What are you listening to now?

[Mirror Image]

Online streaming of Rattle's recording of Szymanowski's King Roger.

Whoa. Okay, early days yet, but... is this the perfect opera for CD? I've just read stuff suggesting that it can be problematic on stage, lacking action, but with thoroughly beautiful music. Sounds like a winner for sitting and listening to the music at home.

Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, for me, is the greatest opera ever written and is absolutely perfect for a recording as there's hardly any action whatsoever. Szymanowski's King Roger is certainly up there in terms of containing exquisite music, but, as North Star (Karlo) suggested, you may want to check out the Kaspszyk recording on Accord. Absolute smoldering performance.

[Florestan]

Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, for me, is the greatest opera ever written [...] there's hardly any action whatsoever.

But isn´t opera as a genre exactly about action? 

[Mirror Image]

But isn´t opera as a genre exactly about action? 

As Bartok and Szymanowski prove, not necessarily.

TD -



Listening to The Music Makers. Glorious performance.

[kishnevi]

I have not seen this box acquired by anyone on GMG. Still it's really worth getting.

http://walboi.blogspot.nl/2015/11/rodrigo-joaquin-1901-1999-orchestral.html?spref=tw

I keep looking at it, but the price is startingly high here in the States: roughly USD 80. Almost as much as I paid for the SEON and BAT boxes each.

[Sadko]

But isn´t opera as a genre exactly about action? 

Not necessarily an outer one, IMO. Singing of horses mostly is nicer than horses on stage :-)

[kishnevi]

Not necessarily an outer one, IMO. Singing of horses mostly is nicer than horses on stage :-)

And remember that in Greek tragedy, the action occurs offstage, and then reported onstage.  The onstage action is really the interactions of the characters and their reactions to what happens offstage.

[Harry]

I keep looking at it, but the price is startingly high here in the States: roughly USD 80. Almost as much as I paid for the SEON and BAT boxes each.

Wow, to remember that this box when I bought it was just 20 euros,, and I threw away all the vocal discs.

[Que]

Q

[Sadko]

Not necessarily an outer one, IMO. Singing of horses mostly is nicer than horses on stage :-)

... For example one of the most thrilling mise-en-scènes of operas to me was a "Rape of Lucretia" (Britten) as a psychological group session of different everyday people, sitting in Bauhaus chairs in a white room. Sounds a bit cheesy maybe, but it was SO GREAT! So intense.

(And it was in a small hall, so the audience sat quite close to the stage, which was adding to the effect.)

[Rinaldo]

My new baroque crush, Henrico Albicastro!

12 Concerti a Quatro Op.7

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

[Florestan]

CD 1 Piano Quintets by Ferdinand Ries and Franz Limmer.

Unknown yet delightful, well crafted music with the unmistakably Early Romantic feeling which is so proper to the fortepianos --- and there are some really nice ones used in this recording.

The Caspar David Friedrich cover adds to the charms of this box, one of the best Brilliant releases ever.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

In need of a bit of cheering up on this grey afternoon, I've opted for a welcome injection of Italian sunshine, with Callas in top, sparkling, effervescent form. Almost impossible to believe that this scintillatingly breezy singer is the same one who plumbed the depths of Verdi's Forza Leonora in the studio only a couple of weeks before, but the chameleon-voiced Callas achieves the impossible yet again.

You must be feeling great right about now being inundated with all of that minxy, sassy sunshine and light. . . .

I'm just floored and flabbergasted by Callas: like you said, Forza one day, Turco on another.  A more powerful instinct to create flesh and blood living drama I've never come across anywhere.

Dame Judi Dench said it best, I believe, when she said, "She was, in my eyes, completely supreme."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFtBDyLFXzY

[Que]

CD 1 Piano Quintets by Ferdinand Ries and Franz Limmer.

Unknown yet delightful, well crafted music with the unmistakably Early Romantic feeling which is so proper to the fortepianos --- and there are some really nice ones used in this recording.

The Caspar David Friedrich cover adds to the charms of this box, one of the best Brilliant releases ever.

Love that set.

I think the use of period instruments makes the lesser known quintets more interesting and counters the effect of them coming across as "bland".

Q

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to Petrushka. Still one of the best performances of this ballet around.

[Florestan]

I think the use of period instruments makes the lesser known quintets more interesting and counters the effect of them coming across as "bland".

Perhaps. Anyway, there is nothing bland about these works, they burst with life, passion and feelings --- and the Ries´final movement is humorously quirky.

[Todd]

Symphonies 5 & 6.  Best overall disc of the cycle so far.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Another great disc from the Schwarzkopf box. The 1968 sound is superb, with Szell bringing out marvelous detail in the orchestrations. Both singly and in duet, Schwarzkopf and Fischer-Dieskau respond superbly to the texts. Highly recommended, as is the whole set.

You're ahead of me in the box set. I can't wait for this!

[aligreto]

Am I one of the few that thinks that most of Vivaldi's best Music is the vocal kind?

I think that his Sacred music is very under-rated; I personally prefer it to his secular vocal music.

[aligreto]

I just listened to the first track on this CD in order to get a flavour of it. Toccata per cembalo d'ottava stesa. Napoli 1723 is all of 19:28 minutes long, far longer than anything else on the disc, but it never sagged. Most enjoyable and I look forward to further listeng from this CD.

[Tsaraslondon]

You must be feeling great right about now being inundated with all of that minxy, sassy sunshine and light. . . .

I'm just floored and flabbergasted by Callas: like you said, Forza one day, Turco on another.  A more powerful instinct to create flesh and blood living drama I've never come across anywhere.

Dame Judi Dench said it best, I believe, when she said, "She was, in my eyes, completely supreme."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFtBDyLFXzY

And for Meryl Streep, she was in tune with something divine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dX2Ufms04M