What are you listening to now?

[Mandryka]

So, I've been so impressed by listening to the late Bach chorales by MCA in her second Bach set that I decided to revisit recordings from the same period. In this set there's some Lebègue and some Marchand. And yes, in both she shows the same capacity for bringing the music to life by her touch and her phrasing. Having said that, neither Lebègue or Marchand are as good as Bach at writing music, so all things have to be kept in perspective.

I also listened to a very late recording of the Grigny mass, at Poitiers, and I enjoyed the lyricism and peacefulness of the music making. I enjoyed this much more than her third recording of Bach, from the same time frame.  In truth I don't like the Bach much really - too much colour and not enough "inner life."  I've  ordered her final recording of the Grigny hymns on the strength of the mass.

I'm starting to get irritated by the French need to format everything with standards, rubrics - you hear it in everything Louis XIV, whether it be Marchand or Racine. That's why France has never had a Bach or a Shakespeare. The greatest poetry needs more freedom than the French seem comfortable with, great composers  don't need the shackle of tierce en taille/duo/récit  any more than great poets need alexandrins. I think there are traces still of this way of thinking left in modern France.

This past fortnight I've been going back in time in Bach keyboard music  - Leonhardt's AoF and Alain's second Leipzig Chorales and CU3, it's been a good thing to do.

[Sergeant Rock]

Desert island Satie for me.

For me too. Funny story: I bought a copy of this CD for my ex because I thought she would enjoy it...but she didn't. That reminded me of the reason I divorced her 

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Satie Sucky Sarabandes realized by Jean-Yves Thibaudet



Sarge

(* chortle *)

[Karl Henning]

For me too. Funny story: I bought a copy of this CD for my ex because I thought she would enjoy it...but she didn't. That reminded me of the reason I divorced her 

Sarge

(* chortle II: This Time, It's Personal *)

[Karl Henning]

Thread duty:

Shostakovich
Prelude & Fugue, Nos. 1-5
Melnikov



Such lyricism, beauty, but with dark contours...this is exquisite. Melnikov, as always, is superb.

Some days, that is my favorite account of the Op.87.

[aligreto]

JC Bach: Symphonie concertante with Two Violins and Cello [Halstead]

[aligreto]

Looks interesting!

Yes, it is a good one.

[Sergeant Rock]

(* chortle II: This Time, It's Personal *)

Sarge

[Traverso]

Sibelius


Symphony No.5 & 7

[Spineur]

Satie's music on the piano can be pretty extatic.  On the guitar, your soul will reach places you did not know existed

[asin]B06X9G2YP4[/asin]

Try it ! you will not regret it.

[North Star]

Satie's music on the piano can be pretty extatic.  On the guitar, your soul will reach places you did not know existed

Try it ! you will not regret it.

Satie does indeed work very well on the guitar, I have the Pierre Laniau recordings mentioned long ago by Luke (too busy to participate here these days) in the Satie thread.

[aligreto]

Sibelius


Symphony No.5 & 7

Good stuff: I am a fan of Ashkenazy's Sibelius 

[Traverso]

Good stuff: I am a fan of Ashkenazy's Sibelius 

It is very beautiful and I am a fan of Ashkenazy .

[Mahlerian]

https://www.youtube.com/v/qwitQr4C_cc

[Spineur]

Heroines of Love and Loss.  You do not need to be many to produce great music.  Here 3 is enough

[asin]B01MS68FOO[/asin]

Gramophone (05/2017) Editor's Choice, Diapason d'or, four stars Classica (07/2017) and BBC Music Magazine (06/2017)

[ritter]

Yesterday, CD 3 (Sonata in C KV 330, in A KV 331, in F KV 332, and in B flat KV 330, and the Fantasia in C minor KV 475) of this recent purchase:

[asin]B000S6DPI0[/asin]

Vlado Perlemuter's Mozart playing is exceptional, striking what I perceive as a perfect balance of gentleness, clarity, architectural rigour and beauty of tone.

Wunderbar!

[SymphonicAddict]

This version is significantly different to that one we are accustomed. I much prefer the slow movement from this version, it's really awesome and there is more energy.

[HIPster]

Recommended by Mandryka~

[asin]B000005VWL[/asin]

Recommended by Toccata & Fuge ~

[asin]B01LZAT0GF[/asin]

When I visited the Benedictine Abbey of Kremsmunster in upper Austria some years ago to look at the lutes stored in the abbey archives, I could not guess that this visit would radically change my life as a lutenist. I learnt that the writer of tablatures I discovered was a member of the abbey named Pater Ferdinando (Fischer). It soon turned out that much of the music set down by this scribe was not to be found in the numberless lute manuscripts from this period scattered around the world. These were unique manuscripts. Moreover they contained quite extraordinary works of striking compositional quality: new lute music in the form of cyclical poems of a lute enthusiast - a padre - at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. In one of the quietest recording studios in all of Europe - the Galaxy studios in Mol, Belgium - we finally brought the long since faded lute-poems of Pater Ferdinando back to life. Through the wonderfully delicate sound of my lute, Bert's immeasurable sensitivity and the most advanced recording tchnology that I have ever had the privilege of using, the lutenist-pater began speaking to us once more. - Hubert Hoffmann

[San Antone]

Inspired by HIPster -

[André]

Superb music from this polish composer (1895-1954). Symphony no 2 is dated from 1923, symphony no 3 is from 1943. Rathaus was branded a « degenerate' by the nazis. A great honor, IMO.