What are you listening to now?

[HIPster]

[asin]B00004ZBJL[/asin]

Any comments to offer on this one?

A recent purchase, just arrived yesterday! 

I found it to be superb.  Really excellent playing and singing.  The church ambience highlights the spiritual nature of the pieces and the commitment of all involved in the recording.

However, I was not giving it my full attention at the time (laundry, cleaning, etc. was also happening).  I was able to sit for a time and enjoy an espresso while the Du Mage organ music played and that was really something! 

I find that I am impressed with Gester the more I hear from him.  Looking forward to playing this disc again very soon.

Now playing ~

[asin]B01LZ4WK2S[/asin]

Superb score by Johannsson.

[Mandryka]

Olympia Medori plays Steigleder Ricercari, this music is builds tension really strongly and rather disturbingly. Good music I think, maybe a bit formulaic but still, good music.  I can't listen to many of them at once - too intense.

[ludwigii]

J.S.BACH
Keyboard Concertos Vol. II

Angela Hewitt
Australian Chamber Orchestra
Richard Tognetti

[asin]B0009K9P7U[/asin]

A lively and lovely Bach that borders on simpering and rococò. Mrs Hewitt plays correctly and accurately but lacks original ideas and a strong personality, so that the center of attention is taken by the orchestra, this really excellent level.
I do not like the sound of the harpsichord in the continuous, remembers the buzz of an insect, more than an harpsichord, it seems to me possess something artificial and unnatural.
The overall impression is that of an execution apparently positive, but artificial and devoid of inner life. So I do not like   

[bhodges]

Highlights from a fun week: hearing Rossini's Otello in a bare-bones production with excellent singers via LoftOpera (www.loftopera.com), and last night, Esa-Pekka Salonen's exciting new Cello Concerto with Yo-Yo Ma, Alan Gilbert, and the New York Philharmonic.

--Bruce

[TheGSMoeller]

Symphony No. 8 in C minor

The more I listen to the Wand/Cologne box the more I fall in love with it. Wand has a way of making every Bruckner symphony feel consistanly fluid throughout. His interpretive choices are never too subjective, but he always seems to know how to strongly focus on certain moments with a slight shift, or build an entire movement towards their climax. I've always leaned towards favoring Wand's handling of the 7th's finale, primarily here with Cologne.
Wand's 8th here is as gorgeous, and powerful as his recording with the Berliners (still my favorite 8th).

[asin]B0042U2HLY[/asin]

[bhodges]

Symphony No. 8 in C minor

The more I listen to the Wand/Cologne box the more I fall in love with it. Wand has a way of making every Bruckner symphony feel consistanly fluid throughout. His interpretive choices are never too subjective, but he always seems to know how to strongly focus on certain moments with a slight shift, or build an entire movement towards their climax. I've always leaned towards favoring Wand's handling of the 7th's finale, primarily here with Cologne.
Wand's 8th here is as gorgeous, and powerful as his recording with the Berliners (still my favorite 8th).

[asin]B0042U2HLY[/asin]

Have heard the one with Berlin -- and it's excellent -- but would like to hear this one, too.

--Bruce

[Todd]

I don't even know how many years it has been since I last listened to this.

[André]

Symphony No. 8 in C minor

The more I listen to the Wand/Cologne box the more I fall in love with it. Wand has a way of making every Bruckner symphony feel consistanly fluid throughout. His interpretive choices are never too subjective, but he always seems to know how to strongly focus on certain moments with a slight shift, or build an entire movement towards their climax. I've always leaned towards favoring Wand's handling of the 7th's finale, primarily here with Cologne.
Wand's 8th here is as gorgeous, and powerful as his recording with the Berliners (still my favorite 8th).

[asin]B0042U2HLY[/asin]

+ 1.

With a few notable exceptions, Wand's Cologne Bruckners have not been excelled by his multiple later recordings. In his last decades (when he was free to conduct and record what he wanted) he incessantly circled round and round symphonies 4, 5, 7-9. He certainly offered profound insights, but globally the earlier recordings were more "whole" and cogently argued. That RCA Cologne set and the Brilliant Classics (mostly assigned to Heinz Rögner) are among the least expensive and most satisfying around.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to The Tender Land Suite. Ravishingly beautiful.

[SimonNZ]

Messiaen's Éclairs sur l'au-delà... - Antoni Wit, cond.

[Spineur]

Arvo Pärt, St John passion

[asin]B00005TN9R[/asin]

Hard core Pärt:  minimalist, a single motif throughout, a choir, the evangelist role is held by 4 soloists, singing in microtonal relation and in antiphony to the choir.  Christ is a bass (very effective). Pilatus is a tenor.  Intruments, organ 1 violin, 1 cello, 1 hoboe, 1 basson.

At the end, after Christ death, the choir switches to a luminous major key.  This is the moment of the piece.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



This has to be counted as one of Bernstein's most complicated works. It's also one of his most dissonant (not that this is ever a bad thing). I'm not sure this particular performance does it complete justice as the orchestra is a ballet orchestra and their sound isn't as full as I personally would like it to be. I'll have to check out his remake on DG as it's been quite some time since I've heard that performance.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Turned off Bernstein's Dybbuk in favor of his Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah", which is an excellent work and one of my favorites from him.

[Mirror Image]

Now:





Listening to Symphony No. 2. Remarkable work.

[Todd]

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Listening to the String Trio, Op. 46. A deeply fascinating work. After reading Mahlerian's description of this work and it's 'program,' I became quite intrigued, so I did some reading on the work myself. A sublime performance from the Schoenberg Quartet.

[Mirror Image]

Time to splatter my ions all over the floor with Varese's Ameriques from this set:





Ah, the days when Chailly was doing more interesting music and taking a bit more risks.

[Mirror Image]

Those two disks are like religious artifacts to me 


TD:

Coincidentally, since I've been listening to a lot of Varese (and Messiaen too) lately looks like we've switched 

Yep, Varese is awesome, but Bluebeard in English? Umm...no. Just no. Hungarian only please and thank you.

[Mirror Image]

One more work before bed: Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46:

[GioCar]

Schubert: Fantasie in F minor and other works for piano 4 hands



Andreas Steier, Alexander Melnikov

A new acquisition. I've never heard before the Fantasie in F minor played on a fortepiano.
Disappointed 
Much better the rest of the album.