What are you listening to now?

[Que]

Another classical music fail - Haitinks Mahler cycle. I like the 3rd and 9th quite a bit but I wasn't so keen on the others. Time to give this box a second chance - now playing Symphony No. 2. Ehh? - it sounds quite good, nothing wrong with it  :

My favourites from this series are: the 2nd and 3rd, 7th and 9th!
For the 4th you'll need Hatink's 1srt recording with Elly Ameling, which is unfortunately not included.....

Q

[Green Destiny]

My favourites from this series are: the 2nd and 3rd, 7th and 9th!
For the 4th you'll need Hatink's 1srt recording with Elly Ameling, which is unfortunately not included.....

Q

Good stuff - I knew New Erato liked this cycle but I didn't know you were a fan as well Que. I should have guessed with you being Dutch and all. Im almost finished the 2nd now and really enjoying it quite a bit. I feel enthused to listen to the rest of the Cycle - maybe I will pair it up with Soltis cycle and listen to some Mahler for a bit.
I remember being disappointed by the 7th because Haitink chose quite a slow tempo for the first movement but I could be wrong about it or have changed my opinion, ill listen to it again and see what happens.
I didn't know Haitink made Mahler recordings before he recorded this cycle - I will have a look for the 4th you recommended.
Thanks for your reply

[Que]

Good stuff - I knew New Erato liked this cycle but I didn't know you were a fan as well Que. I should have guessed with you being Dutch and all.

Quite... I guess there are very few Ducth classical music listeners that are not life long fans of the Concertgebouworkest. . And in my younger years I listened to quite some Mahler, on record but also live - I have seen Haitink and the RCO in action. I collected the 1st issue of the series on CD (minus the mentioned 4th). They were very expensive for a teenager and I have fond memories, but am considering to replace them by he recent boxset with Haitink's Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler with the RCO...

I almost finished the 2nd now and really enjoying it quite a bit. I feel enthused to listen to the rest of the Cycle - maybe I will pair it up with Soltis cycle and listen to some Mahler for a bit.
I remember being disappointed by the 7th because Haitink chose quite a slow tempo for the first movement but I could be wrong about it or have changed my opinion, ill listen to it again and see what happens.
I didn't know Haitink made Mahler recordings before he recorded this cycle - I will have a look for the 4th you recommended.
Thanks for your reply

If memorie serves well, the 7th is indeed a bit slow. The big mistake I made is not to buy the limited edition of the live recordings Haitink made (known as the "Christmas Concerts"). I attended the performance of the 7th, it was epic...

Q

[Que]

Currently listening to quite something else: 

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Q

[Marc]

My favourites from this series are: the 2nd and 3rd, 7th and 9th!
For the 4th you'll need Hatink's 1srt recording with Elly Ameling, which is unfortunately not included.....

Are you sure?
I have this box, too, and the 4th is the Ameling version.
The Roberta Alexander version (recorded in 1983) is very good, too, btw, but Ameling is simply unbeatable.

In the integral boxset I think the lesser recordings are Nos. 1 and 8.
Haitink did another no. 1 in 1971, which is better IMO, more 'mature', and it includes the repeat of the exposition in movement 1.
No. 8 is quite shallow. Haitink did a much better job in his farewell concert in April 1988, which I think should have been included by Philips Universal in the live Christmas Matinee boxset, both on CD and DVD.

EDIT: the 7th in the boxset isn't slow at all. The slower 7th was recorded in 1982 IIRC. My favourite Haitink/Amsterdam 7th is the magnificent Christmas live performance, with a lucky Que in the Grote Zaal.

[Mandryka]

Sergio Vartolo plays some Gagliarda by Trabaci, from Book 2. He uses a nice harpsichord for all of them. I have three things to say about this, and a question:

1. Stop-start style, which is familiar from Vartolo's recording of Frescobaldi's Capricci and elsewhere. He's outstanding at judging the length of the silences - mark of a great musician that is. Musically, poetically, the style seems to work for the good, allowing the listener to absorb the ideas more easily than in a continuously flowing performance. So thumbs up there.

