New Releases

[Madiel]

Looking at the Da Capo list of new releases (the Holmboe is in May) showed that one will be their Nørgård symphonies packaged together (4 separate discs originally). I would recommend that.

[Brian]

JUNE RELEASES

Yes, the Koechlin disc is included here - this is USA release via Naxos Distributing, so if you want the Koechlin, and you're in North America, it's June.













A VERY adventurous month from BIS, in addition to the above mentioned Respighi song recital and Jesper Nordin world premiere with Frost/Salonen, they've also got:

[Brian]

[Todd]

Color me intrigued.

[bioluminescentsquid]

https://open.spotify.com/album/7hq7WF3bl2U8Qlmm6GQzVh?si=Pb7SSWu1TkmQt7eNqEdESQ&nd=1

Foccroulle's Correa de Arauxo recording is out! Good impressions so far.

[Mirror Image]

Looking at the Da Capo list of new releases (the Holmboe is in May) showed that one will be their Nørgård symphonies packaged together (4 separate discs originally). I would recommend that.

I thought it was Dacapo not Da Capo.

[Madiel]

I thought it was Dacapo not Da Capo.

You are correct, I can't mentally shake the Italian musical term. The Danish record company spells it as one word.

[Mirror Image]

You are correct, I can't mentally shake the Italian musical term. The Danish record company spells it as one word.

That's what I thought, but since you're much more Danish-savvy than I am, I thought you would know.

[classicalgeek]

JUNE RELEASES

Yes, the Koechlin disc is included here - this is USA release via Naxos Distributing, so if you want the Koechlin, and you're in North America, it's June.

Thanks for the heads up, Brian! Just need to find a place where I can pre-order...

There have been several Malipiero releases over the last couple of years from Naxos... dare we hope for an updated symphony cycle?

[Madiel]

That's what I thought, but since you're much more Danish-savvy than I am, I thought you would know.

It's definitely not a Danish word.

[Symphonic Addict]

There have been several Malipiero releases over the last couple of years from Naxos... dare we hope for an updated symphony cycle?

May God hear you. 

[Mandryka]

https://open.spotify.com/album/7hq7WF3bl2U8Qlmm6GQzVh?si=Pb7SSWu1TkmQt7eNqEdESQ&nd=1

Foccroulle's Correa de Arauxo recording is out! Good impressions so far.

Yes listening to the second track now. Suitably mystical. I'm a sucker for Arauxo and I just roll on the back with my legs in the air whoever's playing. Submission. Here's a selfie.

[Mandryka]

I was once a big Sciarrino enthusiast, but tastes changed and I now listen much less often. My head's just not in a Sciarrino place these days, maybe I'll try the piece when the weather brightens up (snow expected the next 3 days).
Can't help whining that I find the prose style embodied by the Sciarrino liner notes (and shared by many modern-oriented labels) one of the lesser-appealing things about contemporary classical music, and it's diminished my enthusiasm. These days I'm much more into improv or free jazz than new (notated) classical works. The pendulum might swing back, but likely not any time soon.

Nevertheless that essay on Invenzione Della Trasparenza is not totally without interest, because it suggests that the hour long piece does have a structure. It's meant to be immersive, and so I've got to get myself into immersive mode, ready to listen for small changes.

This sort of music is about readiness, about being with the music when you're open to it. And not just writing it off because you happen to have heard it at a time when you're not.

[Mirror Image]

There have been several Malipiero releases over the last couple of years from Naxos... dare we hope for an updated symphony cycle?

Vecchia has already recorded a lot of Malipiero's various orchestral works, so it stands to reason that he could very well record the symphonies. I honestly don't see it happening, though. He'd be an ideal conductor for the job unlike Almeida who just didn't strike this listener as an interesting conductor or really the right conductor for the job.

[Mandryka]

The piano here has a bit of an uncanny valley effect—at first it just sounds like a regular Bechstein that just maybe hasn't been tuned in a few years, up until a sudden registral or dynamic shift makes you realise it's actually a fortepiano (although still a Bechstein one). Does make me wonder what Schumann would sound like on the piano Jean-Efflam Bavouzet used for his Ravel integral on MDG.

Not interested in listening to the Novelletten in full at the moment but Gesänge der Fruhe is just what I needed this month/year/lifetime, and the instrument does make a difference, although the largest deciding factor that makes it an essential performance is Helmchen's sense of rhythm and flux. I can't obviously say this is the "best" performance but it's probably up there.

Sounds good to me, thanks for prompting me to actually listen to it. Helmchen is a pretty interesting musician I think. Basically anyone who gets the seal of approval from Christian Tetzlaff music be good.


The part called Bewegt really benefits from the shorter decay. 

[staxomega]

Coming out next week, looking forward to hearing the Fantasy in c major for Violin and Piano.

[classicalgeek]

Vecchia has already recorded a lot of Malipiero's various orchestral works, so it stands to reason that he could very well record the symphonies. I honestly don't see it happening, though. He'd be an ideal conductor for the job unlike Almeida who just didn't strike this listener as an interesting conductor or really the right conductor for the job.

I do realize Naxos would be competing with themselves - but surely they realize how less-than-ideal Almeida's cycle is.

[Brian]

Disheartening data point: Antoni Wit redid his Mahler cycle live in Warsaw over 2010-11 with the Warsaw Philharmonic, a vastly better orchestra than the Katowice radio band he recorded a partial cycle with in the early 1990s, in a place where Naxos has gotten way better recorded sound. They'd even already done a super acclaimed Mahler 8 with the same forces. But no interest in remaking the rest out of live recordings

[Mandryka]

Now streaming, with a not totally uninteresting booklet

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/67/000147976.pdf

[Mirror Image]

I do realize Naxos would be competing with themselves - but surely they realize how less-than-ideal Almeida's cycle is.

I hope they realize that they would be the only label to have two Malipiero symphony cycles if Vecchia were to embark on such a monumental project. That should be enough.