What are you listening to now?

Started by Dungeon Master, February 15, 2013, 09:13:11 PM

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Que

#127980
Another recent arrival:

[asin]B01HP62BI0[/asin]
I have a soft spot for Neapolitan Baroque composer Leonardo Leo.
Sofar, this recording doesn't dissapoint my elevated expectations!  :)

http://www.musica-dei-donum.org/cd_reviews/dhm_88875057442.html
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Nov/Leo_sacred_88875057442.htm

Q

Quote from: "Harry" on January 12, 2019, 04:09:09 AM
When this set was released many many years ago, I bought it right away, and is still a treasure in my collection.

Quote from: Traverso on January 12, 2019, 05:17:35 AM
I'm glad you like it,enjoy. :)

Good to hear, and thank you both!  :)

Cato

Quote from: vandermolen on January 12, 2019, 04:48:18 AM
Looks like a great set - but of course I already own the great Boulez box of Mahler symphonies.
;D

I bought every Kubelik/Mahler record from DGG whenever one was released!  I have all the Boulez/Mahler as well!  Both are equally wonderful! 

In the Sixth, I would probably give the nod -however slight - to Kubelik....but it is difficult to say!

Concerning Tournemire, YouTube offers all of them:

https://www.youtube.com/v/yfZyZlmd238
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

Todd




Holy crap.  As if being able to choose from a piano trio or clarinet trio version for the Gassenhauer wasn't enough, along comes a trio of young hot shots rotating in a viola.  Obviously, Mr Mönkemeyer plays as well as humanly possible, and his two cohorts are fully up to snuff.  I've never heard the piece bettered by any ensemble, and the viola adds a different dimension and warmth to the music.  The pristine sound convinced me that I need to get some solo Maximilian Hornung stuff - to date, I've only heard his ensemble playing. 

The remainder of the disc is given over to transcriptions of works and movements from seven different composers, and some transcriptions were put together by the musicians themselves.  As with Mönkemeyer's other mixed rep discs, they are all most excellent, with the two Tchaikovsky pieces perhaps the best.  Also as with his Mozart disc, Mönkemeyer is content to sit out some pieces to let his partners shine.  This is how to do a mixed rep disc.  It's a corker.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Mirror Image

Quote from: vandermolen on January 11, 2019, 11:22:48 PM
I agree John that there is something very moving about Finzi's 'New Year Music' and much else besides. I got my daughter to get me the new Chandos recording of the Cello Concerto for Christmas and the CD also features the lovely Eclogue and the New Year Music.

Excellent. What did you think of that recording, Jeffrey?

Mirror Image

Quote from: vandermolen on January 12, 2019, 04:48:18 AM
Looks like a great set - but of course I already own the great Boulez box of Mahler symphonies.
;D

Yeah, it's pretty good, but my favorite is still Bernstein's on DG.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Cato on January 12, 2019, 04:08:07 AM
Just out of rehabilitation, Mirror Image almost immediately and tragically succumbs to GMG BAD* Syndrome!   ;)



* GMG Bank Account Depletion Syndrome   8)

Hah! :D 'Tis true, my friend. Sad, but true. :)

Mirror Image

Now playing La Damoiselle élue in an arrangement for voice, chorus, and piano from this set:


amw

Quote from: Todd on January 12, 2019, 05:41:32 AM



Holy crap.  As if being able to choose from a piano trio or clarinet trio version for the Gassenhauer wasn't enough, along comes a trio of young hot shots rotating in a viola.  Obviously, Mr Mönkemeyer plays as well as humanly possible, and his two cohorts are fully up to snuff.  I've never heard the piece bettered by any ensemble, and the viola adds a different dimension and warmth to the music.  The pristine sound convinced me that I need to get some solo Maximilian Hornung stuff - to date, I've only heard his ensemble playing. 

The remainder of the disc is given over to transcriptions of works and movements from seven different composers, and some transcriptions were put together by the musicians themselves.  As with Mönkemeyer's other mixed rep discs, they are all most excellent, with the two Tchaikovsky pieces perhaps the best.  Also as with his Mozart disc, Mönkemeyer is content to sit out some pieces to let his partners shine.  This is how to do a mixed rep disc.  It's a corker.

There's a bootleg of him in the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante accompanied by Marc Minkowski & the Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble, from Salzburg 2016. It's worth having.

