Beethoven
- Piano Concerto No.1
- Septet
- String Quartet No.6
- Violin Sonatas 3 and 4
- Piano Sonatas 5, 7 and 9
- Barcarolle
- Polonaise-Fantaisie
- 2 Nocturnes, op.62
- Symphony No.7
- String Quartets 4, 5 and 7
- Stabat Mater
- The Spectre's Bride
- Psalm 149
- Ave Maria
- Hymnus ad laudes in festo Sanctissimae Trinitatis
- Ave Maris stella
- O Sanctissima
Faure - Cello Sonata No.2
Haydn
- Symphonies 82, 85, 87, 90, 95, 97, 98 and 102
- Stabat Mater
- Missa Cellensis in honorem BVM ('Cacilienmesse')
- Missa in honorem BVM ('Grosse Orgelsolomesse')
- Concerto No.3 (for clarinet)
- Inuit Songs
- Glemselshejren (The Heron of Oblivion)
Nielsen - [various songs and choral works translated into English]
Nørgård - Two Pastorales (version with piano)
Schubert - Arpeggione Sonata
Schubert - Piano Sonata in A minor, D.845
Shostakovich
- Symphony No.14
- String Quartet No.12
- Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok
- Violin Sonata (2nd movement, orchestrated)
Sibelius - Tapiola
I didn't mention last month that I had begun listening to a new purchase, a box of Mozart's piano concertos performed by Murray Perahia and the English Chamber Orchestra. I wasn't familiar with the concertos, having only heard a couple of them on individual occasions, but I was aware of their reputation as containing some of Mozart's finest music.
That reputation is holding up well as I start exploring Perahia's recordings. Somehow, Mozart makes more sense as a great composer in this context. It's as if the combination of piano soloist with orchestra is a natural fit for Mozart's talents, his grace and style. It probably doesn't hurt that many of these works were designed to showcase his own pianism, and therefore his own strengths.
There were two other new purchases at the same time, and again I didn't mention them in the entry for June although I did start listening to them at the end of that month. One was a box of Haydn's masses (plus the Stabat Mater), which represents entirely new territory for me. Indeed, I don't know all that many masses by any composer. So far my reaction has been a little variable, ranging from "that's sort of nice" to "I'm really, really enjoying this". And then in late July the masses were sidelined by a spontaneous project to decide which Haydn symphonies (of the 23 I own) are my favourites.
The other new purchase was a collection of Dvorak's sacred works and cantatas. In Dvorak's case the Stabat Mater was a real standout, a work whose first couple of movements in particular made a deep impression with their drama and feeling. The Spectre's Bride, a work of similar length, also made some impact though I was rather distracted by an English translation that rhymes. The Stabat Mater translation rhymes too, but in that case I had access to other translations of the same text. Why people feel the need to translate in rhyme and risk distorting the meaning of the original, I don't know. And for The Spectre's Bride the English rhyming scheme doesn't even match the Czech one. How pointless!
Also worth mentioning is that my Chopin listening reached some late masterpieces. The Barcarolle in particular has always seemed one of his great works, but the Polonaise-Fantaisie and the final pair of Nocturnes are also very fine. They point to new levels of sophistication that, sadly, Chopin did not live long enough to pursue much further.
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