I have no idea whether this music was intended for dancing to. I don't know whether you can dance to them as Vartolo plays them. For some reason, Vartolo's style reminds me of madrigals more than dances.

2. What a difference between these Galliards and the ones in Bk 1! The Bk 1 ones are charming, but they wear out their welcome a bit. These are more interesting contrapuntally. They sound like great music to me.  Second thumbs up.

3. I briefly compared this with some others - includinb Cera's, which I didn't care for (boring by comparison with Vartolo, he uses a harpsichord.) and by an organist called Luca Scandali, on a Tactus Trabaci disc mostly with music arranged for small ensemble. I thought Scandali sounded pretty good - so something to explore there.

And now the question.

Q. These Gagliarda are labeled things like "Gagliarda seconda a 5"  What does the number mean?

[Que]

Are you sure?
I have this box, too, and the 4th is the Ameling version.
The Roberta Alexander version (recorded in 1983) is very good, too, btw, but Ameling is simply unbeatable.

My bad! I don't have the box set but the original series of individual issues, and assumed that they included the version that was part of that series - the one with Roberta Alexander. All the better that it is in fact the recording with Ameling, not only the singing is better...

Q

[aligreto]

JS Bach: Easter Oratorio....





....delightful to hear the timpani and brass again to celebrate the occarion.

[king ubu]

Not too much classical these days, but lots of Billie Holiday and related (tribute albums by Anita O'Day, Carmen McRae, Johnny Griffin, Webster Young ...) - but last night, had a first listen to this wonderful album, blurring lines between jazz, improv and classical (well, not quite ... "neue Musik" or however you wanna call it if you need to):

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Then, finished my first traverse through this:

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Been familiar for a while with Szeryng's Mozart concertos, but not with the sonatas - pretty wonderful (though I guess Grumiaux/Haskil, Szigeti/Horszowski and Goldberg/Lupu all rank somewhat higher, ultimately.

[Harry]

My bad! I don't have the box set but the original series of individual issues, and assumed that they included the version that was part of that series - the one with Roberta Alexander. All the better that it is in fact the recording with Ameling, not only the singing is better...

Q

I do like the Concertgebouw orkest being a Dutchman, and I like the 4th with Elly Ameling enormously, and no, not the performance of the Symphony, but Ameling's singing. I heartily dislike Haitink, no matter what he does, oops, correction, I have the shostakovich cycle, that I like, but the rest, NEEN dankjewel.

[aligreto]

JS Bach: Chorales for Easter[BWV 625-630] from Orgelbuchlein....

[andolink]

Canzonetta: 16th Century canzoni & instrumental dances
The King's Noyse/David Douglass

Emmanuel Nunes: Lichtung I & II
Ensemble Intercontemporain/Jonathan Nott

J.S. Bach: 'Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh allzeit', BWV 111; 'Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen', BWV 123
Yukari Nonoshita, soprano
Robin Blaze, counter-tenor
Andreas Weller, tenor
Peter Kooij, bass
Bach Collegium Japan/Masaaki Suzuki

[prémont]

These Gagliarda are labeled things like "Gagliarda seconda a 5"  What does the number mean?

It should normally indicate the number of parts (voices), but as I do not have the score, I can not confirm it.

[Sadko]

Ravel

Daphnis et Chloé

Berliner Philharmoniker
Boulez

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[aligreto]

JS Bach: Cantatas BWV 4 & 31 for Easter Sunday....

[Daverz]

Benny Goodman as soloist in the Weber concertos.

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[Mirror Image]

Benny Goodman as soloist in the Weber concertos.

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I can't wait to get my set in the mail. Looks like many here have been enjoying this box.

[NJ Joe]

[Todd]

Disc 7, all the Mephisto Waltzes, the Mephisto Polka, and some other waltzes and mazurkas.  Finally, Clidat sounds good in the Mephisto Waltzes, in an unabashedly fast, virtuosic, and artless kind of way.  The disc starts to drag a bit after the big works, and the unfortunate compressed sound remains intact, but at least I was able to derive some actual enjoyment from Clidat's playing.

[HIPster]

J.S. Bach
Taverner Consort/Parrott
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