What are you listening to now?

[Moonfish]

Night music!

Arias [Verdi/Puccini]       Price
Heavenly! Price really had a beautiful voice in her prime!




Beethoven: Symphonies Nos 1 and 3           NYP/Bernstein
Thinking about a Bernstein journey. Besides I had forgotten how much I enjoy Beethoven's symphonies - even the first!




The Baroque Lute [Kellner/Bach/Conradi/Weiss]        Dombois
Seon journey. Not very familiar with Dombois, but this recording was very good. The sound was excellent and the lute was very immediate and present.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Symphony No. 3 and then off to bed.

[Mirror Image]

Maybe some time for one final listen for the night:



Listening to the Clarinet Concerto. Wonderful work of course.

[Florestan]

From what I remember, Paganini actually wrote a good deal for guitar, more than what is included in that set.

Yes. The box doesn't include solo guitar and violin & guitar works, they were released separately.

[Florestan]

No.2 was an absolute blast !!

Not to Lennie, apparently. He fell asleep. 

[Que]

This:

[asin]B00N3E6L44[/asin]

Looks great to me.

Q

[Wanderer]

.[asin]B00000300S[/asin][asin]B00A228Y6I[/asin][asin]B0000027IM[/asin]

[Harry]

Music to cheer up the early morning....


http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2014/09/new-acquisition-first-listen-disc-8.html?spref=tw

[Florestan]

Perfect music for starting the morning.



Hi, all!

[Henk]

Yeah, because they're free with the purchase of the physical disc, who wouldn't like that?

Well, I think you pay for it as well. Do you listen to those mp3s when you have them? Do you have a mp3player that you listen mp3s on?

[Wakefield]

Perfect music for starting the morning.



Hi, all!

Hi, Andrei! It looks enticing.

5 a.m. here. Dawn is just an hour and half more, so probably I should say goodnight yet.

I'm listening to:

[asin]B0002W384G[/asin]

Excellent disk, indeed.

[Florestan]

Hi, Andrei! It looks enticing.

¡Hola, amigo!

That's a treasure island disc, actually.

Despite what one might be inclined to believe judging by the title and the structure of the works (two-movement) this is not at all light music. The first movements are always meditative, even ruminative sometimes (the Andantino of no. 3 and the Adagio of no. 4, for instance) while the menuets are anything but dances; I mean they dance, but on thin ice, and it's more like a dance of emotions and thoughts rather than of feet. Add to this that Boccherini is one of those few composers who can effortlessly and miraculously make a major key sound like a minor one (the only other one I can think of is Schubert) and that in refinement and stylishness he is second to none. Biondi and his team play with their usual warmth and engagement. I'm tellin'ya, my friend, it's a disc to treasure.

Sample here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZrBS7qd_Lo

Thread duty

Continuing my journey through this fascinating set



No. 4 in D major

Paganini rocks! 

[amw]

Spotify also takes up less space.  I have something over 3000 CDs and 1000 or so books (been several years since I attempted to count them), and they take up more room than my clothes and furniture.

I've generally gone the download/rip-and-sell route, which has the disadvantage of eating up increasing amounts of hard drive space in an era when hard drives are becoming progressively smaller. Currently all of my collection resides on a 2TB external drive which is nearing capacity, and I'll need to get another one soon (well, realistically, I should be getting another three, so that I can have it backed up somewhere). The advantage is you have more actual space. Having just had to move 30 boxes of books from storage to a new place, I am very glad my CD collection fits in a single plastic tub.

I also now pay $20 a month for Qobuz Classique which has helped reduce the rate at which my hard drives are being devoured (though probably not as much as it should be... perhaps I'd have more space if they managed to snag the streaming rights for Hyperion, MDG, ECM New Series and Channel Classics. Word has it they're negotiating with Hyperion at least).

NLT Brahms Piano Quintet - Staier/Leipzig

[listener]

a Vox Box of DVOŘÁK Chamber Music
String Quintets opp. 1 and 97   Piano Trios opp. 26 & 65
2 Waltzes, op. 54 and  String Sextet op. 48
Austrian String Quartet with guests,  the Dumka Trio

[EigenUser]

Spotify also takes up less space.  I have something over 3000 CDs and 1000 or so books (been several years since I attempted to count them), and they take up more room than my clothes and furniture.

You should start building furniture out of CDs and books!

Thread duty:
from the Warner Ligeti box
[asin]B00006F1P9[/asin]
Another listen to the Violin Concerto, and I'm now inclined to say this recording is equal to the one in the DG box.   But I wonder if perhaps this and the Cello Concerto are misnamed in a way, since they are more works which feature a prominent instrumental soloist from time to time than anything in the way of even a semi-traditional concerto.
And speaking of the Cello Concerto,  this box does it a slight disservice in the way it is placed.  I listened to it twice, and both times was caught unawares; the juxtaposition of the pieces on this CD makes it seem as if the concerto transforms into Clocks and Clouds;  suddenly there is no cello, but there are women's voices starting to sing.

I'd agree with the CC being somewhat misnamed in that sense, but the VC has a very prominent soloist throughout. And that's funny about the juxtaposition of the two pieces. I've been listening to a lot of Webern and there is one album that has his Concerto for 9 Instruments just before an arrangement of Schubert German dances that Webern did. The first time I heard it I didn't know that the concerto had ended. Suddenly, normal music started playing and I was shocked!

Oh my god, though. Clocks and Clouds... It is still one of the most beautiful pieces I've ever heard in my life. I need to hear it again soon. Maybe this evening. How does he do it?!

[Florestan]

No. 5 in C major
No. 6 in D minor (this one has a false finale which would have made Haydn smile)

Boy, does it get better and better from one quartet to the next! I'm not even halfway through (they are 15 in all) and I wonder what other marvels of musicality Paganini has in stock.

[Madiel]

in an era when hard drives are becoming progressively smaller

First I've ever heard of such an era.

THREAD DUTY: Bach, BWV 93 - Wer nur den lieben Gott laesst walten

[asin]B0001DMWM0[/asin]

The opening chorus... It takes skill to elaborate on a tune in multi-part vocal harmony amongst a whole lot of instrumental counterpoint. But to do the elaboration first and then the basic tune takes a very special kind of musical genius.

[amw]

First I've ever heard of such an era.

The switch to SSDs/flash storage seems to have gone in hand with a reduction in storage capacity, particularly in notebooks. (e.g. the latest MacBook seems to give you ~128GB for the same price ~1TB cost a couple of years ago) Perhaps that's illusory however.

[Florestan]

It's a Paganini feast!



Balleto Campestre - Variations on a comic theme for violin and orchestra

If this doesn't put a smile on your face, or even make you burst in laughing, I don't know what else could do the trick.

[Lisztianwagner]

I've never heard the Crespin / Ansermet recording included in that set, but Shéhérazade is one of the most seductive and atmopsheric compositions I know...."Je voudrais m'en aller avec la goëlette / Qui se berce ce soir dans le port / Mystérieuse et solitaire / Et qui déploie enfin ses voiles violettes..." Beautiful!  Hope you're enjoying it, Ilaria!

Regards,

I enjoyed it very much, thank you! I completely agree, Raphael, Shéhérazade is certainly a very suggestive, poetical work, with a fairy exotic atmosphere; Ravel's ability of orchestration is impressive and it always leaves me speechless, the feelings, the images he could evoke with music are incredible. The Crespin/Ansermet is the only recording I know, but it's wonderful.

+1
A beautiful work indeed, Rafael. Crespin & Ansermet handle it superbly. If you don't have too much of the contents of the box already, it's definitely worth getting.

+2