What are you listening to now?

[Harry]

the BBConsort for some reason has got under my skin today, it's something to do with a sort of frankness and simplicity and a rapt quality and a quietness which I hear, and also that it sounds like there are very few singers,. And I'm playing the Graindelavoix Missa Caput now and I'm afraid to say that . . . . I like it very much.

One thing I'll say about me and sacred early music is this -- I want performances which don't sound like they're performing, entertaining. I want it to sound like they're praying quietly.

Owls, not nightingales.

Told ya so....

[aligreto]

Howells: Sacred music [Rutter]






Magnificat [from the Gloucester Service]
Like as the hart
The fear of the Lord
Long, long ago
All my hope on God is founded

[Mandryka]

But can't nightingales pray as well?

No, as Owl says to Nightingale

you entice those people who are willing to listen to your songs to the joys of the flesh; you're hopeless on the bliss of heaven, since you don't have the voice for it. Everything you sing is about lechery, as there is no holiness in you; nobody's reminded by your chirping of a priest singing in church.

  There was a similar effect on Beauty Farm's recording of Baudelwyn.  Have you heard that one?

No, I haven't.

[JBS]

I followed Ken's link for Schmelzer and Co.   Did not care for the Missa Caput.  That the Youtube algorithm suggested that a video of Inuit throat singing sisters was comparable may be taken as an image of why.   But now listening to their performance of that Ockeghem Deploration, which works much better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9tcg1VfKPs

Gave that Kyrie another listen.  The Inuit throat singing bothers me less, but I'm not sure it's a recording I would want to spend money on...

[Malx]

Not so familiar with this one but will investigate.
What do you think of no 9?🎼🎼

Judith, the ninth is a very fine work, one of Bruckner's finest.
I only know the traditional three movement version, never having felt the need to listen to the BPO Rattle recording that features the completion of the finale.

A recording I enjoy (one of many) is the live 1990 recording from the BPO conducted by Barenboim.
Barenboim's conducting hero was Furtwangler so there is a connection with the previous disc I posted - I am listening to it now as I type.

[Kontrapunctus]

I received this set yesterday and started with Op.101 and 109. Wonderful playing and sound.

[listener]

Jacques VALMOND: Concerto for violin, strings and harpsichord op. 5
Alfred FELDER: Ballade for cello, harpsichord and strings
Jacques Valmond, cond. & violin, Alfred Felder, cello,  Erica Valmond, harpsichord
Orchestre de Chambre Estro-Armonico Lucerne

VALERIUS: Dankgebet    DOPPER: Ciaconna Gotica ROENTGEN: 2 Holländer Tänze
Rudolf MENGELBERG: Salve Regoina WAGENAAR: Cyrano de Bergerac – Overture
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam     Willem Mengelberg cond.
The Dopper Ciaconna timing is 19:23. it may have some cuts, I've read

[GioCar]

Walther: Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, versus I to IX

[André]

Symphony no 3.

[GioCar]

Bach: Prelude and Fugue in E, BWV 566



At about 20 years old, he should have been very happy when he composed that piece.

[Kontrapunctus]

[aligreto]

The Leiden Choirbooks, Vol. II CDs 1 & 2





I have now worked my way through the second volume. Although I am familiar with [to a small extent] and have some of his music in my collection already I was quite taken with the music of Clemens Non Papa in this volume.

[Todd]

Honeck v Honeck.  OK, not really, given that the discs are of rather different works, but I wanted to get a sense of their respective styles in a short time frame. 

Honeck the Lesser leads pals from the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics in somewhat leisurely, comfortable, lovely playing of unchallenging works.  Sound and playing are first rate, and my big takeaway is that I would have rather heard a complete Haffner Serenade than the collection of short pieces on offer.

Honeck the Greater delivers a superior disc overall.  The Eroica is superb, though it doesn't displace established favorites of differing approaches (eg, Toscanini, Klemperer, Giulini, Chailly).  The opening movement falls just shy of possessing the scale and punch I prefer, but the Funeral March is fantastically great.  Honeck makes it the definitive center of gravity of the work, and while his band always does great work, the horns do especially noteworthy work.  The work ends with a great set of variations.  It joins Chailly among favored current century recordings for me.  The disc also has Strauss' First Horn Concerto, which, for people who really like the work, is quite well done.  I doubt I listen to it again.

[Daverz]

Holst: The Planets

[asin] B0000589T6[/asin]

Much better than I remember.  Perhaps I was influenced by some negative comments about Stokie.  The 1956 stereo sound is good, if lacking a bit in definition. 

Dutilleux: Symphony No. 1

[asin] B00IXWIGDK[/asin]

Fantastic performance and recording.

And then the Cello Concerto, with cellist Xavier Philips on the disc above, and then with Truls Mørk:

[asin] B00P1J6BRG[/asin]

I have to give Mørk and Chung the edge for intensity.

[André]

2 versions of Ernest Bloch's America, An Epic Rhapsody for Orchestra.




Composed as an entry for a musical concours sponsored by Musical America in 1927 on the theme « best symphonic work on an american theme by an american composer », Bloch's offering was the winning work among the 92 that were anonymously submitted. Bloch had emigrated to the States a mere 10 years earlier, and the irony of the situation was not lost on the critic from the New York Herald Tribune. To say that the critic was pissed big time would not be an exaggeration.

America is a musical time travelogue, going from the 1400s to the present (1927). Throughout the score Bloch placed written superscriptions - 59 in all - to serve as musical markers. The Delos booklet includes them, with their exact location as per the track timings, which is really helpful to follow the « story ». Both versions do the work justice. Stokowski does it in 50 minutes, Schwarz in 39. Timings point to some of the obvious differences: more time spent on the pastoral, folk or soulful episodes with Stokowski, as well as a more expansive view of the grandiose moments (fortunately they are not bombastic). Schwarz is a tighter, more bracing and jolly raconteur. Both recordings are technically excellent, the 1960 Vanguard almost as good as the 1993 Delos. The « Symphony of the Air » is really Toscanini's NBC Symphony. It was disbanded after the maestro's death and some players left for other orchestras, but the core of its players reassembled and reorganized under the new name.

To conclude the disc, the Vanguard producers have unearthed a short speech by Bloch who tells in heavily accented but fluent and animated English the genesis of the work. The Delos offers the beautiful Concerto grosso no 1 for strings and piano. I'm glad I have both discs.

[Todd]

The Schoenberg.  Not Mehta good, but very good indeed.  Ashkenazy obviously gets into it. 

[TheGSMoeller]

Haydn's Seven Last Words for string quartet and mezzo soprano

[Mandryka]

Clément Geoffroy plays Reincken, which I'm enjoying more than any other Reincken on harpsichord I can remember. Lovely instrument, Ruckers style, well recorded, and that helps. Played expressively, which I suspect is the only thing you should do with this sort of music.

[Madiel]

Sibelius, Two Rondinos op.68



I know I'm being a broken record as I work through the set, but Mertanen consistently does great things with these pieces. He gives them purpose and character.

I'd say the same thing about Bebbington in the Bridge discs I bought at the same time.  Both pianists are genuinely committed to what are generally miniature pieces, a few minutes in length. Very happy with these particular purchases.

[Que]

Morning listening:

[asin]B009VPETE8[/asin]
Seems still/again available....

Early Music lovers shouldn't hesitate - this is Cut Circle's best album so far.

Q