What are you listening to right now?

[m1469]

meh, I a little bit hate it on the piano   .  But, maybe if it's a different interpreter or the Brahms transcription, or if my ear adjusts ...

*doesn't finish the piano transcription listening, goes back to violin with Milstein*

[49410enrique]

just got this arrangement, really loving this heartfelt interpretation of this Albinoni classic. i never cared for the orchestrated version.

[Bob]

Something with strings and woodwinds... and a horn.... sounds Classical.   

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I love this band!

[austinarg]

[williampiano]

Beethoven Polonaise in C

[drkilroy]

I have just listened to the whole "Planets" suite by Holst and I really like it. I am going to the philharmony in October and the suite will be a part of the repertoire, so I have to be familar with it.

Another piece is Scharwenka's Fourth Piano Concerto, but I have to admit that I prefer Holst.

Best regards, Dr

[williampiano]

Jascha Heifetz playing It ain't necessarily so by Gershwin on the violin.

I love how it sounds in this one when the violin shifts into higher positions.
Such a great recording!

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Lol  Just...  lol

[49410enrique]

[williampiano]

Ranzinza by Ernesto Nazareth

[Bob]

[austinarg]

Discovered it today, I can't believe I didn't find this masterpiece earlier, a whole world of sound encapsulated in 12 minutes of ecstasy.

[49410enrique]

Hamelin and CPE Bach. oh man this is great

[patrickd]

[rachmaninoff_forever]

[j_menz]

Now that is a surprise. 

[patrickd]

[williampiano]

I felt that I haven't been listening to enough Baroque music lately, so I put this on.

[m1469]

oh, cool!  Thanks for posting that Bach!  I love it.  I just find strings to be nearly the most inspiring music to me sometimes ... maybe I'm just particularly prone to it at the time, I don't know.  Do you know, that the next musically historical sites that I want to visit is Bach-landia?  Yeah.  I am of course inspired by piano music (very rarely am I truly *inspired* by vocal music, although some choral works have really given me something to think about before), but there is something about strings, I just don't know what it is!

[49410enrique]

just discovered this little piece, super pretty. i was completely unaware he had composed a horn and piano solo. short wish it were longer....

[m1469]

Yes, super pretty!  That sounds as sad as I feel about not having my musical experiences in Europe anymore!  There is really nothing which compares to being immersed in music like that and I've been realizing that being immersed like that gives a context to one's own musicianship, and that context can be enough to have a sense of purpose which can otherwise be hard to distinguish when outside of that context.  I'm not sure how to keep that alive for myself throughout this year, I'm hoping that the experience I had will turn out to stay with me all on its own in ways I don't know about yet, but it's already challenging sometimes.  Well, so much for not telling my musical feelings here  .

[ahinton]

Great performances of a few pieces of that remarkable set of piano études that should (but still aren't) be regarded as an essential part of every pianist's foundation. Hamelin's recorded them all, of course - but do also listen (of you've not yet done so) to the performances of Carlo Grante (who also recorded the entire set a few years before Hamelin did)...

Best,

Alistair

[49410enrique]

Great performances of a few pieces of that remarkable set of piano études that should (but still aren't) be regarded as an essential part of every pianist's foundation. Hamelin's recorded them all, of course - but do also listen (of you've not yet done so) to the performances of Carlo Grante (who also recorded the entire set a few years before Hamelin did)...

Best,

Alistair

your championing of these etudes/transcriptions has convinced me to seek out hard files for my own collection (vs just replaying youtube videos). In my hunt i came across a set by Boris Berezovsky, I have not gotten them or listened to his versions. Are you familiar with them and do you know how they compare?

Also what are your thoughts on his other transcriptions and compositions (i.e. the Bach cello suites for piano solo, his own piano sonata and pasacagalia and various symphonic metamorphoses? ).

Thanks again for the 'strong suggestions' they worked, for me on this end as well. hopefully once i get them and listen to them enough i'll have them stuck in my head so hard i'll have to start learning to play them just to let them out!

PS Ms m1469, I think your experience and renewed passion will stick with you longer than you might first think. It is hard to believe such a powerful experience and immersion would lead to little more than a superficial impression that would 'wear' off with time and distance away from what prompted such change! Besides, just sharing your thoughts and feelings about it helps to cemement the emotions more and more.

[m1469]

PS Ms m1469, I think your experience and renewed passion will stick with you longer than you might first think. It is hard to believe such a powerful experience and immersion would lead to little more than a superficial impression that would 'wear' off with time and distance away from what prompted such change! Besides, just sharing your thoughts and feelings about it helps to cemement the emotions more and more.

Thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate it very much!

[perprocrastinate]

I don't always listen to concertos, but when I do, they're from Alkan.

[austinarg]

I don't always listen to concertos, but when I do, they're from Alkan.

I find his second recording of this concerto way better than this one. Nevertheless, it sounds great.

