What are you listening to right now? (VOL I)

Posted by: Tam on 06 June 2005

Anyway, to kick things off, I'm currently, and probably for most of the rest of this week, listening to Radio 3's Beethoven Experience. They're doing one of the piano concertos at the moment and (number 2 with Glenn Gould). Anyway, the experience thing probably needs its own thread, but, even on this cheapo radio it's proving fairly enjoyable.

So, what are you listening to right now?

Posted on: 21 February 2006 by HR

In the car tonight.

Haim

Posted on: 21 February 2006 by HR

Corcky Siegel's Chamber Blues

A Chicago group led by Siegel playing piano and harmonica (at the same time), blending blues and classical strings. I heard them live couple of years ago. An exhilarating musical journey.

Haim

Posted on: 21 February 2006 by u5227470736789439

Haydn, Symphony Number 102, in B Flat. Along with 99 in E Flat, my two favourite London Symphonies. Actually that is not quite right. My favourite is the one I am listening to at any given time!

Fredrik

Posted on: 21 February 2006 by erik scothron

Thirty two short stories about Glenn Gould

- A must for fans. Actually watching it on video - but there is a fair bit of his playing to listen to as well.

Posted on: 21 February 2006 by u5227470736789439

quote:
Originally posted by erik scothron:
Thirty two short stories about Glenn Gould

- A must for fans. ...

Dear Erik,

I am no fan of Glenn Gould, but, be that as it may, is this a release produced by his record company?

One funny story about Otto Klemperer, who could be distinctly difficult if cornered and rather direct in any case, was when he was on Face To Face (Was Alan Freeman the presenter?). He sat there and answered in mono-syllabals only, mainly yes or no...

On his directness, he once assured Oscar Kakoshka (who was commisioned by the Royal Opera, Covent Garden to produce set for the Magic Flute in the production Klemperer was to conduct), that he had always wanted to work with Picasso, who produced the sets for Furtwangler some ten years earlier! Naturally the two did not collaborate in the eventual production! Another was when asked why had conducted no more than a handfull of concerts with the Vienna Phil in his long career, and he replied that that fee was too little. On being questioned as to why he should receive a higher fee than anyone else, he said that no one else conducted so well. He was being honest and could not see the arguement, and perhaps not entirely without point, as the disheartened currator of the Phil's archive noted ruefully!

Anther time was right at the end of 1954, a year that saw the deaths of Furtwnagler and Clemmens Krauss and the reitrement of Toscanini. Asked what he thought of the state of concert giving after these events, Klemperer replied with brutal honest, that he certainly be getting more invitations from the best orchestras. Not an easy man, but disarmingly honest for all that. He got on exceptionally well with Boult, which might seem surprising nowadays. Both are heroes of mine!

All the best from Fredrik

Posted on: 21 February 2006 by HR

Posted on: 21 February 2006 by Rasher

I'm in the car most of today, so it's going to be lots of Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by u5227470736789439

Excerpts from The Dream Of Gerontius - recorded live at the RAH under the composer direction. Elgar's music making, live, has many of the characteristics of Furtwangler's conducting. Urgency, without haste, extra-ordinary volatility, which would make precise ensemble impossible, but which points at another more important aim. Communication of musical meaning. It completely avoids the possibility of stuffiness, or gross monumentality, or evn empty noisiness!

The Prelude almost sets the room ablase! It is desperate in the way that a man fearing his own imminent demise might reasonably be (if he were a good Catholic and faced eternal damnation for his human failings), and though lapsed as a Catholic by 1927, I think Elgar still felt this himself - certainly on this showing. It becomes almost physically terrifying....

Fredrik

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by Jannison

Hi everyone I’m new to the forum and this is my first post.
My wife bought this album by Claude Chalhoub a few months ago but I have only recently started to listen to it. It is quite an interesting mix of cultures and sounds. The copy I have is mastered in HDCD and seems a good quality recording (to my ears anyway). It has some particularly low base at times a will test your systems self control!!
I’ve just bought my first naim system so I am listening to everything and anything at the moment.

Julian

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by Tam

Welcome to the forum Julian.

Handel, Firework music, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Fredrik - you didn't say who was conducting those Haydn symphonies (102 and 99) the other night. Just curious. Personally I'm rather fond of 100 and 101 and I find Bernstein hard to beat in the repertoire (he really brings out the joy in the music).

regards, Tam

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by Alexander

YCDTOSA 1.

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by Sloop John B

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by Guido Fawkes

quote:
Originally posted by Sloop John B:

My favourite REM album - that's me in the corner.

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by erik scothron

quote:
Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
quote:
Originally posted by erik scothron:
Thirty two short stories about Glenn Gould

- A must for fans. ...

Dear Erik,

I am no fan of Glenn Gould, but, be that as it may, is this a release produced by his record company?

One funny story about Otto Klemperer, who could be distinctly difficult if cornered and rather direct in any case, was when he was on Face To Face (Was Alan Freeman the presenter?). He sat there and answered in mono-syllabals only, mainly yes or no...

