New Releases

[Alek Hidell]

If it doesn't show, it's a 6 SACD box set of Beethoven's complete bagatelles and variations.

Thanks, Brian. Looks like there's an extra ".jpg" in the URL in your post, so the cover's not showing up. Here it is:



Is this just a repackaging of older recordings, or is anything new here?

Though I have yet to listen to a note of it, I have his sonata cycle - which I acquired mostly to hear the pieces on a fortepiano. (Has anyone else besides Brautigam and Badura-Skoda recorded the entire cycle on a period piano?) And as I recall, Jens was enthusiastic about the sonata cycle. So this little box might be worth a listen, eh?

[akebergv]

Thanks, Brian. Looks like there's an extra ".jpg" in the URL in your post, so the cover's not showing up. Here it is:



Is this just a repackaging of older recordings, or is anything new here?

Though I have yet to listen to a note of it, I have his sonata cycle - which I acquired mostly to hear the pieces on a fortepiano. (Has anyone else besides Brautigam and Badura-Skoda recorded the entire cycle on a period piano?) And as I recall, Jens was enthusiastic about the sonata cycle. So this little box might be worth a listen, eh?

The very first series on fortepiano, I believe, was by Malcolm Binns, and is part of Decca's L'Oiseau-Lyre: Classical & Early Romantic box:
https://www.amazon.com/LOiseau-Lyre-Classical-Romantic-50-Limited/dp/B0113A5A5K/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2CCNQ5DM5EL6H&keywords=classical+%26+early+romantic&qid=1563948496&s=gateway&sprefix=Classical+%26+Early+Romantic%2Cmovies-tv%2C252&sr=8-3

[Mandryka]

Release end August

[Mandryka]

http://www.clicmusique.com/musique-pour-luth-renaissance-polonaise-held-p-103146.html?osCsid=dc7920247bb2a25cdb6cee75a30a1732

[Mandryka]

The Apt manuscript is kept in the chapter of the
cathedral of Sainte-Anne in Apt under the catalogue
number 16 bis. It contains part of the repertoire that
was sung at the papal court of Avignon. Its presence
in Apt is unexplained: it is unlikely that the copy
was made there; it is believed to have been part of
a loan of manuscripts from the Avignon chapter
dating back to the 16th century. The Apt manuscript
might simply not have been returned.
The Apt manuscript is a compilation bringing
together six books copied at different times: some
contain pieces dating from around the 1350s, while
others date from the end of the 14th century.
The repertoire
The repertoire contained in the Apt manuscript
is entirely polyphonic. Most of the pieces are for 3
voices, but there are also some for 2 or 4 voices.
It contains movements of the Mass (Kyrie  Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei), hymns
and four motets based on moralising texts. These
mass movements are not related to each other:
they are not grouped together in such a way as to
form complete mass cycles. Neither are the pieces
arranged in any particular order, except for the
hymns, which are grouped together and written
out one after the other.

There's a very good Alto in this, and the singing seems chamber sized. I'm not sure if it i Guilhem Terrail or
Roman Melish. Attractive instrumentation.  First impressions are very positive.

[Wakefield]

Coincidentally:

J.S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge
Pieter-Jan Belder, harpsichord & clavichord





Already available via streaming (TIDAL, flac).

[Mandryka]

Coincidentally:

J.S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge
Pieter-Jan Belder, harpsichord & clavichord





Already available via streaming (TIDAL, flac).

Possibly the most mellifluous, uplifting, sensuous harpsichord AoF that I've ever heard. His keeps the top singing line  distinct from the lower voices, so it's almost like a sonata with thoroughbass sometimes. And he's helped by a great rich sounding harpsichord, well recorded. Anyone who thinks late Bach is too hair shirt and austere (Florestan?) should try this one for size.

I was particularly happy to find the duetti from CU3 on clavichord, and slightly disappointed that he didn't use a piano (or even a clavichord) for the ricercar à 3 from Opfer because . . . well why not?

Belder's really good in Bach, right in that Leonhardt-Gilbert tradition of coherent, "on the rails", steadily pulsated harpsichord playing. 

[Mandryka]

There's a very good Alto in this, and the singing seems chamber sized. I'm not sure if it i Guilhem Terrail or
Roman Melish. Attractive instrumentation.  First impressions are very positive.

One very nice thing that Vellard has done here, in the Gloria of the Barcelona mass he has the trope sung by one singer. It creates a really striking difference in the texture of the music for the ordinary, and the texture for the trope. And I thought to myself - there's the origin of organ alternatim practice! Anyway, this is a pretty special recording, every home should have one. My only gripe so far is that there isn't more information about what inspired their rather distinctive approach in the booklet.

