Recordings That You Are Considering

[Mandryka]

Revisiting this recording was a great experience. Tamminga has done many recordings of Italian baroque music, but this is one of the most impressive. It contains different works by du Macque and a number of ricercari by Palestrina. Tamminga plays with well-measured passion, which IMO is precisely what this music needs. Never has du Macque sounded that inventive and spiritually uplifting, and the ricercari by Palestrina are a surprising and nice addition. The "Stravaganzi" are a bit smoothed out, but this is unavoidable in an organ rendering, even when the organ is tuned i mean tone as here. Highly recommended.

I will download it forthwith.

[amw]

Thanks everyone for the advice on Gardiner!

New query: the Well-Tempered Clavier on harpsichord.

Rousset/Aparté?
Asperen/Virgin?
Gilbert/Archiv?
Walcha/EMI?
Landowska/RCA?
Hantaï/Mirare?
Leonhardt/on LP, but I'll manage?

Asking about these specifically because they're the only ones in the library. I don't particularly want to buy one at this point.

[Mandryka]

Thanks everyone for the advice on Gardiner!

New query: the Well-Tempered Clavier on harpsichord.

Rousset/Aparté?
Asperen/Virgin?
Gilbert/Archiv?
Walcha/EMI?
Landowska/RCA?
Hantaï/Mirare?
Leonhardt/on LP, but I'll manage?

Asking about these specifically because they're the only ones in the library.  I don't particularly want to buy one at this point.

Asperen and Leonhardt - yes. Two contrasting approaches. Asperen is hallucinatory and fantastic, Leonhardt focused and abstract, univeral, spiritual, eternal. One problem is the quality of sound in Leonhardt's Book 2 - I can let you have a good transfer.

Rousset and Walcha are exceptional I would say, but I would prioritise Asperen and Leonhardt. Walcha's approach is old fashioned and the instrument he uses is strange. I've only listened a couple of times to BK 2 of the Rousset and I enjoyed the meat and potatoes approach, but I enjoy Asperen and Leonhatdt more.

I recall that Gilbert was oustanding - that was the recording which opened up WTC for me personally. But in truth it's a long time since I heard it so I'm a bit reluctant to comment. I'll try to listen again soon.

Hantai is only Book 1. I know someone who absolutely loves it and someone who absolutely hates it. So it has to be worth knowing, if it elicits such a range of strong responses, but I've never got round to hearing it.

I don't like Landowska's at all. She's very creative, but for me too many of her ideas don't work. And the instrument she uses is horrid. But again, some people adore it, but often the people who do haven't really listened to much else.

[Mandryka]

Guillermo Brachetta and Menno van Delft play Rameau and Gaspard le Roux

[Que]

Thanks everyone for the advice on Gardiner!

New query: the Well-Tempered Clavier on harpsichord.

Rousset/Aparté?
Asperen/Virgin?
Gilbert/Archiv?
Walcha/EMI?
Landowska/RCA?
Hantaï/Mirare?
Leonhardt/on LP, but I'll manage?

Asking about these specifically because they're the only ones in the library. I don't particularly want to buy one at this point.

Missing from this short list are:

Glen Wlison (Teldec/Warner) and Ottavio Dantone (Arts).

Rousset's recording of Book II is on my shopping list, sounds awesome.
From the others mentioned on the list I would be inclined towards Leonhardt and Van Asperen, though both needed to loosen up a bit....
(Van Asperen later in fact did. Leonhardt of course just was the way he was...).

Q

[Jo498]

These were just the recordings in some library, I understand. There are many more recordings of the WTC on harpsichord: Koopman, Scott Ross, Jaccottet, Dreyfus ...

[prémont]

Missing from this short list are:

Glen Wlison (Teldec/Warner) and Ottavio Dantone (Arts).

Rousset's recording of Book II is on my shopping list, sounds awesome.
From the others mentioned on the list I would be inclined towards Leonhardt and Van Asperen, though both needed to loosen up a bit....
(Van Asperen later in fact did. Leonhardt of course just was the way he was...).

Q

If we look at it in that way, a lot are missing (Moroney, Schornsheim, Verlet, Tilney, Chorzempa .. et.c.), but AMW only asked for comments upon those, he has got access to via the library.

[Que]

If we look at it in that way, a lot are missing (Moroney, Schornsheim, Verlet, Tilney, Chorzempa .. et.c.), but AMW only asked for comments upon those, he has got access to via the library.

Apologies, I overlooked that...  

But I guess I still provided an answer to the question.

Q

[amw]

Thanks anyway I'll start with Asperen and see how I go.

[kishnevi]

Anyone familiar enough with these two composers to venture an opinion on these two CDs, both released last month....

