What are you listening to now?

[ritter]

Buenas noches, Rafael! I'll try to get my hands on it without any damage to my wallet, if you know what I mean! Y si no, no! 

Aquí está, "gratis total"...

https://www.youtube.com/v/53tGixI4kAU

[Florestan]

Aquí está, "gratis total"...

https://www.youtube.com/v/53tGixI4kAU

Muchisimas gracias, caballero! Will listen attentively, and post my thoughts, asap.

[Turbot nouveaux]

Webern
Works for String Quartet
Langsamer Satz
5 Sätze op. 5
Streichquartett (1905)
6 Bagatellen op. 9
Rondo (1906)
Streichquartett op. 28
3 Stücke (1913)
Streichtrio op. 20
Satz für Streichtrio op.post.
Emerson String Quartet [DG, 1995]

A fine account - I usually find the Emersons a bit sterile, but their precision, attack and clarity are advantages in Webern. Possibly my current favourite, even over the Quartetto Italiano.

[TheGSMoeller]

Dvorak: Symphony No. 4
Witold Rowicki/LSO


[asin]B0000041CU[/asin]

[kishnevi]

Dvorak: Symphony No. 4
Witold Rowicki/LSO


[asin]B0000041CU[/asin]

Rowicki's cycle was budget boxed by Universal early on.  I think it holds up well, especially in the early symphonies.
[asin]B0033KR5Z2[/asin]

TD
[asin]B00QR3D7BS[/asin]
CD 8
Sonatas 24-27
Opp. 78-79-81A-90

Not necessarily best in show, but it appeals to me more than the last cycle I played, Melodie Zhao.

[TheGSMoeller]

Rowicki's cycle was budget boxed by Universal early on.  I think it holds up well, especially in the early symphonies.

So far it's definitely holding up, Jeffrey. It's interesting to compare the 4th from Kertesz and the same band from just a few years earlier.

Edit: Just finsihed the Scherzo, VERY well done. The sonics are great, incredible clarity, especially being able to hear the harps in several of the climaxes.

[Todd]

Revisited one of the great Brahms Seconds, and got hear the Kulenkampff/Mainardi Double Concerto for the first time.  Very nice, old-timey playing with some attractive portamento, though it's still not one of my favorite Brahms works.

[TheGSMoeller]

On to the next one....

Dvorak: Symphony No. 5, Op. 76
Witold Rowicki/LSO


[asin]B0000041CU[/asin]

[Sergeant Rock]

So far it's definitely holding up, Jeffrey. It's interesting to compare the 4th from Kertesz and the same band from just a few years earlier.

Edit: Just finsihed the Scherzo, VERY well done. The sonics are great, incredible clarity, especially being able to hear the harps in several of the climaxes.

Was just discussing, and rating the Fourth's Scherzo in the Unpopular opinion thread (Brian started it). Rowicki and the LSO performance is sensational.

Sarge

[TheGSMoeller]

Was just discussing, and rating the Fourth's Scherzo in the Unpopular opinion thread (Brian started it). Rowicki and the LSO performance is sensational.

Sarge

I saw Brian's unpopular opinion, which I believe is more popular than he might think  . I would like to throw the 6th's and 8th's scherzo in that conversation as well, in fact throw them all in there, Dvorak was damn good them.

[Mirror Image]

Thanks to a seller mistake, I'm currently listening to Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 70 No. 1 ("Ghost") from this free box set I received today:



I don't know much about Beethoven's PTs, but this is quite good.

[kishnevi]

Thanks to a seller mistake, I'm currently listening to Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 70 No. 1 ("Ghost") from this free box set I received today:



I don't know much about Beethoven's PTs, but this is quite good.

Quite good is an understatement.
TD
CD 2
[asin]B00080JDOG[/asin]
Wagner Siegfried Idyll
Wolf Italian Serenade
Schoenberg Transfigured Night
Sinfonia Varsovia
Yehudi Menuhin conducting
Recorded Feb. 1997

[Mirror Image]

Quite good is an understatement.

