Topic: What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Mirror Image]

It's very good, I feel it's on the same level as the LSO Mussorgsky disc.  The aria's are extremely well done, and the the Night on Bald Mountain with Chorus is well worth the purchase in itself.

I'll have to check it out, Paul. Thanks for the feedback.

[nesf]

I love Shosty's Piano Quintet. That's a fine performance of it too. Argerich played great.

It's lovely. I'm very happy with this box set and will probably pick up the rest of the series at some point. Ploughing my spare cash into kitchen related stuff at the moment though. It'll give me a chance to work through the backlog of CDs I've collected so far!

[Mirror Image]

It's lovely. I'm very happy with this box set and will probably pick up the rest of the series at some point. Ploughing my spare cash into kitchen related stuff at the moment though. It'll give me a chance to work through the backlog of CDs I've collected so far!

Do you have a very large classical collection? I've managed to amass around 7,000 classical CDs. Of course, I haven't heard a lot of them, but I suppose that shouldn't come as a big surprise.

Now listening:



Listening to Symphony No. 10.

[nesf]

Do you have a very large classical collection? I've managed to amass around 7,000 classical CDs. Of course, I haven't heard a lot of them, but I suppose that shouldn't come as a big surprise.

No, it's tiny. Just with two young kids I don't have that much time to listen carefully to music so it takes me a fair while to work through a box set of 20 CDs etc. That and I have many hobbies to fund out of a limited cash pool!


Now listening:

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
Haitink

[Mirror Image]

No, it's tiny. Just with two young kids I don't have that much time to listen carefully to music so it takes me a fair while to work through a box set of 20 CDs etc. That and I have many hobbies to fund out of a limited cash pool!


Now listening:

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
Haitink

Yeah, I can see how you don't have much time. You're a busy guy, especially with two kids.

[Conor71]

Holmboe: String Quartet No. 1, Op. 46


Getting to grips with this newly arrived Cycle of string quartets - sounds pretty interesting so far!

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Symphony No. 8.

[Scots John]

My 48 hour free subscription to The BPO Digital Concert Hall ended at 04:15 this morning.  Here is the list of things I watched and listened to in that 48 hours...

Documentaries:
1 on Carlos Klieber
1 on Claudio Abbado
1 on the BPO in WWII
1 on the BPO trip to Asia

Concerts:
Beethoven 9 - Abbado
Bruckner 6 - Blomstedt
Sibelius 5,6,7 - Rattle
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique - Rattle
Strauss Ein Heldenleben - Nelsons
Strauss Alpine Symphony - Bychkov
Shostoakovich 14 - N. Jarvi
Bartok Divertimento for String Orchestra - Harding
Beethoven Piano Concerto 2 - Abbado, Pletnev
Tchaikovsky Francesca di Rimini - N. Jarvi
Glanert (new to me) Theatrum Bestiarum - Bychkov
Britten Young persons guide to the Orchestra - Rattle
Tchaikovsky - Waltz of the Flowers (Encore)  N. Jarvi

Interviews
Neeme Jarvi yapping
Guy Braunstein and Bychkov yapping
Bruckner 6 Introduction - Blomstedt (in German)

Quite an intensive 48 hours.  Most fulfulling were (in no order):

The documentaries, the one on Keiber and the one on the BPO during WWII
Strauss Ein Heldenleben - Nelsons
Strauss Alpine Symphony - Bychkov
Tchaikovsky Francesca di Rimini - N. Jarvi
Glanert (new to me) Theatrum Bestiarum - Bychkov

Everything else was brilliant.  However, Jarvi's Shostakovich 14 was a bit of a let down, for no other reason than he did not seem to enter the darkness in any of the poems, he did not open the door to the other side, and he did not explore the unexplored in what should have been a brilliant exploration and exposition of death itself.  What it was, though, was well played, if not at all as dark as it should have been (for me).

All in, all a fine Digital experience.  I would only pay per concert for access though, and am unwilling to spend $20 a month on it - GMG, after all it has given me, would be a far better thing for me to spend $20 a month on.  Alas, I am poor, etc...            

[listener]

not shelved properly so it showed up tonight and is just right for midnight-ish listening
REGER   3 Sonatas for unaccompanied violin
Ulrika-Anima Mathé, violin

[Que]

 

Starting this morning wit a rerun of disc 7 of the set, that I hadn't quite finished before. Where is the sufficient time to listen!?  

Olivier Vernet plays the Jürgen Ahrend organ (1991) of the Basilica of San Simpliciano, Milan.

Q

[The new erato]

This is good, and in some cases very good, music, well performed and recorded.