[Florestan]

I don´t have a complete cycle. I just love Melos/Rostropovich rendition of the String Quintet, so I assume I can´t go wrong with the above, but i´m open to alternative suggestions if anyone cares to make them  (cycles or individual discs). TIA, guys!

[Mirror Image]

Anyone familiar enough with these two composers to venture an opinion on these two CDs, both released last month....

Never heard of either of them.

[Jo498]

I don´t have a complete cycle. I just love Melos/Rostropovich rendition of the String Quintet, so I assume I can´t go wrong with the above, but i´m open to alternative suggestions if anyone cares to make them  (cycles or individual discs). TIA, guys!

I can't say very much as I only have the Melos/Rostro quintet (and am not quite sure how much I like it). amw who hosted the quintet blind listening apparently cares quite a bit for the early Schubert pieces and his favorite is the Leipzig cycle. This is hypercomplete with several fragments (and the quintet and string trios) and much cheaper in a box than it used to be as singles. I only have one disc of them which is very good but I am no sufficiently interested in the early pieces to get the whole thing. I do have the complete cycle (with some fragments but only 6 discs) with the Auryn on cpo which I also like a lot and would recommend without reservation.
And a few weeks ago I found the Taneyev (another amw fav) cheaply for download. But this is download only and the price varies (and I have not listened to it yet).

The Melos Q. is generally quite good, I think, and I still like their DG Beethoven a lot. (There is an earlier Beethoven cycle from about 1970 on diverse cheapo labels which is very weak.) But I have not heard anything from this earlier Schubert box; it used to be a standard rec but maybe faute de mieux because until the early 90s or so there was not much else available.

Apparently Melos is the cheapest option now (about EUR 25), but the Auryn is only slightly more at EUR 30 from jpc.de. The Leipzig with considerably more music (9 discs) is 43 EUR on amazon.de which might be worth it. I do not about your best ordering option from Romania which might be a factor as well.

[Florestan]

Thanks for the tips. I have one Auryn disc featuring Rosamunde and the G major and it is indeed excellent. Do not know the Leipzig. Anyway, since the Melos set was available on the spot in a brick-and-mortar store*, I went for it. 

* yes, there still are such dinosaurs in Romania.

[amw]

FWIW I'd put the Leipzig set in first place, and think even the more commonly recorded works (12/13/14/15 and Quintet in C) would be among the top recordings under any circumstances. e.g. their 'Rosamunde' is up there with the Chiaroscuro and maybe 1 or 2 others at most, 'Death and the Maiden' doesn't challenge the supremacy of Juilliard '60 but comes pretty close, D956 is in my top fives and way above Melos/Rostro. and so on. Auryn and Taneyev are tied for my second place, but the latter hasn't been released on CD, only MP3, and not all of the quartets have good sound quality (also their readings can be pretty extreme, if you're into that). I'm not a fan of the Melos or Verdi sets, what I've heard from them. Not sure there are too many others.

The early quartets are def enjoyable, but minor works—you probably don't need more than one integral.

[Brian]

Chailly/Leipzig have two recent Brahms Violin Concerto recordings: Kavakos and Repin. Has anybody heard both? Can anybody compare/contrast them? I'm listening to sample clips and honestly can't tell the difference, right down to the engineering balance.

[jlaurson]

Chailly/Leipzig have two recent Brahms Violin Concerto recordings: Kavakos and Repin. Has anybody heard both? Can anybody compare/contrast them? I'm listening to sample clips and honestly can't tell the difference, right down to the engineering balance.

Kavakos and Chailly are even broader... but don't sound broader. I like the recording better for the way Chailly (or the engineer) allows individual voices to come to the fore more identifiably. Oboe solo in Adagio also seems a little more seamless. Different Cadenzas, too... there I actually prefer Repin for being unusual.
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2014/11/dip-your-ears-no-183-brahms-from.html
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/08/brahms-violin-concertos.html

[Todd]

(Fantasies from Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann.)










Italian Decca has issued some interesting looking piano releases this year.  The Cabassi disc sure looks like one meant for a complete LvB cycle, though it may not be.  The Perrotta LvB is from 2013.  I'm interested in pretty much all of these.

[Brian]

I have and enjoy Maria Perrotta's LvB 109/110/111. Live recordings, I think, and very good.

That Albanese program sure sounds right up my alley.

I have Vanessa Benelli Mosell's Liszt recording on Brilliant Classics. My MusicWeb review began, "This is the hardest kind of CD to review, because I have no strong feelings about it one way or the other." One of my colleagues was much more favorable about both of her previous (non-Decca) recordings. She seems to lean towards virtuoso show-offy stuff.

[Karl Henning]

IOW a bunch of pretty people playing classical music.

God help us un-photogenic (and as yet unknown) musicians!