New Releases

[Mandryka]

[Mandryka]

Yes, this looks attractive! I enjoy the cpo recordings of motets (Cordes, Weser-Renaissance).
The instrumentation initially caused some trepidation (not my usual preference), but the samples sound quite good.

(Cantica Symphonia Josquin)

Coming back to it this evening and it's very impressive. Try it!

The instruments with the voice, the brass underlining a melody gently, is really effective and brings something fresh and good to the music.

Like all these things, you have to give it time to appreciate it, to see what's happening.

[Brian]

Is this new? Any recording of the Weinberg Trio is a must-hear, but these artists especially...

[Todd]

Is this new? Any recording of the Weinberg Trio is a must-hear, but these artists especially...

No, I've had it for a while.  It is everything it is supposed to be.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Yup, looks like they are there (also without art yet)...

While looking at Presto I also saw this interesting bit of piano history.



"A debut on CD for the American Decca legacy of Ruth Slenczynska, a prodigious Romantic-age keyboard lioness. The biography for her Wigmore Hall recital in March 1957 claimed that the 32-year-old Ruth Slenczynska had given 1600 concerts. Scarcely believably, perhaps, but no less so than other elements of her extraordinary life story – making her public debut at the age of four, under the instruction of a tyrannical and abusive father, playing a Mozart concerto at the Salle Pleyel in Paris just three years later, attracting the admiration and tutelage of Cortot and Rachmaninov, apparently burnt out before adulthood.

"A first marriage and highlights such as playing for (and duets with) Harry Truman followed. Touring with Arthur Fiedler and Boston Pops in the mid-50s taught Slenczynska how to work an audience and to draw strength from their attention, but she readily understood the imperatives of the microphone. The year before her Wigmore Hall date she began recording for the American Brunswick division of Decca at the label's New York studios, and once their sales were boosted by the publication of her painfully honest autobiography in 1957, her albums won acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. She has continued to perform and to teach well into her 90s, but this box is the first comprehensive tribute to her artistry.

"Born in California to Polish parents, Slenczynska was a Chopin pianist by nature and nurture, with a temperament and background that tended towards the extremes of the Romantic style, abounding in rubato and timbral nuance. The facility and security of her technique were shown to best advantage by the Études (1956), then the Scherzos (1957), followed by a selection of waltzes (1959), the Ballades and Polish songs arranged by Liszt (1960) and the Préludes (1962). A Liszt album from 1958 tests her bullet-proof technique with the exigent demands of the Rhapsodie espagnole, Feux follets and the most gravity-defying versions of the Grandes Études de Paganini. A mixed recital from 1957 marks the silver jubilee of her debut at New York City Hall. The Brunswick discogrpahy [sic] is rounded off with a disc of encores (1959) and a pair of concertos, Saint-Saëns' Second (1959) and Liszt's First (1963).

"By the time of these recordings, Slenczynska had thrown off the prodigy tag and her musicianship had matured accordingly from machine-tooled virtuosity to lyrical fantasy. The pianism presented here is extraordinary, and shows no trace of a performer who had learned her craft through the harshest discipline and punishment. The first release of these albums on CD is celebrated in style by Eloquence with an 'original covers' box and a booklet full of hitherto unpublished photographs and memorabilia as well as a new survey of Slenczynska's life and studio career by Stephen Siek."

lots of sound clips https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8860552--ruth-slenczynska-complete-american-decca-recordings

Check out this Wiki quote: "When she was four, she began her piano studies in Europe, later studying with Artur Schnabel, Egon Petri, Alfred Cortot, Josef Hofmann, and Sergei Rachmaninoff." wow that's a lineup of teachers 

EDITING to add a quote of the one and only previous GMG post to mention this pianist or her work:

Wow!  That's quite a story and life!

PD

[Mirror Image]

I'm sure this has already been posted, but coming out this Friday in the US:



I love this work, but I certainly don't need another recording of Gurre-Lieder, but it's rather encouraging to see Thielemann step outside of his comfort zone for change even if it is at its core a Late-Romantic piece. He should do a whole series on Schoenberg, but I doubt that will happen.

[Mandryka]

http://covielloclassics.de/en/Katalog/cov-91924-riot-ensemble-song-offerings/

[relm1]

I'm sure this has already been posted, but coming out this Friday in the US:



I love this work, but I certainly don't need another recording of Gurre-Lieder, but it's rather encouraging to see Thielemann step outside of his comfort zone for change even if it is at its core a Late-Romantic piece. He should do a whole series on Schoenberg, but I doubt that will happen.

I have this one from him and it's very fine.https://www.amazon.com/Schoenberg-Pelleas-Melisande-Wagner-Siegfried-Idyll/dp/B00004YZ34

[Mirror Image]

I have this one from him and it's very fine.https://www.amazon.com/Schoenberg-Pelleas-Melisande-Wagner-Siegfried-Idyll/dp/B00004YZ34

Ah yes, I also have that recording. I need to see if I can locate it.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Ah yes, I also have that recording. I need to see if I can locate it.

Uh, oh!  Too many piles/boxes? 

Just teasing you; my system leaves a lot to be desired. 

[Mirror Image]

Uh, oh!  Too many piles/boxes? 

Just teasing you; my system leaves a lot to be desired. 

Absolutely, but thankfully I've gotten a grip on it that I pretty much can locate what I'm looking for pretty easily.

[Brian]

I come bearing more news for JANUARY



Haydn 15, 35, 45, "Scena di Berenice"



The Liszt orchestral album includes a rare version of the Rhapsodie espagnol arranged by Busoni. Filipec (a good old-fashioned barn-storming virtuoso) supplies his own cadenzas in the Hungarian Fantasy.



Real arpeggione and 1827 Conrad graf fortepiano!





Only 48 minutes...plenty of room for another regard or two...







It appears only two of the tracks actually have words/texts. Get ready for some oohs and aahs?!

[Pretorious]

New on Brilliant Classics this month. This was an unexpected surprise. I've been waiting for a period instrument group to record these quartets and finally my patience has paid off.

[Florestan]

That cover art has been used before. 

[Mandryka]

[Madiel]

That cover art has been used before. 

Shrug. That's what happens to paintings with appropriate themes. Chagall painted violinists quite a bit.

[Mandryka]

[Mandryka]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vermeer-Bologna-Werke-aus-Collezione-Tagliav/dp/B00T724RXS/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Frescobaldi+cd&qid=1607085336&sr=8-1

[Mandryka]

[Mandryka]