The Symphonist

a doctor with a stethoscope around his neck is making a funny face and saying do n't attack me . ALT: a doctor with a stethoscope around his neck is making a funny face and saying do n't attack me .

I sneakily listened to both settings together, so just for a few hours I'm actually ahead of you.

Today's #NowWatching double bill.

A Grand Day Out.

Only just now understood why the sequel to the movie Beethoven was called Beethoven's 2nd.

POST-Handel goddammit!

Smethergell's pist-Handel gallant music was very popular in London's pleasure garden until Haydn arrived and rendered it obsolete. I found this record made very pleasant background music.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Brilliant! The way each stanza starts the same (so it's strophic) and then he sets each second half completely differently to match the text. Form matching content from beginning to end.

A while's, like, a couple of hours, right?

A pitch-perfect score by Elena Kats-Chernin too.

Yes I do. It's brilliant, and very much in the same ballpark as Memoir.

A martini and a movie. This memoir is a stop-motion gem of a film ❤️
#NowDrinking #NowWatching

Yes! Amazing recording.

Shostakovich died 50 years ago, on 9th August 1975. The unbearable emotional tension between his need to express himself as an authentic artistic voice and the need to survive the demands of Stalin’s regime underlines the power of his music. What are your favourite Shostakovich recordings?

Lennie's DG Leningrad is my favourite recorded performance of any symphony by anyone ever. Bernie's Babi Yar introduced me to my all-time favourite piece, and it's still as recommendable today as any other recording.

Prom 32 The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning concerts and collaborations.

The whole trilogy is fab. I was turned onto it by the Proms way back in 1999.

One of my favourite singers. McLaughlin's volume was the first CD of the series I bought. Terrific stuff - the Scottish ballad duet with Thomas Hampson still gives me goosebumps.

📌

What did you think of it?

Nailed the strengths and weaknesses of KM's new Berlioz. CM '62 still rules the roost for me too.

Classical CDs! Lots of them! All good! Read more here: www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu... @bernardhughes.bsky.social #berlioz #bruckner #classicalmusic #georgesmiley #multiverse

Record cover. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13, 'Babi Yar' Vitalij Kowaljow (bass) London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, London Philharmonic Choir, Gianandrea Noseda. LSO Live LSO0392. https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9785867--shostakovich-symphony-no-13-babi-yar

Happy #NewReleaseFriday! Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the death of Dmitri Shostakovich. @londonsymphony.bsky.social & Gianandrea Noseda's survey of his symphonies continues with the work that's been my favourite piece of music since the moment I first heard it 🖤

▶️ spoti.fi/400asdn

#SkeetDuJour

I agree about the soloist, and the chorus (LPO & LSO on this recording I think) are pretty crucial too.

Salieri woz 'ere.

It's mindblowing!

Record cover. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13, 'Babi Yar' Vitalij Kowaljow (bass) London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, London Philharmonic Choir, Gianandrea Noseda. LSO Live LSO0392. https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9785867--shostakovich-symphony-no-13-babi-yar

Happy #NewReleaseFriday! Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the death of Dmitri Shostakovich. @londonsymphony.bsky.social & Gianandrea Noseda's survey of his symphonies continues with the work that's been my favourite piece of music since the moment I first heard it 🖤

▶️ spoti.fi/400asdn

I've caught up! Enjoyed hearing both of these, but can understand why Schubert gave up on them. The poem cries out for a more strophic setting which would be eaiser to sustain. Setting it line-by-line makes it too bitty, with no sense of where it's going.