What are you listening to now?

[Karl Henning]

"Papa"
Sinfonia concertante in B^b (H.I/105)
Sigiswald Kuijken & La Petite Bande

[San Antone]

Palestrina : Missa sine nomine
Diego Fasolis

[Karl Henning]

"Papa"
Sinfonia concertante in B^b (H.I/105)
Rainer Küchl, violino principale
Franz Bartolomey, violoncello obbligato
Walter Lehmayer, oboe I obbligato
Michael Werba, fagotto obbligato
Wiener Philharmoniker
Lenny

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Not at all surprisingly, this is a more dulcet and gemütlich affair than La Petite Bande, whose performance is bracing ... exhilarating, we might say.  Even so, Lenny is always energetic, graceful, musical.  Turning this performance aside because it is not HIP, misses the point, indeed.

[Kontrapunctus]

On the TT: A wonderfully played and recorded LP.

[San Antone]

Palestrina : Missa Ad coenam Agni
Stephen Rice | The Brabant Ensemble



The Mass which opens the program and the hymn that concludes it belong to Eastertide, as does everything on the program, but they are related only by using the same chant melody in the hymn verses and as cantus firmus in the Mass. The hymn is an alternatim setting with chant used for the three even-numbered verses, while the four polyphonic verses are all different, set for four voices until the final verse, the longest and most exuberant (Rice's word) setting for five voices. The Mass is set for five voices with the Agnus Dei expanded (not unusually) to six voices. Rice suggests that the archaic mensuration devices used in the Mass indicate a young composer demonstrating his mastery, for these five Masses published in 1554 must have been composed while Palestrina was in his 20s. Mastery, indeed, is demonstrated throughout the Mass, which displays all the compositional skill of his mature Masses.  (J. F. Weber, Fanfare, Sept/Oct 2013)

[Wakefield]

Works for solo lute ~

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It's curious to see him without his wife. 

[Camphy]

Symphony 4

[Mandryka]

Amazing how much drama Bylsma finds in the C Major suite, in his second recording. Love the sound of the cello.


I think this recording is really major, because it takes these suites into completely new places hitherto undreamed of. Is it interventionist? Is it random? Bylsma believes in historically prepared performance. I think.

[Que]

From "The Real Chopin" set:



Tatiana Shebanova is one of the main pillars of the set, a really excellent Chopin interpreter to my ears.
She recorded a complete Chopin edition for the Polish label DUX (MusicWeb review)

Q

[Brian]

[aligreto]

Gluck: Orfeo & Euridice, Atto Secondo [Jacobs]....

[king ubu]

The Bruckner was a first listen, new acquisition upon recommendation here, I think? Will need more time with this, as with Bruckner in general, but I am hooked, no doubt.

The Devieilhe kinda fits with last night's concert (Julie Fuchs singing Rameau and Gluck, Pichon conducting the Orchestra La Scintilla of Zurich's opera - pretty wonderful) - it's actually growing on me after a rather slow start (I found it somewhat less thrilling than I had hoped after Devieilhe's totally gorgeous Rameau disc).

[Camphy]

Symphony 6

[HIPster]

Some Haydn this afternoon ~

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CD 3 (Symphonies 45, 46 ,47)

[SimonNZ]

"Nox - Lux: France & Angleterre (1200 - 1300)" - La Reverdie

[Sergeant Rock]

Inspired by the latest Haydn Seek post, listening to Symphony No.102, Norrington conducting the London Classical Players




Sarge

[aligreto]

Telemann: Concerto in A minor [Goebel]....

[Mister Sharpe]

Disc one from the Oistrakh-Oborin set.  Op 12.  Old-fashioned, restrained chamber music playing.  The tempi are slow, the playing relaxed, rich, and romantic, but not overdone or syrupy.  The 1962 sound is soft, muffled (the piano especially), with occasional distortion, and has that annoying hard-left, hard-right stereo approach used for some recordings of the time.  Not my cup of tea.

This set coincidentally has sat and sat and sat some more on the shelf of my local CD shoppe for many months.  No takers (inc. myself) even though it's à prix doux, an expression I'm fond of. 

[Todd]

The Ninth.  As with the Eighth, Gielen opts for a slow approach, bringing the work in at just a bit over sixty-seven minutes.  Also, as with the Eighth, the slow overall tempo works wonders.  Immediately out of the gate, Gielen and crew establish a completely convincing Brucknerian soundworld, and the opening movement is elevated and expansive.  The Scherzo manages to be both broad of tempo and vigorous in the outer sections, moving forward with inevitability and at times grinding intensity.  The long Adagio pulls off the trick of being both expansive and at times very intense, approaching Furtwangler levels of apocalyptic music making at times, before ending with a more serene coda.  It's a corker of a performance.

Sonics for this 2013 recording are superb.  A bit more low frequency clarity, and it would be SOTA.   

Gielen mixes it up with the big boys.  A great set.

[eljr]

Andrés Orozco-Estrada / hr_Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra) / Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra
Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; The Firebird (Suite 1919)

Release Date
February 12, 2016
Duration
56:20
Genre
Classical
Styles
Ballet
Recording Date
June, 2015