What are you listening two?

[DonKC]

I do have the Kitajenko/Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne Prokofiev cycle Fergus and I really like it. I also have a few recordings of Prokofiev's music performed by the LSO under the direction of Previn and they are marvellous too.

Cheers Seán. As Kitajenko did such a good job with the Shostakovich symphonies I will put his Prokofiev cycle in the Ponder Pouch.

There is a fine Walter Weller/London SO/LPO set that comes around on budget labels now and then, quite good. Will have to check out the Kitajenko/Prokofiev however.

[Seán]

I do have the Kitajenko/Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne Prokofiev cycle Fergus and I really like it. I also have a few recordings of Prokofiev's music performed by the LSO under the direction of Previn and they are marvellous too.

Cheers Seán. As Kitajenko did such a good job with the Shostakovich symphonies I will put his Prokofiev cycle in the Ponder Pouch.

There is a fine Walter Weller/London SO/LPO set that comes around on budget labels now and then, quite good. Will have to check out the Kitajenko/Prokofiev however.

The Weller set is available on the Brilliant Classics label under license from DG. I have often wondered about the set and if I should get a copy of it.

[Seán]

Bohuslav Martinu
Symphony No. 3 & 4
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Jarvi conducting.

Hugely enjoyable. I am particularly fond of the Fourth Symphony.

I have not listened to that set in quite a while. I always found the later symphonies to a bit inaccessible however.

They are not to everyone's taste, that's for sure. I have just finished listening to the Fifth and am now on the Sixth. I must say I do enjoy these works:


Bohuslav Martinu
Symphony No. 5 & 6
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Jarvi conducting.

[Seán]

Johannes Brahms
Ein deutsches Requim op. 45
La Chapelle Royale. Collegium Vocale
Christiane Oelze (Soprano)
Gerald Finley (Baritone)
Orchestre Des Champs Élysées
Philippe Herreweghe conducting.

[Seán]

Johannes Brahms
String Quintet in F major, op. 88
String Quintet in G major, op. 111
Amadeus Quartet
Cecil Aronowitz - Viola II

[Seán]

Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 4
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Claudio Abbado conducting.

[DonKC]

The Weller Prokofiev has long been highly regarded and the Brilliant Classics set is the one I have.

And thanks to you all, I am listening to the Kitajenko Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne Prokofiev 6th now on Spotify. A most fine performance of a brilliant symphony, all too little heard.

[Seán]

Inspired by Don:



Serge Prokofiev
Symphony No. 6 op. 111
Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
Dmitrij Kitajenko conducting.

This is a fabulous performance by a great orchestra and is beautifully captured on disc. To my mind the Sixth Symphony does reward repeated listening. No less a figure than Myaskovsky said of it: "I only began to understand and appreciate [op. 111] after hearing it three times. It is profound, yet somewhat orchestrated austerely."

As for the Shostakovich cycle, the symphonies arranged for a larger orchestra were recorded live during concerts, and thus the Kölnische Rundschau printed the following review of the performance of the symphony no. 6:
“This symphony written in 1947 is generally regarded as unwieldy; an ungrateful task for musicians as well as the audience, and it is therefore rarely played in concert halls. Kitajenko, however, manages to decipher the score by unfolding it as a tragic, psychological chain of events, instead of as a revoltingly noisy scenario from Stalin’s era. Melodious string passages repeatedly occur in an almost elegiac manner. Flutes and horns unearth unexpected and surprising elements of beauty, as it were – even though this was only possible because the musicians summoned up all possible purity of sound and musical ardour.”

[Seán]

Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 8
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Karl Böhm conducting.

This is a superb performance, I love it. I really must get more recordings of Karl Böhm's work.

[fergus]

Johannes Brahms
Ein deutsches Requim op. 45
La Chapelle Royale. Collegium Vocale
Christiane Oelze (Soprano)
Gerald Finley (Baritone)
Orchestre Des Champs Élysées
Philippe Herreweghe conducting.

That is a work that I really like; I must do a listening project on it some time.