I had to turn this performance off. I was about to fall asleep. It's music that just doesn't quite hold my attention. I do like Beethoven a lot, but I'm just not feeling this music tonight.

[Todd]

Battling Benedictions.  Abduraimov is the more technically assured pianist, in better sound, with a better instrument.  But he can't touch Block.  The overall timings are close, but that masks differences in approach.  Block starts off slower, and resorts to much slower playing later in the work, but he also plays some music faster and plays ecstatically, as in a state of ecstasy, though of the truly spiritual sort transmuted to piano keys.  It may really be unfair to compare other pianists to Block here, because he just seems to be aiming for something different.  (Maybe Amoyel or Guy are more up to the challenge.) We can never know how Block might have played the complete Harmonies, but there's still a long time for Abduraimov to record a set.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to 12 Études. Sounds quite good thus far.

[Que]

Morning listening is the 2nd part of this set:

[asin]B01BLQJ44O[/asin]

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/dufay-les-messes-%C3%A0-teneur

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Jun/Dufay_masses_MEW1577.htm

http://www.classicalacarte.net/Production/Production_07_16/MEW157778_39_6_fanfare.htm

Q

[Que]

From Guillaume Dufay to Johann Sebastian Bach is a bit of a time warp, but I was curious about this recent arrival:

[asin]B00IX5P5Q8[/asin]
Q

PS I'm not sure I like this - it sounds like an epic failure in terms of recording (what a blurry mess....), and possibly a let down in performance as well....

[Harry]

From Guillaume Dufay to Johann Sebastian Bach is a bit of a time warp, but I was curious about this recent arrival:

[asin]B00IX5P5Q8[/asin]
Q

PS I'm not sure I like this - it sounds like an epic failure in terms of recording (what a blurry mess....), and possibly a let down in performance as well....

This is a Aeolus disc right?  No, I see it's a Ramee disc. Was Frommen by any chance the engineer?
And which organ?, A Treutmann, wow that is a good organ. Small print, did not see it first.

The review on Amazon said this about it.

Berben uses the fine 1737 organ by Christoph Treutmann in the monastery church of Grauhof in the Harz region, an instrument of rich and varied registrations. Unfortunately the sound and ambience are not captured at all well in this recording, sounding vague, muddy, greatly lacking in clarity and realism. At first I thought there was something wrong with my stereo system, or even with my ears. So I checked all these and found them to be in good order. Then I thought of the organ itself and the church acoustic; fortunately I have another recording of the same instrument – and indeed of the same work, the recording by Matteo Messori on the Brilliant Classics label. This latter sounds terrific – clearly nothing wrong with instrument or location. So I can only conclude that something was amiss with the sound engineering of Berben's recording, because the results are well below the best standards of today. This is not a problem in the quieter, more intimate pieces, but it certainly affects the more monumental works where the instrument is opened up at full blast, such as 'Kyrie Gott heiliger Geist' (BWV 671) and, above all, the aforementioned mighty Prelude and 'St. Anne' Fugue placed respectively, as is the usual practice, at the start and finish of the two-CD set.

[king ubu]

still not really touched by Argerich I'm afraid ... but just got this after reading about the 2013 Mozart concertos recorded in Lucerne with Abbado, and they're indeed nice enough ... and as I was at it already, also ordered the Sony box by Argerich, which has a disc with Ivry Gitlis, after all...

[Harry]

still not really touched by Argerich I'm afraid ... but just got this after reading about the 2013 Mozart concertos recorded in Lucerne with Abbado, and they're indeed nice enough ... and as I was at it already, also ordered the Sony box by Argerich, which has a disc with Ivry Gitlis, after all...

She was a nice enough woman to look at when she was that young, but I never could appreciate her antics on the piano. For me she fits in the same category with Anne Sophie Mutter, and Gideon Kremer. Strictly a no go area for me.