Love Your Classical Music Geek

#NowSpinning Copland’s Orchestral Variations, with John Wilson and the BBC Broncos. This is a gnarly, angular work. And it’s pretty exciting as the played here.

#A-Schubert-A-Day Day 178 ‘An Den Früling’, D283 from 6 September 1815. We could easily predict that Spring freshness would figure in this setting! www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W2...

#NowSpinning ‘Willows’, with Pekka Kuusisto on majestic form. Great personal tragedy immediately preceded the recording of this album for Kuusisto. I find some of the works included more effortful than natural - particularly the Caroline Shaw - but that’s a personal view.

Rather impressed with the first disc of the Audite Grieg Symphonic Works set, which I managed to finally track down. There’s a wonderful freshness and clarity of articulation, which works beautifully with Grieg’s sound palette. Aadland’s conducting is full of light and shade.

#A-Schubert-A-Day Day 177 ‘Cronnan’, D282 from 5 September 1815. I hadn’t realised the extent to which Schubert entered into the twilight worlds of Celtic myth and legend! This is epic! www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W2...

#A-Schubert-A-Day Day 176 ‘Das Mädchen von Inistore’, D281 from September 1815. Melancholic, haunting and mournful. Painting ‘Young Girl on the Beach’ by Edvard Munch. www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W2...

The vast majority! So I will hold back on this one. The big set of Beethoven in there is a large chunk.

#A-Schubert-A-Day Day 175 ‘DAs Rosenband’, D280 from September 1815. This Schubert setting fully matches the almost ‘floral’ tone of the text. www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W2...

Oh nice!

Yes I bought this work after David Hurwitz promoted it. Fabulous work.

#NowSpinning Glazunov Symphony No.3 with Tadaaki Otaka in Wales! This is an excellent version of a Symphony that does need careful handling. Anything less than top notch conducting can make it seem bland and directionless. Here there is sparkle and purpose.

#A-Schubert-A-Day Day 174 ‘Ossians Lied nach dem Falle Nathos’, D278, from September 1815. An evocation of Another Time in Another Place. www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W2...

#NowSpinning next up in the Rattle CBSO years is the first ever recording of Sibelius 1 I ever heard. I have not heard this cycle for many years, so it will be interesting to compare it with the Berlin set. I’ll do them side by side.

#A-Schubert-A-Day Day 173 ‘Punschlied, Vier Elemente’, D277, from 29 August 1815. A memorable tune, while the text tells us how to make punch! www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W1...

Thank you. There’s also a lovely version on Hyperion.

Herbert Howells’s String Quartet No.3 is gracing this morning’s dog walk. It’s a gorgeously lyrical piece with many passages of astounding beauty. But there is a more searching, introspective side to the music, too.

7!!!!

This is the Dvořák 8 that I truly believe sums up what is gorgeous, thrilling, heartwarming and inspiring work it is. It’s never managed to be my favourite Dvořák Symphony, but this may be my favourite Dvořák Disc. Surely that underlines Honeck’s genius.

#A-Schubert-A-Day Day 172 ‘Abendlied’, D276 from 28 August 1815. After producing 9 songs on one day, Schubert took a short break. And so did I. But back now. This song is another charmer. www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W2...

#NowSpinning a Scheherazade that sways towards sensuousness rather than drama. And that’s just fine by me. There is plenty of room for many different approaches to this work.

No idea!

#NowSpinning Debussy La Mer with Pierre Boulez on CBS. This one is with the New Philharmonia. I do love his DG recording from Cleveland, but this one is also translucent and sympathetic. It’s nothing like as ‘observed’ as I expected.

#NowSpinning Rattle’s CBSO Mahler 6. Not a recording I really warmed to when first hearing it about 20 years ago! But it’s next up on the Rattle CBSO years box. Let’s see how it sits now.

And that very much came out with this Bruckner 4. I agree with you.

Hmmm. Very objective and observed, rather than felt, I would say. Something of a chill running through it, whilst retaining a great deal of beauty, thanks to the orchestra. It was his first Bruckner recording and sort of doesn’t quite feel ‘lived in’ as a performance, to me.

#NowSpinning Bruckner 4 with Sinopoli in Dresden. I haven’t decided what I think of the interpretation quite yet, but the orchestra sounds totally magnificent! It’s worth hearing for that at least.

I did the Dvořák some time ago.

Well I haven’t yet because I do already have the Symphony set. Do I really *need* the rest?

I haven’t heard any of that set yet? Been hearing good things…