Mahler 1. If you're new to the music of Gustav Mahler, start here: Runnicles, DSO Berlin 2009 live

Mahler, Gustav

Symphony number 1

Donald Runnicles, conductor

Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin

January 18, 2009

Live broadcast from Berlin Philharmonie, Grosser Saal

If you're new to the music of Gustav Mahler, start here.

If not, there is still more previously unnoticed detail to cull from his first symphony, as Runnicles brings out in a tight, bounding playpen of cacophony from the DSO Berlin. 

After running around between a dozen other contenders for a favorite broadcast Mahler 1, this one beat out the pack. Barenboim's East-West youth assault had some great frisson, but so does this and with more focussed string textures to boot. Overall, the clarity of the interacting lines of sound impressed and delighted here; I hope you find as much in this interpretation as I have.

Prokofiev series by Gergiev/LSO live 2009 at Lincoln Center: Russian Dreams II

PART TWO: VOLS. 3 & 4

And the last two nights of this mostly outstanding series (Volumes 3 & 4, continued from previous post):

Vol. 3/4:

March 29, 2009 

in house recording

Lincoln Center, Avery Fisher Hall

"Russian Dreams: The Music of Sergei Prokofiev"

Sergei Prokofiev

Symphony No.3 in C minor, Op.44 (1928)

• Moderato
  
• Andante
  
• Allegro agitato--Allegretto
  
• Andante mosso--Allegro agitato
  

Piano Concerto No.4 in B-flat major, Op.53 (1931)

• Vivace
  
• Andante
  
• Moderato
  
• Vivace
  

Encore Alexei Volodin

Symphony No. 4 in C major, Op.112

(revised version) (1947)

• Andante assai--Allegro eroico--Allegretto
  
• Andante tranquillo
  
• Moderato, quasi allegretto
  
• Allegro risoluto
  

Encore: Dance of the Knights from

Romeo and Juliet

Vol. 4/4:

March 30, 2009

Sergei Prokofiev

Symphony No.4 in C major, Op.47

(original version) (1929-30)

• Andante assai--Allegro eroico
  
• Andante tranquillo
  
• Moderato, quasi allegretto
  
• Allegro risoluto
  

Violin Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op. 63 (1935)

• Allegro moderato
  
• Andante assai
  
• Allegro, ben marcato
  

Encore

Vadim Repin and Andrew Haveron

Symphony No.5 in B-flat major, Op.100 (1944)

• Andante
  
• Allegro marcato
  
• Adagio
  
• Allegro giocoso
  

Encore: March from the Love of Three Oranges

London Symphony Orchestra

Valery Gergiev, conductor

Andrew Haveron, guest leader

Vadim Repin, violin

Alexei Volodin, piano

Prokofiev series by Gergiev/LSO live 2009 at Lincoln Center: Russian Dreams

PART ONE: March 23 & 24, 2009

The whole Lincoln Center "Russian Dreams" Series is so ridiculously embarrassing in it's overflow of vividly performed riches that here it is:

A miniseries with almost all of it (what I could find, at least)...

Try this one through some good headphones; it's worth it, being a from-the middle-of-the-audience soundpoint!

 in house recordings

Lincoln Center, Avery Fisher Hall

London Symphony Orchestra

Valery Gergiev, conductor

"Russian Dreams: The Music of Sergei Prokofiev"

Vol. 1/4: 

March 23, 2009

Sergei Prokofiev

1-4 Symphony No.1 "Classcial"

5-7 Piano Concerto no.2

Encore:

Johannes Sebastian Bach (trans. Alexander Siloti)

8 Prelude in B minor, BWV 855a

Vladimir Feltsman, soloist

Vol. 2/4: 

March 24, 2009

Sergei Prokofiev

1-2 Symphony No.2

3-5 Violin Concerto no.2

Encore:

8 Scherzo from Violin Concerto no.2

9-11 Symphony no.7

Encore:

12 March from "Love For Three Oranges"

Vadim Repin, soloist

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Read what the NY Times reviewer felt about this series HERE

Purchase the studio recordings of this conductor/orchestra in Prokofiev HERE

The last two concerts from this series coming soon...

Mahler Symphony 2, Dudamel y la Sinfonica dlJ Venezolana, Septiembre 9 del 2008

Mahler, Gustav

Symphony no.2

"Resurrection"

Orquesta Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana

Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Janice Watson, Soprano

Jane Henschel, Alto

Chor der Staatlichen Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst Mannheim

Landesjugendchor Rheinland-Pfalz

Live broadcast recording of September 9, 2008

from the Friedrich-Ebert-Halle, Ludwigshafen, Germany

A youthful, edge-pushing conductor for a symphony with similar characteristics. This sounds like fun, and just in time for spring.

thanks to Maddrax (of the DIME tribe) for this!