The 1889 Air sounds for the life of me like a mature Mahler Adagietto before Mahler himself dappled in the form, superbly written for strings, com posed by a Bostonian!

The disc with his Piano Quarte, also on Naxos (formerly on Marco Polo) is even finer. Arthur Foote is a composer I would like to hear more from.

[The new erato]

John Foulds is an interesting and confusing composer. What little I've heard sprawls in all directions. The Quartetto Intimo, op 89, is very interesting in a post impressionistic kind of way, but not easy to come to terms with. Here I am, trying again!

[Harry]

Well this doesn't need introduction, for Weiss is a composer on par with Bach, and Robert Barto is a well respected musician, who made a huge success of this series. This is the latest instalment, and very good it is!

[Harry]

This is good, and in some cases very good, music, well performed and recorded.

The 1889 Air sounds for thel ife of me like a mature Mahler Adagietto befor Mahler himself dappled in the form, superbly written for strings, com posed by a Bostonian!

The disc with his Piano Quarte, also on Naxos (formerly on Marco Polo) is even finer. Arthur Foote is a composer I would like to hear more from.

He is well respected by me too, I try to collect all I can get from him.

[The new erato]

You probably meant Mace as the label, but anyone who was buying then probably has several Turnabout lps.
Like Naxos today, these labels* with their low prices were the way to get widely acquainted with music that had only been read about but never heard.
*must include Nonesuch and the Seraphim re-releases of the EMI catalogue - got lots!

Yes indeed, it's from the long gone and to me completely unknown Mace label, whomever they were. But it looks very Turnabout, doesn't it? And indeed I have quite a few Turnabout LPs in my LP shelves.

[Opus106]

That I usually prefer the work played with a bit more bite.

Which recordings, in your opinion, contain more bite? Thanks. (You know searching for one member's posts (yours) in a single thread (AoF thread) is no easy task in GMG. )

[Sergeant Rock]

I just reread the Top Violin Concerto thread which reminded me of the long, uh... "disagreement" (over time and many threads) Bunny and I had about Mutter's Mozart. It's a beautiful Saturday morning--warm and sunny: perfect for a bit of Mozart. The A major K.219, Mutter playing and conducting the London Philharmonic:




Sarge

[Harry]

This is a recording which should be in every ones collection, for it is worthwhile in many respects. A unknown composer, he was a Franciscan monk, with a extraordinary talent for the Cello, but also for the Organ, and besides that he composed a lot of choral works for Church. The suites on this disc are of a ethereal beauty, which so much small scale intensity in the notes, that it touches my heart many a time. He is not lost in fancy writing, but composes carefully in loving strides. It breaths a restful atmosphere and alights the room with a warmth that caresses your heart. Carefully researched and performed, by musicians that clearly loved the project. Played on authentic instruments or good copies of them, respecting the performance practice of those days, this also unknown ensemble gives us a excellent impression of the music, and its time. Perfect recording too, and the price is consumer friendly, so I say go for it, it might give you a lot of pleasure, as it did me!

[val]

BEETHOVEN:     Piano Sonata n. 26 opus 81A              / Wilhelm Backhaus

This sonata has a large number of excellent versions.
My favorites are those of Backhaus, powerful and with the usual cohesion, Friedrich Gulda, more dynamic, and Rudolf Serkin, live in New York, not as perfect as the other two but more aggressive and dramatic.

Other remarkable versions: Alfred Brendel, Bruno Leonardo Gelber (sublime 2nd movement), Nelson Freire, Emil Gilels.

[Que]

Is the Luccari on period instruments, Harry?

As for myself, yes why not follow up with the newly acquired disc with the pretty cover, showcasing that rare but beautiful instrument - the viola d'amore! The ideal disc for our Sonic Dave, I would think...



BIBER: Partia VII for 2 violas d'amore & b.c.
HUBERTY: Aria for soprano & viola d'amore "Un ruisselet bien clair"; Duetto for 2 violas d'amore
J. C. GANSPECK: Aria for soprano, 2 violas d'amore & b.c. ; Maria schönste Bluemen zirt"
ARIOSTI: Cantata for solo voice, viola d'amore & b.c. "Pur al fin gentil Viola"
W. GANSPECKH: Partita for 2 violas d'amore & b.c.

EDIT: the contributions of the to me new soprano Monika Mauch are wonderful!

PS No matter how beautiful those cardboard Winter & Winter cases look, the slot that keeps the CD can actually scratch it! What I do is slide the disc carefully out and keep it in a paper sleeve folded into the case.

Q