What are you listening to?

[Jose Echenique]

This CD is a performance of sacred music the like of which one does not hear too often. The music itself is wonderful in terms of content, textures and drama, the singing from Piau is superlative and the playing from the Accademia Bizantina is exemplary. The ensemble, under the direction of Ottavio Dantone, is uncompromising in its approach to the music yet they are very sympathetic to it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Sandrine Piau loves so much that motet that she made a priority to record it in her contract with Naïve.

[DaveF]

Symphonies No.1 & 7



I dont have the boxset but this is the closest image of my single disc containing the mentioned symphonies.

[bombasticDarren]

Dvorak - Symphony No.7 (Colin Davis, London Symphony Orchestra, LSO Live)

[Seán]

Camille Saint-Saëns
Symphony No. 3
Phildelphia Orchestra
Eugene Ormandy - conducting.

[Jared]

sumptuous

[fergus]

believe me Jared over the last few years I really have tried to like Bruckner's work but I find it to be some of the most frustrating symphonic music ever. Your description above is pretty apt I think.

Dave, Bruckner divides opinion like no other... there are people aplenty who love Mahler, R Strauss & Wagner who can't stand Bruckner's structure (or at times lack of it). I remember about a year or so ago, BBC Music Mag asked a load of CM commentators to highlight exapmles of Classical Music they really could live without, and Bruckner got quite a few mentions... of course they were hotly followed by a pack of rabid Brucknerians in the ensuing letters pages, who couldn't believe their ignorance... ;-))

now personally, I love Bruckner, Mahler and R Strauss, but I'm not sure that beyond a few overtures and idylls, I'll ever get Wagner.... horses for courses I suppose...

well I'm pretty open minded when it comes to all genres of music and I dont give up easily on works that I stuggle with initially. I listened to Bruckner today for the first time in 2 years I'd say in the hope that it might 'say' something to me now. I enjoyed parts of it to be honest so maybe that's some sort of progress.

Dave, there are two things that one needs to appreciate if one is having difficulty with the music of Bruckner and one is that he was a deeply religious man; personally I feel that this comes across very strongly in his music. The second thing, far more important musically in my opinion, is that he was an organist; I would not be surprised if he composed a lot of his music on the organ or at least if it had quite a large influence on his composition. The next time that you are listening to his music see if you can conceive that it is being played on the organ. I think that he was almost playing the orchestra as though it was an organ....listen to the textures and the phrasings carefully. I know that I have some odd ideas but that fact struck me very early on in my Bruckner listening and it changed my perception somewhat on his music when I first started to listen to it and it made a lot of sense to me.

[fergus]

This CD is a performance of sacred music the like of which one does not hear too often. The music itself is wonderful in terms of content, textures and drama, the singing from Piau is superlative and the playing from the Accademia Bizantina is exemplary. The ensemble, under the direction of Ottavio Dantone, is uncompromising in its approach to the music yet they are very sympathetic to it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Sandrine Piau loves so much that motet that she made a priority to record it in her contract with Naïve.

I did not know that Pepe but it certainly shows in her performance!

[jaybee]

Interesting soundtrack.... some excellent taverner...

[DaveF]

This was the only time Bernstein conducted the BPO most likely as it was during Karajan's reign there so in a way it is a landmark recording. However the trombones are missing the climatic 4th movement.

From an online review "The reason the trombones went silent for a bit was that a man sitting behind them in the audience, fairly close in the rows behind them, collapsed of a heart attack and died at that moment. The doctor came over and there was a bit of a buzz in the audience even as the concert continued. This event made it into the reviews of the concert the next day. That is why the trombones missed their cue."

You can even hear some people talking in the background during this. The recording was released posthumously as Bernstein never wanted it released in his lifetime. I wasnt aware of the above when I bought this recording a long time ago so the missing trombones passed me by for a while until I got more familiar with the symphony.

[DaveF]

Dave, there are two things that one needs to appreciate if one is having difficulty with the music of Bruckner and one is that he was a deeply religious man; personally I feel that this comes across very strongly in his music. The second thing, far more important musically in my opinion, is that he was an organist; I would not be surprised if he composed a lot of his music on the organ or at least if it had quite a large influence on his composition. The next time that you are listening to his music see if you can conceive that it is being played on the organ. I think that he was almost playing the orchestra as though it was an organ....listen to the textures and the phrasings carefully. I know that I have some odd ideas but that fact struck me very early on in my Bruckner listening and it changed my perception somewhat on his music when I first started to listen to it and it made a lot of sense to me.

Cheers Fergus, I'll certainly keep all of that in mind and I'll give Bruckner another go at some stage.