On his directness, he once assured Oscar Kakoshka (who was commisioned by the Royal Opera, Covent Garden to produce set for the Magic Flute in the production Klemperer was to conduct), that he had always wanted to work with Picasso, who produced the sets for Furtwangler some ten years earlier! Naturally the two did not collaborate in the eventual production! Another was when asked why had conducted no more than a handfull of concerts with the Vienna Phil in his long career, and he replied that that fee was too little. On being questioned as to why he should receive a higher fee than anyone else, he said that no one else conducted so well. He was being honest and could not see the arguement, and perhaps not entirely without point, as the disheartened currator of the Phil's archive noted ruefully!

Anther time was right at the end of 1954, a year that saw the deaths of Furtwnagler and Clemmens Krauss and the reitrement of Toscanini. Asked what he thought of the state of concert giving after these events, Klemperer replied with brutal honest, that he certainly be getting more invitations from the best orchestras. Not an easy man, but disarmingly honest for all that. He got on exceptionally well with Boult, which might seem surprising nowadays. Both are heroes of mine!

All the best from Fredrik

Hi Fredrik,

I'm a bit lost as to why you jumped from Gould to Klemperer, what is the link? No doubt I am showing my ignorence. LOL. Good stories nonetheless.

The video in question is a Candian effort and is composed of 32 vignettes (much like the Goldberg variations)and each shows an aspect of Gould's life. An actor plays the part of Gould but there are interviews with those who knew him such as Sir Yehudi Menuhin. I can't say I like all the humming Gould affected whilst playing and dare I say his playing a tad...mechanical? Anyway the actual film is well worth a watch but the quality of replay is not up to much. I found it in an Oxfam shop whilst looking for something cheap to read. I had been listening to Gould on CD in the car and I bizarrely when I switched to the radio there was Gould again playing the same piece, weird or what? Then I see the the video in an Oxfam shop in a part of town where mot people can't even read and I thought it an astonishing coincidence, so I bought it for one good english pound. I would happily post it to you.

All the best,

Erik

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by Sloop John B

quote:
Originally posted by ROTF:
quote:
Originally posted by Sloop John B:

My favourite REM album - that's me in the corner.

Sorry ROFT but that's definitely me in the corner

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by Guido Fawkes

quote:
Originally posted by Sloop John B:
Sorry ROTF but that's definitely me in the corner

LOL

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by u5227470736789439

quote:
Originally posted by erik scothron:

Hi Fredrik,

I'm a bit lost as to why you jumped from Gould to Klemperer, what is the link? No doubt I am showing my ignorence. LOL. Good stories nonetheless.

[..].

All the best,

Erik

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by Tam

Verdi, Don Carlos, Giulini/Domingo et al.

regards, Tam

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by HR

In the car today.

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by matt podniesinski

Dick Dale-King of the Surf Guitar

Original vinyl. "Listen to the King."

Regards
Matt

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by HR

The Lynne Arriale Trio / With Words Unspoken / dmp

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by kuma

The Maxwell Implosion: Small Circle of Friends

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by u5227470736789439

quote:
Originally posted by Tam:

Fredrik - you didn't say who was conducting those Haydn symphonies (102 and 99) the other night. Just curious. Personally I'm rather fond of 100 and 101 and I find Bernstein hard to beat in the repertoire (he really brings out the joy in the music).

regards, Tam

Dear Tam,

For 102, I like Davis (Concertgebeow) best of all, for 99 in E Flat, it is between Beecham and Davis, and in your choices I'd say Beecham has it down to a 'T!' I also have Adam Fischer, which is another view I enjoy, though oddly the set includes a really strange performance of 99 in E Flat, which completely mucks up the tempo relationships, and the problems start in the introduction, which never finds a good structurally coherent speed at all. A shame as the playing is wonderful, and so I count it a mixed bag, but the best is tremendous. My favourite performance of the London Symphony (104 in D) is done by Edwin Fischer in Berlin in 1938, with his Chamber Orchestra, which in any case was the very best players from the BPO working ad-hoc! Not a situation that would easily have happened if Fischer was not such a friend of Furtwangler, I would imagine! Fredrik

Posted on: 22 February 2006 by erik scothron

Dear Erik,

I am a scatter-brain, sometimes. I thought those little tales about another great musician might make you smile. There is no link, beyond that they were both remarkable musicians. Sorry!

Email is in a fairly obvious place, as I would quite like to see the Gould story. Not worried about quality. It's flick, and it's the content that should be entertaining!

All the best from Fredrik[/QUOTE]

I do appreciate the stories. I'm ashamed to say I enjoy the acid tongue of Beecham - this to a female cellist: 'Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands - and all you can do is scratch it.'

On being asked if he had ever heard any Stockhausen: 'No but I once stepped in some.'

Ouch!

Regards,

Erik