an attempt at a general "What are you currently digging re. classical music" thread

It's the DG stuff. Amazon UK link here.

http://tinyurl.com/yb8suyn

can anyone give me a yes/no on a Beethoven symphony box with George Szell/Cleveland Symphony? Columbia/RCA pressing I think.

I would go for this btw

I meanwhile am listening to this a lot and it is one of the most remarkable performances and recordings - just unbelievable. I got it blind offa emusic, didn't know anything about it except new Bach concert on Telmarc, sounds cool, turns out Dinnerstein is kind of a from-nowhere superstar about whom some commentators are suspicious because of the backstory that's getting pushed ("she produces her own records!") but seriously what an incredible ear for Bach she has.

Shostakovich Piano Trio No 2 - Beaux Arts Trio. Very beautiful. Bartok String Quartets - Vermeer Quartet. I have to be in the right mood, otherwise they're too intense. I also need a new version because I'm creeped out by the audible breathing on the Vermeer's recording. The music is already eerily unsettling and then you get some guy breathing in your ear.

ah! i would hate that.

heh. i find that can sometimes add something to the music...especially on viol music, as that kind of feels like breathing to me anyway. actually a lot of seventeenth century chamber music reminds me of breathing.

second timellison's love for the mozart 'haydn' quartets. they are truly incredible. dissonance qt ftw possibly.

currently digging: ligeti's piano violin and horn concertos by boulez and ensemble intercontemporain. undoubtedly the best ligeti i've heard so far (i've ha some trouble appreciating elements of the chamber music i've heard so far, packed with interest though it is, and i'm afraid i found the elektronische Komposition's difficult to enjoy).
Beethoven's late piano sonatas by Schnabel....good god. does it get more exciting than this?
Manchicourt's Missa and Motets...I've liked Manichicourt's horn music before so thought I'd try this. Overriding purpleness of texture...

I've got this MHS label box of Boccherini symphonies. Realized how much I liked it the last time I was listening to it, but just heard Symphony No. 5 on the radio - really great.

Handel's Op. 3 Concerti Grossi. Five of the six are fairly early pieces from the 1710s. Don't have a recording of the Op. 6 set (written in 1739).

Listening to Igumnov's mesmerising recordings of Tchaikovsky's Seasons. YouTube here.

Going to see the Takács quartet play some Beethoven late string quartets tonight, including I think (I hope) the wonderful A Minor (15).

^ ha, i'll be there!

and yes it is op.132, no 15. other two works are two from the 0p.18 set

Scelsi, Radulescu, Saariaho, Dumitrescu, James Tenney... and Feldman. always Feldman.

Bein' digged currently, by me, a Toru Takemitsu CD, Quotation of Dream.
Compos's from 1985-1993. Deutsche Grammophon. London Sinfonietta, Oliver Knussen. & Paul Crossley, Peter Serkin, pianos.

Takács Beethoven was good - although strongly feel that a concert hall is too big for chamber music, also their interpretation seemed a little glib at times I guess, cd've done with a bit more Sturm und Drang for me, tho I'm an ignorant peasant.

Henri, how was it for you?

Quotation of Dream is gamazing. another great one is I Can Hear the Water Dreaming (or something like that)

now playing: Messiaen - Petites Liturgies De La Presence Divine

loving it. i'm a fan. onde martenot! love olivier's all caps liner notes too. BIRD SONG HELPED HIM TO RESIST EVIL.

i've been enjoying some kickass Vivaldi lately! again, i'm a fan. i have this album...it's at home. but man does it rule. can't remember now what all is on it. i'll report back.

can i have some classical recommendations? i wanna listen to some, but i have no clue what to listen to

listen to some bach. any old bach. bach was the shit.

listen to bach's cello suites. no, really, any bach. just find some.

xxpost OMG scott Trois Petites... is one of my favorite pieces *ever* :D

I've been digging Mieczysław Weinberg's string quartets and chamber music in general. Hugely overlooked composer tbh.

are any of you Hildegard von Bingen fans?

i dig her. i had a GREAT cd that i found at a thrift store and i was playing it in my store and someone wanted to buy it. so i sold it. but i miss it. hard to find on vinyl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irxG-GCV5Es

Can I join in the "Trois Petites Liturgies" group hug? I love how, in Messiaen's world, birdsong is a percussion idiom.

Listening to a bootleg of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's recently premiered (!!!) Requiem. I've always found his vocal writing so piercing & shamelessly beautiful. Here's someone who knew how to orchestrate.

Criminally underperformed/recorded, this guy.

>"Trois Petites Liturgies"

the fucking BEST

dropped the 6/8 third movement into an uptempo 4/4 dance set once. a few seconds of confusion, but once the chorus kicked in everyone kept dancing

Martha Argerich|Nelson Freire- "Salzburg" (Brahms, Schubert et al played live with absolute sweetness, synchronization and poise)

xp haha Milton that's amazing, you are my hero

Haven't been around lately but have been continuing my traversal of the Sony Stravinsky box set. Loving the Violin Concerto and the Basle Concerto.