[m1469]

  - I must hear this every day (more than once).

[m1469]

Yikes, I am instinctively wanting to start playing this on the piano by ear ... and I would instinctively put it in the same register as the violin ... which means that maybe I want to do my own transcription  .  I'm feeling rather impressed with Mr. Pearlman ...  

[ahinton]

I find his second recording of this concerto way better than this one. Nevertheless, it sounds great.

That's almost certainly because it is! Quite noticeably so, in fact.

Best,

Alistair

[49410enrique]

OMG!
could listen to this over and over and over....
PTNA just posted it today

[rachmaninoff_forever]

This is soooooooooooooooo good! 

This doesn't mean I like Bach, it just means that I like the Swingle Singers. 

So Bach, don't get too friendly with me Kid!

[49410enrique]

This is soooooooooooooooo good! 

This doesn't mean I like Bach, it just means that I like the Swingle Singers. 

So Bach, don't get too friendly with me Kid!

good call. i've always liked the swingle singers too (all of them, that is over the years the members change but they overall have a continuity to the sound they want).

have you seen their piazzolla libertango (modern ver)?

[ahinton]

your championing of these etudes/transcriptions has convinced me to seek out hard files for my own collection (vs just replaying youtube videos). In my hunt i came across a set by Boris Berezovsky, I have not gotten them or listened to his versions. Are you familiar with them and do you know how they compare?

Yes - they're pretty decent, as are Béroff's and Ilič's of those for left hand alone but, on balance, in my experience it's Hamelin and Grante who hold sway here.

Also what are your thoughts on his other transcriptions and compositions (i.e. the Bach cello suites for piano solo, his own piano sonata and pasacagalia and various symphonic metamorphoses?).

The Bach cello suites and violin partita paraphrases (three of each) are splendid works, especially the violin ones. I'm not sure that his piano sonata is quite on the same level as his best work, for all its massive ambition and ample instances of immense pianistic elegance, the Passacaglia is a masterpiece beyond question and the Symphonic Metamorphoses on Strauss waltzes are quite extraordinary feats of pianistic imagination, contrapuntal skilll and reinvention; I'd recommend Grante in the Passacaglia and Hamelin in the sonata and Strauss waltz transcriptions.

Godowsky was never going to set the world of composition alight by hurling lances into the future and his harmonic language did not change much over the years, although his sense of what works well on the piano (in his own terms) is almost peerless and his demands on the pianist sometimes foreshadow those of Sorabji and even Finnissy.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

I am listening to some Milhaud.

Sort of Jazzy/Folky plink level 3.

Thal

[drkilroy]

Could you share with us the other plink levels with example composers/pieces?

Best regards, Dr

[asuhayda]

...Ashkenazy playing Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 23 No. 4 in D

[pianowolfi]

I am listening to Beethoven's Sonata op 28, but only in my head and imagination, and it sounds so differently than ever before! It's soft and light and, well, just different than anything I heard before! 

[49410enrique]

OMG TOTAL EARGASM!

[49410enrique]

OMG TOTAL EARGASM!

i uploaded the liner notes in case anyone wants to read about these incredible works!
https://www.scribd.com/doc/102199250/York-Bowen-The-Piano-Sonatas-Insert

[williampiano]

In honor of the Mars rover I am listening to Mars from Gustav Holst's Planet Suite.

[j_menz]

In honor of the Mars rover I am listening to Mars from Gustav Holst's Planet Suite.

I rewatched Mars Attacks for the same reason. 

[ajspiano]

In honor of the Mars rover I am listening to Mars from Gustav Holst's Planet Suite.

mmm..  I've been giving that to my tiny students lately for subconscious music appreciation..
https://magicalmusicbox.tumblr.com/post/1522999702/1

[49410enrique]

hadn't listened to this in quite sometime. falling in love with it all over again....

[thalbergmad]

That is immense. Surely, it is the greatest of all concertos, bar none.

Thal

[49410enrique]

That is immense. Surely, it is the greatest of all concertos, bar none.

Thal

oh man. i believe you may be/are quite right! (at least of all the ones I know of/seen/have listened to)!

[williampiano]

Sonata in f sharp minor op. 26 by Ferdinand Ries

Apparently he was a student of Beethoven, which seems reasonable because his music sounds a lot like his.

[krajcher]

This is the most complex fugue of J.S. Bach.

This synthesizer makes every voice is heard so perfectly and clearly.

[ahinton]

That is immense. Surely, it is the greatest of all concertos, bar none.

What? Bar Busoni's piano concerto? Szymanowski's first violin concerto? Ye gods!

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

What? Bar Busoni's piano concerto? Szymanowski's first violin concerto? Ye gods!

Yes, bar everything, including those two. Busoni PC does not have enough interesting material to justify its length and the Szymanowski VC is a cats chorus.

Thal