Also I'm increasingly convinced the Sinfonia Concertante may be Mozart's greatest achievement, if only because all of the musical material is so neutral and characterless as to not even reach the level of stereotype, requiring Mozart to transcend his genius for writing beautiful melodies, memorable motifs and characterful passagework. Everything in it is built from scales, arpeggios, commonplace ornaments, and commonplace harmonic formulas, presented almost completely undisguised. I can't think of any other composer who a) would have dared to write something so simple and b) have the result end up being an absolute masterpiece. Maybe J.S. Bach, but not on a half-hour scale.

Mirror Image

Quote from: vandermolen on January 11, 2019, 11:29:40 PM
I love 'Quiet City' - one of my favourite short works by Copland.

Such a gorgeous piece.

Mirror Image

Now:

Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121


Mandryka



Just a note to que really, and anyone else who's interested in the new Pérès edition, something that crossed my mind just now while listening to this.  It's hard to make sense of why anyone who thinks what Pérès does is valuable wouldn't also find Schmelzer valuable too. My own view is that Graindelavoix are less tough and macho than Ensemble Organum, which I think is a jolly good thing.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Todd

Quote from: amw on January 12, 2019, 06:03:25 AM
There's a bootleg of him in the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante accompanied by Marc Minkowski & the Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble, from Salzburg 2016. It's worth having.


Noted, thanks.  I'm not sure I'm ready to say that the Sinfonia Concertante is Mozart's best ever work, but it's a cut above average for works of its type - and that average is when compared to works by composers of similar stature.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

amw

I'm also not prepared to call it his best work, but something more like his most impressive achievement from a compositional standpoint—i.e. success given a deliberate limiting of means. (He wrote similar and, in my view, "better" works later—the Prague and Jupiter Symphonies, the C major string quintet K515 etc—but in these works he also allowed himself things like harmonic originality and complexity, virtuoso contrapuntal displays, and sometimes even a melody or two.)

I'm not entirely sure if this makes sense as a metric & I guess is limited by my perspective of being a composer rather than a listener.

Todd

Quote from: amw on January 12, 2019, 06:35:55 AMI'm also not prepared to call it his best work, but something more like his most impressive achievement from a compositional standpoint—i.e. success given a deliberate limiting of means.


That distinction makes sense, and I can see where you're coming from.  I'm not sure I'm completely on board, but one can make a much stronger case for this assertion.  After all, Mozart did spin gold here.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Biffo

#127994
Holst: Egdon Heath, Op 47 Homage to Thomas Hardy- Richard Hickox conducting the London Symphony Orchestra - atmospheric performance

Traverso

Shakespeare's Musick

CD 1 

What could be more appropriate than this lovely song on this gloomy day.

   
It was a lover and his lass


Christo

#127996
Quote from: vandermolen on January 12, 2019, 04:46:41 AM
Do you know Boult's recording of Symphony 7?
Urged by Dundonnell, whose expertise in all matters regarding Rubbra and many more  ;D I highly value, I bought all the Lyrita recordings a couple of years ago. But didn't play them enough; am repenting of my sins now and concentrating on this wonderful Sixth & Eight first.  0:)
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

Mirror Image

Quote from: Biffo on January 12, 2019, 07:07:21 AM
Holst: Egdon Heath, Op 47 Homage to Thomas Hardy - Richard Hickox conducting the London Symphony Orchestra - atmospheric performance

Certainly one of the composers best works. In fact, I believe Holst said this was his favorite piece of music that he composed.

Kontrapunctus

This is a wonderful recital of works for 10-string guitar by contemporary Finnish composers. She plays two instruments--one is a "standard" 10 string guitar; the other is the one pictured on the cover--the extra bass strings do not have frets, which allows her to play quarter-tones. Only three pieces use that guitar, and only the Tiensuu makes extensive use of quarter tones. The other pieces are more accessible and quite impressionistic. She's an excellent player, too. I was surprised to find it wasn't an SACD since all of my other Alba discs are SACD, but it sounds very good.




Cato

Quote from: Toccata&Fugue on January 12, 2019, 07:52:08 AM

This is a wonderful recital of works for 10-string guitar by contemporary Finnish composers. She plays two instruments--one is a "standard" 10 string guitar; the other is the one pictured on the cover--the extra bass strings do not have frets, which allows her to play quarter-tones. Only three pieces use that guitar, and only the Tiensuu makes extensive use of quarter tones. The other pieces are more accessible and quite impressionistic. She's an excellent player, too. I was surprised to find it wasn't an SACD since all of my other Alba discs are SACD, but it sounds very good.


You have my attention!!!  :D  Guitar music is not my thing normally, but a 10-string guitar with quarter-tones!  I will look into this!
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)