Also starting a four-disc set of music by André Jolivet. The second Cello Concerto is really impressive.

I've been listening to Jolivet's orchestral Cinq Danses Rituelles a lot lately. Awesome.

André Jolivet : Cinq danses rituelles
directeur d'orchestre:
Jolivet, André
interprète:
Orchestre National de l'ORTF ; Navarra, André

if a renaissance neophyte rly likes the tomas de victoria requiem then where else should they look?

Allegri's "Miserere", "Missa Susanne un jour" by Orlande de Lassus, "Spem in Alium" by Thomas Tallis

silvestrov - requiem for larissa

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31XWmTZIVLL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Don't think I've seen this thread before (must read later), there is a really good concert on tonight at King's Place (near Kings's cross):

Date: Monday 8 February
Time: 20:00
Venue: Hall Two
Price: £9.50

Part of Out Hear at Kings Place

Curated by ELISION

Peter Veale oboe
Richard Haynes clarinet in B-flat, bass clarinet
Tristram Williams piccolo trumpet, trumpet, flügelhorn
Benjamin Marks alto and tenor trombones
Daryl Buckley electric guitar
Richard Barrett live electronics
Séverine Ballon violoncello

Timothy McCormack disfix (2008)
For clarinets, piccolo trumpet/flugelhorn, trombone

Klaus K Hubler Cercar (1983)
For solo trombone

Liza Lim Invisibility (2009)
For solo violoncello

Richard Barrett Aurora (2010)
For flugelhorn and trombone

Roger Redgate Tehom (2009)
For bass clarinet, violoncello and trombone

Evan Johnson Apostrophe 2 (pressing down on my sternum) (2009)
for quarter-tone flugelhorn and alto tromboner-

James Dillon Crossing Over (1978)
For Bb clarinet

Richard Barrett Codex X1
For oboe, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, electric guitar, cello and live electronics

just got a huge stack of 70's/80's New World Records vinyl. looking forward to digging in. 20th century americana up the wazoo. gonna start with William Parker (baritone) (with piano and string quartet) doing the vocal works of Ernest Bacon, Robert Evett, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Lee Hoiby, John Jacob Niles, and Ned Rorem.

Wish I could go to that Elision concert! *jealous*

now playing: Frank Lewin - Innocence and Experience (a cycle of songs from poems by william blake)

soprano and chamber ensemble. don't think i've ever heard any Lewin before. or i don't remember hearing any.

(the other side of this record is music for the new family of violins. you know, those violins made by carleen hutchins.)

(oh and i like this blake thing. seems properly blakeian.)

been constantly playing khachaturian's adgio from gayane (as heard in 2001). so damn beautiful. i could listen to this every hour for the rest of my life

Have kind of burned out on the Stravinsky box set for the time being, so decided to switch it up:

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/10/f3/7f4592c008a0ae53b0cda010.L.jpg

Brilliant music that seems to spring from the symphonic tradition that goes from Beethoven to Sibelius and Nielsen. It's complex, emotional, classicist, and has an inexorable logic overriding all the musical material.

arvo part - Music for Unaccompanied Choir (amazing)

andriessen/california ear unit - zilver

Brahms - Violin Concerto (Itzhak Perlman/Barenboim)
Webern - Complete String Trios and Quartets (Arditti String Quartet)

You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

I cannot emphasize this man's greatness enough

@subversive time travel (FACK) re:can i have some classical recommendations? i wanna listen to some, but i have no clue what to listen to:

classical 101, first weeks listening assignments:

http://www.amazon.com/Pachelbels-Canon-Favorites-Johann-Pachelbel/dp/B0000025TV/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1267516347&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/Lute-Suites-1-Essential-Classics/dp/B000069JK1/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1267516388&sr=1-6
http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Requiem-Augér-Bartoli-Wiener/dp/B0000041ZS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1267516502&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Holst-Planets-Gustav/dp/B0000041S7/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1267516550&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Puccini-Pavarotti-Harwood-Karajan-Highlights/dp/B0000041TR/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1267516644&sr=1-4

@helpful "dissonant but pleasant" suggestions: thanks, searching now for several of those atm

@everyone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Boccherini i've been digging onto a collected works comp a cd or 2 at a time and it's all good; this guy's not especially innovative but his works are v easy on the ears

rock and roll, stick it to the record companies moment circa 1761:

"In 1761 Boccherini went to Madrid, where he was employed by Infante Luis Antonio of Spain, younger brother of King Charles III. There he flourished under royal patronage, until one day when the King expressed his disapproval at a passage in a new trio, and ordered Boccherini to change it. The composer, no doubt irritated with this intrusion into his art, doubled the passage instead, leading to his immediate dismissal"

How is Sibelius' 4th so impossibly beautiful?

Tonight, I am obsessed with Hans Krasá's "children's opera" 'Brundibar'. It's so lovely.