Xenakis: The Total Immersion concert 2, London, March 7 2009

Total Immersion:

Xenakis, Iannis (1922-2001)

Tracées 7'

Anastenaria 23'

Sea-Nymphs* 8'

Mists 12'

Nuits* 9'

Troorkh 16'

Antikhthon 19'

Christian Lindberg, trombone

Rolf Hind, piano

BBC Singers

Men of the BBC Symphony Chorus

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Martyn Brabbins, conductor

Stephen Betteridge, conductor*

Broadcast live Saturday 7 March 2009 on BBC Radio 3

Barbican Hall, London

These are drop-dead gorgeous sounds to revel in from the Greek master, like some mashup of Tibetan Buddhist Temple music and, I don't know. Everything. If Mahler wanted a symphony to encapsulate the world, this is an alternate approach to that impulse.

Andrew Maisel of www.classicalsource.com gives a review of the performance (a complete version is included in the info file):

"There couldn’t be a more mind-blowing introduction to Xenakis’s music than the opening juggernaut of a work, Tracées...

Christian Lindberg commissioned Troorkh, a concerto for trombone and orchestra. ... After close on 20 years, Troorkh seems no easier for Lindberg, requiring superhuman levels of stamina to get through the rapid-fire glissandos and writhing complexities, accents frequently pushed to a full three-and-half octaves. Watching Lindberg in action is an event in itself. In between passages he would be limbering up, sucking in large amounts of air ready for the next assault. A Herculean effort, too, from the trombonists of the BBCSO, pushed almost to the same extremes in passages mirroring the soloist....Full marks though to Martyn Brabbins and the BBC forces who continually displayed their versatility, discipline and sheer staying power over this very long evening."

from  the archives (CA1327) originally, all thanks to Maestro Greene there.

Prokofiev 2nd PianoConcerto, Bronfman and Gergiev, Vienna Philharmonic live in Carnegie Hall, 2008

Bronfman in rip-roaring slowburn concerto mode,

backed by some of Vienna's finest

I never indicated a preference for squeaky clean cd quality recordings. Although this was digitally taped recently, it is the performance behind the occasional pops and deep-in-the-audience perspective that commands involvement.

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Piano Concerto No.2 in G Minor, Op. 16 (1912-13)

1. Andantino--Allegretto--Tempo 1

2. Scherzo: Vivaca

3. Intermezzo:Allegro moderato

4. Allegro temperstoso--Meno mosso--Allegro tempestoso

Encore: Scarlatti Sonata K.11 in C minor (Thanks for the info on that, Alfonso)

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Valery Gergiev, Conductor

Yefim Bronfman, Piano

The recording attendee (thank you!!!) notes, "Another beautiful concert with the Vienna Phil...The audience was stunned into silence at the end and

did not begin to applaud until the maestro turned around to face us."

In-house recording

March 1, 2008

Carnegie Hall

Poulenc: en su Gloria, con Concertos. rec.2008-1961

Poulenc in vital broadcast performances, including a World Premiere!

If you haven't listened to much Poulenc, these are the mp3's to begin to remedy that with!

Here is a folder containing three live performances of Francis Poulenc's work. The version of Gloria is its 1961 World Premiere, with the composer attending, after having played his concerto there. He obviously had to have been hanging around to hear this, too, as the announcer (included in the sound files) relates to us that he is in the venue. Thanks to Ray for this, it is a great moment of music as well as a relevant historical document.

The Concerto for Two Pianos is given a characteristically mischievous run at the hands of the Labecque Sisters, egged on without remorse by Antonio Pappano who was debuting with the New York Phil that night.

And then the Organ Concerto; it is a wild, weird piece. I find it too complex to describe, other than the admonition that you just cannot play it as background music.

This is music that is fun and bright while never becoming vacant or emotionally uncommitted.  

Tracks 1-3:

Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in D minor (composed 1932)

Antonio Pappano, conductor

New York Philharmonic

Katya & Maria Labecque, pianos

Recorded from the WQXR-FM NYC broadcast by Statework

February 19, 2004 

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Tracks 4-6:

Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani in G minor (composed 1938)

Mariss Jansons, conductor

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Leo van Doeselaar, organ

Recorded from the Philharmonie, Berlin, DE 

September 2008

from fadoze's "FA2008-197" recording of the broadcast

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Tracks 7-9:

Gloria (World Premiere; composed 1959) 

Charles Munch, conductor

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Adele Addison, soprano 

Chorus Pro Musica 

Recorded Symphony Hall, Boston MA 

on 21 January 1961 

"Nice sound, discreet remastering by...Ray" 

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Play it loud!