What are you listening to now?

[Sorrano]

It's irritating to have so little information about these things; the "Zanotelli" performance (I thought) was better than the Barenboim, although the recording itself was not so good.

This morning:

Beethoven Bagatelles, op. 126

[Peter]

Also listening to Bruckner - Symphony no.5.

[Sorrano]

Also listening to Bruckner - Symphony no.5.

Which conductor?

[Quijote]

Also listening to Bruckner - Symphony no.5.

Just curious to know what CD that would be? But anyway, it's a roller-coaster of a work, isn't it? I read that Bruckner once said after its completion that he hoped never to have to write anything like it again, even if offered "a thousand gulden" (the literal translation). A more idiomatic expression would be "for all the tea in China". My own version would be "I'd rather have a lobotomy than write another symphony like that!"

[Quijote]

Sorry, must dash, big storm brewing here in Strasbourg after all the recent heat, must switch off and disconnect all my equipment.
Cue : Beethoven's Pastoral, you know the movement ...

[Quijote]

Phew, storm over (do I hear a collective groan from the BRS?). So, I offer you my Shepherd's Song of Happy and Thankful Feelings after the Storm.
At least I don't have to water the plants on the balcony tonight, hah!

[Megan]

Sorry, must dash, big storm brewing here in Strasbourg after all the recent heat, must switch off and disconnect all my equipment.
Cue : Beethoven's Pastoral, you know the movement ...

Ich auch!
It happens everytime I mow the lawn, a big black cloud comes over and now looks very threatening. The rain can come now I have finished mowing.

[Peter]

Just curious to know what CD that would be? But anyway, it's a roller-coaster of a work, isn't it? I read that Bruckner once said after its completion that he hoped never to have to write anything like it again, even if offered "a thousand gulden" (the literal translation). A more idiomatic expression would be "for all the tea in China". My own version would be "I'd rather have a lobotomy than write another symphony like that!"

It's the original version Eugene Ormandy / Philadelphia.

[Roehre]

It's the original version Eugene Ormandy / Philadelphia.

Isn't that the Schalk version, used up to in the 1930 as the standard "original" version, severely cut, especially in the scherzo?

[Sorrano]

Just curious to know what CD that would be? But anyway, it's a roller-coaster of a work, isn't it? I read that Bruckner once said after its completion that he hoped never to have to write anything like it again, even if offered "a thousand gulden" (the literal translation). A more idiomatic expression would be "for all the tea in China". My own version would be "I'd rather have a lobotomy than write another symphony like that!"

Which reminds me of the saying, "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."

[Quijote]

About Bruckner's 5th, the truly sad thing is he never got to hear it played. Oh, for sure he knew how it sounded in his mind's ear (much as Beethoven could), but there is nothing like hearing music in the raw, live.

[Peter]

Isn't that the Schalk version, used up to in the 1930 as the standard "original" version, severely cut, especially in the scherzo?

I don't think so - according to the cd notes Ormandy used Bruckner's 1894 autograph manuscript deposited at the Hofbibliotek Vienna. The timing for the scherzo is 12.32. The recording is coupled with the 7th symphony Bruno Walter/ Columbia symphony orchestra.

[Quijote]

Ich auch!
It happens everytime I mow the lawn, a big black cloud comes over and now looks very threatening. The rain can come now I have finished mowing.

Is this a metaphor, Megan? The lawn reading as the "BRS", the big black cloud reading as some awful poster whose name we shan't even mention (but who lives in Strasbourg and calls himself [deleted. Ed])? The rain reading as the administrators who swoosh in to wash away the offending posts? It's that, isn't it?

[Quijote]

In light of the above posts, I did check out the first movement of Bruckner's 5th with Solti and the Chicago Mobsters (just a little joke of mine), DECCA records (1980?).
Rather a lacklustre performance, far too stolid.

[Sorrano]

Is this a metaphor, Megan? The lawn reading as the "BRS", the big black cloud reading as some awful poster whose name we shan't even mention? The rain reading as the administrators who swoosh in to wash away the offending posts? It's that, isn't it?

It must have been the mowing that chopped away the posts and the rain waters that flushed them down the drain! Now, wasn't it a drain in which Beethoven lost a penny and lost his temper?