I'd go out of my way to hear them sing this, but it's not obvious where to find their concert schedule!

[Que]

Coincidentally:

J.S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge
Pieter-Jan Belder, harpsichord & clavichord

Very tempting... Belder's Bach has matured over the years.

Q

[Mandryka]

Belder's Bach has matured over the years.

Q

I think you're probably right, but I'd say that the same sort of conception of the music that informed his WTC informs also this AoF. Put it like this, I think that anyone who found the former interesting would find the latter interesting for similar reasons.

[prémont]

His keeps the top singing line  distinct from the lower voices,

In which way? On a harpsichord this is difficult unless he articulates the lower voices shorter than the top voice, and this would work against the equilibrium of the voices.

[JBS]

Speaking of Bach
[asin]B07RMG97YD[/asin]
[asin]B07RNYHXLL[/asin]
Amazon US says release date is August 2.

[Mandryka]

In which way? On a harpsichord this is difficult unless he articulates the lower voices shorter than the top voice, and this would work against the equilibrium of the voices.

Give me a bit of time to listen again and to reconstruct my thinking.

[Mandryka]

Speaking of Bach
[asin]B07RMG97YD[/asin]

Does anyone follow this man? Does he have anything interesting to say with the music?  Unfortunately the recordings can't be streamed so I haven't been able to hear what he's up to even with composers I'm interested in, early English music for example, And now this.

[JBS]

Does anyone follow this man? Does he have anything interesting to say with the music?  Unfortunately the recordings can't be streamed so I haven't been able to hear what he's up to even with composers I'm interested in, early English music for example, And now this.

Todd is his chief fan on GMG, I think.  I have the recording he made before this--the one with English virginal music--which struck me as being well done.  But I couldn't predict how it would strike you when you do get a chance to hear it.

[Mandryka]

[Mandryka]

https://www.hbdirect.com/album/4108116-kaiser-maximilian-i-1459-1519-lieder-chansons-tanze-per-sonat.html

A good recording for testing hifi, in a less than ideal system the bass singer Joel Frederiksen sounds boomy. Initially I rejected the recording for that reason, fortunately I learned the error of my ways and now I like what they do very much.

What we have here is court music, subtle love songs by the likes of Isaac, Senfl, Ockeghem etc.

The presentation is introverted and serious, never gutsy, always heartfelt, full of perceptive notes on each song. Who could fail to be inspired by this comment on a song by Heinrich Isaac?

The most poetic description of this song can be traced back to a music historian from the 19th century, the eloquent August Wilhelm Ambros. He describes Mein Freud allein as a "jewel of inestimable value". "Everything that may live in the german mind, tender, intimate, cordial, is brought to expression here. it is one of the most beautiful love songs of all time; the melody of the most wonderful river and wonderful warmth of feeling runs extremely beautifully through oices; tenor and soprano sing as if in a duet, the other two voices step aside, yet without descending into mere accompaniment.

In fact in that Isaac song Sabine Lutzenberger sings so low I thought it was a duet for two men - tenor and bass. That would have been good, but no!

There are some instrumental tracks.

The recording ends with a particularly voluptuous and oneiric performance of Josquin's Proch dolor.

[Mandryka]

Anyone know anything about the composer or the performer?

http://www.cddiffusion.fr/catalogue/fiche.php?CID=6789&tc=1

Cool name -- Philbert jambe de fer.

[Mandryka]

Possibly the most mellifluous, uplifting, sensuous harpsichord AoF that I've ever heard. His keeps the top singing line  distinct from the lower voices, so it's almost like a sonata with thoroughbass sometimes.

In which way? On a harpsichord this is difficult unless he articulates the lower voices shorter than the top voice, and this would work against the equilibrium of the voices.

Give me a bit of time to listen again and to reconstruct my thinking.

Well see what you think when you hear it, though this way of attracting attention to a flowing line, a sort of lyrical simplicity that I'm imagining I'm hearing,   is more marked in the simpler fugues at the start.


This time round what really caught my attention were two of the fugues played on a couple of harpsichords, with Gerard de Wit. Very exciting playing. Gérard de Wit's the man who released an Anthoni van Noordt set which I like,

[prémont]

Well see what you think when you hear it, though this way of attracting attention to a flowing line, a sort of lyrical simplicity that I'm imagining I'm hearing,   is more marked in the simpler fugues at the start.

It [Belder's AoF] is of course on my wish list, but during the last couple of months I have concentrated upon Medieval and Renaissance, and among others acquired some of the CDs you have recommended.