fine live performance of the delectable Trio for Two Oboes and English Horn Op.87, like the Sextet written much earlier than its relatively late opus suggests.

[Harvey]

Lately I have been on a Mariella Devia kick and have purchased several CDs, one of which is Cherubini's Lodoiska which was an inspiration to Beethoven's Fidelio. Here are clips for Lodoiska with Mariella Devia. It is a singspiel like Fidelio.

[Decrepit Poster]

On CD Bach's Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord VWV 1014-1016 performed by Monica Huggett and Ton Koopman.

On CD Bach's Orchestral Suite BWV 1066 no.1, English Baroque Soloists / John Eliot Gardiner.

ADDENDUM: During lunch today, 28 Feb 15, I listened to a CD containing Haydn's symphonies 86 & 88 performed by the Orchestra of the 18th Century under Franz Bruggen. The latter has long been one of my favorite symphonic utterances, but I had forgotten how gloriously jubilant is the finale of symphony 86.

Lately I have been on a Mariella Devia kick and have purchased several CDs, one of which is Cherubini's Lodoiska which was an inspiration to Beethoven's Fidelio. Here are clips for Lodoiska with Mariella Devia. It is a singspiel like Fidelio.

I am passingly familiar with ms Devia through her performance as Lucia in a La Scala production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor I own on DVD. It's a decent production, though I have issues with Renato Bruson's singing in the role of Enrico. I find the famous Sextet a disappointment but, oddly enough, consider what happens from its conclusion until that act's end some of the best music making the DVD has to offer.
My favorite "Mad Scene", btw, is this one of the several Natalie Dessay renderings available at YouTube.

[Decrepit Poster]

On CD Haydn's symphonies 45 "Farewell" and 60 "Il Distratto" performed by Concentus Musicus Wien under Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

At YouTube Haydn's symphony 88 performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. This is the one with the wonderful "encore".

[Harvey]

Shostakovich symphony #5.

[Sorrano]

This morning:
Handel: Organ Concerto #7 in B-Flat, Op 7/1

[Zevy]

Beethoven Symphony #4
NYP/Bernstein

[AeolianHarp]

THE 5TH on Period Instruments with the fast tempos Beethoven wanted!

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUrd2WPmQfY[/YOUTUBE]

[Decrepit Poster]

A CD of Haydn's symphonies 82 "The Bear" and 83 "The Hen" performed by Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam under Colin Davis.
A CD of Haydn's symphonies 88 and 92 performance by the Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.
A CD of Haydn's symphonies 90 and 93 performance by the Orchestra of the 18th Century under Franz Bruggen. This was easily my pick of the CD litter, though neither piece makes my short-list of favorite Haydn's symphonies.

At YouTube I listened to snippets from a variety of Haydn symphony performances along with misc. other music.